• Question: How close have you got to finding the cure to cancer?

    Asked by charlieee to Pedro, Clare, Mariana, Robert, Susanne on 12 Nov 2012. This question was also asked by crayon.
    • Photo: Susanne Muekusch

      Susanne Muekusch answered on 12 Nov 2012:

      Hi charlie,

      I don’t think there even is such a thing as “the” cure to cancer, because many different diseases are all called “cancer”. Brain cancer and leukemia cannot possibly be cured by the same therapy.

      So, I will take the question as how close I have come to cure brain cancer. The answer: It is not even in sight. Most scientists (inclduing me) try to understand how brain cancer works. If we can figure that out, we have better chances of developing more effective therapies.

      Most scientists also don’t think that a cure to brain cancer is a realistic goal. We are a bit more modest and talk only about developing better therapies, not cures.

      If you want to join us and do cancer research- I am sure you don’t have to worry that everything will be known by the time you finish your studies 😉

    • Photo: Clare Taylor

      Clare Taylor answered on 13 Nov 2012:

      In my research we are trying to find a new way to deliver therapies directly to tumours without harming the healthy cells nearby. I don’t expect that this will help all cancers, and it certainly won’t be a cure. But I do hope, that if our ideas are right, and we can make them work in practice, that we may help to slow cancer down and at least help people to live longer.

    • Photo: Robert Insall

      Robert Insall answered on 18 Nov 2012:

      Hi Charlieee

      We’ve cured some cancers. A horrible disease called chromic myelogenous leukaemia now has a special drug called gleevec that – by and large – works. Most people who get testicular cancer survive (Lance Armstrong, for example – though he’s not a popular man right now, but that’s a different story).

      There are lots of other cancers we don’t have a clue about. Glioblastoma, for example, which is a kind of brain cancer. But every year things get better. My mother-in-law survived a cancer a few years ago. Ten years earlier she would have died.

      But there are an awful lot of cancers left to understand.

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