Has A Cure For Cancer Been Found?

[Madeline]

Cleveland State University professor's promising cancer research hits an academic wall | cleveland.com

Well, science and medicine geeks? Is this the beginning of the end of cancer?

 

[CMike]

No.

 

[Old Rocks]

Sounds promising. Hope this research pans out. Should at least produce another line of research into the bio-chemistry of cancer.

 

[Madeline]

You seem so certain CMike. Care to elaborate?

 

[L.K.Eder]

there is no cure for "cancer".

there may be different cures for different kind of cancers. there already are, btw.

 

[Madeline]

Why is that, L.K.Eder?

 

[L.K.Eder]

Why is that, L.K.Eder?

because cancer is not one disease, but a huge class of differing diseases. so it is highly unlikely that there will ever be a catch-all cure.

 

[Madeline]

Cancer is not just one disease that happens to strike in different places? Don't all tumors have similar mechanisms?

*Puzzled look*

 

[Angelhair]

Maybe certain types of cancers. There are so many types it is difficult to find a cure for all of them. But if ONE type can be cured, that will be great.

 

[L.K.Eder]

Cancer is not just one disease that happens to strike in different places? Don't all tumors have similar mechanisms?

*Puzzled look*

similar mechanisms if you don't look too closely. the closer you look, the bigger the differences even within the same type of cancer. btw, a tumor can be cancer, but it does not have to be cancer. a tumor which is not cancerous can become cancerous, or it can stay benign.

 

[RDD_1210]

Cancer is not always a tumor. Different techniques are used on the wide variety of cancers out there. You would not treat Leukemia with the same approach as you would breast cancer, etc.. So a catch all cure for cancer probably will never be found. I wish it would, but it won't happen in our lifetimes.

There is EXTREMELY promising research using Stem cells but that work is being slowed down by the religious conservatives who are opposed to this kind of research.

 

[waltky]

Guess short people do got a reason to live...

Ecuadorean villagers lend clues on cancer, diabetes
Fri, Feb 18, 2011 - A small group of Ecuadoreans with a genetic mutation that causes dwarfism may hold clues to preventing cancer and diabetes — two of the biggest killers in the Western world, researchers said on Wednesday.

A 22-year study of people in a remote village in Ecuador who have genetically low levels of growth hormone reveals startlingly few cases of both diseases, the international team reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine. And drugs that are already approved to block growth hormone may help prevent these diseases, they said.

The team, led by Valter Longo of the University of Southern California and Jaime Guevara-Aguirre, an Ecuadorean endocrinologist, followed residents of an isolated community who had Laron syndrome. It is a deficiency in a gene that prevents the body from -using growth hormone, causing very small body size. The team followed about 100 people with the syndrome, and 1,600 normal-sized relatives in nearby towns.

Over 22 years, there were no cases of diabetes and only one non-lethal case of cancer among the Laron group. Among the relatives, about 5 percent developed diabetes and 17 percent developed cancer. The team believes that low levels of growth hormone played a role because both groups lived in similar environments and had similar genetic risk factors. It is unclear how having low levels of growth hormone are protective, but prior studies of longevity in both yeast and mice have pointed to growth hormone as an important factor.

In the study, the team examined the blood of patients in the Laron group and found two differences. It protected the DNA against -cancer-causing agents, and it quickly killed off any damaged cells before they could develop into cancer. “We think that maybe this -double-protective mode may very well be the reason for the lack of any cancer in this population,” Longo told the briefing.

Source

 

[Zoom-boing]

My cousin, who died of liver cancer, also had breast cancer about 15 years ago. When she was dx'd with liver cancer they checked to see if it was the breast cancer type cancer reappearing in her liver or if it was liver cancer. It was liver cancer, a separate cancer from the breast cancer.

I don't know that they'll ever be able to find a cure for all cancers. I also think there's too much money to be made from treatments for them to ever find a cure even if they could. Yeah, I know . . .what can I say? I don't have a lot of trust in the medical community.

 

[OmegaPh.D]

Well, discoveries of new genetic mutations (which provide clues for new research and diagnostic tests) seem to be our only hope at this point.

 

[Toronado3800]

This class I took and the articles I have read on the processes of cellular reproduction lead me to believe there is not one cure for all cancers.

Hell, how many times can Toyota even build a Camry without screwing up something.

 

[California Girl]

How interesting.... I posted about British scientists being close to finding a cure for a variety of cancers and no one was interested. American scientists make similar claims and we pay attention. Does international research not count or are we scared it won't be us?

 

[L.K.Eder]

the OP is from may 2010.

probably nobody answered your thread because you are not really popular.

 

[Sheldon]

So it seems like his work isn't getting published because he's a chemist and not an actual medical researcher? Lame. I would think the NE Journal of Medicine or one of them would jump at his early findings to try and help get some attention (aka grant money). Or maybe it's because the compound hasn't been tested on larger animals yet.

 

[Madeline]

So it seems like his work isn't getting published because he's a chemist and not an actual medical researcher? Lame. I would think the NE Journal of Medicine or one of them would jump at his early findings to try and help get some attention (aka grant money). Or maybe it's because the compound hasn't been tested on larger animals yet.

I dunno, Sheldon. Among non-scientist academics, the petty bullshit can be amazing. Do some tax law research and what you find, after an hour or so, is that in law reviews across the country, Professor A is pissed off at Professor B and the two of them have been writing dueling Notes for years.

I'd like to think scientists are different, but what are the odds?

 

[Madeline]

How interesting.... I posted about British scientists being close to finding a cure for a variety of cancers and no one was interested. American scientists make similar claims and we pay attention. Does international research not count or are we scared it won't be us?

Ask a Mod to merge the threads, princess.

Tissue?