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Asked by anon-381517 to Lisa R, Anna S on 24 Jan 2024. This question was also asked by Daniel.
Question: when do u think cancer will be cured?
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Lisa Russell answered on 24 Jan 2024:
This is the million dollar question. If I were to tell you that there are over 200 different types of cancer and that everyone’s cancer is unique, I am sure you will agree that this is a huge task. Whilst there are many different cancers, there are aspects of those cancers that are shared amongst those diagnosed. I work in the field of childhood leukaemia (blood cancer) and compared to the 1960’s (we could only cure 1/9 children) we have made dramatic improvements in the cure rate, with >90% of children surviving (9/10 children diagnosed). How did we do this? We learnt that age, the number of leukaemia cells in the bones and that changes to the genetic code are all linked to risk. This means that some are linked to a good outcome and some a worse outcome. Just knowing this means we can treat the children in a more informed way and increase their chances of surviving. We still have a long way to go, but research that is ongoing everyday around the world is helping us to get one step closer to curing cancer.
Comments
Martin M commented on :
We are able to cure certain cancers already but I suspect cancer in one form or another may well be with us for a lot longer as it is tied up with sensitivity of the information carrying molecules in our cells, DNA, to damage from environmental factors (for example certain chemicals and radiation) and the fact that the repair mechanisms in our bodies are not perfect. That’s something we can fix to some extent but not completely.
Fergus M commented on :
I work in medical imaging, using radioactive tracers to image cell and organ function, mainly with cancer patients, and I have to agree with Martin and Lisa. We have already essentially ‘cured’ a small number of cancer types and made great progress with others but Mother Nature is a devious opponent and cancers are also constantly evolving, so I think there will always be some that we will struggle with. The genetically targeted treatments available now are massively more advanced than what was available when I started my career and we are now introducing molecular radiotherapy treatments using alpha and beta emitting radioisotopes which are showing great promise for patients who have started to fail to respond to the conventional treatments.