Is there a cure for cancer?

[Paladino]

There is a lot of conspiracies out there that the government knows the cure for cancer but isn't letting it go because it is a billion pound industry due to charities and because countries are over populated and the governments can't afford to have more & more children being born. Personally I don't know what to believe, however there are strong arguements on both sides. What do you think?

[Miserabilia]

I don't think there are strong arguments on both sides.
We know what cancer is, most of us have had some personal experience with it,and we have top research for cancer; there's no such thing as a "cure for cancer"; it's not like a bacteria, or a virus.
Every single cancer is different and every cancer grows differently through the body depending on it and the location; the only way to stop cancer is to remove or kill it (surgery and chemo).
We know things that cause cancer though;
I honestly think the best "cure" would just be prevention; it can be genetic and of outside influences.

I find the conspiracy too far fetched; no current government has the power to do such a thing, so it requires some kind of new world order and idk, it's a little too crazy.

[Elysium]

A panacea for cancer isn't possible for the reasons Toasted Cheese described. I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist, so I'll just go with no, there is not a cure for cancer, and no, there will not be in the foreseeable future. I don't want to say it's eternally impossible, but for right now, I think it's safe to say there isn't one in sight.

Not to mention, with cancer affecting any and all living organisms, it would be even harder to find a panacea for cancer not only in humans, but in all organisms.

[Paladino]

Everyone is entitled their own opinion and I have heard many people claiming there is a cure for cancer and it is being kept from us and stating reasons etc.

[Horatio Nelson]

A panacea for cancer isn't possible for the reasons Toasted Cheese described. I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist, so I'll just go with no, there is not a cure for cancer, and no, there will not be in the foreseeable future. I don't want to say it's eternally impossible, but for right now, I think it's safe to say there isn't one in sight.

Not to mention, with cancer affecting any and all living organisms, it would be even harder to find a panacea for cancer not only in humans, but in all organisms.

I agree. There is no cure, it's not that simple. Cancer effects everything, not just people.

[Paladino]

I'm not sure if you've heard this but some scientists believe sharks hold "a cure" for cancer because they can't develop cancer or something like that, I'm not quite sure, but I've heard a lot of people talking about it in the past, would anyone like to clarify this?

[Elysium]

I'm not sure if you've heard this but some scientists believe sharks hold "a cure" for cancer because they can't develop cancer or something like that, I'm not quite sure, but I've heard a lot of people talking about it in the past, would anyone like to clarify this?
One easy Google search yielded these results:
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/forget-myth-sharks-do-get-cancer-even-great-whites-f2D11703500
http://news.discovery.com/animals/sharks/sharks-do-get-cancer-tumor-found-in-great-white-131205.htm
http://www.sharksavers.org/en/education/biology/myth-sharks-don-t-get-cancer/

Even without any research on Google on this, just from knowing how cancer works, it's not possible for any living organism to be exempt (unless they're single-celled, I believe, but I'm not sure on that at all).

[Typhlosion]

It's just a sentence void of any meaning. As cheese said, cancer isn't a simple, specific problem. Even supposing some form of "Big Pharma" exists, a medical research team could just move to another government. Or do you believe in a NWO as well?

[Paladino]

One easy Google search yielded these results:
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/forget-myth-sharks-do-get-cancer-even-great-whites-f2D11703500
http://news.discovery.com/animals/sharks/sharks-do-get-cancer-tumor-found-in-great-white-131205.htm
http://www.sharksavers.org/en/education/biology/myth-sharks-don-t-get-cancer/

Even without any research on Google on this, just from knowing how cancer works, it's not possible for any living organism to be exempt (unless they're single-celled, I believe, but I'm not sure on that at all).

Thanks:D

It's just a sentence void of any meaning. As cheese said, cancer isn't a simple, specific problem. Even supposing some form of "Big Pharma" exists, a medical research team could just move to another government. Or do you believe in a NWO as well?

I don't know what a NWO is & I never said I believed they are hiding the cure, I said I didn't know what to believe. Conspiracies interest me and wanted to ask for opinions.

[Gigablue]

Everyone is entitled their own opinion and I have heard many people claiming there is a cure for cancer and it is being kept from us and stating reasons etc.

Keyword 'opinion'. Claiming that there is a cure for cancer (even ignoring the biological implausibility of a single cure for all cancers) is not an opinion. It is making a claim about some truth. As such, it can be investigated using logic and evidence. Furthermore, it is a binary outcome, there either is a cure, or there isn't. If one person claims there is and one claims there isn't, one of the two must be wrong.

I would very much like to hear the reasons people use to claim there is a cure for cancer. I suspect they would closely resemble other conspiracy theories, which I don't find compelling.

I'm not sure if you've heard this but some scientists believe sharks hold "a cure" for cancer because they can't develop cancer or something like that, I'm not quite sure, but I've heard a lot of people talking about it in the past, would anyone like to clarify this?

Sharks get cancer. The people who claim they don't are usually selling shark fin or shark cartilage as a 'cure'. However, we have documented many cases of sharks with cancer.

There is an ounce of truth in that statement, however. Naked mole rats, as far as we can tell, do not get cancer, or get cancer very infrequently. We have never found one with cancer, and are trying to figure out exactly why they don't get it. However, we are still a long way from being able to apply that knowledge to humans.

In short, we haven't cured cancer. We likely will never cure cancer, since cancer isn't one disease, but a very large group of distance diseases with distinct causes and treatments. The government doesn't have a cure and they aren't hiding it from us.

[Reagan Smash Bros]

In my honest opinion, there is a cure. I definitely believe the government is hiding the cure from us too. Look at it from a financial standpoint. The industry that does all the treatments and what not for cancer patients is HUGE. If the world were to find a cure this whole industry would lose all its money right there. Then when no one has cancer nor ever get it again, boom, we just lost a huge money making industry that helps stimulate the economy in a way. This is why they hide the cure, so the government can keep making millions and millions of dollars each year to stimulate the economy. You take that away and, in my beliefs, the government would near a cataclysmic anarchist state the likes we may never recover from.

(Apparently so far I'm the only one with this mindset :P )

[Whiskers]

I believe there is no cure but if there was it would most likely be withheld from public eyes
"There is more profit slowing cancer rather than just curing it"

Also "Why So Serious Son"

[CharlieHorse]

Cure? No
really good treatment being developed? Yes

[Typhlosion]

I don't know what a NWO is & I never said I believed they are hiding the cure, I said I didn't know what to believe. Conspiracies interest me and wanted to ask for opinions.
New World Order.
In my honest opinion, there is a cure. I definitely believe the government is hiding the cure from us too. Look at it from a financial standpoint. The industry that does all the treatments and what not for cancer patients is HUGE. If the world were to find a cure this whole industry would lose all its money right there. Then when no one has cancer nor ever get it again, boom, we just lost a huge money making industry that helps stimulate the economy in a way. This is why they hide the cure, so the government can keep making millions and millions of dollars each year to stimulate the economy. You take that away and, in my beliefs, the government would near a cataclysmic anarchist state the likes we may never recover from.

(Apparently so far I'm the only one with this mindset :P )
I believe there is no cure but if there was it would most likely be withheld from public eyes
"There is more profit slowing cancer rather than just curing it"

Also "Why So Serious Son"
Guess what? You're wrong. It's not Big Pharma that's behind this. And it is in the gov's interests. Charities are a great factor in this too.


NCI’s budget for FY 2013 was approximately $4.8 billion. Overall, NCI’s budget has been relatively flat in recent years. During the period from 2005 through 2013, the NCI budget averaged $4.9 billion per year.

Source: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/NCI/research-funding

charities have been very successful at generating support, together raising more than $2.4 billion annually in contributions, the disparity in their financial health is enormous.

Source: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=497#.VFl6uRaNyHs

We have also attempted to estimate the global direct cancer research spend by top 24 pharmaceutical industries,which at around 3095 Million represents some 22% of the estimated global spend on cancer research.

Source: http://www.academia.edu/309237/Trends_in_the_global_funding_and_activity_of_cancer_research

. In addition to causing severe pain and suffering for patients and their families and friends, cancer has substantial economic costs: about $37 billion in direct health care costs and another $70 billion in loss of productivity due to morbidity and mortality.

Source: http://www.iom.edu/~/media/Files/Activity%20Files/Disease/NCPF/Fund.pdf (1999)

Our survey showed that just over 50% of noncommercial funding in the EU (including EFTA and associate states) is provided by the charitable sector, with 65 major charities across 23 countries contributing around €667.3 million to cancer research ( Figure 3 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1513045/figure/pmed-0030267-g003/)). In comparison, there are 74 governmental sources of cancer research funding, spread across 28 countries, with a reported spending of €662.3 million in 2002/2003.

Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1513045/ (2003 statistics)

[Gigablue]

In my honest opinion, there is a cure. I definitely believe the government is hiding the cure from us too. Look at it from a financial standpoint. The industry that does all the treatments and what not for cancer patients is HUGE. If the world were to find a cure this whole industry would lose all its money right there. Then when no one has cancer nor ever get it again, boom, we just lost a huge money making industry that helps stimulate the economy in a way. This is why they hide the cure, so the government can keep making millions and millions of dollars each year to stimulate the economy. You take that away and, in my beliefs, the government would near a cataclysmic anarchist state the likes we may never recover from.

Even if we ignore the fact that a singular cure for cancer is biologically impossible, your argument still doesn't work. Firstly. The government doesn't have the power needed to supress a cure for cancer. The incentive for industry to reveal their cure is enormous. If a company had cured cancer, they would make billions. Sure, they make money now treating cancer, but a universal cure would make them much more.

Secondly, governments are notoriously bad at hiding things. They tend to be revealed in the end. The more scandalous the secret, the more likely a whistleblower is to reveal it.

A cure for cancer would not be devastating for the economy. On the contrary, it would be great. Partly because a cure in and of itself is hugely profitable, but also because people wouldn't be killed or disabled by cancer, and could remain in the workforce. No government would be shortsighted enough to overlook the economic benefits of not having anyone with cancer.

[ComfortableInChaos]

Well, we know some strains of weed slows down the progression of cancerous cells, so maybe if there was a form of weed that would work like a cancer killing agent, I feel that if doctors and chemists were legally allowed to test certain types and strains of cannabis, then a lot of diseases/cancers/tumors may be curable or at least restrained from growing into something so much more massive than it could be. Of course, there are probably other "cures" that are being found now (and yet, as of now, there is no reputable cure for cancer) but I do think that it's probably very close, if not already, found. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if someone did one of those "whistleblower" leaks and we all find out that a lot of cures (Ebola cure, Swine flu cure, cancer cure) has all be found, just not announced or it's not yet legal in America.

[CosmicNoodle]

Simply, no, there may be one day in MANY, MANY, MANY years but from a scientific point of view that cure would be amazingly complex.

[MrIncredible]

There was aCure for cancer in the forests in Africa or the Amazo,it was a flower,
but the government burned the plant and they tried to replace it with ll these chemicals and stuff

[Seafood]

Of course there is.

[Babs]

One day, yes. I honestly find it extremely believe that the government would be hiding it, even if it is the government.

[LifeOfLove]

It's really easy to say that there is and that the government is hiding it, but we have to remember that deep down somebody would know about the cure and have a heart.
Can you honestly say that if you knew the cure, you'd let thousands if not millions of people die of something that you could stop? Of course not, even if it put you in some kind of danger, you'd make some attempt, somehow.


As far as a future cure, my fiance has stage 4 osteosarcoma, so I have to believe there will be one soon

[Paladino]

It's really easy to say that there is and that the government is hiding it, but we have to remember that deep down somebody would know about the cure and have a heart.
Can you honestly say that if you knew the cure, you'd let thousands if not millions of people die of something that you could stop? Of course not, even if it put you in some kind of danger, you'd make some attempt, somehow.


As far as a future cure, my fiance has stage 4 osteosarcoma, so I have to believe there will be one soon

I'm sorry to hear that, hope that good health will come to him again.

[phuckphace]

if there was a cure for cancer, Big Pharma would be hawking it for $350,000 per dose, and Medicare would be drained dry already.

I don't imagine it would ever be an all-in-one drug either, whether that's due to the nature of cancer itself or just artificial scarcity I can't say.

[DeadEyes]

Even without any research on Google on this, just from knowing how cancer works, it's not possible for any living organism to be exempt (unless they're single-celled, I believe, but I'm not sure on that at all).

Right, even without a Google search (although Google is my best friend) I know we all have cancer cells in our organism.
So, such a miraculous cure all for cancer is indeed impossible (unless they are able to genetically modify the body so they remove every existing cancer cells, but we are far from that).
Now, maybe there is an higher grade treatment to take care of cancerous masses that has yet to be released to the public, a "military class" treatment if I can say but then, we probably would know and if it isn't released to the public then, it would only be a question of costs.

[ImagineRepublicCity]

If the government (and remember there are a lot) were keeping it away from the entire world, it would've surely been leaked by now and there would be a large riot over it, considering that cancer is a big killer.

Yeah, the chances of finding a cure for cancer is as likely as finding a cure for AIDS; extremely unlikely, as cancer is, your own 'corrupt' cells, and so killing those cells kills the rest of us (at this point of time anyway). However, there are already many different ways to prevent cancer and slow down the growth of it. Example, the survival rate for breast cancer used to be 72% ((1982-87), but now, the rate is 89.4% (2006-10), which yes, could be due to genetics, but that is pretty unlikely, considering it is almost 20% of a difference.

I believe cancer would be eventually, much more easier to prevent and slow down, but I don't think there will ever be an actual cure.

EDIT: We also have cancerous cells in our body almost everyday, but our body destroys them before being able to actually do anything. Think of them as inactive.

[Captain Canada]

No... It would be one hell of a thing to be hiding though. Like said before, cancer has millions upon millions of different forms in each body so in order for a CURE, we would need millions upon millions of them for each and every different type of cancer. Unless there could possibly be one cure for all those types of cancer, which once again would be impossible, then no, there can't be a cure for cancer that they are hiding. Hopefully in the future when technology and medicine are more advanced we can pull something off.

[phuckphace]

I'm telling you guys, soonish for only $350,000 you can get a depot injection of cancer-killing nanobots (with an NSA backdoor in their firmware of course).

[normalperson]

i believe that there is a cure for cancer but some person, people, government, etc. are keeping it from us either that or it doesn't exist. i will go as far as to say a lot of people are ignorant when it comes to cancer and hence the funding for it.
a few weeks ago around terry fox run day i asked over 50 people i know what exactly happens to the money that you donate and who even researches cancer (most if not all of our technology has been discovered/made by businesses for businesses for exploitation but i shall not rant to much) most of the answers i got were along the lines of "to labs" "scientists" etc.
besides my foster dad whom i have had a very close relationship with since i moved in 5 years ago died from his second bout with cancer last week on the seventh of November 2014 (10/7/2014). he told me i was the son he never had, (he had two daughters, wanted a son really bad) i didn't even get to say goodbye and me running for him in the terry fox run didn't help anyone.

just to let you know i am not writing out anger, sadness, grief etc. just out of facts.

sorry for the rant. :/

[RRay99]

There's no universal cure for cancer. If there was, whichever drug company it would be, would have trillions...

[Snydergate]

I can't honestly think of a reason why the Government would hide something like that, they would only hide something if it was dangerous to us or something we are not ready to see yet. Why would they hide the cure for cancer?

[Paladino]

I can't honestly think of a reason why the Government would hide something like that, they would only hide something if it was dangerous to us or something we are not ready to see yet. Why would they hide the cure for cancer?

I dunno man just a conspiracy theory some people believe, my friend went on a rant about how he thinks the government are hiding it & thats why I wrote the thread to see other peoples opinion's.

[Deactivated]

Cancer cells are our own body's cells turning against the rest and growing at an incredible rate, while wreaking havoc on our body. The same can be said for every other organism on the planet that gets cancer. In order to completely eliminate it, we would have to find a way to strengthen our immune systems to point in which they'd destroy EVERY cancer cell in our body. Either that, or develop a cure which when placed within us, would target the cancer cells and those cells only.
While we do have forms of treatment, and the overall survival rate of cancer is increasing, there is yet to be a universal cure. Releasing such a thing would benefit the economy, if anything. Survivors would be able to remain in the workforce, making more money for our society. The pharmaceutical part of the economy would make tons of cash, as people all across the globe would rush to the nearest place that had the cure. Even if the cure was cheap, the amount of people who would want it would still help make millions upon millions of dollars.

All in all, there is currently no universal cure for cancer. However, I do think there is going to be one someday in the future.

[Miserabilia]

we would have to find a way to strengthen our immune systems to point in which they'd destroy EVERY cancer cell in our body..

Wouldn't that be impossible though; after all our body will not recognize these cells as foreign, and won't kill them because they share their pattern which they recognize.
So no matter how hard we boost our immume system, it would still not effect the cancer unless it destroyes our own cells aswell, similar to chemo.

[Deactivated]

Wouldn't that be impossible though; after all our body will not recognize these cells as foreign, and won't kill them because they share their pattern which they recognize.
So no matter how hard we boost our immume system, it would still not effect the cancer unless it destroyes our own cells aswell, similar to chemo.

You have a valid point!

[Miserabilia]

You have a valid point!

thanks haha, I'm not even completely sure though.

[Typhlosion]

Wouldn't that be impossible though; after all our body will not recognize these cells as foreign, and won't kill them because they share their pattern which they recognize.
So no matter how hard we boost our immume system, it would still not effect the cancer unless it destroyes our own cells aswell, similar to chemo.

You have a valid point!

The body, at some degree, can identify some types of cancer. To directly quote cancer.org...

http://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatmentsandsideeffects/treatmenttypes/immunotherapy/immunotherapy-immune-system[/URL]"]Cancer cells are also different from normal cells in the body. They sometimes have unusual substances on their outer surfaces that can act as antigens. But germs are very different from normal human cells and are often easily seen as foreign, whereas cancer cells and normal cells have fewer clear differences. Because of this, the immune system doesn’t always recognize cancer cells as foreign.

Which has been seen in lymphoma

http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulrodgers/2014/02/03/bodys-immune-system-kills-mutant-cells-daily/[/URL]"]The Australian research team knew that diffuse large B cell lymphoma, a type of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, was often associated with a tumour suppressor gene called BLIMP1 or deregulation of an oncogene – one that can be involved in causing cancer – called BCL6. But fiddling with those two genes in mice rarely caused malignant growths.

But when they also knocked out the T-cells the malignancies showed up in force.

“As part of the research, we ‘disabled’ the T cells to suppress the immune system and, to our surprise, found that lymphoma developed in a matter of weeks, where it would normally take years,” Dr Kallies said. “It seems that our immune system is better equipped than we imagined to identify and eliminate cancerous B cells, a process that is driven by the immune T cells.”

This also suggests that T cells may play a role in suppressing other cancers.

And is surprisingly quite valid for leukaemia.

http://www.popsci.com/article/science/your-body-can-kill-cancer-it-just-needs-better-instructions[/URL]"]A single treatment has kept two of them cancer-free for three years and counting—after everything they tried had failed. Applying the technique to more cancers requires finding new targets to attack, says Michel Sadelain, an immunologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center who pioneered the approach. Exploratory clinical trials, including for lung and prostate cancers, are getting under way.

1) Capture T cells (the immune system‘s attack force) from the blood of a patient with B-cell leukemia.

2) Genetically engineer the T cells to train their sights on the CD19 molecule, which sits on the surface of B cells and the cancer cells that arose from them.

3) Inject the patient with the modified T cells, which may then destroy all cells with CD19—both cancerous and not.

4) Bolster the patient’s immune system with treatments of antibodies, since B cells normally make antibodies needed to fight infection.

[SethfromMI]

I think the government hides a lot but i don't think the cure for cancer is one of them. I don't know if there will be a cure one day or not. it just might be like the flu, it adapts and changes so much there may never be a cure for it.

I am not saying we never will, I hope we do

[Uranus]

I think the government hides a lot but i don't think the cure for cancer is one of them. I don't know if there will be a cure one day or not. it just might be like the flu, it adapts and changes so much there may never be a cure for it.

I am not saying we never will, I hope we do

I agree with you, Seth. I also believe the Government is hiding alot of information from the people. And probably for good reason. Anyways I don't believe there is a cure, as of now. In fact I strongly believe they don't. But I do believe in time they may find it.

[NeuroTiger]

That's difficult to say...we've got so many talented researchers nowadays. It will be hard to believe that a cure hasn't yet been discovered.

[Paladino]

That's difficult to say...we've got so many talented researchers nowadays. It will be hard to believe that a cure hasn't yet been discovered.

Exactly.

[Human]

Yes but we haven't discovered it yet. Cancer isn't just one disease really, one cure wouldn't work for everything. Maybe corporations or the government are hiding it but I doubt they'd keep it forever.

[Paladino]

My friend thinks there is a cure for cancer because he thinks nobody very important to the world has died from Cancer. I don't agree nor disagree.

[Miserabilia]

My friend thinks there is a cure for cancer because he thinks nobody very important to the world has died from Cancer. I don't agree nor disagree.


There are literaly lists online of famous people who died of cancer so yeah but no.

[Batman42]

I hope some day there is a cure I I'm afraid of it tbh

[fairmaiden]

I'm sure one day there will be a cure for cancer, but I'm not sure if cancer can be eradicated completely. I don't think it will ever be like having a cold or something, but I hope that in the future there will be cures for the disease; preferably cures that don't include laborious and painful treatments.

Plus, if the government were hiding it from us, they would have been able to treat many great celebrities and certain members of the government so they would still be alive today.