Question: Do we have a cure for caner?

Jayne Ede answered on 6 Nov 2017:

This is a brilliant question. Cancer isn’t like a virus (like a cold) or a bacteria (like getting an infection in a cut), it describes a process of cells randomly mutating. This is what makes it really difficult to treat, and treatment is different for each type of cancer. Some cancers are much worse than others, too.

When your DNA replicates incorrectly, it causes cells to mutate and often grow in places they shouldn’t at a really fast speed. That can mess up all the body’s normal processes, like fighting illness, resulting in death.

We can get a handle on some cancers by destroying the cancerous cells, using radioactive pellets for example (eg. prostate cancer), or removal using surgery (eg. breast cancer). Sometimes a combination. Once the cancer is gone, that person still has to go back for check ups because the cells could start to replicate in the wrong way again at any time.

I actually turned round to ask my mate this in the office, he used to work for Cancer Research UK! He basically gave me a lecture on it just now, it’s fascinating!