• Question: What are the best ways of curing cancer? And do different cancers need different treatment?

    Asked by jackyboy1999 to Clare, Mariana, Pedro, Robert, Susanne on 16 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Susanne Muekusch

      Susanne Muekusch answered on 16 Nov 2012:

      Hi jackyboy,

      Yes, different cancers need very different treatment! If it is a solid cancer, you can perform a surgery to remove it. That is not possible for example for blood cancer (leukemia).
      Different cancer are also treated with different chemotherapeutics. Some have been shown to work better on certain types of cancer than on others. I am not sure it is known why, in every case.

      There is no single best way to treat cancer, but for every type of cancer there is an established treatment protocol.

    • Photo: Robert Insall

      Robert Insall answered on 16 Nov 2012:

      Jackyboy,

      We are working on two different things. One is to classify which cancers are which. This is very difficult – you start with where they come from, but then you have to look at what the cells look like and which genes are turned on. When you know what type of cancer it is, you can tell the best way to treat it.

      For example, chronic myelogenous leukaemia responds incredibly well to a drug called gleevec, but chromic lymphocytic leukaemia doesn’t. Doctors have to know which disease they’re treating.

    • Photo: Clare Taylor

      Clare Taylor answered on 18 Nov 2012:

      Great answers from @susanne and @robert. So you can see why so many scientists are interested in studying cancer, because there so many things for us still to try and understand.

    • Photo: Mariana Campos

      Mariana Campos answered on 18 Nov 2012:

      Hello jackyboy,

      I think Susanne and Robert answered your question already. And I hope it makes you understand why is it so difficult to find treatment for cancer: because there’s no such a thing like one disease cancer. Is just like the word car. There are different brands, models, colours. We have to understand the “brand”,” model” of the cancer to try to find a good treatment.

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