Do you buy a "Cancer Conspiracy?"

jason.2835
jason.2835 Member Posts: 337 Member
in Kidney Cancer #1

Hey, all,

Sorry for the long post, but I think it'll be worth reading and discussing:

I had some thoughts that I'd like to share with you all.  Some of you who belong to some of the Facebook forums may have already seen a video of a woman with metastatic breast cancer holding up cards.  At the end, she proclaims that Big Pharma is propagating a "cancer conspiracy" to hold down the true cure for cancer.  Always the skeptic, but also curious, I decided to do some research on my own.  

Obviously, everything you find on the internet needs to be taken with a grain, nay, a TON of salt.  Anyone can say pretty much anything and make a pretty convincing and professional-looking "documentary" these days.  However, I did come across a few videos and articles that seem to show a fair amount of bullying and professional "suicide" is happening in the medical community.  Galileo was ostracized becuase he believed that the Earth revolved AROUND the Sun, and the Catholic Church wa quick to trot many "scientists" out to discredit him.  Could the same thing be happening in the cancer research community?  I've read that a lot of the "alternative" medicines like cleanses and natural remedies lack proper scientific method.  If anyone has experience with any of these treatments, I'd love to hear from you.  

Let's be real for a second, though.  We carry around smartphones that are a million times more powerful than the computer that went to the Moon in 1969.  We've seen scientific breakthroughs in physics, chemistry, astronomy... but our treatment of cancer has remained largely unchanged for over 100 years.  MOST cancer patients are given two choices: getting stuff cut out of us or getting poison dumped and/or shot into us.  Surgery, chemotherapy, radiation.  Yes, there are new targeted and immune therapies slowly becoming available, but many of them only work for specific cancers.

I've met and been treated by a lot of doctors.  I'm sure that you have, too.  My questions are not an attempt to attack them.  But one does have question why the field of cancer research moves so slowly when most other scientific fields seem to grow in leaps and bounds.  Personally, I just think cancer is that tricky.  It's not a virus that can be destroyed by immuno-boosters.  It's not a bacterial infection.  It is our own body attacking us.  Over the years, the US government even employed the approach of "throw money at it until we figure it out."  But even that didn't work.  

Is the "conspiracy" in our own bodies?  Or do you think there is something to Big Pharma trying to keep a several trillion-dollar industry to itself?

- Jay   

Comments

  • Billy's Wife
    Billy's Wife Member Posts: 52
    #2
    Being Realistic

    OHHH Jason,

    I wish this wasn't even a topic of conversation--but it MUST be.  That was the driving force behnd my poem"My Wish".  My husband went to India for a clinical trial because he didn't believe that main stream American medicine had his best interests at heart.  In 1988 when my mothers breast cancer metastasized she said "Where is the money for breast cancer"---They have made progress in those almost 30 years--BUT NO CURE!! Then when my husband was diagnosed with RCC in 2004 --kidney cancer research was where breast cancer had been in 1988.  I could not believe it!! My husband told us to look at the facts--cancer is big business now with big cancer centers all over the country.  The phamaceutical companies are huge money machines.  It benefits them to have everyone be chonic instead of CURED! Those big cancer centers and those big phmaceutical companies carry alot of influence.  My husband pointed to Jonas Salk as the last scientist who really cured anything.

    I do not WANT to believe it!  I told him everyone knows someone with cancer so how can that be?  Unfortunately I fear that he could be right.  I want everyone--- Stand up 2 cancer and the American Cancer Society and Susan B. Komen and the Kidney Cancer Association and on and on and all of us to DEMAND a cure.  Chronic isn't good enough!! The quality of life takes a beatingwhen cancer enters the picture.  We MUST do better!!  My mother filled out pages of surveys in the hopes that her grandchildren would benefit.  Now her son is law is dead and her grandchildren are looking down the barrel of a gun. We must be skeptical--we must stop throwing money at money machines paying salaries instead of paying for CURES!  My mother was 63 when she died by husband was 60.  My husband's dad was 41 and a friend's baby is 2!! I WANT to believe I am wrong but I am unconvinced, it's been too long and the progress made for the time and money spent has not been enough! It will never be enough until there is a cure and all the suffering like polio, is a thing of the past.

    I am not a pessimist!! I am a realist!! I call myself cancers shrapnel!!  Enough...Done ...Over  CURE CANCER ---ALL CANCER --WE MUST ACCEPT NOTHING LESS!!!!

    Arleen

     

  • NanoSecond
    NanoSecond Member Posts: 653
    #3
    No.

    There is no "conspiracy".  But there is capitalism and politics.

  • Allochka
    Allochka Member Posts: 1,072 Member
    #4
    NanoSecond said:

    No.

    There is no "conspiracy".  But there is capitalism and politics.

    I do not think there is

    I do not think there is conspiracy. Perhaps I'm idealistic, but there are huge advances in cancer treatments nowadays. 100% cure for all is still not possible, but things are much better than before. Maybe the solution is very close, we just need to move forward a bit in natural sciences, and perhaps some minor advances will accumulate and lead to a major breakthrough.... All scientific discoveries happen when things were already being prepared for them by previous researchers, collective knowledge of humanity. They all stand on the shoulders of some giants. 

    I really hope that it will be the same with cancer. Day of total cure will come, just need more time...

  • donna_lee
    donna_lee Member Posts: 1,045 Member
    #5
    Allochka said:

    I do not think there is

    I do not think there is conspiracy. Perhaps I'm idealistic, but there are huge advances in cancer treatments nowadays. 100% cure for all is still not possible, but things are much better than before. Maybe the solution is very close, we just need to move forward a bit in natural sciences, and perhaps some minor advances will accumulate and lead to a major breakthrough.... All scientific discoveries happen when things were already being prepared for them by previous researchers, collective knowledge of humanity. They all stand on the shoulders of some giants. 

    I really hope that it will be the same with cancer. Day of total cure will come, just need more time...

    If you read

    "The Emporer of All Maladies," or saw the 3 part TV show of the book a few months back, you would realize the first attempts at managing or curing a disease were just attempts by one Dr. to make a difference.  Cancer had been known to man for centuries, but no one understood what or how, and they assumed all cancers were the same.

    Technology, minaturization, computer speed, use of microscopic and nano-particle research have all sped up the work of scientists.  30 years ago, we on this board, would have just been told we had kidney cancer.  Now they can generally tell us what type, and all the other alphabet soup of letters and numbers.

    But as someone above me indicated, money and politics, play a role in what gets researched.  As for me, I'll take what I have and live with it.  Conspiracy Theories rank with the Aliens from Outer space, and the truth about Sasquatch and the Yeti.  A theory is just someones idea that has not been proven.

    My two cents worth.

    Donna

  • sblairc
    sblairc Member Posts: 585 Member
    #6
    More like bureaucracy

    I guess I see it more as bureaucracy affecting the rate of progress in various complicated ways which leads many to think "conspiracy."  

    Love the comments here, interesting discussion for sure. Over some beers and maybe a few special brownies!! 

     

  • Footstomper
    Footstomper Member Posts: 1,237 Member
    #7
    sblairc said:

    More like bureaucracy

    I guess I see it more as bureaucracy affecting the rate of progress in various complicated ways which leads many to think "conspiracy."  

    Love the comments here, interesting discussion for sure. Over some beers and maybe a few special brownies!! 

     

    No

    No conspiracy. Just a bunch of very inteligent people fumbling in the dark trying to find a lightswitch. My wife's one of them and if there's a conspiracy no ones told her!

  • Yeric
    Yeric Member Posts: 65
    #8
    NanoSecond said:

    No.

    There is no "conspiracy".  But there is capitalism and politics.

    I so agree

    I agree with Nanosecond.  Capitalism and politics.  The internet allows conspiracy theroists to gather.  All of them can't be wrong?  I have had some caregivers really dig down deep to keep me on this side.  If there was a cure out there hidden from veiw, they would pull the curtain back.

  • APny
    APny Member Posts: 1,995 Member
    #9
    Footstomper said:

    No

    No conspiracy. Just a bunch of very inteligent people fumbling in the dark trying to find a lightswitch. My wife's one of them and if there's a conspiracy no ones told her!

    I agree with Nano.

    I agree with Nano.

  • nsb748
    nsb748 Member Posts: 89
    #10
    APny said:

    I agree with Nano.

    I agree with Nano.

    Kidney cancer is likely

    Kidney cancer is likely moving slower than even most other cancers due to the rarity of it.  Luckily we can piggyback off of the melanoma research to an extent. 

    There just isn't a ton of money being thrown at it.  Susan Komen, Leukemia Lymphoma society, etc, are all really good at marketing themselves.   Let's be honest, when it comes to the average person donating money, they would probably rather spend it on boobs or a child with Leukemia than some ugly internal organs. 

    I don't recall the exact statistics, but I believe a few years back something like 80% of money donated for cancer research was going towards breast cancer research. 

     

     

  • HH431
    HH431 Member Posts: 41
    #11
    nsb748 said:

    Kidney cancer is likely

    Kidney cancer is likely moving slower than even most other cancers due to the rarity of it.  Luckily we can piggyback off of the melanoma research to an extent. 

    There just isn't a ton of money being thrown at it.  Susan Komen, Leukemia Lymphoma society, etc, are all really good at marketing themselves.   Let's be honest, when it comes to the average person donating money, they would probably rather spend it on boobs or a child with Leukemia than some ugly internal organs. 

    I don't recall the exact statistics, but I believe a few years back something like 80% of money donated for cancer research was going towards breast cancer research. 

     

     

    I don't believe in a

    I don't believe in a conspiracy, but do agree research money is not be proportionately spent or allocated.  Another example is...look at how much money AIDS has gotten compared to cancer.  Disproportionate in my opinion.

    With that said, we are in such a better position compared even to people 30-40 years ago.  My mother died of lung cancer in 1988 and I don't even believe the cancer had spread beyond the lungs, but there wasn't much they could do (in her case anyway).  She was only 47.  The chemo she was on at the time was very, very rough too and I know it's improved since.  

    I think it's just a very difficult situation still to be able to kill bad cells while preserving good cells and immunity.

    I do think in cancer will be largely curable in another 40-50 years and stem cells will play a huge role in organ replacements along with other treatments.

  • cheatinlil
    cheatinlil Member Posts: 197
    #12
    HH431 said:

    I don't believe in a

    I don't believe in a conspiracy, but do agree research money is not be proportionately spent or allocated.  Another example is...look at how much money AIDS has gotten compared to cancer.  Disproportionate in my opinion.

    With that said, we are in such a better position compared even to people 30-40 years ago.  My mother died of lung cancer in 1988 and I don't even believe the cancer had spread beyond the lungs, but there wasn't much they could do (in her case anyway).  She was only 47.  The chemo she was on at the time was very, very rough too and I know it's improved since.  

    I think it's just a very difficult situation still to be able to kill bad cells while preserving good cells and immunity.

    I do think in cancer will be largely curable in another 40-50 years and stem cells will play a huge role in organ replacements along with other treatments.

    pharmaceutical co.

    Pharmaceutical companies I believe are white collared criminals laundering money to drs. Votrient is just one example. $10,000 for a 30 day supply without insurance. What is it made of? A rare jewel? Supply and demand. Dr's get kickbacks for prescribing meds and insurance companies do too. Something very strange is going on. For a price you can get any medicine you want. And the side effects cause more problems than the meds relieve you of. And can it all be cured or avoided by a diet made of whole foods no preservatives. 

    I've been reading up on yeast or candida overgrowth and the side effects from the foods mainly preservatives we consume causes all the symptoms we are medicating ourselves for.

Discussion Boards