Essay on Why Is Cancer So Difficult To Cure?

Cancer is a disease that can creep up on us when we least expect it and is the second leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization. This deadly disease takes an estimated 10 million lives every year and causes nearly 1 in 6 deaths worldwide. Unfortunately, about 70% of cancer related deaths occur in low income countries. These statistics can be very disheartening, but there is hope. The cure for cancer is one of the most researched topics in the medical field today and while this question hasn’t been completely answered, with science and technology advancing every year we are finding out new information on this disease daily. Scientists all around the world are studying all forms of cancer in an effort to fully understand, effectively treat, and ultimately overcome this disease. Recently there have been many numerous discoveries on new effective treatments and promising results from clinical trials. Many people would still argue and say that there hasn’t been much progress yet, but science and technology speak otherwise. I will be discussing how the current knowledge we have from the results of new research, treatments, and clinical trials is leading us closer and closer to a cure.

A common question many people ask is “why exactly is it so hard to cure cancer”. There is a reason why nobody’s found a cure yet. Cancer is a very broad disease that is very complex. Since cancer is not a singular disease, it becomes harder to find a cure, or in this case cures.  “Cancer is as individual as the person who has it,” says Joyce Ohm, PhD, Department of Cancer Genetics. Research shows that even identical twins that get diagnosed with the same type of cancer can react completely differently to treatment. This can be because they’re each exposed to different things like smoking, unhealthy foods, viral infections and even certain traumatic experiences can cause a significant difference in the treatment. The DNA of the tumor is not the same as the tumor of the patient. In many cases, tumors can contain another type of cancer cell, which increases the risk that that cancer cell can escape and continue spreading in the body. For example, sometimes in breast cancer one type of cell in  the tumor will respond to its targeted treatment, but other types of cancer will spread to other parts of the body. This is one of the reasons why cancer is very hard to control. On one hand, doctors are trying to make sure that the treatment kills its targeted cancer cells and on the other hand, they're also trying to prevent other types of cancer cells from growing.

Adding to that, certain types of cancers are more deadly and are harder to treat like pancreatic and mesothelioma. According to CNN, “About 95% of people with pancreatic cancer die from it”. One of the reasons why pancreatic cancer is so deadly is because there are little to no symptoms in early stages, and the earlier the easier it is to treat the patient. Pancreatic cancer tends to be discovered in the later stages when the tumor grows and spreads. With mesothelioma symptoms are also commonly seen at a very late stage. Symptoms include pain in the chest, nausea, dry cough, and breathlessness. Late diagnosis for anything is bad especially for cancer. With cancer it’s best to have it diagnosed when in the earliest stage possibility for a successful treatment. The deadliness of cancers is also determined by the five-year survival rate. This is the overall percentage of people who were able to survive five years after they were first diagnosed with cancer. Mesothelioma and pancreatic cancer have the lowest five year survival rate, with mesothelioma having a survival rate of 6.5% and pancreatic cancer having a survival rate of 7.3%. 

While cancer can affect anyone, some people are prone to certain types more than others. Genetics play a major role in an individual's likelihood of getting infected.  One in every ten percent of patients with pancreatic cancer inherited the gene so it increased the likelihood of them developing the disease. When cancer genes run in families it can be more dangerous for people, because if they do not suffer from cancer at the moment, their risk of getting it increases. Even with a healthy lifestyle many people will still end up getting cancer because the gene runs in their family. Breast cancer tends to run in families and women that have immediate family members with breast cancer like their mom or sister are several times more likely to develop this disease. The BRCA1 is responsible for the majority of inherited breast cancer cases. Mark Skolnick from the University of California at Berkeley says, “Believing there had to be some factor that increased a woman's breast cancer risk, she studied 1,600 women with breast cancer and identified 326 high-risk families”.  Of course this does not mean that everyone with a family member close to them will get cancer, it definitely increases the risk.

Although cancer can be very scary and discouraging, there are amazing breakthroughs being made by the medical/scientific community. The question is no longer if we will find a cure for cancer but when we will find a cure for it. Over the years, there have been new genes discovered, promising experimental cancer treatments, and more funding than ever.  Scientists now have the ability to manipulate the genes with cells. This new possible treatment option we now have is called gene cell therapy. This is where we can direct certain cells to do what we want them to do. “This treatment technique is very flexible, and a wide range of genes and vectors are being used in clinical trials with successful outcomes”, says Deanna Cross and James K. Burmester at the Center for Human Genetics. Results from recent experimental cancer treatments like       immunotherapy and non-invasive cancer treatments have been very promising. People are also funding so much and this is great for experiments and clinical trials.

Medical researchers believe that once gene cell therapy, immunotherapy and non-invasive cancer treatments can be used on patients regularly then it will be very beneficial to treating cancer. Immunotherapy will use the human body's natural defence mechanisms to kill cancerous cells and seems safer than most of the current treatment options. The range of promising immunotherapies are also advancing leading many scientists to have faith in this treatment. Katherine W. Silber from GALE says, “One specialized type of cancer immunotherapy with great potential to treat specific types of cancer is immune checkpoint therapy”. This type of therapy activates the antitumor immune response pathways in T cells”. Non-invasive cancer treatment means that no incisions need to be made in the patient's skin and this makes recovery time must faster. It also doesn’t seem to have as harsh side effects as chemotherapy. The scientific/medical communities are taking many steps on this journey to a cure, but a lot of it is in our hands as well. The first step that we can take is to Start by making healthier lifestyle choices like diet, exercise, no smoking, wearing sunscreen, etc. Donations and funding will help continue research to develop our understanding of cancer and implement that research in clinical trials. 

With all these new discoveries and experiments being made, they can have much greater outcomes than most traditional cancer treatments. Many people are aware that most treatments for cancer are absolutely draining in an individual. For example chemotherapy is great at killing cancer cells, but it can also kill many other cells that our body needs in order to be healthy. This can cause so much emotional and physical pain to an individual so it is very hopeful that there can be treatments that are much less harsh on the body. The benefits of these treatment options would be much less time in the hospital for recovery, have overall less side effects and are more personalized to the patient. Everyone is different so cancer needs to be treated with a very personalized approach. Unlike chemo and radiation, gene cell therapy, immunotherapy and noninvasive cancer treatments can fight cancer without damaging other somatic cells as much. I mentioned in the beginning that pancreatic cancer and mesothelioma are very deadly and have a very low five year survival rate. Well turns out that immunotherapy is showing some great outcomes on both and can almost certainly be implemented very regularly in the future.