Expecting a Complete Cure for Cancer Is Unrealistic
In their co-authored book The Biology of Genes and Cancer, H. Varmus — the Nobel laureate known for isolating the oncogenes that cause tumors in animals — and R. A. Weinberg, who first classified human tumor suppressor genes, argue that cancer cells arise from normal tissue rather than being foreign invaders like bacteria and viruses. When researchers tried to remove oncogenes in order to reduce cancer, they found that the normal products of these genes are indispensable to the body's growth and development.
They therefore note, not without regret, that in theory cancer is an inherent disease of multicellular life such as human beings, and that the ideal of completely eradicating cancer is unscientific and unrealistic; no cancer on earth can ever be utterly rooted out.
Even the various surgical procedures touted as "radical operations" cannot eradicate cancer. In The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, the author Siddhartha Mukherjee traces the history of cancer treatment, showing that neither surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, nor the latest immunotherapy can truly eradicate cancer.
Can traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) eradicate cancer? In theory, the answer is also no. In practice, from everything I have seen and heard over the years, there is no truly convincing evidence of TCM eradicating cancer. Some religious believers claim that religious practice can eradicate cancer; in reality, this claim is equally unreliable.
If we carefully trace each case, we find that these patients cannot possibly have relied on a single method to fight cancer, so the reason for their long survival cannot simply be attributed to one therapy. Moreover, whether they have truly eradicated cancer lacks scientific evidence; many cancer patients still experience recurrence and metastasis years later.
We are accustomed to using cheap, comforting phrases to soothe cancer patients, and to using professional terms like three-year survival rate and five-year survival rate to euphemistically tell patients after how long they will be safe. This has a psychological soothing effect, but the cruel truth is that a cancer patient's actual survival depends only on the nature of the cancer cells.
If the cancer cells are low-grade and slow-growing, the patient can live a long time with reasonable treatment, even reaching a natural lifespan. But even so, the cancer cells have not been completely cleared; they can be awakened at any time and cause the patient's death.
For cancer patients, the realistic approach is to seek reasonable treatment, not treatment aimed at eradicating cancer. After many years of practice, I too have abandoned the illusion of eradicating cancer and turned instead to striving for longer survival and a better quality of life for cancer patients.
If we can keep the cancer cells in a patient's body in as dormant a state as possible, we may be able to secure a considerable period of survival for the patient. If we can resolve the various complications, we may be able to secure a better quality of life.
I believe that focusing on these two points is the rational choice. Whether in a physician's research or a patient's treatment, if the focus is placed on these goals, the choice of treatment plans will be far more rational and reasonable, and we can use the smallest cost to win the greatest benefit for the patient.
I personally refuse to take on patients who demand a cure, because my ability cannot meet their expectations and I cannot give them the promises they want. Patients who receive careful treatment have the hope of achieving longer survival and a better quality of life — this is what a physician can achieve. We should not promise patients what we cannot deliver.
The saying "kill one thousand of the enemy, lose eight hundred of your own" is very apt when applied to cancer treatment. Aggressive attack treatment against cancer also greatly disrupts the body's normal functions. Coexisting with cancer cells is a reality patients have to face, not a voluntary choice.
Theoretically speaking, once a cancer patient has cancer, they remain in a state of "living with cancer" for life, no matter what so-called curative therapy they undergo. Unless the organism dies, the soil in which cancer cells grow and develop will always remain.
In reality we do see a large number of cancer patients with long survival times; theoretically, none of these patients are cured. We can only describe the treatment outcome with a professional term — clinical cure. As long as the patient is temporarily tumor-free and without obvious clinical symptoms, they can be said to be clinically cured. Clinical cure and eradicating cancer are very different things.
Therefore, for cancer patients, adjusting their mindset and facing and accepting reality is very important. If they harbor unrealistic illusions and blindly pursue eradicating cancer, the final outcome will be losing both their money and their life, with shortened survival and reduced quality of life. Because most patients and families who pursue eradicating cancer ultimately embark on the road of overtreatment.
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