Is giving money to cancer research pointless?

It's 2007, we haven't come close to finding a cure. Lives aren't being saved.

Is giving money to cancer research pointless?
First of all, there will be no one cure for cancer.





Secondly, you are completely wrong. Lives ARE being saved in many, many cancers. In the past there were many cancers that had no treatment whatsoever. Now many people can live long lives after a diagnosis of cancer. Breast cancer in particular used to have no treatment except surgery, and now upwards of 90 percent of people may be cured of their breast cancer. It is a chronic illness, because no one knows when it may come back, but many people live a very long time after having had it.





Of course the major area in breast cancer research in particular that needs to be tackled is metastatic disease, because at this point they do not have a cure for that. But the drug Herceptin is a relatively new drug that has most definitely saved lives or certainly extended the lives of women with one of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer.





They are finding out new things every day in this field. Biogenetics is a particularly promising area.





You are sorely misinformed when you say "lives aren't being saved." Your understanding of cancer also seems to be very limited. Cancer is not one disease, therefore there will not be one cure. Even breast cancer, lung cancer, lymphoma, they are not each one single disease. They have many subsets and some are actually curable. There is no magic bullet and there never, ever will be. But cancers can and will be cured.





Cancer research needs much more funding, not less.
Reply:Research is not just about cures, its also about giving better quality of life to patients and longer survival times. Actually people are being saved! Cancers can be found and treated much earlier than they used to be with much more efficency and less side effects.


So carry on giving to cancer research...one day you may be glad you did!
Reply:Do a little research on what cancer is. You'll realize it is an incredibly complex topic and not just one disease.





Research is very expensive.





You are very wrong about lives not being saved. The 5-year survival rate (often considered a cure indicator) has increased from 51% in 1975 to 66% now.





http://www.cancer.org/downloads/STT/CAFF...





Basic research has lead to:





1) knowledge on how healthy and cancer cells work


2) identifying carcinogens


3) new therapies including vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, hormone blockers, small molecule inhibitors





It is money well spent.
Reply:it's not pointless. i want to keep contributing because they are getting closer to finding a cure. someday they will. you never know.
Reply:I use to wonder but once I got Cancer myself I have did a lot of research on all kinds of cancer and find that a lot of cancer can be put into remission for years and some can have a almost normal life. The last 3 years have really been an exciting time for new things in cancer research So please don't think that the giving is pointless as it gives hope to a lot of folks.
Reply:It is not pointless, it is useful in finding drugs to cure cancer, it is the FDA that will not approve the medicines.


My father had cancer. In April 1998, my grandmother came to me in a dream or vision to talk to me about my father, she said that she was disappointed in me for not taking better care of my daddy. But she proceeded to tell me that my father would not make it to Christmas. This really upset me. she also continued to tell me that there is a new treatment/cure for cancer but she knew that my dad couldn't pay for it. She said that the FDA would not approve of this drug. She told me that she loved me %26amp; asked me to hug my daddy's neck for her %26amp; to tell him she loves him.


The next day I went to my aunt %26amp; uncles house and I was telling my aunt about this dream and she said there is a guy overseas that says he has a cure for cancer %26amp; about that time the news channel she had it one was talking about the drug. Well, that wasn't the only thing my grandmother was right about because my fatehr died on June 17th, 1998.
Reply:Not giving money to cancer research is pointless. Cancer cure rates are not even close to acceptable. At the current pace you will know many people in your lifetime who will suffer, or die, or both, from cancer or cancer related illnesses. If you are very close to any of those people, and you probably will be, I guarantee you will not think it is pointless anymore. Do you really want to wait until that happens before you do something? Like I did.
Reply:No it is not pointless. Lives ARE being saved. My son is one of them.


They literally, were preparing me for his death the first night he was diagnosed! They didn't think he would make it through the next week. His body was shutting down. He was 15 and 6' 2" and they were doing what the protocols for kids his age would call for. They completely came up with a new protocol and it worked! They now use my son's case to treat new patients.


Yes, lives are still being taken by this horrible disease, but MANY are living longer, stronger and healthy lives because of the research that has already been done.


Even God did not create the world in a day. And we are making progress , just not as fast as we would like.
Reply:we have found lots of cures and treatments. the most recent cure to some forms of HPV is Guardasil. talk to your local American Cancer Society.
Reply:Absolutely not. Research is extending lives