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| The Cancer Cure |
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By Ted Gansler, MD, MBA; Director of Medical Content, American Cancer
Society
True
or False?: There is currently
a cure for cancer, but the medical industry won't tell the public about
it because they make too much money treating cancer patients.
Respondents
Who Agreed: 28%
Origin:
Urban Legend
Reality:
One argument against this conspiracy theory is the fact that doctors,
laboratory scientists, and their loved ones die of cancer at the same
rate as everyone else in the US. (One exception is that health care
professionals and biomedical researchers are less likely to die of
lung, larynx, esophageal, and other tobacco-related cancers because
they are more aware of the danger of tobacco and much less likely to be
smokers than the rest of the population.)
And why would anyone hide a cure for cancer? Medical breakthroughs of
all kinds are quickly announced and applied - as the world has seen with
antibiotics and vaccines, such as the polio vaccine.
Also, finding one all-encompassing cure for cancer is unlikely because
cancer is actually many different diseases. For several forms of
cancer, cures are already available for the majority of patients.
Only a few decades ago, fewer than one in 10 children with leukemia
survived 10 years after diagnosis. With modern chemotherapy, the cure
rate for these children is almost 80%. Examples of similar progress
include Hodgkin's lymphoma, bone and kidney cancers in children, and
testicular cancer.
Fewer than half of all people with cancer in the US actually die of the
disease - and many who are not "cured" of cancer still go on living for
years with relatively few changes in their lives.
Revised: 12/19/2005
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