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Ugo Duru-Iheoma Mrs. Wright English 1102 10/02/12

Should We Continue Spending Money on Cancer Research?

Cancer is one of the deadliest diseases facing the world today, as we all know or have met someone who has suffered through the disease. It killed an estimated 571,000 people in the United States alone in 2011 (American Cancer Society), and those figures are only bound to get worse as the years continue to go by. Worldwide it caused 13% of all human deaths in 2007, which is a total of almost 8 million people. It's a no brainer that Cancer has to be eradicated from the face of the Earth, but the tricky part is...how on Earth are we going to do it? This one disease has proven to have outsmarted us humans from the beginning of time, and research shows that we will more than likely be able to find a true cure for cancer. So what does that mean for all of us who put in the effort to raise money for the research of and raise awareness of this deadly disease? There are many who would like to say that we are genuinely wasting our time, money, and efforts for people to say there is no hope. While, there are many others who maintain devoted on throwing their whole lives in rising the awareness of disease and development of research methods. There is a happy medium between Cancer research and Cancer awareness that we as a society have yet to find, and without it we are wasting our money.

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As of right now there is no current known permanent cure for Cancer, despite what many might think. When a Cancer patient is absent of the disease, they are said to be in remission. I for one, have been in remission from Cancer for around 13 years when I suffered from Leukemia at a young age. There is a large group of people who suggest that we are working towards a cause with no good result to come. From what researchers have been able to devise, Remission seems to be the best state you can get to with a Cancer patient. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because in many cases like mine, Cancer is absent for so long that the odds of it returning are so low that it is considered cured. However, in the end it is still considered in remission and it can come back at anytime, or hopefully never at all. In cases where Cancer has been absent for 3 months or less, it is considered progression, which is seen as much more urgent and serious (American Cancer Society) The rate of recurrence for Cancer depends highly on the type of Cancer one has, and it can reoccur in the same place, in the same region, or in an entirely different part of the human body.

As I noted earlier, not everyone is on the side of actively working towards Cancer research. In fact, Robert Ryan who writes articles for the Campaign against Fraudulent Medical Research, refers to Cancer research as a super fraud.According to him The cancer industry is sustained by a policy of deliberately facing the wrong direction. He also delves into his sources that support a history of misleading statistics, wasted money, and and overwhelming proposition that we are searching for a cure that clearly does not exist. (Ryan) This side of the debate is not clearly heard often, because as a society we would usually gasp at something as crazy as stopping the research of Cancer. But is it crazy? According to an article published by the British Broadcasting Company in

Duru-Iheoma 3 2000, Millions of pounds of donations and taxpayer money has been wasted on Cancer research because scientists failed to carry out simple and inexpensive checks to make sure they are working with the correct forms of human tumor cells (British Broadcasting Company). It would be hard to completely dismiss this argument of us burning our money on Cancer research, when an article proves that just 12 years ago in the UK, money was completely wasted on garbage research. Even though that will go down as a minor footnote in the history of Cancer research it needs to be noted that despite the fact that there is a good cause at the forefront, we need to be completely mindful of how we are spending people's money. Citizens don't have a problem if their donations and tax money are going to the proper outlets, and are being used in the way they are supposed to be used. However if we are essentially throwing their money away, why would anyone want to donate any more money to Cancer research?

Those who aren't in favor of spending large amounts of money on simply research, have suggested ways of actually supporting and helping suffering Cancer patients, rather than searching for a cure that seemingly does not exist. According to an article by Genevra Pittman, there is a therapy program at the Mayo Clinic that can help improve the quality of life for Cancer patients. In this case, they are concerned with the people suffering themselves, and not the dollars being pumped into a bunch of guys behind the scenes in lab coats who are working towards finding a cure. They want to assure that those suffering with Cancer are getting the most out of life by promoting healthy lifestyle choices, giving them relaxation techniques, and providing them with spiritual outlets to discuss their fight with Cancer. Another alternative to spending money on simply researching Cancer, is to help promote the prevention of cancer-causing problems. For one,

Duru-Iheoma 4 most of know that cigarette smoke is correlated to lung cancer and other diseases. We should put towards efforts on educating kids not to smoke cigarettes, and ridding them from our population. Mortality rates for lung cancer and coronary heart disease have been related to cigarette smoking habits in 17,475 males (Higgenbottam). This is according to an article in the J Epidemol Community Health Journal in 1982 done on a 10 year study. If we could prevent whole generations of kids from smoking cigarettes, we could eradicate a decent potion of the known carcinogenic activities going on in this country.

Now there is a whole different side to the argument, one that has been clearly televised, advertised, and commercialized. The side that says we need to continue to pump money into Cancer research, the side that has legions of Celebrity endorsements, medical endorsements, backing by the American Cancer Society and more. This is the side that I initially thought was 100% on the right side of this argument. However as the time goes by, I'm beginning to realize that both sides provide very valid points. On the side that promotes Cancer research, the general train of thought is that there must be a cure out there. They are actively raising money in order to make sure we are putting in as full of an effort as possible to be able to save generations in the future from suffering from one of the deadliest killers in world history. You have huge campaigns such as Susan G. Komen's Race for the Cure which is targeted mainly towards breast cancer and its huge impact on the female as well as male community. Then you have the highly popular Livestrong campaign spearheaded by 7-time Tour De France winner Lance Armstrong, and commercialized by a yellow rubber wristband which was a popular fashion statement in the early 2000s amongst teens and of course athletes. The argument for Cancer research is so successful because it has so much

Duru-Iheoma 5 backing by reputable organizations, celebrities, and has monetary donations pumped by so many of the world's most powerful people. There aren't huge legions of people who are arguing the fact that there may not be a cure, or that we have been shown to have wasted money In the past. The general consensus seems to be that Cancer is a highly deadly disease, and we must work to the best of our ability to try and find a cure, or we are doing a disservice to our citizens. It is so much easier for people to see why we need to donate money, because they don't see what goes on behind the scenes, all that we know is that there are people who are suffering, and for the most part, everyone knows at least one person who has suffered through Cancer. There aren't many diseases you can say that about, but Cancer surely is one of them.

In Conclusion, there are various arguments as to why we should continue pumping money into Cancer research and why we should stop. In the end, I think that we should hold back a lot of the money we are spending on Cancer research because we do not know where it is going. We should focus most of our efforts towards the actual people we see suffering and helping educate those towards preventing cancer and preventing recurrence by living healthy lifestyles. We should still keep pushing towards research, but we should not be spending as much as we are right now, without seeing the result of the billions of dollars the world as a whole has spent on Cancer research.

Duru-Iheoma 6 Works Cited American Cancer Society. "www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/coping/when-cancer-returns.pdf." Cancer.go. American Cancer Soceity, n.d. Web. 13 Sept. 2012. <www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/coping/when-cancer-returns.pdf>. British Broadcasting Company. "Cancer Studies "wasted Millions"" BBC News. BBC, 20 Nov. 2007. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/file_on_4/7098882.stm>. Higgenbottom, T., M. J. Shipley, and G. Rose. "Cigarettes, Lung Cancer, and Coronary Heart Disease: The Effects of Inhalation and Tar Yield." Jech.bmj.com. N.p., 1982. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://jech.bmj.com/content/36/2/113.short>. The Lance Armstrong Foundation. "Our History | Who We Are | LIVESTRONG.org." Our History | Who We Are | LIVESTRONG.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.livestrong.org/WhoWe-Are/Our-History>. National Cancer Institute. "Taking Control: Your Care and Treatment." Cancer.gov. National Cancer Institute, n.d. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/coping/whencancer-returns/page3>. Pittman, Genevra. "Quality-of-life Program May Help Cancer Patients." Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 14 Sept. 2012. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/14/us-canceridUSBRE88D1ED20120914>. Ryan, Robert. "Cancer Research - A Super Fraud?" Cancer Research - A Super Fraud? Campaign Against Fraudulent Medical Research, n.d. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.pnc.com.au/~cafmr/online/research/cancer.html>.