The New Zealand Herald has quoted Nobel Laureate and principal scientist at Cancer Research UK Sir Tim Hunt as predicting that while targeted cancer drugs will continue to be developed, it is not likely that a penicillin-type wonder drug to cure cancer will be found. Basically, he explains that cancer cells work the same as normal cells do, but to eliminate cancer cells would mean wiping out normal cells in the process. At least, that is my understanding of what he said. Here is the exact quote, in case I am missing something vital in the translation: "Basically cancer cells grow using all the same mechanisms that normal cells in the body use. So you could stop the cancer cell growing by standing the right distance from an atom bomb, but then all your other cells also stop growing at the same time." To me, that almost sounds like the standard chemotherapy we go through now.
I am not a Nobel Prize-winning scientist, and I respect the intelligence and training of any scientist who has achieved that honored status, but I do not know that I completely agree with his prediction. I don't know that there will be one specific wonder drug like penicillin, that you take and the cancer is gone, but I do think the advancements made in targeted therapies will one day make it seem as if there is a wonder drug. Cancer is over one hundred different diseases. It might simply be a matter of diagnosing the specific cancer, and then administering a specific targeted drug for that cancer. I realize this is a ways off, but I am hopeful for the future of cancer treatments.
Then again, who knows what scientists will stumble upon in their studies. Could there be a penicillin out there for cancer? Might be. I don't think we can rule out any potential possibility. That's my opinion. What say you?
