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On the Cutting Edge: What The
Latest Research Tells Us About
Cancer
New technologies and techniques help fight
devastating disease
By Regina Walker, LCSW, BCD, CASAC, Staff Writer
One of the
most remarkable
changes in medicine in the past 100 years has been
what causes death. In the science
journal Nature, Herb Brody wrote,
“In 1900, the leading causes of death
in the United States were pneumonia, influenza and tuberculosis. A
century later, they are heart disease
and cancer.”
There are many reasons for this
dramatic shift. One of the most
important was the development of
antibiotics, which made it possible
to effectively treat a wide variety of
formerly potentially lethal infections.
Another reason is simply greater
longevity.
Cancer fundamentally is the result
of mutations in the genes of rapidly dividing cells that allow them
to continue to divide when they
shouldn’t. They are even known to
rebel against the body in which they
live and move from place to place,
invading and settling. There are
mechanisms in the body’s cells that
repair damaged genes and protect
them from harm. But over time,
errors inevitably accumulate, and
malignancy is the result.
The biggest problem with treating cancer is t