One of the great strengths of this book is Dr. Mukherjee’s willingness to detail the theories and politics and failures and frustrations that have accompanied this War. After many years of emphasis on possible treatments for various cancers, it is only in the last years of the 20th century and these first years of the 21st century that the researchers realized they needed to go back to the very nature and core of what cancer really is, in order to understand and possibly manage or cure it.
New understandings of the nature of cancer have identified the roles of several specific genes on the chromosomes in a cancer cell (referred to in this book as an “oncogene”). The Human Genome Project, which uncovered the full sequence of the normal human genome, was completed eight years ago. At this point, there are teams of researchers all over the world who are working on what is called “The Cancer Genome Atlas.” So far, the list of cancers being sequenced includes brain, lung, pancreatic, and ovarian cancer. By comparing the normal human genome with cancer’s abnormal genome, researchers hope to be able to compare and contrast fully their differences, the better to understand the mutations in each type of tumor.
Allow me, if you will, to let Dr. Mukherjee speak for himself:
… "Is the end of cancer conceivable in the future? Is it possible to eradicate this disease from our bodies and our societies forever?"
"The answers to these questions are embedded in the biology of this incredible disease. Cancer, we have discovered, is stitched into our genome. Oncogenes arise from mutations in essential genes that regulate the growth of cells. Mutations accumulate in these genes when DNA is damaged by carcinogens, but also by seemingly random errors in copying genes when cells divide. The former might be preventable, but the latter is endogenous. Cancer is a flaw in our growth, but this flaw is deeply entrenched in ourselves. We can rid ourselves of cancer, then, only as much as we can rid ourselves of the processes in our physiology that depend on growth — aging, regeneration, healing, reproduction."
" … Conceptually, the battle against cancer pushes the idea of technology to its far edge, for the object being intervened upon is our [own] genome. It is unclear whether an intervention that discriminates between malignant and normal growth is even possible. Perhaps cancer, the scrappy, fecund, invasive, adaptable twin to our own scrappy, fecund, invasive, adaptable cells and genes, is impossible to disconnect from our bodies."
As grim as the above sounds, the doctor goes on to note that perhaps at this point, our goals could be more modest. If we can learn only enough to keep deaths from cancer at bay until the body itself reaches old age and is ready to die, he remarks that "this would represent a technological victory unlike any other in our history."
This is, most certainly, something of a letdown to those who believed wholeheartedly that The War on Cancer could be flat-out won in our time, but as the doctor notes, who knows what discoveries and procedures lie in the future? There is much to be said for simply holding on and making progress as we can. A hundred years down the road, the treatment or cure of cancer will probably not closely resemble today’s efforts, just as ours have little in common with those of a hundred years ago.
As long as there are doctors and researchers who are as thorough and articulate as Dr. Mukherjee, there is reason to hope. And if any one of them is also a terrific writer, our great grandchildren will be fortunate indeed.
— ©2011 Julia Sneden for SeniorWomen.com
Illustration of a normal cell becoming a cancer cell is by Jane Hurd (artist) for the National Cancer Institute
Pages: 1 · 2
More Articles
- National Archives Records Lay Foundation for Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
- Nichola D. Gutgold - The Most Private Roosevelt Makes a Significant Public Contribution: Ethel Carow Roosevelt Derby
- National Institutes of Health: Common Misconceptions About Vitamins and Minerals
- Oppenheimer: July 28 UC Berkeley Panel Discussion Focuses On The Man Behind The Movie
- A Yale Medicine Doctor Explains How Naloxone, a Medication That Reverses an Opioid Overdose, Works
- "Henry Ford Innovation Nation", a Favorite Television Show
- Kaiser Health News Research Roundup: Pan-Coronavirus Vaccine; Long Covid; Supplemental Vitamin D; Cell Movement
- Julia Sneden Wrote: Going Forth On the Fourth After Strict Blackout Conditions and Requisitioned Gunpowder Had Been the Law
- How They Did It: Tampa Bay Times Reporters Expose High Airborne Lead Levels at Florida Recycling Factory
- Reconstructing the Chromosomes of the Earliest Animals on Earth; In Marine Invertebrates Chromosomes Have Remained Largely the Way They Were In the Earliest Common Ancestor of All Animals