The people who will cure cancer are the patients

Sometimes I tell people I’m learning how to treat cancer, and their first question is ‘why haven’t we cured cancer yet?’ We will.  It’s coming. In medicine we’re much better at treating infections than cancer, but it wasn’t always that way: We didn’t know washing your hands before delivering a baby wassafer for women until 1847. The concept of a germ was proposed in 1870. The first vaccine was made in 1879. Penicillin didn’t show up until 1928. The last fatal case of smallpox was reported in 1978, and smallpox was declarederadicated in 1979. The AIDS epidemic began in 1981 when five previously healthy patients were diagnosed with Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. Now, HIV has changed from a deadly incurable disease to a chronic treatable infection thanks to anti-retroviral therapy. When my grandparents’ grandparents were alive, we didn’t know that “germs” existed.  Today we can prevent HIV from becoming AIDS. The cure for cancer won’t be one discovery.  It won’t be one bold headline or a news broadcast.  Right now we’re in the phase of research that is like walking into a pitch-black room and feeling around until you find a light switch.  Practicing oncology is like standing at a wall of light switches and flipping the right ones (thankfully the scientists label them for us). Discoveries are made one light switch at a time, someday we’ll find the whole room is lit. We’ll keep pushing things forward and one day we’...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Tags: Conditions Cancer Source Type: blogs