Cure for Cancer

My reply to:

https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-cure-for-cancer-so-elusive/answer/Siddhartha-Lal

Siddharth, well written indeed and deeply researched.

I have a more cynical take on this.

Why talk of a cure for cancer when we cannot treat diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, schizophrenia, dengue, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis etc? The ‘common’ cold still defies us – the three to four miserable days of sniffling, alternate runny and blocked nose, malaise, lack of sympathy knocks most of us out at least twice a year. Flu pandemics have wiped out large sections of the populace.

However, cancer connotes a fearsome disease and thus a cure for it has to be found.

We have managed to eradicate small pox and could have claimed equal success with polio but for a few recalcitrant and regressive nations. However, falciparum malaria has developed resistance to various anti-malarials as has tuberculosis against antibiotics. This scenario is due to an administrative or Public Health failure to implement proper protocols of prescribing by health-care professionals.

Remarkable progress has been made in surgery and orthopaedics. However, for most diseases, all that we can offer are some drugs to control the disease or alleviate some distressing symptoms – a radical cure is not possible even in the foreseeable future. Moreover, most treatments have adverse effects and, as in the case of cancer, the side-effects of the treatment (be it radio- or chemo-therapy) are worse than the disease itself.

To cure a disease, we have to know the cause of the malady. Malaria is caused by Plasmodium vivax – protozoon that is transmitted by the bite of a female Anopheles mosquito. It can be treated by taking a suitable course of chloroquine.

Just as we do not know what is the first step in the cascade of events that leads to the development of high blood pressure, similarly we do not know what was the precise cause that led a cell to mutate and start proliferating uncontrollably.

Was it a photon of UV light that turned a skin cell melanomatous? Was it ionizing radiation, industrial pollution, a pesticide molecule, some chemical from cigarette smoke? Was it “karma”, mental or spiritual stress? Was it an imbalance of वायु-पित्त-कफ़ (for Indians) or yin-yang (for Chinese)? Was it a lifestyle induced (obesity, sedentary habits) or due to poor oral or genital hygiene? Finally, how do we explain cancers in infants?

The human papilloma virus has been implicated in cervical cancer so a vaccine has been developed to prevent this cancer. Would it not be simpler just to have safer sexual practices?

A human is not just a conglomeration of cells or organs. There are billions of minuscule critters dwelling on our skin and coating our intestines, genitalia, nose and lungs. These range from fungi, mites, lice, round worms, amoebae, bacteria and viruses. Like all living things they ingest, excrete, respire (both aerobically as well as anaerobically), multiply (thankfully most do not copulate or we all would be quivering masses of orgasms). So, to put it flippantly, in essence, we are also made up of bacterial poop, pee and farts. This ‘biome’ makes each of us a unique individual – each reacting to our environment in a unique manner.

At  http://hmpdacc.org/ metagenomics (which provides a broad genetic perspective on a single microbial community), as well as extensive whole genome sequencing (which provides a "deep" genetic perspective on certain aspects of a given microbial community, i.e. of individual bacterial species) should provide some answers for the cause and cure of some intractable diseases.

We have not even touched upon the roles of the psyche, spirit, आत्मा in the genesis and cure of diseases.

So have I obfuscated the issue adequately?