Question

Emperor of all Maladies
Episode 3: Finding the Achilles Heel Questions :

9. Many times throughout the history of cancer, researchers and physicians thought they had found a “cure” for cancer only to discover that cancer eluded their treatment once again. Do you think there will ever be a cure for cancer or will it simply become a manageable condition such as other chronic diseases? Explain why you believe this.

Answer 1

most cancers originate from single abnormal cell i.e, monoclonal origin. cancers are probably initiated by changes in the cell's DNA sequence (genetic changes) or change in the change in the pattern of gene expression without a change in DNA sequence (epigenetic changes).

most cancers are initiated by genetic changes and the majority of them are caused by changes in somatic cells and therefore are not transmitted to the next generation. about 1% of all cancers are due to genetic changes in germinal cells and is therefore inherited. about 80% of these inherited cancers are dominant in nature.

cancer is not a single gene-specific. this is the main reason for no cure till date. it can be caused by many genes that include both proto-oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. therefore, trying to control cancer through changes in a single gene is not possible. predicting the gene mutated in each cancer is the first cumbersome task. a master regulator of all these proto-oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes has not been discovered yet. whether any such component exists or not is also not known.

there should be multiple approaches to tackle different kinds of cancer. since research is being done in almost all the regions of the globe, a cure may be discovered in the future. however, it would require much more time and a single type of cure may not be possible.