Anyone else find it hard to believe there's not a cure for cancer?

I am sorry to hear about your mom. But cancer biology is very complicated - much more than the sites promoting DCA and other "natural cures" give impression of.

Cancer is a collective term for approximately 200 different diseases. Every cell type in your body can (in principle) develop into its own type of cancer. On top of that individual cancer cells in every cancer are also different from one another. On top of that, the cancer cells interact in very complex ways with the surrounding normal cells. So it is not all that surprising that we don't have, and most likely won’t find a single cure for all cancers.

That being said, many cancers are cured on a daily basis. Most of them through surgery, but some of them are treated with additional radio-/chemotherapy. And some cancers are cured by chemotherapy alone. Overall cure rate is approximately 60%, so it is more likely that someone diagnosed with cancer will be cured than not. And outlooks are still improving - all thanks to scientific research.

Let us for the sake of the argument imagine that a single cure of all cancers was possible.

Anyone who came up with a cure wouldn't lose money. They would become stinking rich. We know this because there are people who make a living out of selling false hopes to sick people. See for instance http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2012/02/01/joe-m... It is scumbags like that who often start such conspiracy rumours, and then explain that they have (and sell) the cure. It wouldn't surprise me one bit, if you found your conspiracy theory on such a quack site.

On the internet there are many claims of miraculous "natural" cancer cures that are being suppressed. Here some of them are listed, with links to sites explaining what is wrong with them: http://anaximperator.wordpress.com/2011/02/25/supp...

It is a shame that people who are dedicated to improve outlooks of cancer patients are being met with contempt because of belief in such lunacy: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/occams-corner/20...

Another thing is, that it wouldn't be possible to keep it a secret. To know if it really works, it has to be tested on a lot of patients who actually have cancer. This is what is done in randomised clinical trials. To test it on cancer patients, they would have to collaborate with doctors who treat cancer patients. They would have to be the ones to give the treatment. And they would be the ones to do the followup, which is needed to know that the cancer is really gone, and doesn't come back.

To doctors who treat cancer patients, every cured patient is a success.

What do you deep down think the doctors would do if a new treatment worked far better than what they used to do?

1) Continue using the new treatment and become more successful.

2) Go back and use the old inferior treatment.

History tells us that 1) is the correct answer.

while i rarely agree with april or her attitude toward a lot of questions around here, actually, yeah, having cancer does give you a magical piece of inside information... its called educational knowledge.

No, I am not surprised at all by the lack of a cancer cure. For one, what kind of cancer does your mom have? You know where its located, and that it is fairly advanced, but you either dont know or dont state the specific kind and how that specific kind has been named or categorized. Cancer is an umbrella term, not a disease. I have no idea what the real number is, but there could be a couple dozen different types of cancerous mutations that originate in that area of the body. There are several different types that originate in lung, or the breast. There are a few dozen that originate in the bone marrow. Even leukemia is an umbrella term, once you analyze every different type of leukemia, there is something like two dozen relatively common types, especially if you are counting subtypes.

So, 1, being a cancer patient makes you generally understand that there are a few hundred different types of cancer. There will NEVER be a magic cure all to all those types. Rather, progress is made with each individual type.

Here is an anology... your car doesnt work. You dont just go to the store and get "fix a car". No, you take it to the garage, and find out whats wrong. The motor is broke. There could be a thousand reasons why the motor is broke. You will never fix it unless you find and treat the specific component of the motor that is broke, and with a "treatment" that fixes the specific issue of that component. Same thing with cancer. Car=cancer, motor=location of the body, specific issue of specific component=specific type of cancerous mutation, specific thing that needs to be done to fix said problem of said motor component=specific treatment protocol treating the specific type of cancer

Another factor that you mention is cost. However, until you have been a cancer patient, you do not see that they would make FAR more money on a cure than they every could by treating with chemo. I had leukemia, and ive had a bone marrow transplant. The transplant was only a fraction of my treatment, but the best shot at a cure for my type. Once all was said and done, the costs relating ONLY to the transplant were well over a million usd. Most cancer treatments run in the 10s of thousands.

Think about it... people put themselves in debt and lose their homes to get treated with chemo and radiation, often with very little hope of recovery. How much more would people pay if they had a guarantee that their cancer would be cured and never come back?

As for "miracle" cures.... most are a case of improperly using correlation to define a causative relationship, when correlation should NEVER be used to imply causation. A good example I like to use is marijuana, because i fully support marijuana. However, I do not believe it is a cure to cancer. Chemo makes you feel like sh*t, marijuana makes you feel better. People associate feeling better with their cancer improving, when it was the chemo that improved your cancer while making you feel like sh*t. I have also seen people using marijuana oil to cure skin cancer. The one person I saw in person touting that had a problem with mrsa, and was in reality using the oil as a draw out salve to help heal the boil.

And as for the common cold, again, all ya need is a lil medical knowledge. The common cold is a virus that is constantly mutating. There is no cure because it mutates too fast for us to eradicate it with vaccines. Not to mention it crosses species. The avian flu is called such for a reason - it originates in birds and mutated to cross species. The most they can do at this point is to vaccinate for the previous mutations so they dont come back to haunt us. Even at that though, flu vaccines are not mandatory, which brings up the problem of this wave of people rejecting childhood immunizations. Vaccines only work as much as the population is vaccinated. Vaccines are not a cure all to the problem, its only a band aid. If the entire population is not vaccinated, then the flu will still spread.

There is no reason to find a cure for a cold: it's self limiting - you only get it once, as far as infections go it's reasonably benign, and you only have it for a few days - and there are several hundred strains of it. So no reason...

In terms of cancers, we cure about 60% of adult cancers, and 90% of some types of pediatric cancers. I'm sorry that your mothers cancer was not one of those. However, there are no alternative methods that will slow, let alone stop the course of the disease.

The department I worked in (at a health food store) used to sell $50,000 a week of utterly useless vitamins, herbs and the like. You would think that I would have seen something miraculous - no, not at all - actually saw a lot of harm come to people.

I hope you are able to come to terms with what has been happening, without resorting to conspiracy theories and/or distrusting the establishments that do well by so many.

Take care

CEA has nothing to do with blood cancer which I doubt she has.

Most cancers are cured. Colon cancer is cured by surgery and often on colonoscopy.

Stage 4 colon cancer is not curable her doctor would have told her that.

The only assumptions here are your own. Anyone that came up with a magical cure for so many diseases would make more money than they thought possible.

I saw your correction, but it doesn’t makes sense as there is no blood cancer to have numbers for.

In order for something to be considered a "cure,"' it has to have been successfully tested on hundreds and thousands of patients.

Where are those patients?

The medical world is doing the best they can.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/occams-corner/20...

EDIT: The CEA blood test is known as a tumor marker test. While it is considered to be fairly reliable for colorectal cancer measurements (an increased number usually indicates increased disease), there are other conditions that can make the number rise. My CEA numbers have been steadily rising since January in spite of the treatments that I've been receiving for my Stage IV breast cancer. They are proving to be reliable indicators for me, but that is only after the trend was established. You can't determine a trend based on one reading.

I'm a bit confused as to why you would think your mother has cancer that originated in her appendix. She's been undergoing treatments for over two years ... I'm sure there has been plenty of pathology studies done on her disease.

Yes, waiting for scans is a stressful time. Those of us with cancer call it "scanxiety."

There's so much happening in the world of cancer research that often, patients DO know far more than the general public. I know I do an extensive amount of reading each day ... not of just abstracts, but actual papers. I'm fortunate to have a great number of friends in the medical world and I get their insights and opinions all the time.

As you review options, look for science based, peer-reviewed information. Testimonials just won't do it, neither will early "hype." DCA showed some promise, but only for one particular type of brain cancer. It's not the miracle "cheap" drug that proponents make it out to be.

I'm not sure if you are familiar with this website, but it's a great source of information. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed Give it a shot to see if it helps you as you learn more about how to help your mom.

Best wishes to you and to her.

I would not be surprise if you are right on DOT about a cure for cancer

after all n;; billions have been donated for cancer research ;; sure they have find some [ supposedly cure for certain cancer ]

but they have a long way to go to cure ALL kind of cancer

and YES the BIG pharmaceutical company do not want to loose Billions a year

What's bizarre is how gullible people who HAVEN'T had cancer are.

Your mom has the cancer her oncologist said she has. She doesn't have blood cancer. They're not overly optomistic religious folk.. They're scammers hoping to find some suckers to fill their pockets.

Actually, cancer patients are cured everyday, mainly children.

Yes I did and I noted a correction just for you. To clarify, if one doesn't a blood cancer one doesn't have blood cancer "numbers."

You'd be amazed at what a quick study you become after a cancer diagnosis. CEA is used as a tumor marker in some, not all, cancers. It checks for a glycoprotein, not cancer in your blood nor a blood cancer. Oh how much you can learn if you'd bother!

From my observation, the only people who find it difficult to believe that there is not a single cure or all cancers either a) have little knowledge of cancer, b) have no scientific or medical knowledge or c) both!

The cure has been around at least as long as we have: http://youtu.be/0psJhQHk_GI

Please watch it.

I know many won't because they would rather be seen masquerading around in their pink ribbons than to keep an open mind. Makes you wonder where your donations are really going.