There is a constant supply of so-called cancer cures being shared in Facebook, Whatsapp, and other social media, that any cancer survivor would either feel relieved or more likely, confused. On the one hand, we hear of very expensive treatments offered by private medical centres, which proved futile in some terminal cases, while on the other, some claim ordinary fruits like soursop or jackfruit can effectively kill cancer cells. If it is so simple there would not be needless deaths resulting from cancer, nor the need to spend hundreds of thousands on chemo drugs, radiotherapy and so on.
As a cancer survivor, I wish those simple and cheap treatment claims are true. But would anyone trust any of those completely and risk his or her life? There is no easy answer as there are success stories as well as failures. Put simply, each patient is different in terms of health and body fitness. What works for one may not work for others. There are so many different types of cancers affecting different parts of the body that there is no single cure for all. How I wish I can write my own success story, but which cancer patient dares to claim he or she is completely cured? We hear of remission over more than ten years and sudden relapse which can prove fatal.
It is comforting to note that Cancer or the Big C is no longer considered as a death sentence, unless discovered too late. In my own case (Stage 4), I survived for more than 8 months after a successful operation followed by chemotherapy, without which I would not last more than a few weeks. Oncologists offer comforting words like, 'We've come a long way since' and 'We've different bullets to kill those cells'.
I find the following article more sensible than those claims of simple and quick cures:
Link
As a cancer survivor, I wish those simple and cheap treatment claims are true. But would anyone trust any of those completely and risk his or her life? There is no easy answer as there are success stories as well as failures. Put simply, each patient is different in terms of health and body fitness. What works for one may not work for others. There are so many different types of cancers affecting different parts of the body that there is no single cure for all. How I wish I can write my own success story, but which cancer patient dares to claim he or she is completely cured? We hear of remission over more than ten years and sudden relapse which can prove fatal.
It is comforting to note that Cancer or the Big C is no longer considered as a death sentence, unless discovered too late. In my own case (Stage 4), I survived for more than 8 months after a successful operation followed by chemotherapy, without which I would not last more than a few weeks. Oncologists offer comforting words like, 'We've come a long way since' and 'We've different bullets to kill those cells'.
I find the following article more sensible than those claims of simple and quick cures:
Why Treating Cancer is So Difficult, Part 1: Your Tumor is Not a Clone
There are many reasons, both scientific and clinical, that cancer is difficult to treat. I am going to dedicate a few posts to discussing this, so today is the first post in this series,
Part 1 // Your Tumor is Not a Clone.
"In cell biology, clones are identical cells that came from a single cell. In other words, one single cell started dividing. When the cell divides, it passes down its genetic information to the two new cells, so they are genetically identical. They are clones. If these two cells continue to divide, and divide, and divide, then you have a large number of clones that all came from that first parent cell.
Cancer is not clonal. Cancer is complex and heterogeneous (meaning that it’s not the same from one place in the tumor to another). There are also other types of cells other than cancer cells inside of a tumor: there are immune cells, there is extracellular matrix (the cellular “skeleton” to help anchor the tumor and give it shape), and many others inside what is called the tumor microenvironment. Other than the complex tumor microenvironment, there are often differences in the cancer cells in a single tumor."
No comments:
Post a Comment