• Question: will there ever be a cure for cancer?

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      Asked by 758newg42 to Brian, Matthew on 11 Nov 2016. This question was also asked by 938newg42.
      • Photo: Matthew Kitching

        Matthew Kitching answered on 11 Nov 2016:


        Hi 938newg42 and 758newg42!

        We tend to think of cancer as one disease – but actually its hundreds of diseases!

        Cancer happens when cells become immortal! thats right – they can live forever (if they are kept in the right conditions).

        Hang on matt, i hear you say! but why does it kill us? Its quite complicated but we can look at a simple example. Normal healthy cells are programmed to eventually die – this keeps organs in the body in tip top shape (like replacing the tyres on your bike, they get worn out and need to be replaced). The information that tells cells to die (a process called apoptosis) is kept in the DNA.

        As you can imaging, this is a complicated process and it can go wrong in a lot of different ways. Each different way can be a different type of cancer – so it can be really hard to treat!

        Cancer cells normally divide really quickly (because the control mechanisms that stop them dividing are broken) so a lot of the drugs we use to treat cancer specifically target fast dividing cells.

        In the future, we will probably develop a different treatment for every different type of mistake in the DNA – so that treatment will be specific to the type of cancer, meaning we’ll have hundreds of different treatments – each unique to the type of cancer found.

        Hope that answers your question, let me know if you want to know more 🙂

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