There has been a "war on cancer" for over five decades now, and it seems little has changed, and more and more people are diagnosed with cancer and die from cancer each day. Actually we have made great advances our understanding of the disease and in diagnosis and treatment.
Unfortunately, the complexity of the problem seems to grow with our understanding. Consider this; Cancer is over one hundred diseases, which are all different but all the same. Saying a disease is a cancer is like calling a vehicle an automobile. All cars have four tires, windshield wipers and a steering wheel, etc., but a dune buggy has very different parts than a Volvo. Likewise, breast cancer is different from prostate cancer, and colon cancer is different from lung cancer. Thus their symptoms of presentation, patterns of spread, and treatment are different. It is unlikely there will be one simple solution for all these different diseases we call cancer.
Alternative Cancer Treatments
Consider what we are trying to accomplish when we try to analyze all the different kinds of cancer. You are looking through a telescope at the parking garage at Yankee Stadium, 100 miles away. There are two identical looking red cars. From your vantage point, you have to tell what kind of cars they are, and what kind of engines the cars have. And you have to be able to look deeper, what color is the interior, and what type of sound system does it have?
Now look at the CD player and see there is a Billy Joel Album, maybe Piano Man. Is it playing? What track is it on? Look at the third track and the 405th note in that track, there is a scratch altering the machines ability to render the song and changing the melody to a repetitive cacophony. Now fix the scratch and change the disc back to normal, without hurting anything in the car or other cars around it. Oh, and remember that you must be able to do this from 100 miles away.
The research conducted has given us tremendous insight into the molecular function of the cell, and chemical pathways which are damaged in a cancerous cell. We have demonstrated how cancer cells can be inactivated or turned back to normal by changing these chemical pathways. Here is the "Holy Grail" - just repair the damage that causes a cell to behave wrong, and cure the cancer. Fix the scratch on the CD, from 100 yards away, so to speak. We have used this new knowledge to establish the basis for a host of new drugs and the timing of treatments. In some cases the results have been very encouraging, and in others, we have learned how rapidly nature adapts and finds ways around our chemical roadblocks.
While we continue to apply these new tools to treat cancer, we should keep in mind that the best way to approach this problem is probably not to become a cancer patient in the fist place. Don't get a scratch on your CD. Does that sound too easy? Well for some cancers like brain tumors, breast cancer and prostate cancer it is not that simple because we don't know the cause of these cancers. But for others, it is and we do. We know that 40% of all cancers are related to lifestyle choices such as smoking, exercise, diet, sun exposure and personal habits.
That means theoretically over 400,000 cases of cancer per year could be avoided with our individual effort to live differently. That is a huge number of people. All it takes is a bit of effort on our part. So, let's get started, what are you doing tomorrow? Would you to take a 30 minute walk with me?
Why Can't We Cure Cancer Alternative Cancer Treatments
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