According to WHO (the World Health Organisation), cancer is the modern pandemic in the developed world, as it is the highest cause of mortality and morbidity with breast, colon and liver cancer being among the top ten causes of death in high income countries. So why is this so? Do people in developing countries have a healthier lifestyle than those in developed countries? Do they have less stress? Actually, in developing countries, the highest cause of death is infections, which supersedes cancer on the "list". In developed, high income countries, many people can afford to treat infections readily.
Cancer generally develops by mutation in the cell, which prevents it from undergoing "apoptosis", which means programmed cell death. Generally, a healthy immune system recognises these cells can eliminates them effectively before they cause too much trouble. However, the cancer cells can effectively avoid the immune system through several mechanisms such as producing metabolites and compounds which deregulate the immune system towards the tumour, allowing for proliferation. There are many more proposed mechanisms of how tumours escape immunity and this is a current area of intense research which I would love to talk about, but I'll save this for another entry.
Current treatments for cancer include chemotherapy along with the taking of chemotherapy drugs such as paclitaxel. This treatment is often used in order to prevent cell division, as cancer cells or tumour cells divide continuously and these cells have turned off the option for cell death or apoptosis. By opting for chemotherapy along with chemotherapy drugs, not only are you preventing the cell division of cancer cells, but also all the cells of the body which is the reason why cancer patients lose hair, have a weakened immune system, and are generally weak overall. It is arguable that the mortality of cancer is high due to the treatment and that the treatment kills the patient, not the cancer. Clearly, chemotherapy is not ideal, as it reduces the quality of life for patients along with the chance that chemotherapy may work, or not work.
Many researchers are focusing on new areas of treatment, known as "immunotherapy". In immunotherapy, the ideal drug would strengthen the immune system and allow for it to recognise the cancer cells rather than avoiding it. Such would be the example of indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase (IDO), which is an enzyme produced by most of the cells in the human body, and it is produced in minimal amounts. It is also produced in placental tissue, during pregnancy and this weakens the immune system, preventing it from attacking the fetus, allowing the fetus to grow and develop. This is one of the reasons why pregnant women have weak immunity. IDO is also produced in high amounts by tumour cells, weakening the immune system against it, preventing elimination. By administrating an "analog" (a compound in which one or more atoms have been replaced with different atoms) of IDO, which is methyl-L-tryptophan to patients along with chemotherapy drugs like paclitaxel may treat cancer. This is just one example of how immunotherapy could be used against cancer cells, and there are many more.
Cancer biology has taken great strides towards success in the recent past, with increasing knowledge, research and dedication worldwide, maybe, just maybe can cancer no longer be deemed "uncurable".
