The universe is logical. Each cell in the human body is at its core just a very complex state machine.
What we call cancer is just a particular state for a cell, and its descendents.
Find a way to change the cell state, we end cancer. And we know we can change a cell state-we can transform skin cells into stem cells, so what would make it impossible to turn cancerous cells into non-cancerous cells?
We just haven't found out the proper way to do so. It takes data, and simulation, and lots of time. At some point we'll figure it out.
I think the only misguided attempts are chemotherapy-based - damaging cells indiscriminately, just because cancer cells multiply faster and thus accumulate dna damage faster and thus die faster than normal cells. This means that unless you kill all the cancerous cells your cancer will come back. The problem is chemotherapy drugs will also be damaging your body in other ways, depressing your immune system, and thus making it easier for any remaining cancerous cell to start it all over again.
I believe it's much easier to simply figure out the right cocktail that would change cancerous cells into normal cells again, and then find the delivery mechanism for that.
I can see a future where we can transform cancerous cells into cancer-killing cells (let's say T/B Cells) that would just cascade into the complete eradication of cancerous cells within an organism.
This guy's argument boils down to lack of imagination.
The universe is logical. Each cell in the human body is at its core just a very complex state machine.
What we call cancer is just a particular state for a cell, and its descendents.
Find a way to change the cell state, we end cancer. And we know we can change a cell state-we can transform skin cells into stem cells, so what would make it impossible to turn cancerous cells into non-cancerous cells?
We just haven't found out the proper way to do so. It takes data, and simulation, and lots of time. At some point we'll figure it out.
I think the only misguided attempts are chemotherapy-based - damaging cells indiscriminately, just because cancer cells multiply faster and thus accumulate dna damage faster and thus die faster than normal cells. This means that unless you kill all the cancerous cells your cancer will come back. The problem is chemotherapy drugs will also be damaging your body in other ways, depressing your immune system, and thus making it easier for any remaining cancerous cell to start it all over again.
I believe it's much easier to simply figure out the right cocktail that would change cancerous cells into normal cells again, and then find the delivery mechanism for that.
I can see a future where we can transform cancerous cells into cancer-killing cells (let's say T/B Cells) that would just cascade into the complete eradication of cancerous cells within an organism.
This guy's argument boils down to lack of imagination.