Cancer fight stalls amid push for profits, doctors say

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/oct/28/targeted-cancer-drugs-expectations-experts


Drugs such as tamoxifen, discovered decades ago, provided genuine breakthroughs in cancer care unlike the latest generation of medicines, experts said. Photograph: Paul Beard Photo Agency/Alamy

Progress against cancer is stalling, with the latest targeted cancer drugs failing to live up to expectations and priced so high that treatment is becoming unaffordable even in rich countries, according to experts at a meeting of nearly 100 eminent cancer specialists from around the world.

At the two-day meeting in Lugano, Switzerland, the doctors agreed a 10-point declaration, to be published early next year, which will chart the way forward for cancer care around the globe. Much needs to be done, they believe, to improve treatment, care and prevention both in the developed world and in poor countries, where cancer rates are rising even faster. They agreed to embark on an ambitious plan to get essential cancer care to those who are dying early in developing countries, in the same way that Aids doctors took on the fight to get HIV treatment into hard-hit Africa.

The meeting of the World Oncology Forum, organised by the European School of Oncology and attended by experts such as epidemiologists Sir Richard Peto and Prof Michel Coleman as well as the government's national cancer director, Sir Mike Richards, agreed urgent action was needed on many fronts.

Only a few years ago, many cancer experts thought the arrival of targeted medicines, designed to attack the genetic makeup of the tumour, would make dramatic inroads into cancer deaths. That has not happened. Instead, these therapies have only bought a few extra months of life. If the question was whether the world was winning the war on cancer, said Douglas Hanahan of the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research, who outlined the latest state of drug research, "in general, for most forms of human cancer, the answer is clearly no".

[djean111]

1. It is more profitable to manage cancer than to cure it.

Same with diabetes. And many other illnesses.
And I have seen a few researchers interviewed who gave me the distinct impression that the real fun and real money is in continuous research, not in actually fixing or solving anything.

[nelson554]

2. Re:Cancer

Last edited Wed Nov 28, 2012, 08:51 AM - Edit history (1)

This disease is growth in all over the world day by day and we should avoid the smoking, baksheesh,drugs,spices food, etc because these are increase many disease.

http://kudoshealthclub.com.au/