Will we ever cure cancer?

One of the most common complaints that I receive at my kitchen table (and at numerous family gatherings) is why we haven't come up for a cure for cancer. If we can put a man on the moon, surely we can fight a disease that has been around for centuries, right? Well, as you might imagine, it's not that easy!

A very interesting study published in Nature Communications that recently came out of Kiel University is making quite a stir. In short, the study established that evidence of cancer can be found in organisms that are extraordinarily high in the evolutionary chain, suggesting that cancer has been around since the dawn of time and that it may ALWAYS be a part of life.

So is curing cancer even possible?

Figure 1. Cancer cells from a human prostate

I think that its important to rethink what we mean when we say "cancer" and critically look at the nature of the beast. The word "cancer" is an enormous umbrella term, encompassing over 200 different types of cancer. Each of these different types of cancer could have multiple unique pathways that contribute to their manifestation, and that these cancers can invade every organ in your body. Eradicating cancer as a global health problem would mean finding  treatments to combat hundreds of molecular pathways. That's a lot of chemotherapeutics!

It's also important to note that when one thinks of cancer, they usually think of it running in someone's family. As it turns out, only 5-10% of cancers are related to inherited genetic mutations; the remaining are due to environmental factors. And when I say environmental factors, I mean everything. Stress. Diet. Viruses. Pollution. Solar radiation. Smoking. The list goes on and on!

There are 7  billion humans on this planet. Curing cancer would involve having treatments for every mechanism of cancer, for every type of cancer, and that are compatible with each person's unique genetic make up. So will we ever live in a world without cancer?

Probably not. However, we will one day live in a world where cancer becomes so easily treatable that it will be effectively eradicated, which is still a very promising vision of the future!

I have come across some very interesting new research on cancer therapies that I will be publishing within the next week. There are thousands of scientists around the world who work tirelessly to find a cure, and I remain INCREDIBLY optimistic that we will one day beat cancer. Every single time.