Posted on 04/19/2018 7:58:22 AM PDT by Patriot777
Curing cancer ‘not a realistic goal,’ doctors focus on managing instead of curing disease
Over the last five years, cancer research has seen the “greatest advances,” including a new approach to treating the complex disease as a “chronic disease,” instead of trying to cure it.
“We have seen the greatest advances in cancer medicine in the last five years with drugs targeting the immune system moving into the clinic and showing remarkable response rates with quite a few different malignancies,” Lisa Coussens, Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Cell, Developmental & Cancer Biology, said to Fox News at the American Association for Cancer Research annual conference.
However response rates do not indicate medical doctors and scientists are closer to a cure, if still the goal.
“With regards to a cure for that, it’s really not a realistic goal. I don’t know if cancer is a disease that can be cured. I think for most of us, the goal is management where we think about cancer like other chronic disease,” Dr. Coussens said. “50 years ago diabetes was a death sentence, now it is a chronic disease that is managed.”
“It’s been a big shift in the last 10 years with thinking about cancer in that way: instead of a cure, treat it like a chronic disease where you live with disease and live your life well with that disease. It’s a major shift, but a tremendous goal,” she added.
According to the American Cancer Society, identifying certain types of cancer as a “chronic disease” was introduced around 2016.
“Cancer isn’t always a one-time event. Cancer can be closely watched and treated, but sometimes it never completely goes away. It can be a chronic (ongoing) illness, much like diabetes or heart disease,” the website says.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Why cure it when there’s hundreds of billions to be made continuing research and treating it? My wife’s treatments cost over 40k a month.
Much more.
OK, can we define the word “cure” as it applies to any disease ( much less cancer )?
What should the attributes be to meet the “cured” criteria?
Any Oncologist making this asinine statement should revert to general practice. It is akin to a NASA program manager in the 1960's saying "I don't know if we can really make it to the Moon."
Visit any infusion center as I do every 8 weeks for Remicade. 3k a pop. Any number of chronic diseases being treated. These places are gold mines.
The key with any of it is maintenance of quality of life.
I wholeheartedly agree, more than trillions and what we can’t wrap our minds around. Truly staggering.
Being conceived is a death sentence.
Just be glad that Sharpton and Jackson haven’t figgered out way to get in on it, then you could be sure there will NEVER be a cure.
How is she doing? Count me as a skeptic and I’m from a family that is prone to cancer and my husband has been treated for rectal cancer.
I wish I had a like button. That’s all I’m going to say about that. The last time I made a comment like yours the flame throwers in here nearly set my britches on fire.
My wife was just diagnose in Feb with inoperable adenoid cystic carcinoma. We are exploring the different treatements now.
Those lawyers are making a crapload of money.
She died about 3.5 years ago. Her treatments lasted 10 months. Thanks for asking.
Look at all the people who’d be out of work.
“Curing cancer ‘not a realistic goal,’ cancer scientists say”
That’s a helluva defeatest attitude to have when you are in a war.
Bkmk
The idea of “curing” cancer has always been BS.
Cancer takes so many forms, has so many components, physical, genetic, environmental, and add to that the fact that cancers mutate from one form to another and from one type of cell to another. The variations and conditions for cancer cells to grow make identifying a single point of commonality is nearly impossible.
There is not, as of yet, any prospect of one pill to kill them all that is anywhere on the horizon.
Like viruses, some of which generate cancers, cancer cells adapt and change to meet the challenge of treatments that are set up to kill the cancer.
I’ve only heard of one possibility that might show promise and that is a treatment that addresses a specific protein that researchers believe is common to all cancers. Even that protein is subject to possible alteration by the cancerous cells which will make the treatment null and void.
If a universal treatment is found, it is a long way off.
Curing cancer ‘not a realistic goal,’ doctors focus on managing instead of curing disease
Whenever an “expert” makes a prediction, they are more often then not proven wrong.
I would suggest if a “cure” is found it will be the result of research on something other than cancer.
BINGO
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