Would they withhold a cure for cancer?

[The Dark Knight]

By that I mean the secret forces hidden inside each and every country that controls the world behind the scenes. You have probably heard before the paranoid conspiracy that the cure for cancer and other diseases would never be allowed out into the public because there is too much money to be made on the disease than there is on the cure.





Benny

[Perry1977]

Hmm, I don't think so. You have to realize that many of the people researching a cure for a disease like cancer can largely be considered humanitarian in nature. I think once the secret was discovered, someone along the line would feel a moral obligation to let it be known to the rest of the world. Besides, look at the money that stands to me made off such a cure. The fame and bragging rights alone would be almost invaluable.

However, something like a super fuel efficient car I think would be another story. Technology like this could easily be withheld to allow the petroleum industry to continue making huge profits.

[The Dark Knight]

Originally posted by Perry1977
Hmm, I don't think so. You have to realize that many of the people researching a cure for a disease like cancer can largely be considered humanitarian in nature. I think once the secret was discovered, someone along the line would feel a moral obligation to let it be known to the rest of the world. Besides, look at the money that stands to me made off such a cure. The fame and bragging rights alone would be almost invaluable.

However, something like a super fuel efficient car I think would be another story. Technology like this could easily be withheld to allow the petroleum industry to continue making huge profits.

There's no money in the cure.

But there's tons of money in the treatment.

Trust me, Pharmacy is my job.

[Perry1977]

Please, don't you think that the patented cure for it wouldn't rake in all kinds of dough!? Imagine the people lined up to get taken care of! And it's not like people will stop getting cancer! There will always be people to cure. Plus, think of the donations that would be doled out to a company or institution that could actually make such a leap in medicine possible!

Way.

[shawny]

The problem I have with conspiracy theorys is that sooner or later someone would blow the whistle. I love how these huge conspiracies that would take thousands of people to be in on it can function. Somebody somewhere would drop the ball. JMO/

[Elway]

If there was a cure, someone would be out to make the money from it before anyone else did and corner the market... who wouldn't pay a fortune to be free of it?

They have vaccines for many diseases like Polio which was a major problem in its time, why should cancer be different one day.
There are many more illnesses out there that would still need to be researchd and cured, Multiple Sclerosis, Cerebal Palsy, and Alzheimers to name a few. Plenty of work to still be done.

[The Dark Knight]

Originally posted by Perry1977
Please, don't you think that the patented cure for it wouldn't rake in all kinds of dough!? Imagine the people lined up to get taken care of! And it's not like people will stop getting cancer! There will always be people to cure. Plus, think of the donations that would be doled out to a company or institution that could actually make such a leap in medicine possible!

Way.

Yes, just like the cure for polio still rakes in all kinds of dough.

That was sarcasm in case you didn't notice.
Pharmacuetically industries excell in researching and developing drugs that treat a condition not cure it. It's a trillion dollar industry that affects every aspect of health care. In the last 10 years, 30 different anti-depressants have been developed and yet depression continues to skyrocket. Why? Because drug reps tell the docs that all their patients need the new happy pill and they'll give them stock in the company to encourage them to use their drug. Ohh, and guess what? The new happy pill just so happens to cause all sorts of side effects so you may have to take something for that as well. This is not a conspiracy, this happens everyday at the place I work and in almost every hospital or healthcare institution in the U.S.

They're not gonna cure Aids either. Trust me, if GlaxoSmithKline spent the same amount of money on a cure as they did for researching and developing their anti-virals, they'd be a hell of alot closer then they are now. We are making progress though. We are closer to the point now where we can put an HIV positive patient on a drug regimen that will keep them alive for 35 years!

No conspiracy but also, no proper funding to cure these aliments. Plenty of money for marketing, advertising, drug reps and other bull**** though.

[Elway4King]

I firmly believe they are withholding a cure for cancer. Jim Garrison told me that in 1964 Clay Shaw met with Dean Andrews and discussed a way to cure Ruby's cancer so that Ruby could exonerate him. David Ferry was to be the errand boy. However, Dana Sculley being the skeptic she is did not believe Fox Mulder that this cure could spell certain doom for the aliens with all that black liquid in their eyes. During this argument Krychek and the Cigarette Smoking Man made bandit with the cure for cancer. Do to this mishap Clay Shaw threatened Ferry with no sex for a week so Ferry committed suicide after going goose hunting and having a one night stand with Perry Russo.

Once Krychek and The Cigarette Smoking Man got back to the Batcave they realized that this cure was just weed man! So they called over the Dude. The Dude abided. And the Cigarette Smoking Man is now the Doobie Smoking Man.

This, of course, all according to Jim Garrison.

Cody

[Jared]

Originally posted by The Dark Knight


They're not gonna cure Aids either.

For the record, they can't 'cure' AIDS, because it is viral in nature, not bacterial, therfore you cannot have a vaccine for it. You can't kill a protein. Its not really alive.

I don't understand the specifics, but I made the miskate of saying something about curing AIDS at a party with my wife's collegues (all doctors) and got lectured to boredom.

[shawny]

With a lot of cancers its kind of the same story. Cells reproduce, well sometimes when one reproduces it mutates. (cancer) You can make cells stop producing, actually they target fast producing cells and kill them. Too bad the lungs, heart, reproductive system, not to mention hair fall into this category. I do think that treatment drugs will get better, but There cannot be a cure for cancer.

[Elway4King]

Originally posted by shawny
With a lot of cancers its kind of the same story. Cells reproduce, well sometimes when one reproduces it mutates. (cancer) You can make cells stop producing, actually they target fast producing cells and kill them. Too bad the lungs, heart, reproductive system, not to mention hair fall into this category. I do think that treatment drugs will get better, but There cannot be a cure for cancer.

Maybe you're right. I do know what causes cancer though...


...LIVING!

Cody

[The Dark Knight]

Originally posted by Jared
For the record, they can't 'cure' AIDS, because it is viral in nature, not bacterial, therfore you cannot have a vaccine for it. You can't kill a protein. Its not really alive.

I don't understand the specifics, but I made the miskate of saying something about curing AIDS at a party with my wife's collegues (all doctors) and got lectured to boredom.

For the record.

I already know that.

It was just a figure of speech.

HOWEVER!!!

You can breakdown proteins with other proteins so if they do "cure AIDS", that will be the route they take.

[The Dark Knight]

Originally posted by shawny
With a lot of cancers its kind of the same story. Cells reproduce, well sometimes when one reproduces it mutates. (cancer) You can make cells stop producing, actually they target fast producing cells and kill them. Too bad the lungs, heart, reproductive system, not to mention hair fall into this category. I do think that treatment drugs will get better, but There cannot be a cure for cancer.

There are definate advances all the time. Some with seemingly the simplest solutions. I saw an article about how a university "cured cancer" in 200 lab rats using folic acid!!
Apparently, they used a yellow dye( harmless) mixed with the folic acid. Folic Acid binds to most cancer cells because it a main source of "food" for those cells, and the dye is seen by the immune system as a foriegn invader. So when this the folic acid/dye combo binds to the cells, the immune system sends out anti-bodies to attack it. Apparently it was effective as it cured all 200 rats of their various cancers. If the FDA allows this to go to human trials, the simple folic acid/dye concoction has the potential to "cure" 30% of the human variety cancers. It's not the be all- cure all but it is promising.

Also, I'd like to point out that we are still in the very infancy of medical science. More breakthroughs have been made in the last 100 years then in all of human history. If only we could spend some of these billions of dollars on research rather then caterer's from the drug reps. We might actually get somewhere. That's why all these universities make the breaktroughs and not companies like Pfizer. The companies don't care, they want to keep you on the drug.

all right, im on a rant again.
I'll stop now.

[Broncs Bomber]

Well, this will not answer any of your questions, but do you know how much money the makers of the solar panels are paid each year to keep them from mass-marketing them for home heating? They ought to be ashamed of themselves.

[pikman]

Please take no offence to this, but threads like this give further creadance to belief that the American public is quite paranoid.

I think you all have to worry more about gun toting doctors (see NOLA's thread) than crooked pharmacuetical companies holding back cures. Besides if the bio-pharm industry had the cures you can bet your a$$ they would be inventing more ailments as well.

JMO