{"id":999,"date":"2014-01-24T05:00:58","date_gmt":"2014-01-24T10:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/issels.com\/blog\/?p=999"},"modified":"2015-02-06T13:29:45","modified_gmt":"2015-02-06T18:29:45","slug":"is-cancer-inevitable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/issels.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/24\/is-cancer-inevitable\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Cancer Inevitable?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Future
Future Cancer Prevention Techniques<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That cancer risk increases with age is a statistical truth. But does this mean that cancer is inevitable, as George Johnson recently suggested in the New York Times<\/i><\/a>? In an article that has generated a fair amount of debate, the author of The Cancer Chronicles<\/i> implies that cancer might be a necessary part of a larger plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rhetoric about the war on cancer implies that with enough money and determination, science might reduce cancer mortality as dramatically as it has with other leading killers \u2013 one more notch in medicine\u2019s belt. But what, then, would we die from?\u201d<\/p>\n

Like many others, Johnson seems to believe that the simple act of living longer gives cancer cells more time to develop. The very nature of cell replication opens the door to cancer in what Johnson calls \u201cthe result of a basic evolutionary compromise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the body lives and grows, its cells are constantly dividing, copying their DNA. … They in turn pass it to their own progeny: copies of copies of copies. Along the way, errors inevitably occur.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the body fails to repair these genetic \u201cglitches,\u201d cancer cells can develop. \u201cAs people age their cells amass more potentially cancerous mutations,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cGiven a long enough life, cancer will eventually kill you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson does recognize that progress against cancer is being made. \u201cNew immune system therapies<\/a> that bolster the body\u2019s own defenses have shown … promise,\u201d he notes, also mentioning the potential of targeted genetic therapy<\/a> and nano robots<\/a> to advance the cancer fight to the next level. But at the end, even if we can extend our lives into a second century, Johnson believes, \u201cwaiting at the end will be cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next time: A different view: Hope IS warranted<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That cancer risk increases with age is a statistical truth. But does this mean that cancer is inevitable, as George Johnson recently suggested in the New York Times? In an article that has generated a fair amount of debate, the author of The Cancer Chronicles implies that cancer might be a necessary part of a … Continue reading Is Cancer Inevitable?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[202,203],"tags":[228,292],"class_list":["post-999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alternative-cancer-treatment","category-cancer-research","tag-cancer-cell-growth","tag-genetics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/issels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/issels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/issels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/issels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/issels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=999"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/issels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1612,"href":"https:\/\/issels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999\/revisions\/1612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/issels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/issels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/issels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}