ExRx.net

As some of you might know, probably only stuward(cause were Canadian), Terry fox day is comming up.

Terry fox at 18, got cancer and ran across canada with one leg, very impressive.

I'm not a doctor but are not most cancers preventable? It just annoys me to see all this money to find a cure. When some should atleast be used to promote prevention of diseases instead.

There was this girl in my school who spoke to us about her cancer story.

Long story short, she got cancer, had treatment for it. A few surgeries, and defeated cancer. I asked myself how this young girl got cancer. She looked very unhealthy, obese and seeing the pictures of her with her family, who are also obese it was no surprise that she was diagnosed.
She said that before the surgeries she didnt eat anything, so her younger brother snuck in popsicles for her (crowd laughed). And when she got home from her treatment they celebrated by having a huge chocolate cake. I also saw some other cakes in the slide show.

I know most people don't know what healthy is but i'm sure everyone can agree that popsicles and chocolate cake does nothing good.

there are ways you can reduce the risk, but just because something is preventable doesn't mean you won't get it. A girl i went to school with got cancer, which thankfully she was successfully treated for. She was not obese, she was in fact a very healthy active individual who did not smoke or drink to excess or really do anything that people are warned against, and she still got it. I on the other hand did not get cancer despite smoking heavily, drinking to excess, using drugs and eating a terrible diet.

it goes to show that just because something is preventable doesn't mean you won't be unlucky, and so finding a cure is still of the utmost importance.

well, was she actually healthy though, maybe she was stressed?

I know finding a cure is important, I just feel people should be informed of what their eating can have an impact on thier health.

Some cancers are environmental based or influenced (smoking), some are hereditary (breast cancer) some are combination, some we have no idea.

My father in law is a prime example. He is dying of stage 4 lung cancer. He never smoked, is very healthy, and maybe drank 8 drinks a year. Cancer does not run in the family. He just got it.

I'm not an expert, but every cure seems to build on previous cures. My FIL, right now is on an experimental drug that was shown effective for liver cancer. The more we learn, the more we are able to prevent and cure. For example, HPV, it seems just over the last 5 years, has been found to cause cervical cancer and now there is a vaccine for it.

There are very few known carcinogens. Smoking, for example has not been proven to cause lung cancer. In other words, if you smoke you won't necessarily get cancer. You have an increase risk, definitely, but you won't necessarily get cancer.

I'm not discounting prevention. The more we learn, the more we can prevent and cure.

Jebus, Hoose has it right. Remember that "cancer" is not a disease, but a category of diseases. Breast cancer is not just cancer in the breast, but a particular type of cancer. Colon cancer is different, with different risk factors. Even in a given organ system there are often different kinds of cancer. Like there are 3 (as I recall) different thyroid cancers. Some kinds of cancer have similarities (thus, a drug that helps a given kind of liver cancer being logically tried on a particular kind of lung cancer).

There is a huge, I mean a really huge amount of research being done on cancer prevention. All cancer research ties together. For instance, in order to find ways to prevent a cancer, they have to figure out a lot about the biology of that particular kind. As they understand the biology better, it leads to treatments as well.

I don't believe that anyone will ever find THE cure for cancer. But researchers are finding effective treatments for more and more cancers all the time.

My knowledge of cancer is pretty low, thanks for the insights.

Is it true that we all have cancer, it's just triggered at certain times in our life?


Also I remember reading about a study done in germany, where cancer patients were switched from regular diets to paleo diets. Allot of the ones who succesfully switched to the primal diet recovered very well from cancer. Not all of them did but it was still a high percentage. Many didnt want to give up chocolate and sweets though and died. Their hypothesis was that cancer cells feed on glucose.

I'm not sure whether or not it was concluded. Still very interesting.

What happens is a cell is damaged by a free radical by some sort of oxidation process. The genes will be slightly altered in a random way. If it has just the right sort of mutation, there will be nothing to inhibit growth and reproduction. That is what cancer is. It is a one in a million shot though. However the more of these reactions you have the greater your odds of cancer. So every free radical is a cancer lottery ticket. If you have a good diet and avoid other risks, you will keep your changes very low, but you always have that very small chance of getting cancer.

I should also mention genetics may make it more likely for some people's cells to become cancerous. As far as I know the details of that are still unknown.


There are several good treatments in the works. They are all good ways to remove cancerous cells without harming surrounding tissue. So in the next couple decades treatment will get easier and easier. So there isn't likely to be a cure per say, so much as it will just end up being a simple non-invasive outpatient procedure.

Ironman, the things you say are true, or may be true for some cancers. It appears that some have more of a genetic component than others. Some cancers are apparently caused by certain environmental factors but only in a particular genetic setting.

When cancers "run in families" a genetic basis is assumed (although families also share environmental factors, so it can be tricky to sort out), but the exact genetic factors are known only for a few cancers.

Again, the problem is that every cancer, though all share certain characteristics, is a different disease.

We're all going to die of something. The challenge, in my opinion, is just to put it off for a reasonable period of time, while maintaining a reasonable quality of life, so that you can stay useful in the meantime. My goals are to live well and to die well.