Ocean Dweller
Member
Once cures are found all the pharmaceutical companies will lose billions of dollars .
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Are many cures for cancer just doomed?
- Thread starter Ocean Dweller
- Start date
Dr. Claus
Banned
Cancer is the mechanism where your cells continue to replicate en masse. There will never *be* a cure. There will be treatments to prevent cancers or even stop them at times, but live long enough you will eventually have a cell that becomes cancerous. It is just a form of natural selection built into our bodies. It ensures that we continue to evolve.
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Badlucktroll
Gold Member
We don’t want to “cure” cancer and end up with something like the Krippin Virus. (make it so humans don’t get cancer than we either die or turn into darkseekers)
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Meicyn
Gold Member
Dead customers are no longer paying customers.
MudoSkills
Volcano High Alumnus (Cum Laude)
You're acting as though pharma companies wouldn't just charge $10m a dose for one shot cancer cures. Even then, you can still medicate for side effects etc.
Thaedolus
Member
Companies spend billions on new cancer treatments. The idea that they’d lose money if they had a cure is fucking ludicrous. They’d never go out of business.
The reason there’s no “cure for cancer” is cancer is a diverse group of diseases, and you can’t really just tell some mutated cells to stop replicating.
Grildon Tundy
Member
We humans have a way of finding solutions to things so long as we keep trying at it and believing it to be possible. No doubt in my mind that cancer will be "solved" in the next 100 years or so--at least for The Elite.
David B
An Idiot
I had the belief that marijuana cured cancer. That was the thing around the internet and probably still is. Oh marijuana cures cancer. I believed it for like 10 years. It becomes legal in my state, I buy it. What's this? The bottom says may cause cancer. AHHH. DUP DUP DUP!!!!!!!!!!!! I was like omg, well what do you know I was wrong. So will there ever be a real cure? Nope. I've had 2 brain cancers in my life. One when I was 5 years old, in my cerebellum, and than another at 26 in the left frontal part of the brain. Ok so I had 3 surgeries. One to take out right cerebellum completely removed first cancer. One to remove 20% of cancer on left side. Now the 3rd to totally remove the growing cancer of the left side. But part of it is behind my left eye as well. It was killing me as it was growing. Found a doctor to give me a hospital taking drug. Took it over 3 months, 1 time every other week. 2 weeks hour and a half. 2 weeks hour. 2 weeks half hour. The drug made the cancer no longer grow and became a tumor! No longer growing. But I did lose most of my sight in my left eye, I can still see with it but barely, very blurry. Overall I don't think we'll find a cure for cancer as it's cellular multiplying is what it is. I have no idea how we can stop the multi cellular thing from happening as that's how cancer is made.
Trogdor1123
Member
There were ll always be another disease. And a cure doesn’t mean cancer isn’t gone, there is just another way to monitize it
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
It's not like finding a cure for one type of cancer means every type of cancer in the world gets cured at the same time with the same bottle of pills.
Every person reacts different to medication too. So there wont be a one size fits all solution. Even something as common as blood pressure pills have different strengths for different people. In order for it to work, it has to be powerful enough for your situation. And docs dont want to overboard prescribing the max dosage for every person right away.
Some people with cancer do chemo or whatever and suddenly they are cancer free. Another person does the same thing and it does nothing and they spiral to stage 4. Some things work, some dont.
Every person reacts different to medication too. So there wont be a one size fits all solution. Even something as common as blood pressure pills have different strengths for different people. In order for it to work, it has to be powerful enough for your situation. And docs dont want to overboard prescribing the max dosage for every person right away.
Some people with cancer do chemo or whatever and suddenly they are cancer free. Another person does the same thing and it does nothing and they spiral to stage 4. Some things work, some dont.
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David B
An Idiot
Yeah radiation is bad. It is horrible. I had radiation after my cancer was out. I had it for about 2 months. Than I had it after my second cancer. Radiation just made the tumor grow even faster! So radiation is horribly bad, never ever get it! Radiation is natural from the Sun for a reason, it kills you. Radiation does nothing other than make cellular matter of our body cells duplicate and thus makes cancer.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Its one of those things like I mentioned I guess works for some and not for others.
My coworker had cancer and took two years off. She did the chemo thing and it worked. She's cancer free and came back to work. Then she retired 3 years later (she was old and already in her early 60s). And I remember her stories. She had to drive an hour to the hospital, do her thing and her hubby would drive her back. And like every chemo patient you hear about, she lost all her hair too, so she did what every other woman does and wrapped a scarf around her head so people dont see her bald head.
I'm super happy it worked out. She's such a good person and was a great coworker.
Pretty much. I mean do people really not get the the prognosis for say Thyroid cancer is generally WAY better than the prognosis for pancreatic cancer? (Yeah, the cancer you get when your thyroid cells messes up is usually no where near as bad as when one of your pancreatic cells starts dividing uncontrollably.)
DeviantBoi
Member
The whole reason we got a covid vaccine so quickly was because of the research done with mRNA vaccines to treat cancer.
I think Biden's moonshot of reducing cancer deaths by 50% within the next 25 years is gonna help ramp up the research even more.
I think Biden's moonshot of reducing cancer deaths by 50% within the next 25 years is gonna help ramp up the research even more.
Cyberpunkd
Member
There are cures already, it’s called chemo and radiotherapy. The problem with cancer is how often it is diagnosed at a later stage when curing it is much more difficult / impossible.
Dr. Claus
Banned
That isn't a cure. That is a treatment. Cures != Treatments and Treatments != Cures.
Cyberpunkd
Member
Did we already have this argument or did I argue semantics with someone else on the same subject?
Yes, not every treatment is a cure e.g. hospice care. However chemotherapy is - you have cancer, you get treated, you don’t have it. Simple as that. No need to linguistic exercises.
No problem Ill just put it on my credit card.
Nobody_Important
“Aww, it’s so...average,” she said to him in a cold brick of passion
I'm actually interested in what will happen if a such a cure was found. The worldwide clamor for it would be catastrophic. Any attempt to jack the price up beyond the range of an average person would lead to riots and violence.
It will be a scary time I think.
It will be a scary time I think.
Cancer = mutated cell that multiplies too fast. Each mutation is different and acts differently so is treated differently. However, once there is a way to scan each cell's DNA for mutations (or take cancer cells and automatically calculate mechanisms/resistances and generate an antibody/bacteriophage/nano-tech (in future) for that strain) then it won't be an issue.
Signal Rockets
Banned
I heard they wanted to develop a vaccine for heart disease that gets injected. 
I don't believe these motives while interesting, are possible.
I don't believe these motives while interesting, are possible.
NeoIkaruGAF
Gold Member
A one-size-fit-all therapy for every type of cancer is probably impossible. Just think about it, there's plenty of diseases that require different treatment for different patients. There's no single pill for hypertension, and even the same type of bacteria can have different strains with different resistance to antibiotics.
The concept of "cure" for cancer is pretty vague. You have a handful of cancers (mainly blood cancers) that can be effectively cured. Then there's the plethora of solid cancers for which the goal is remission - and then just cross your fingers and hope the remission lasts. Chemotherapy alone can hardly be called a cure, because its success rate without surgery is abysmally low. Without surgery to remove the affected part, we could hardly achieve anything against most cancers even today. And we don't have "curing" statistics for cancer - the success of therapy is measured on survival years after diagnosis. This is tantamount to admitting that we don't have a "cure".
The "cures" we have today have significant impact on health and quality of life too, so it's not like a person stops needing medical assistance even if the current treatments were actually successful in curing cancer definitely. Nothing stops this train.
The concept of "cure" for cancer is pretty vague. You have a handful of cancers (mainly blood cancers) that can be effectively cured. Then there's the plethora of solid cancers for which the goal is remission - and then just cross your fingers and hope the remission lasts. Chemotherapy alone can hardly be called a cure, because its success rate without surgery is abysmally low. Without surgery to remove the affected part, we could hardly achieve anything against most cancers even today. And we don't have "curing" statistics for cancer - the success of therapy is measured on survival years after diagnosis. This is tantamount to admitting that we don't have a "cure".
The "cures" we have today have significant impact on health and quality of life too, so it's not like a person stops needing medical assistance even if the current treatments were actually successful in curing cancer definitely. Nothing stops this train.
Tams
Member
No.
There are many organisations out there who want accessible access to cancer treatment. They have a lot of money and influence. Plus, they do/find their own research.
Further, there are companies out there that are ethical and ones that will take whatever market share they can get, even if it means lower profits.
RNA and CRISPR are looking very promising tools.
There are many organisations out there who want accessible access to cancer treatment. They have a lot of money and influence. Plus, they do/find their own research.
Further, there are companies out there that are ethical and ones that will take whatever market share they can get, even if it means lower profits.
RNA and CRISPR are looking very promising tools.
Dr. Claus
Banned
Chemotherapy is not a cure. It is a treatment. It can put someone into remission, but not always. Again, you need to learn the differences between treatments and cures.
LordOfChaos
Member
That's not the main or only reason mind. If it was just big evil pharma, where's the socialist country with the cure for cancer. And having lots of family and friends that are researchers or doctors also with family members with cancer, how would the scam work, someone would raise hell and speak out if it was actually curable.
Cancer is really a collection of hundreds or more things that can go wrong, hence why some actually are extremely treatable now where some are very challenging. I wish there was some cure, my mom has glioblastoma, which is just an extra assholeish version with multiple types going on so a hard single thing to target. They're also cells from your own body, so they have ways to evade immune cell deletion.
I have high hopes for mRNA vaccines, though that's going to be late for us. Ironic that something as bad as covid may give us one of our best tools against it in the future.
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RoboFu
One of the green rats
Nah nano machines will “ cure everything “.
Damn Kojima wasn’t that crazy after all..
.. nah he is still crazy.
Dr. Claus
Banned
Yep. Scientists aren't people who are easily bought. People don't spend their entire lives learning and mastering and researching very specific subjects for no reason. We are highly inquisitive and would go out of our way to make life changing discoveries. That is every scientist's dream. The next Edison, the next Hawking - if we had scientists who could easily cure cancer, we would have known about it long before now.
Plus the fact since cancers are a rapidly reproducing cells they evolve which means they often develop resistance to treatments.
poppabk
Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
A cure is just a very effective treatment.
AlteredForms
Banned
This is the same narrative you were pushing in the Sam Neill cancer thread lol. And when I called you out on it, you made it out as though cancer was already curable and that we have bigger fish to fry.
JCK75
Member
if any major company had a cure for cancer, even if it was a single form of it.. they would be making money like mad..
the idea that they hold back cures to sell less effective treatments is stupid..
even with a cure Cancer will always exist and there will always be a market for them.
the idea that they hold back cures to sell less effective treatments is stupid..
even with a cure Cancer will always exist and there will always be a market for them.
Melon Husk
Member
I don't know about that.
Immune system boosters seem a very powerful pathway to enable our bodies to keep tumours from spreading.
Maybe we'll infect ourselves with elephant genes. Those big guys evolved to keep cancer in check naturally. Curing cancer is not some impossible task since there are mammals that have already effectively done it.
It's a barbaric practice that will hopefully end this century.
Immune system boosters seem a very powerful pathway to enable our bodies to keep tumours from spreading.
Maybe we'll infect ourselves with elephant genes. Those big guys evolved to keep cancer in check naturally. Curing cancer is not some impossible task since there are mammals that have already effectively done it.
Chemo is about poisoning your body and hoping the cancer dies before you do.
It's a barbaric practice that will hopefully end this century.
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Cyberpunkd
Member
Well, yes it is. But it is also a highly successful one if there are not many cancer cells present yet.
David B
An Idiot
Gliobastoma was my first cancer I ever got. It was consuming almost all of my right side cerebellum. At the age of 5 I started throwing up food always. I continually throwed up food until I reached 30 pounds. They kept testing me and nothing came up. Finally they decided to do an MRI on me and see well maybe it's something about the brain. Oh what do you know 5 1/2 years old and they found the fast growing cancer. Was instantly put on surgery in 2 days after the MRI. Because my weight was so low as I was throwing up everything, they put me on steroids after the surgery so I would become more hungry. I was on the steroids regimen for about 2 years. I also had to take eye drops for a year. I had to re-learn how to walk as the cerebellum holds balance within the brain. Now that I only had the left cerebellum relearning how to walk wasn't easy and took me about 5 months in the hospital to relearn how to walk. This was all when I was 5 years old and the steroids and eye drops until mid 6 years old.
Sakura
Member
I don't know about that. There are a few animals out there that are basically immune to cancer. I can imagine a future where we can use some sort of gene manipulation on humans to give us the same benefits.
LordOfChaos
Member
It's a terrible one man, sucks you had to go through that young, but it's amazing that you're alive, and you sound like your mind is working great.
Mom is beyond the average prognosis, which isn't long as you know and hasn't changed much in decades, but in hospice now and has taken a few sharp steps down unfortunately. I wish there was something more I could do, but the sum total of human knowledge doesn't seem there yet.
David B
An Idiot
Where is the gliobastoma cancer at in her?
LordOfChaos
Member
I think it started near motor control, at first they were treating it like vertigo until that didn't get better and we insisted on an MRI, then they thought it was an Oligodendroglioma from the shape, and on a biopsy figured out it was a Glioblastoma, so kind of worse every step from what they thought. But now it's spread a lot and they don't do MRIs anymore, her short term memory is about gone, she can't move out of bed, and her cognition is much declined. It was sad because she's just the age where she should have started to think of retirement and having at least two good decades in the tank.
Been a kind of rough 3 years. But some have it better, some have it much worse.
AlteredForms
Banned
That is absolutely brutal man. Glioblastoma cancer from my understanding is probably amongst the roughest cancers in existence. It's in the brain for starters and that's the main computer that controls everything, a humungous tumour in the skull is bound to wreak all sorts of havoc. I'm honestly surprised that you're alive today as most people have an extremely low chance of survival. You're one of the lucky ones dude.
David B
An Idiot
Thank you. I live in Minnesota. We have some of the best doctors in the world here and it's been known for a long time of course. I had my surgery at the University of Minnesota hospital. After surgery and relearning how to walk, I had radiation for about 3 months. Later in life when I was 26 I got another brain tumor on the left side of my brain. So now I'd say about 7 to 10% of my brain is gone. Yet I still function pretty normal, I can walk, talk, feel, understand things like normal. I've lost my hearing due to the left brain cancer that later become tumor as I took a drug from a doctor that reduced blood flow to my brain. I can still hear but only 30% but my ear wax always get dry so it's always blocking my hearing. I'm 36 now. I'm on SSI due to having a big hearing loss.
lostinblue
Banned
You can't magically cure all cancers, but the tech to cure some is already available. It was used for the COVID vaccines.
Now you just have to do the vaccine for each type. We'll likely pick the most common ones.
Now you just have to do the vaccine for each type. We'll likely pick the most common ones.
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ReBurn
Gold Member
Pharmaceutical companies don't make money curing diseases. They make money treating diseases. Humans don't have a great track record of completely eradicating diseases anyway. There's only two that have been completely eradicated to date, smallpox and rinderpest. Best we seem to be able to do is reduce the number of people who die from them and the severity of their effects.