I was just wondering if there is a current living generation that will not have to worry about Cancer? With many of the large pharmaceutical companies working on it like Pfizer, Merck, Johnson & Johnson and other smaller companies as well, is it just a matter of time?
Could there be a living generation right now, that will see the end to this horrible killer?
As this is couldn’t be a factual debat - or could it - I thought IMHO was the best spot… What say you?
With cancer having been around since near-antiquity – I’d say I hope the babies born right now have that chance. But, t’would only be a hope. Like winning lotto.
It may have been around for a long long time, but the electron microscope has only been around for less than half a century [sup]I think[/sup].
I am in my thirties, and have seen some amazing reaches in just my lifetime. More and more people are being diagnosed and beating it!! I’d like to think my kids will not have to deal with it, but I hope that is not just a pipedream.
I don’t think that they will ever come up with a cure that will work on all kinds of cancer. I doubt the drug or procedure that cures lung cancer will work on skin cancer.
I hope that we are close to finding better cures for many types of cancers now. But, I doubt there will be a generation in the near future that won’t have to worry about any cancer.
In Conceivable beat me to the point I was about to make. Every time i turn around, for every case I hear from among those i know where they’ve got their cancer under control, in remission, whatever – I have another get eaten alive by something so terrible it steals their souls before they draw their last breath.
Sorry. I’ve just had a friend die after a terrible and enduring suffering. I’m not feeling particularly optimistic at the moment that the scientists will actually know enough to cut down the risk enough in any conceivable expanse of time.
I as well have had someone die fairly recently from it. It was a brain tumor, and on April 1of last year she was diagnosed, May 5 she was dead. Not a lot of suffering, and it was God send it was so quick. But I must remain optimistic, as it is my very nature to do so.
Then, do so. Despite any opinions here in this thread. Because, when it comes down to it, no matter how th’ banshees wail, we must maintain our sense of hope. Peace, and health, to you and yours.
i doubt cancer will be totally eradicated. But when you look at how much power antibiotics had over bacterial infections, its possible new technologies will make cancer very controllable.
I’d give it 40 years before cancer only kills about 1/20 as many as it does today.
As long as cells keep dividing, there’ll be cancer - try as we might to protect ourselves from it, or cure it once it comes. Some types may become easier to treat, but I personally think it’s hugely unlikely that all forms of cancer will ever be conquered by medicine.
But then, I’m a pessimist.
I have seen cancer to a terrible thing by taking the life from my 6 year old. She was more full of life that most people I know.
While medical science prolonged her life for three years, she finally lost the battle.
I’m with those here who say that there are too many different kinds of cancer. Some kinds just happen, others are preventable. But it will be a long long time before we can conquer those deadly ones that adapt to any concevable treatment.
Medical science is intelligently adaptable. Cancer is adaptable only randomly. Eventually all cancers will be understood and beaten. We are still very early in the fight, and the rate of medical progress is exponential, not linear. (new understandings lead to further new understandings, which lead to further…and so on)My own estimate is about 30-40 years before all forms of cancer become curable. The actual elimination of cancer though will take much longer, because of political issues. For example, the US produces twice the amount of food that it actually needs, yet people still starve. Even and fair distribution of a cure will be a long time comming, if ever.