The Catch-22 of Oncology
"The growing cancer epidemic is not a problem that medical science is about to solve. In fact, it is a problem we are about to make worse. the main reason for our shortcoming is much simpler: Cancer is closely linked to the very process of aging. The longer we live, the more cancer there will be. Every time we cure a person of cancer, we produce a person with an increased probability of getting cancer again. It is the Catch-22 of oncology.
We should be mindful that although cancer research is producing astonishing science, many more lives can be saved by doing the boring stuff, like getting people to stop smoking, eat healthfully, exercise and put on sunscreen.
See full Op-Ed piece from the NY Times by Jarle Breivik.