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I'm not saying that more people survive cancer now, but no one is truly cured. The cancer always has a chance of coming back and that's what's so scary about the disease. I've known a few people who have had cancer more than once.
Cancer statistics usually go out 5 years because if you survive that long you are unlikely to have it come back.
If you survive one cancer and get another, that does not mean the first cancer was not cured.
Many people are truly cured. The oldest survivor of the type of leukemeia my son has was treated in the early 1960s.
It's all money money money. All you have to do is watch TV and look at all of the commercials for drugs saying "be sure to ask your doctor about blah blah"
Why should someone request a drug they saw on TV? The job of a medical professional is to know what treatment is best for you and to know about all of the drugs on the market.
That alone tells you it's all about money when these commercials are targeting the general public not the medical professionals.
It's all money money money. All you have to do is watch TV and look at all of the commercials for drugs saying "be sure to ask your doctor about blah blah"
Why should someone request a drug they saw on TV? The job of a medical professional is to know what treatment is best for you and to know about all of the drugs on the market.
That alone tells you it's all about money when these commercials are targeting the general public not the medical professionals.
I do not ever remember seeing direct to consumer marketing for a cancer treatment drug.
Scientists or doctors are pretty damn smart.. but they don't really/truly understand what creates disease.. if we could solve 'cancer' today.. there'd be cancer2 tomorrow..
Anyway.. one day they'll figure it out.. and this will stop being a version of the dark ages!
Let me match your question with a really good question.. another one there's no scientific answer for really
Why does the body breakdown? Why does one age and die?
If you can figure that one out and let me know.. why do the cells perfectly regenerate 50 times.. and than stop.. aka Apoptosis
I know, I know teacher :raises hand:
sorry, unfortunately I've been vastly educated and know way too many things that the smartest people on the planet working on these things.. don't have a clue!
The medical industry (yeah, it is an industry) is geared toward health management, not curing anything.
Then we have all the charities that put out the disease of the day to garner more donations. Lets see, what kills more people today? The round robin of the leading cause of deaths is nothing short of a joke.
We have disagreed on a couple issues here on c-d, but I could not agree with you more on this post. Kudos!
I'm not saying that more people survive cancer now, but no one is truly cured. The cancer always has a chance of coming back and that's what's so scary about the disease. I've known a few people who have had cancer more than once.
Did you miss the part where suzyq's son has been cured for more than 20 years? If he was not cured, then what is going on there? Through my young adult cancer survivor group, I know MANY people 10, 15, 20, and on up years out of treatment for leukemias (there are several subtypes), lymphomas (4 subtypes of Hodgkin's, dozens of non-Hodgkin's), brain cancers, bone cancers, ovarian cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid cancer, etc.
Is there a risk of relapse for some of us? Sure. I live in fear of relapse all the time. I'm also comforted by the many who came before me who are still kicking years later (some even after a relapse) - one of the benefits of getting a cancer that is most common among young adults. It's very rare in my cancer to relapse after 5 years, and many of those relapses are totally different cancers (still the same type of cancer, but different subtype). These new occurrances might seem like relapses, but they're not. Unfortunately, despite having one of the most well-studied cancers, we STILL don't know why we get this disease since it is so common in a non-typical population.
But, once again, the causes behind relapses vary greatly from disease to disease. I had a blood cancer - treatment is a tricky balance of hitting a person with enough chemotherapy and potentially radiation to kill all the cancer cells while also not damaging too many healthy cells. Sometimes the treatment does not get it all.
By the way, many major diseases have been not "cured" in the way that you describe. Polio, smallpox, measles.... all controlled by vaccines. That's not a cure, just a prevention tactic. The first smallpox vaccine was created in the late 1700s, but we never, ever developed a cure for those who actively had smallpox before the disease was erradicated in 1980. Like many diseases, treatment options were supportive only. Research has continued into smallpox well past its erradication. Vaccines might be a potential therapy option for SOME cancers, and there is a lot of research going into it now, but it won't work for all.
It's all money money money. All you have to do is watch TV and look at all of the commercials for drugs saying "be sure to ask your doctor about blah blah"
Why should someone request a drug they saw on TV? The job of a medical professional is to know what treatment is best for you and to know about all of the drugs on the market.
That alone tells you it's all about money when these commercials are targeting the general public not the medical professionals.
You're speaking to an American issue. The US is one of very few countries that allows medical ads on TV. And as suzyq pointed out, none of them are for cancer (though a shocking number of elective drugs have cancers among their side effects). The EU explicitly bans those types of ads. And you're saying that the EU is part of this international conspiracy involving millions of people to hide the cures?
I find the depression med ads ghoulish. So does most of the world. Being an American, I had no idea what an American trait the medical ads were - you get used to them. When studying in the UK as an undergrad, I took a whole class on medical ethics where we discussed this type of advertising. Yes, the rest of the world is absolutely horrified. We're too used to seeing them (and making fun of them - I'm talking about you, restless leg syndrome) that they've become part of the entertainment landscape. But the ads are never for life threatening illnesses.
Oncologists get cancer. Researcher get cancer. Pharmaceutical execs get cancer. Wouldn't these people be curing themselves if a cure existed, even if they would not share it with the public?
Did you miss the part where suzyq's son has been cured for more than 20 years? If he was not cured, then what is going on there? Through my young adult cancer survivor group, I know MANY people 10, 15, 20, and on up years out of treatment for leukemias (there are several subtypes), lymphomas (4 subtypes of Hodgkin's, dozens of non-Hodgkin's), brain cancers, bone cancers, ovarian cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid cancer, etc.
Is there a risk of relapse for some of us? Sure. I live in fear of relapse all the time. I'm also comforted by the many who came before me who are still kicking years later (some even after a relapse) - one of the benefits of getting a cancer that is most common among young adults. It's very rare in my cancer to relapse after 5 years, and many of those relapses are totally different cancers (still the same type of cancer, but different subtype). These new occurrances might seem like relapses, but they're not. Unfortunately, despite having one of the most well-studied cancers, we STILL don't know why we get this disease since it is so common in a non-typical population.
But, once again, the causes behind relapses vary greatly from disease to disease. I had a blood cancer - treatment is a tricky balance of hitting a person with enough chemotherapy and potentially radiation to kill all the cancer cells while also not damaging too many healthy cells. Sometimes the treatment does not get it all.
By the way, many major diseases have been not "cured" in the way that you describe. Polio, smallpox, measles.... all controlled by vaccines. That's not a cure, just a prevention tactic. The first smallpox vaccine was created in the late 1700s, but we never, ever developed a cure for those who actively had smallpox before the disease was erradicated in 1980. Like many diseases, treatment options were supportive only. Research has continued into smallpox well past its erradication. Vaccines might be a potential therapy option for SOME cancers, and there is a lot of research going into it now, but it won't work for all.
Yes, and it's very good that these people have survived so long, but I have known of many people who have died of cancer. It seems to be killing more people these days and it's very scary. I believe that once you get cancer, it will always be in your body. My boyfriend's mother has survived cancer three times. They were three different types, but still. And the people I feel really bad for are the ones who get cancer and can't afford treatments because of lack of insurance, but that's a whole other topic altogether.
Yes, and it's very good that these people have survived so long, but I have known of many people who have died of cancer. It seems to be killing more people these days and it's very scary. I believe that once you get cancer, it will always be in your body. My boyfriend's mother has survived cancer three times. They were three different types, but still. And the people I feel really bad for are the ones who get cancer and can't afford treatments because of lack of insurance, but that's a whole other topic altogether.
"It seems", "I believe"
These are key phrases here. Not all is as it seems and believing is a very different thing than doing research and knowing. If you think you know more than my oncologists or the international research community that have dedicated their lives to fighting cancers, then might I suggest seeking professional help.
It seems that more people are dying because:
1. People live longer - risk of getting cancer increases with age - and there are more of us. More people = more cancer.
2. People are more open about their cancers. It wasn't that long ago that people DID NOT TALK ABOUT IT. Even in the 70s and 80s, it was taboo to talk about having cancer. Susan Sontag's Illness as Metaphor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, written in 1978, talks about the "blame the victim" mentality and othering at length (link to the Wiki). Right now on the mental health channel, there is a thread blaming cancer on personality traits. IT STILL HAPPENS. Today, people with cancer are still "othered" in many ways and many prefer to keep it private. I have many friends in the young adult cancer community who did not tell ANY of their friends and specifically ask those of us who they know through cancer to not mention it publicly. When I was diagnosed, a handful of friends I had known for years came out of the woodwork to tell me about their diagnoses when they were kids or teenagers.
3. We have better diagnostic tools - many of those "died of natural causes" of yesteryear were actually undiagnosed cancers.
4. Cancer stories make great human interest stories, so we hear about it a lot more on the news. We have better access to news sources than ever before, so of course it seems like it is happening much more (in the same way that it seems like the world is much more dangerous today).
Which types of cancers did your boyfriend's mother have? 3 different types is not a "but still." She did not still have the same cancer in her body or else she would have had the same type of cancer 3 times.
There are a few reasons for those types of scenarios. Some people get 3 different cancers because of bad luck. I know I could easily get another cancer because of age - getting my first cancer at 23 gives me 60+ years of developing another type. In the 70s and 80s, my cancer was hit hard by radiation because we didn't know long term effects. Many of those survivors were young women at the time who had extensive chest radiation. Many of them are coming back for breast cancer now. That's why young women, including myself, are no longer treated with chest radiation except in very specific cases.
There are also a few genetic diseases that cause a predisposition to multiple cancers. Lynch syndrome is something two of my close friends have. One was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at 17, the other at 24. The latter is now facing uterine cancer in her 30s. They both started yearly colonoscopies at 20 because of a high risk of colon cancer. They are at risk for many other cancers as well. BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes make women more susceptible to reproductive cancers: breast, uterine, endometrial, and ovarian cancers.
These are key phrases here. Not all is as it seems and believing is a very different thing than doing research and knowing. If you think you know more than my oncologists or the international research community that have dedicated their lives to fighting cancers, then might I suggest seeking professional help.
It seems that more people are dying because: 1. People live longer - risk of getting cancer increases with age - and there are more of us. More people = more cancer.
2. People are more open about their cancers. It wasn't that long ago that people DID NOT TALK ABOUT IT. Even in the 70s and 80s, it was taboo to talk about having cancer. Susan Sontag's Illness as Metaphor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, written in 1978, talks about the "blame the victim" mentality and othering at length (link to the Wiki). Right now on the mental health channel, there is a thread blaming cancer on personality traits. IT STILL HAPPENS. Today, people with cancer are still "othered" in many ways and many prefer to keep it private. I have many friends in the young adult cancer community who did not tell ANY of their friends and specifically ask those of us who they know through cancer to not mention it publicly. When I was diagnosed, a handful of friends I had known for years came out of the woodwork to tell me about their diagnoses when they were kids or teenagers.
3. We have better diagnostic tools - many of those "died of natural causes" of yesteryear were actually undiagnosed cancers.
4. Cancer stories make great human interest stories, so we hear about it a lot more on the news. We have better access to news sources than ever before, so of course it seems like it is happening much more (in the same way that it seems like the world is much more dangerous today).
Which types of cancers did your boyfriend's mother have? 3 different types is not a "but still." She did not still have the same cancer in her body or else she would have had the same type of cancer 3 times.
There are a few reasons for those types of scenarios. Some people get 3 different cancers because of bad luck. I know I could easily get another cancer because of age - getting my first cancer at 23 gives me 60+ years of developing another type. In the 70s and 80s, my cancer was hit hard by radiation because we didn't know long term effects. Many of those survivors were young women at the time who had extensive chest radiation. Many of them are coming back for breast cancer now. That's why young women, including myself, are no longer treated with chest radiation except in very specific cases.
There are also a few genetic diseases that cause a predisposition to multiple cancers. Lynch syndrome is something two of my close friends have. One was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at 17, the other at 24. The latter is now facing uterine cancer in her 30s. They both started yearly colonoscopies at 20 because of a high risk of colon cancer. They are at risk for many other cancers as well. BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes make women more susceptible to reproductive cancers: breast, uterine, endometrial, and ovarian cancers.
People living longer accounts for much of the cancer we see today. As you've unfortunately learned, young people do get cancer, but it correlates strongly with age. My father developed colon cancer at age 80. My uncle developed lung cancer at age 75. My father-in-law died at age 74 of bone cancer. As we get older, our immune systems tend to decline. This may be why older people tend to develop cancer.
The people who get cancer today are the same people who 100 years ago would have died by age 50 of contagious disease, a stroke, or a heart attack.
As you mention we used to talk all the time of things like people "dying of natural causes" or people "dying of a long illness". Many cancer cases never got properly diagnosed.
There are probably cancer cases today that are occurring because of exposure to chemicals and organic pollutants. I think people worry a bit too much about this, but it does play at least a minor role in what we are seeing.
Its a complex problem. Its a bunch of diseases with similar symptoms. Environmental and hereditary factors probably "pull the trigger" on many cancers. There is much to research. Many hypotheses to be explored by scientists. Many drugs and chemicals to be tested. What doesn't need to be part of the conversation is paranoia and belief in an undetected "grand conspiracy".
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and this will stop being a version of the dark ages! 
