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one can (never) cure cancer?
#1
Dear all,

Recently I stumbled upon an interesting website:

http://www.futuretimeline.net

There is an article there, which includes a timeline for advances in cancer treatment:

http://www.futuretimeline.net/blog/2013/04/1.htm

As you can see in the graph the outlook for the near future is rather pessimistic (or (- and I really hope that I'm wrong -) realistic?) about finding cures for various cancers.

However if you look at the comments under the timeline-graph, you can see one specific comment from someone called 'Diego Delgado'. Here's the video from the comment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5KLTonB3Pg

So according to the expert Ido Bachelet significant advances for various forms of cancer treatment (maybe even a cure or in other words a 100%-five-year-survival-rate for all forms of cancer?) may become possible somethere around 2020? Because the video itself was posted in 2013 and Dr. Bachelet mentions that the DNAbots in the video may become usable in humans after five years.

So on one hand we have Dr. Bachelet, who seems to be pretty optimistic (or hopefully realistic) about cancer treatment and on the other hand we have the timeline above, which suggests a cure for today's most notorious cancers around the year 2200 CE.

Speaking of these DNAbots (basically biomicrobots): The following article is also interesting:

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/dna-nan...as-viruses

Why is it that the timeline on that website is so pessimistic regarding a potential cure, while Dr. Bachelet seems so optimistic in the video above? It's also interesting to look at some of the Google search results for the search string "cure for cancer". Then one can find recent articles like this ones:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/scien...essor.html

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree...r-cure-doc

So for example Prof. Dr. Greaves seems to be just as pessimistic/realistic(?) about finding a cure for cancers as the timeline above. We have experts like Dr. Bachelet on one side and experts like Prof. Dr. Greaves on the other side and one wonders, who is right? What do you think about this discrepancy in opinions, when it comes to curing cancer(s)?

Personally I feel that the timeline above only extrapolates the current medical technology against cancer into the future without taking completely new approaches (like microbots) against this class of diseases into account. (Basically it's the same as asking "When will all forms of cancer be curable by chemotherapy and macroscopic surgery alone?" or if I use the example from Dr. Bachelet's video: "When will the military invent a gun, which will automatically only kill the "bad" people, while avoiding all the "good" people (so that soldiers aren't needed anymore)?") Am I correct about this? Or is it just wishful thinking on my part and the situation regarding a cure for cancers is really as bad as the two above articles suggest? But then what about experts like Dr. Bachelet? They can't possibly be just "daydreamers". After all in exceedingly rare cases something like this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_remission

happens as well without the help of any medical technology. ( This suggests that cancer may not be as "invincible" as some people may think. )
"Hydrogen is a light, odorless gas, which, given enough time, turns into people." -- Edward Robert Harrison
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Messages In This Thread
one can (never) cure cancer? - by chris0033547 - 11-25-2014, 12:48 AM
RE: one can (never) cure cancer? - by Rynn - 11-25-2014, 03:26 AM
RE: one can (never) cure cancer? - by Rynn - 01-19-2015, 09:01 PM
RE: one can (never) cure cancer? - by Rynn - 01-19-2015, 10:37 PM
RE: one can (never) cure cancer? - by Rynn - 11-26-2014, 07:06 AM
RE: one can (never) cure cancer? - by Matterplay1 - 11-26-2014, 02:55 PM
RE: one can (never) cure cancer? - by iancampbell - 11-27-2014, 06:44 AM
RE: one can (never) cure cancer? - by Rynn - 11-28-2014, 08:57 AM
RE: one can (never) cure cancer? - by iancampbell - 11-28-2014, 09:59 AM
RE: one can (never) cure cancer? - by Rynn - 12-24-2014, 08:31 PM
RE: one can (never) cure cancer? - by Rynn - 01-04-2015, 01:07 AM
RE: one can (never) cure cancer? - by Rynn - 01-28-2015, 03:21 AM

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