• Question: do you feel you are nearly there with a cure for cancer?

    Asked by hannah1 to Amy, Karen, Sarah, Vijay, Will on 11 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by gothchickforever, laurajoseph, mickey, itsscills, itssmeemayaa.
    • Photo: Karen Reed

      Karen Reed answered on 11 Jun 2012:

      hiya hannah,
      Good question. Yes and no is my answer. For some cancers yes we have made great progress and with others we’re sadly lacking. The biggest thing for treating cancer is detecting it early enough. Most cancers are easily treatable if you catch it early, but the problem is it can be really difficult to tell.

    • Photo: Amy Birch

      Amy Birch answered on 11 Jun 2012:

      Hey hannah1,
      I agree with Karen: there are so many different types of cancer it is hard to say whether we are nearly there for a cure for all of them, but there has definitely been a lot of progress in recent years with some cancers. There have been many important discoveries about what causes some types of cancers, which means that there may be many more effective treatments for them in the future.

    • Photo: Sarah Martin

      Sarah Martin answered on 11 Jun 2012:

      Hi Hannah! Karen and Amy have said what I think too – cancer is not a single disease, it just means that cells start dividing and continue without stopping. There are many different reasons for this, and many different cells, and genes, so we have to look at these one by one and find a solution for each. Maybe you’ll help out one day?

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