Why do people say there's no cure for cancer....

Question

when cancer is in fact curable through surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy? Unless they're referring to terminal cancer!

Accepted Answer

Cancer is treatable, but not cureable. A cure has a 100% effective rate. Unfortunately there is no cure.

Answer

Wow! This is by far the dumbest post I have read all year on the Internet. Does anyone really have to explain to someone the difference between a treatment and a cure?

Answer

1 in 3 breast cancer survivors develop stage 4 breast cancer after going into remission for early-stage breast cancer. My mom was one despite having had stage 1 and having a mastectomy, chemo, radiation and preventative meds. She also had yearly mammograms and routine PET scans after her treatment and one day BAM! Terminal.
That is not a cure...

Answer

Remission is not cured.

Answer

Those treatments can put the cancer into remission. And then if you stay in remission for at least 5 years they MIGHT call you "cured", but patients have to continue getting regular scans in case the cancer begins to grow/spread again. And even if you had breast cancer and had a mastectomy to remove all tumors, you are more at risk for other types of cancer such as ovarian cancer. So it's just always a risk which is why doctors are hesitant to ever tell someone they are completely cured.

Answer

When a disease is curable usually there is a pretty standard treatment that everyone takes and is left disease-free.

With cancer they pretty much have to chop off a part of your body or literally poison you and kill cells in your body. And even then not  everyone responds to treatment.

For some cancers including breast cancer even with early detection, amputations, chemo radiation the person still dies or goes into remission and the cancer comes back and kills them. That means it was never really cured. The treatments try and stop the cancer from spreading or try and kill the cells but does not neutralize them or make them healthy like a cure does.

We do not cure cancer. We kill the cells it has invaded and try and stop it from spreading. Most cures work by killing the source of the illness like a bacteria, virus etc. with cancer we try and bring YOU as close to death without killing you.

Answer

They're treatments. Even once you're given the all clear, you generally have to keep going back every so often in case you go into remission. I really wish chemo etc actually cured it, but unfortunately they only reduce or treat

Answer

I think when talking about a 'cure' they mean a sure-fire works all the time, fairly easy solution.  Yes, some people are cured using existing treatments,  but there is no treatment with a 100% success rate and no one treatment that is effective for all cancers.

Answer

There is no cure. There is always a chance of the cancer coming back.

Answer

This again???

Why do people say there's no cure for cancer....

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