Poll about cancer "cure"

[Tenet Nosce]

Here is an interesting article from the Science-Based Medicine blog:

Why haven’t we cured cancer yet?

Why haven’t we cured cancer yet?

Sounds like, as of the writing of this article (14 Feb 2011) there is no (scientifically) known cure for cancer, in general.

Cancer is not a single disease, and cancers are different

A salient point.

Mechanisms of carcinogenesis are not simple

Of course, they are only considering physical mechanisms. We might also consider:

46.15 Questioner: How does cancer do this learn/teaching when the entity developing cancer has no conscious idea of what is happening to him when he develops cancer?

Ra: I am Ra. In many cases catalyst is not used.

The author concludes:

I close with the same question with which I opened. Why haven’t we cured cancer yet, anyway? Yes, I know it’s a bit of a misleading question, given that we can actually cure quite a few cancers, including several leukemias and lymphomas, which are curable with chemotherapy and radiation, and solid tumors like breast and colorectal cancer which are curable with a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. Unfortunately, although we do fairly well (and in some cases very well) against early stage cancer, we don’t do so well against stage IV metastatic disease, particularly solid tumors

Based on this, it looks like medical scientists would consider "several leukemias and lymphomas" curable with chemo and radiation, and "solid tumors like breast and colorectal cancer" curable with the addition of surgery.

I suppose it all rests upon how they are defining a "cure" in the context of cancer. Perhaps this article can shed some light on the subject:

Cancer: Cure vs. Remission

We’re often asked about the meaning of certain terms that are used in talking about cancer. Because cancer is so varied and its treatment so complex, the list of cancer-related terms is enormous. For that reason, the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), maintains a thorough dictionary of cancer terms, and each of the HealthTalk cancer networks also contains a glossary, such as this breast cancer glossary.

One area of particular interest is the question of the difference between cancer cure and cancer remission. Doctors almost never use the term cure; rather, they usually talk about remission.

Complete remission means that there are no symptoms and no signs that can be identified to indicate the presence of cancer. However, even when a person is in remission, there may be microscopic collections of cancer cells that cannot be identified by current techniques. This means that even if a person is in remission, they may, at some future time, experience a recurrence of their cancer.

Partial remission means that a large percentage of the signs and symptoms of cancer are gone, but some still remain. Complete remission would therefore be better than partial remission because with partial remission the chances of recurrence are higher.

Doctors will sometimes refer to 5-year cure rate or a 10- or more year cure rate. What they really mean by this is a 5- or more year remission rate. The longer the remission time lasts, the greater the possibility that the cancer actually has been cured, but there are cases of cancer recurrence many, many years after remission begins. So if the doctor says there is a 95 percent 5-year cure/remission rate for a particular cancer, it means that after five years, 95 percent of people with that cancer will still be in remission (meaning that you have an extremely high likelihood of not having a recurrence for at least five years). With people living longer and longer, doctors can now often give remission rates for 10, 15 or even 20 years. In many ways, the approach to most cancer treatment is to make it a chronic disease that lasts for many years.

So can we ever really talk about a cancer cure? In general, the answer is no. Practically speaking, however, the odds of a recurrence may be so low that the person is essentially cured. To put it another way, depending on your age, the doctor may tell you that the odds of your dying of cancer are lower than are your odds of dying of something else. Let’s say the doctor says there is an 80 percent remission rate for your cancer at 10 years. But at your age and health status, there is a 90 percent chance of death due to cardiovascular disease within that 10-year time. You could say your cancer was cured, but it wouldn’t necessarily be a very joyous occasion.

When talking to your doctor about your prognosis (the course and outcome of your disease), be sure to find out exactly what he/she is talking about. If they use the term cure, ask if they really mean remission. If they use the term remission, ask if it’s complete or partial. And if they do talk about remission, ask about the rates at 5, 10 or 20 years. This will help give you an idea of the odds of cancer recurrence within your lifetime.

Interesting that the author said: "In many ways, the approach to most cancer treatment is to make it a chronic disease that lasts for many years."

We might also consider whether recurrence of cancer is connected to a continued failure to use catalyst.