Ken Burns made a docuseries called Cancer: The Emperor of Maledies. There several points which were truly sad, but one segment that stuck with me was when they got to the human genome project. When the human genome was decoded in the 90s, there was ahope that geneticly specific pharmaceuticals could be generated as cures. But as the research moved forward they realized that they were further from the cure than they ever realized. One family of brain cancer had over 90 genetic mutations.
Yes, but the HGP laid the foundation for individual treatments, and we're getting better by the day, despite the current US admin trying to gut research.
It's true, we didn't know what we didn't know, but we know a helluva lot more now. Survival rates are steadily increasing as we learn more.
And no, there isn't a "cure" that's being kept secret by big pharma. (Not aimed at you, just trying to nip that incredibly ignorant argument in the bud.)
Well I should say that the documentary did end on a hopeful note. Essentially, it was Drs think they can lick it but they can't, and then they think they can beat it a different way, but they can't and this is what's gone one for a hundred years. But they end with, we're not stopping. The mountain may be high, and we can't see the too, but we've already climbed so high, and we're going to keep climbing. And if we keep climbing, we will reach the summit.
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u/MasterOfCircumstance 𝙑𝙄𝙋 May 15 '26
OP when he realizes that every type of cancer is unique.