The war on cancer, 30 years on

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - More than 30 years have passed since President Richard Nixon declared a "war on cancer," and while no single cure has been found, many new treatments have come to market.

Meanwhile, the nation's two biggest biotechs, Amgen (down $1.27 to $67.10, Research) and Genentech (down $2.85 to $75.93, Research), have emerged as leaders in the market for cancer drugs.

Amgen, based in Thousand Oaks, Calif., makes two treatments for chemotherapy patients: Neupogen, a $1.2 billion drug, and Neulasta, at $1.7 billion.

It's telling and very prescient that a central point of the article is how much money the individual drugs make their respective companies. It is also telling that the writer of the article is using the drug makers' term for their medicines....."therapies". A lot of the "discoveries" are in the news literally years after they are well known in the medical establishment. My wife who died of HER2-NEU+, estrogen receptive breast cancer, was taking meds that the media trumpeted earlier THIS year as a great step.....but she died in 2004 and fought for 3 years previous (Herceptin if you are curious, and yes it had short-term success). My layman's experience with modern cancer treatment has convinced me that current medicine and medical practice will not "cure" most of the things that are under investigation today. Science is looking under a lot of rocks, but I believe that simple factors that most Americans ignore can be the cause and the answer. Diet, environmental toxins (all kinds---even mold) and getting sleep are things that I ignore too. I also think that we are actually TOO sanitary a point; by eating sterilized, homogonized, food we don't get the benefit of innoculating and strenghtening our systems the old fashioned way. Can't all be bad when we are living longer than ever on average, but....... Keri's chemo was $4000 a week for the better part of 3 years, plus PET scans, MRI's, Xrays, and other standard meds. I'm still not a conspiracy nut on this.......but when the numbers are big, the stakes are higher and money is the root of all evil. The major drug companies have discovered the post modern business model equivalent to the the funeral home. People are dying to be served, and the market will only keep growing.

Keri, a couple of months before her death. http://www.kerispeakman.org/

Diet, environmental toxins (all kinds---even mold) and getting sleep

Yup. Though there is much noise in the media on these matters, just as there is on other issues that affect serious money interests.

The internet is a huge aid in getting out the truth, but it still requires much reading and a good sixth sense to ferret out reliable information from the misguided, misinformed and deliberately misleading.

I have to think that some serious money is working overtime to weaken the effectiveness of the internet.

I think we now know enough, if properly applied, to allow most of us to stay healthy into a ripe old age, free of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, Alzheimers, and various other ills.

Just don't expect your physician, the FDA, or major drug companies to provide you with this knowledge.

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