Do oncologists really want to cure cancer?

I was proud to be a Libertarian until I read your question. Doctors, especially oncologists, could make a lot more money in other fields, and have better working conditions and hours on top of that.

The oncologists are not the researchers. The researchers search for a cure, search for better treatment alternatives ... pass on what they have found to the people who actually treat patients .. to the oncologists. He may only have 20% of his patients surviving, but 40 years ago, the survival rate for Stage 4 Lymphoma was 0%. Medical science is not God. Life is not fair. People die everyday from cancer. And everyone dies of something at some point. Please get some grief counseling. Most cancer centers provide this. You are in the "anger" stage of grief, and you do not want to stay in it. Your anger is setting off actual biochemical responses in your body that will enhance your cancer, rather than fight it.

Yes they do want to cure a patients cancer but their job is to try and prevent the cancer from taking a life. This is the main goal of an oncologist

Only a truly heartless person would want to see people continue to die in front of their eyes if they could help them live. My oncologist was fantastic--he did everything he could for me, made sure I had everything that could possibly help, and kept me informed of everything happening in my treatment. I imagine he would much rather be out of work than see the suffering he's seen. And even if one type of cancer were cured, there are so many other types that must be treated that it would be many lifetimes before any oncologist was unemployed.

No, we work 10 to 14 hours a day just to milk money out of insurance companies, Medicare and Medicaid. The only reason we went through 10 - 15 years of training in different fields of oncology is so we can watch a lot of nice people suffer unbearable tortures and die. We like pronouncing patients dead, especially if the family is in the hospital room. It is even better if the patient or a family member is one of our friends. Plus signing death certificates is a real pleasure. The thing we hope for our entire lives is for one of our parents to develop cancer. Then we get to watch one of our partners do what we do. Both parents? Even better!

I hope you get the idea. I have spent the last 26 years of my life doing everything in my power to "cure" (yes, I am aware of the current discussion about cure) someone's cancer, or if he doesn't have a chance for "cure", to stop his pain or at least lessen it to where he can live out the remainder of his life as comfortably as possible. I have lost count of the number of friends I have treated. I have also treated so many of my friends' parents that I have lost count - people I knew and liked when I was in junior high or high school. My father died of cancer. I watched as one of my partners took care of him. My mother died of cancer. I watched as one of my partners treated her.

We become attached to our patients, even if we did not know them before they had cancer. The vast majority are really nice people and so are their families. When my patients die, I grieve for them and their families, and it takes a lot of effort to continue doing my job.

If a real cure for all cancers was found today, most of the attendees at the "no more cancer" party would be oncologists and oncology nurses. Then, we could all go do something else.

Their job is to treat the cancer not to cure it - when someone's cancer has gone away they are said to be in remission not cured

Everyone needs doctors whether cancer was wiped out or not. They would have no problem working.

By your logic, plumbers never want to clear a drain. Think about it. If all the drains worked perfectly, plumbers would be out of work!

There's logic, and then there's logic, and this is not either one.