We have all heard the theory that a cure for cancer has already been found but it is being concealed by the cancer community who stands to lose money if the status quo shifts from treatment to cure. Most of us have spent at least a few moments contemplating the validity of this allegation. Cancer is big business, and as is the case in all big business, decisions are often made with the bottom line of profit in mind. However, the Daily Record ran a feature about Sue McLaren, a young scientist who accepted a research position with the Leukemia Research Fund to study myeloma -- a blood cancer -- that might put into perspective why the conspiracy theory doesn't have legs.

At the time of her appointment to the job, McLaren admits she knew little about myeloma. A few months into researching this cancer, her father was diagnosed with myeloma. For McLaren, what was an academic pursuit became a personal one, as she raced to find a cure for the cancer that was now killing her father. Ultimately, time was not on her side, and her father lost his life to myeloma. It is a touching story, and you can read the feature It was too late to save her beloved father here. I think McLaren's story illustrates why a cure for cancer could not be concealed for long -- if there was one already in existence. The big business of cancer and the cancer community is made up of people, and people get cancer. Or their loved ones get cancer. You are not going to agree to be part of a conspiracy that shoves you into a position of watching someone you love die from a disease -- if there is a cure.