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Deep thoughts [AKA A little rant]

I was thinking last night (I do that whenever I have trouble sleeping), and I've come to the realization, in the nearly 10 years since my diagnosis with MCL (when I was personally awoken to the issue of cancer), there has been a lot of research done, and too many to fathom clinical trials performed, yet there has been very little [monumental] advancement in the way we deal with and treat cancer.

We've managed to map the entire human genome. We've even come close to discovering the causes of [at least one] cancer, yet there is still no cure, and our approach to treating cancer remains, as it has been for the past 50+ years, to do nothing more than infuse deadly chemicals into the body, in hopes of destroying the cancerous cells. Even one of the biggest advances recently in the treatment of lymphoma, has been the reemergence of Bendamustine, an alkylating agent developed in East Germany in the 1960's.

Yeah, there have been strides made in the use of stem cell transplantation (SCT), and there have even been some new blockbuster drugs that have come on to the market, e.g. Rituxan, Gleevic and Velcade, but they have done little, aside from maybe delaying the inevitable for a few more years, to advance a cure. And even those approaches have their limitations, especially in the case of SCT's, which can produce debilitating side effects, i.e. graft vs host disease (GVHD), that in some cases may be worse than the disease.

You'd just think after all these years, with all the great minds and other resources available in this country, and around the world, there would have been greater strides made towards finding a cure for cancer, or at the very least develop new and safer drugs for the treatment of cancer.

What's even more depressing is with the political upheaval in the US, it appears further advancements related to all types of health issues will be greatly hindered. There are already critical drug shortages showing up around the country, and expected cuts to funding for the National Institute of Health (NIH), portend few [if any] advancements for the foreseeable future.

The principle reason I've delayed treatment so long has been the hope something better would come along, but it seems I'm going to have to wait just a little [a lot] longer.

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