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Nobel Laureate predicts cure for cancer in 5-10 years

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Posted 6/8/2014 4:03 PM (GMT 0)
This will happen, according to Nobel Prize winner James Watson, pioneer in DNA studies, in the article below.

Actually, since the article dates from 2011, maybe it could therefore happen in 2-7 years, if he's right?

Of course predictions are great, but often don't work out. I only post this one because this guy is a Nobel Prize winner, so maybe that gives him a little more credibility in the prediction department. Sure hope he's right.

This article is especially interesting to us because he talks about his own case of prostate cancer which was active when he made this prediction.

www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2011/05/cure_for_cancer_possible_in_5.html

(BTW, Watson is still alive as of this posting, age 86. Following his breakthrough work in DNA, he has over the years been active in the Human Genome Project and has published on the role of oxidants in cancer formation. PCa sure didn't slow him down any, that's for sure!)
Posted 6/8/2014 5:17 PM (GMT 0)
I'm not a Nobel laureate or a scientist, but find that prediction hard to believe. If nothing else, I can think of several reasons why some highly influential and powerful organizations would frown upon a cure.
Posted 6/9/2014 7:05 PM (GMT 0)
I believe the drug industry doesn't want to cure cancer. There is more money in keeping us sick. I also believe and have read that there has been cancer cures that have been suppressed by rubbing money on it from drug companies.

If you listen to conspiracy theories, the Government wants to thin the population. Not saying I believe it but a lot of people do.
Posted 6/9/2014 8:58 PM (GMT 0)
Watson says (in the article): "The standard message about curing cancer is that it will happen in 10 to 20 years, he said. He thinks it could happen sooner, but a greater sense of urgency is needed."

I'd say we definitely need a huge shift in the sense of urgency...we've still got doctors who are "rushing" low risk PC patients into expensive aggressive treatment. There was one surgeon who specialized, for example, he used to be the head PC guy at Mt Sinai in NYC (until they pushed him out the door) who made $7.5 million salary in his last full year there. If we've got the highest paid guy there focusing on treating men who probably don't need treating at all, then we are not focusing our resources in the right area. As the saying goes, "It's difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it."
http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=4132#.U3pR8V6rak1
Posted 6/9/2014 9:33 PM (GMT 0)
NKinney, it's even more difficult when you get your facts wrong.

That guy didn't get pushed out. The kidney surgeon who botched the kidney operation got demoted. This is published and available for you to query online. "That" guy refused to do simultaneous surgeries to make his hospital more profitable so he moved on and got a promotion somewhere else. It's a known fact that some guys in major centers have large teams and perform simultaneous operations. You could argue they do so well. Some guys don't do that because they like having their hands on the entire process. It's easy to find out who does what.

And it's pretty far out to think that these guys have the power to delay a cure. I'm afraid the billions of dollars in profit go elsewhere. Following the money trail isn't hard to do.
Posted 6/9/2014 10:34 PM (GMT 0)
I find that very over optimistic. Each particular cancer isn't just one cancer, but can be one of many particular cancer that have a slight different DNA mutation, either additive, subtractive or substitution of a exon. And each might require a different targeted therapy for a potential cure.
Posted 6/10/2014 2:44 AM (GMT 0)
I think a look back in history is valuable here. The first radical prostatectomy was in 1904 at Johns Hopkins. Yet, here we are, 110 years later and seemingly no closer to a cure in the true sense of the word. As an aging cynic I think that revenue streams and profit motives are the key drivers which, to me, mean treatments not cures. There is little money to be made in cures. I do think, however, that prostate cancer will be cured eventually but probably not for another century or two. There is just way too much money to be made in treatments.
Posted 6/10/2014 2:59 AM (GMT 0)
I wish he was right but I believe he is grossly overly optimistic. For cancer to be cured in that time frame we would likely have to be in an extremely promising testing stage right now. Sadly I think he's out by at least 30 years. I hope I'm wrong.
Posted 6/11/2014 1:43 AM (GMT 0)
I tend to agree with the good Dr.Watson that there will be dramatic improvements in cancer treatment and cures within my lifetime, assuming I live to age 80.
Posted 6/11/2014 3:16 AM (GMT 0)
I'd like to think this is true. But then again I'd like to think the Cubs will win the world series within five years. Either or both would be the best news ever. But I'm not betting on either.
Posted 6/11/2014 3:34 AM (GMT 0)
The keys, I think, are the leaps-and-bounds advances in genetics and computer modeling.
Posted 6/11/2014 3:46 AM (GMT 0)
i have no idea how long i have left but it would be nice to think PCa could be cured by then. Sadly I cannot see it happening in time for me, maybe if I had got this in my sixties rather than forties.

I can only hope.
Posted 6/11/2014 7:28 PM (GMT 0)
The hospital where I have been treated in Amsterdam is linked to the Dutch National Cancer Institute. The director of the Institute (Rene Medema) was talking recently something along the lines that "most cancers will be a chronic illness rather than a fatal one within 25 years".
They are working on things like identifying the genetic information about exactly which variety of each type of cancer a patient has and on targetted drugs, especially combinations of drugs that are effective when used together but not effective when used on their own.

See:
Press release from 2013
www.absolutely.nl/news_archive/Press_Release_Antoni_van_Leeuwenhoek.html

This
www.research-europe.com/index.php/2013/06/professor-dr-rene-medema-scientific-director-netherlands-cancer-institute/

And this:
www.nki.nl/topmenu/welcome/

I think his concept that 90% of cancers will be treatable within 20 years is probably a more attainable goal.

Alf
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