Is cancer so “uncurable” we only hope to extend the patient’s life and not cure it completely?
In: Biology
Yes, cancer is rarely “curable.” In many cases it can only be treated, managed, until by stroke of bad luck or inevitability (cancers mutate and “evolve” and get stronger, acquire the ability to evade the immune system, spread and generally get more nasty as time goes on) they tend overwhelm the body.
Of course if you catch it early enough you can hope to eradicate every last cancer cell, and then you’re cured. But if even one cell remains, it can come back stronger and deadlier. Once they spread, either regionally or distantly (metastasis), the probability of getting every last cell plummets.
There’s a great [Kurzgesagt video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoJwt9l-XhQ) on how cancers “evolve” and get stronger.
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