Will cancer ever be cured? (2024)

FAQs

Will cancer ever be cured? ›

Cancer is a group of diseases that we may never be able to cure completely, but scientists are optimistic that vaccines, personalised medicine and smart lifestyle choices will help prevent and treat a much greater proportion of cases than currently happens.

While cancer can't be cured, that's not how oncologists and cancer experts think about a successful treatment. They refer to it as complete remission, allowing for the fact that cancers can recur.

The global burden of cancer is continuing to grow, and there is currently no cure for any type of cancer. Researchers predict more than 35 million new cancer cases by 2050, marking a 77% increase from 2022.

Leaders at City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States, forecast that in 2024 more people will benefit from cancer breakthroughs, including research that unlocks the biology behind cancer disparities, wider access to CAR T cell therapy and rapid whole genome ...

But a doctor can never be 100% certain that cancer won't return. According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) , some doctors may say you're cured if you're in complete remission for 5 years or more. For most cancers, recurrences are most likely in the first 5 years. But cancer can return many years later.

The reality is probably a combination of these two models. This makes it hard to estimate how our risk of cancer will increase as we age. But statistically speaking, if we live long enough, we'll probably all get cancer.

Every cancer is caused by a different set of mutations and as the tumour grows, more and more mutations accumulate. This means that every tumour has an individual set of mutations, so a drug that works for one cancer patient, might have absolutely no effect on another.

Eating lots of processed foods, not getting enough exercise, and drinking too much alcohol are all risk factors for cancer, and all of those issues are widespread in modern life.

The risk of death from cancer dropped by about 2% a year from 2015 through 2019 compared to 1% a year during the 1990s. Accelerating declines in the cancer death rate show the power of prevention, screening, early diagnosis, treatment, and our overall potential to move closer to a world without cancer.

Published in a new study, the research shows that a protein known to stop tumours called RBM10 can slow down the growth of lung cancer. It does this by hindering another protein called c-Myc, which usually makes cancer cells proliferate.

Will terminal cancer ever be cured? ›

Terminal cancer refers to cancer that is not curable and eventually results in death. Some may refer to it as end stage cancer. If a doctor determines that cancer is terminal, this usually means that the cancer is so advanced that treatment options focus on controlling rather than curing the cancer.

If you remain in complete remission for 5 years or more, some doctors may say that you are cured. Still, some cancer cells can remain in your body for many years after treatment. These cells may cause the cancer to come back one day. For cancers that return, most do so within the first 5 years after treatment.

However, some advanced cancers can be controlled for many years with treatment and, in some cases, cured. Those that cannot be controlled with treatment are often called end-stage cancer or terminal cancer. Advanced cancer may also be used to describe cancers that have spread to nearby tissues or elsewhere in the body.

For that reason, it is unlikely that cancer could ever be eradicated.

There's currently no definite cure for cancer. Even if a person has achieved complete remission, it's still possible for their cancer to return sometime in the future. Nevertheless, researchers continue to work hard to develop newer, more effective cancer treatments.

Treatment. There are no cures for any kinds of cancer, but there are treatments that may cure you. Many people are treated for cancer, live out the rest of their life, and die of other causes. Many others are treated for cancer and still die from it, although treatment may give them more time: even years or decades.

These days, doctors are able to cure many cancers. But some cancers can come back many years after treatment. So you may find that your doctor is very unwilling to use the word 'cure'. This is so even though there is no sign that you have any cancer left.

Stage IV lung cancer survivor: Targeted therapy and surgery left me cancer-free. As a retired firefighter and combat veteran, I've been in some pretty tough situations. But the hardest thing I've ever done was sit my four children down and tell them I had stage IV lung cancer.