Cancer as a bug in bio-software

[Nik]

According to World Health Organization, cancer is a second leading cause of death globally: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sh...

All of a sudden cells begin to divide unstoppably and spread into other tissues: https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/u... - like a malfunction in bio-programming.
Do you expect the ultimate cure to be found/patch released?
And how big is cancer phobia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_... ?

[Graeme]

It seems reasonable that a genetic fix could cure cancer.

What that fix is - is the key question.

I would expect that genetic engineering of the skill required to 'fix,' cancer would also provide a host of other opportunities for good and evil.

[Leonie]

The big thing with 'cancer' is that it isn't just one disease. Everyone talks about a 'cure for cancer' but if you consider that there are disparate causes and disparate treatments for those different types of cancer.

[Nik]

Leonie wrote: "The big thing with 'cancer' is that it isn't just one disease. Everyone talks about a 'cure for cancer' but if you consider that there are disparate causes and disparate treatments for those differ..."

That is true, yet they are grouped together for a common denominator of similar behavior, so possibly there could be one solution for a few of them

[Scout]

I read that "In all types of cancer, some of the body’s cells begin to divide without stopping and spread into surrounding tissues." If a way were found to stop this uncontrolled division, wouldn't that be a "cure for cancer?" I have little medical knowledge, so maybe this makes sense logically but not medically?

[Ian]

From what I understand, cancer arises from DNA fragmenting or rearranging, and where the body can usually clean these up, for some reason it fails and the new cells divide rapidly and try to spread themselves (after all, DNA's main job is to reproduce). So the cause is sort of common, but where the DNA starts varying can vary wildly, what causes the variation can vary wildly, and once it gets going, each cancer is almost an individual life form because the DNA variation could have occurred anywhere along a truly gigantic polymer.

Scout, the problem with stopping the cell division is that you need cell division to live. The nearest possibility would be to somehow activate the body's defences that get rid of "not me" cells to get rid of the cancer; the problem is the cancer cells are usually sufficiently like "me" cells.

It is not a new disease. Apparently dinosaur bones have been found that had bone cancer.

[Scout]

Thanks for the explanation. Not very encouraging, though.

[Leonie]

Ian wrote: "From what I understand, cancer arises from DNA fragmenting or rearranging, and where the body can usually clean these up, for some reason it fails and the new cells divide rapidly and try to spread..."

Yes ^^ mostly what Ian said.

Some cancers are now treated with immunotherapy, where the body's own immune system helps get rid of them. Melanoma is one. It's very recent, but for some people, has saved their life or at least given them more time.