Download Deng Mony Instructor: Dr. J. Graig Karren Biology 1090 10

Deng Mony
Instructor: Dr. J. Graig Karren
Biology 1090
10- 30 2013
Are We Winning the War on Cancer?
No: War on cancer still a big challenge in America society. We are not winning the war
on cancer at this time. Today there are a huge numbers of cancer causes; more than 130,000
new causes are diagnoses annually, while the disease killed 56,000 lives a year in the United
States. Among them are the rich and famous, like Charles Schulz, creator of the peanuts comic
strip, farmer Israeli minister Moshe Dayan, Jackie Gleason and Audery Hepburn, as well as the
poor unknown like Stanley Lada. And there’s the catch. Most fatal cases are not discovered
early, [56,000 a year Die from Colon Cancer]. Today scientist are still researching drug that can
be cure or treatment to the cancers. “Researchers continue to hunt for more effective drugs to
combat the disease and improve survival. Sometimes that search leads in exotic directions”,
[Monczunski]. “Whether this particular protein is a cause of cancer—which I don’t think it is- -or
whether it is a consequence is almost immaterial,” Prorok says. “The fact that it is so strongly
linked to the disease makes it an excellent candidate for a screening test.” But staining a mouse
tissue sample 100 percent of the time for cancer is one thing, serving as an accurate screening
test in a person is quite another. When it moves to the human realm, cathepsin E proves to be
“Promising” but not quite as phenomenally predictive as with mice. In human tumor samples
the protein pops up about 50% of the time. The ND researchers aren’t sure exactly why the
disparity, but prorok points out, “All of our mice get the same cancer in the same way; they all
have the same genetic defect. In humans there may be genetic reasons, environmental triggers,
and all sorts of unknown things that could cause cancer”.
The cancer be a tough one to beat, because is impossible to get a cure the ending up the
disease. People who have been treated are expecting to get another or second cancer in future.
“The radiation treatment that lee got the first time around probably led to her second cancer”,
[FitzGenrald]. One of medicine biggest success stories has been the conquering of many
childhood cancers. More than 250,000 children, teens and adults in the United States have
survived cancer, and today 75% 0f children can expect to beat their disease, up from 25 percent
30 years ago. But now some survivors are beginning to see the delayed effects of the
treatments that cured them. Because chemotherapy drugs and radiation target rapidly dividing
cells, the treatments can have a particularly harsh effect on growing bodies. The damage can
lead to second cancers, heat and kidney abnormalities, stunted or asymmetrical growth,
infertility, and the diminishing of IQ, [Children Surviving Cancer—Only to Face It Again]. Joseph
Neglia, a pediatric oncologist and epidemiologist at the university of Minnesota cancer center,
an investigator for the childhood-cancer-survivor study, said the results indicate 3 percent of
childhood-cancer survivors develop a second cancer within 20 years.
Chemotherapy drugs are poisons that are indiscriminate killer of cells, both healthy and
malignant. The strategy is quite literally to kill the cancer without killing patient. Dr. John Cairns
of Harvard found that chemotherapy was able to save the lives of just 2 to 3 percent of cancer
patients mostly those with the rarest kinds of disease. By medicine’s own standards, at best
chemotherapy is unproved against 90 percent of adult’s solid tumors, the huge majority of
common cancers resulting in death, [Ausubel]. In the United States, cancer is becoming a big
business, a whopping 10 percent of the national health care bill. The typical cancer patient
spends upward of $100,000 on treatment. More people work in field die from the disease each
year. According to Dr. Samuel Epstein, a professor of environmental and occupational medicine
at the university of Illinois in Chicago, “For decades, the war on cancer has been dominated by
powerful groups of interlocking professional and financial interests, with the highly profitable
drug development system at its hub”[ When Health Becomes a Crime]. We are not winning the
war on cancer yet, because people still struggling with diseases, paying higher bills and huge
number death every year in the United States.
Works Citation
Ausubel, Kenny. "When Healing Becomes a Crime." Tikkun. May/June 2001: 3338.SIRSIssuesResearcher. Web. 31 Oct 2013.
FitzGerald, Susan. "Children Surviving Cancer--Only to Face It Again." Philadelphia
Inquirer (Philadelphia, PA). 01 Jul 2001: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 31 Oct 2013.
Monczunski, John. "56,000 a Year Die from Colon Cancer." Notre Dame Magazine Vol.
35, No. 2. Summer 2006: 36-39. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 31 Oct 2013.