• Question: is it possible to iradicate cancer?

    Asked by bigorangesnail to Charlotte, Dhvanil, Frank, Jim, Leila on 11 Mar 2013. This question was also asked by jaisan123, kckfoster, shaaannon97, leahx, dand, jimmysavy, thebear, elliestephenson, abbieeshaww, saash, meakin99, lornaa812, rawrimjo, lucasrcoppin.
    • Photo: Jim O Doherty

      Jim O Doherty answered on 11 Mar 2013:

      I think its definitely possible to eradicate certain types of cancer. Cancer is a range of different processes, and depending on where it is in the body it acts differently. The cure rates for certain types of cancer have improved greatly thanks to new technologies, but cure rates for other types (like brain for example) are still not so good.

    • Photo: Leila Nichol

      Leila Nichol answered on 11 Mar 2013:

      I think that’s a great answer there from Jim. The success rate of treating cancer is improving all the time with new drugs and techniques. It’s the aim of our job ultimately!

    • Photo: Charlotte Kemp

      Charlotte Kemp answered on 11 Mar 2013:

      In the sense of killing a certain cancer in the body, then in theory, you can completely eradicate it if you can access and destroy every single cancerous cell. In terms of whether or not we can eradicate cancer from society as a whole, then that is a much more difficult question and not one I know the answer to!

    • Photo: Dhvanil Karia

      Dhvanil Karia answered on 11 Mar 2013:

      I cannot agree more with Jim’s answer but I would like to add the following. The cancer diseases are classified into 2 broad categories
      1) Benign tumors — They grow only in one place. They cannot spread or invade other parts of your body. Even so, they can be dangerous if they press on vital organs, such as brain. Treatment often involves surgery. Benign tumors usually don’t grow back.
      2) Malignant Cancer — These can grow and spread in different parts around the primary tumour and even migrate to different organs altogether. They are very very hard to eradicate
      The two malignant cancers types treated as of now with very high success rates are 1)Thyroid cancer and 2) Breast Cancer

      http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/cancerstats/

      The link above gives more information about the cure rates of various cancer diseases in UK

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