Why Is Cancer So Hard to Cure? They say that everyone knows someone that has suffered or is suffering from cancer. It’s everywhere, first-world countries are no exception. With the medical world’s history for curing diseases, why are tumors the things that seem to elude scientific control? Shouldn’t a cure have been found by now? To some extent, there is no such thing as a “cure” for cancer in the first place. The problem with curing it is that doctors are fighting a battle against DNA. Cancer isn’t so much a disease that infects the body as it is a mutation within it. Cancer comes from a mutation in the DNA.
The Root of Cancer Something somewhere caused a part of the normal DNA replication process to go awry. In some cases, the UV rays knock aside an important part of coding. In other cases, a chemical does the same thing. Any number of influences could mutate the cell’s DNA. DNA acts as the list of instructions that guide the cell to do what it’s supposed to. It’s what helps the kidneys to perform properly. It’s what makes the cell become what it’s supposed to be. A cell’s DNA changes for some reason and the cell no longer performs its proper function. Instead of helping the body out, it starts to do its own thing. In the case of one bad cell, nothing happens. One cell can’t do much to harm the entire body on its own. The danger comes when that cell replicates itself again and again. It creates its own community of bad cells that begin to interfere with the body’s basic functioning. Your body works in such a way that it can’t survive without most of the organs working properly.
Cancer starts inside your body, and replicates itself until it becomes a problem. Treatments work to isolate those cells and destroy them.
Constant Vigilance They only remove the threat for a time, but recovering patients are advised to continually be on the lookout for it to return. It can come back as either the same growth, or a different kind of cancer elsewhere in the body. Recovered patients tend to be more susceptible for a relapse than a healthy person is to get it. The mutation already exists within the body and it’s impossible to check if every cell was destroyed. In this fight against DNA, you can only remove it for a time and hope it doesn’t come back. Researchers are working furiously around the world to isolate some identifying factor about all cancer cells that can be targeted. If they can find a special characteristic to target, they can begin looking for a medicine that will kill it. Until then though, cancer survivors keep checking for new tumors growing throughout the body. Such intensive treatment and testing can get expensive. Many have good cancer insurance to help them pay for the costs. Many health insurance plans help them get through the high cost of cancer treatments, but many have their limit. Cancer insurance helps cover those added expenses as treatments and check-ups continue. Photo Credit: ynse, Umberto Salvagnin, ep_jhu