You think Cancer is curable? Give it a second thought.

Cancer is one of the most dangerous diseases of the world. It is a name given to a physical state when cells of your body start to multiply abnormally and have the potential to spread to other parts of the body. Many techniques like chemotherapy and removing a lump of affected cells through surgery are used to mitigate this fatal disease but the big question still prevails that do we have a cure for it. Definition of ‘cure’ is the reason behind this nagging query. Cure means that the disease has gone away and it won’t come back. However, the treatments described above doesn’t guarantee that so cancer may return after some years. The duration might vary from 3 years (testicular cancer) to 20 years (breast cancer).

There are numerous factors that determine whether a cancer patient can be cured or not. The timing of diagnosis is extremely vital in this regard. If it is found in the early stages, there are more chances that you will be cured. The type of cancer is also quite important because some of them can be cured with much more ease than the others. The age of the patient and the physical health also holds a lot of significance. Older people or those with poor health have fewer chances of survival. Last but not the least, the extent to which cancer has spread also determines the chances of survival. Cancers that hasn’t spread too much are curable most of the times.

The thing that we confuse mostly with the cure is called Remission. It has two types. Each of them represents a scenario where a patient’s cancer has been treated and he is living a regular life for now. Firstly, we have Complete Remission. This refers to cases where cancer has gone away after the treatment and there are no signs of it. Many people confuse this state with the cure but it cannot be considered a cure because there are cancer cells in the body. The only difference is that they are inactive and doctors cannot distinguish them. The second type of remission is called Partial Remission. This state is achieved when a patient with cancer is treated and the size of his cancerous lump gets shrunk. It is also not a cure because the disease is still there in the body.

Scientists are now looking for a technique that could give us much more than the remission. There are various reasons that hinder the progress of all the researchers out there and the most obvious one in Money. It is the one thing that drives everything around us. All the research work is dependent on it, in form of salaries and the equipment. A lot of these discoveries come through government-funded organizations. All places like laboratories and research centers where new researchers are being trained are also included in the list of such institutions.

Commercial pharmaceutical companies are also determined to find cures as it will bring them a lot of revenue. In their case, business is associated and there are very few chances that they will prioritize general humanity over their personal gains. The patients with cancer are increasing every year and it is high time that a real cure is identified. In these circumstances, the announcement of US government to cut-back on government-funded research was an utter disappointment. Being one of the most advanced nations of the world, it is their responsibility to back such positive initiatives so that mankind could be benefited.

Another theory suggests that the reason why we are not getting cures for diseases like cancer is due to the insurance companies. Some companies get significant discounts that are never passed on to the patient. If things continue to flow this way, doctors will not be needed as insurance agents will be controlling the entire medical industry. In light of all the points explained above, it can be concluded that this issue cannot be taken for granted. The medical progress must go on and cures for fatal diseases must be found out before it’s too late.