.
After 2,250 medical trials,
involving 380,000 patient volunteers,
your wishes and your prayers
have finally been answered:
Your body heals itself.
But that's not our answer,
that's our problem.
The trillions of cells that make up your body
are constantly copying and dividing themselves,
to become new cells
that will replace the old, worn-out ones.
But when an old cell refuses to step aside,
that's what we call cancer.
It can take many forms, but,
at the center of it all is a bad cell
that doesn't go away when it's supposed to,
and then it divides and conquers.
In 1971, U.S. President Richard Nixon
declared war on Cancer.
Today, we're on the brink
of bringing it to an end.
More than 250 years of cancer research,
so far, has led to significant advances in
cancer patients' quality of life
and life expectancy.
We've reached a point where
some of the most commonly diagnosed cancers
have a survival rate of over 90% after five years!
In 2019, an Israeli biotech company
declared that it had a cure,
which it described as a "cancer antibiotic."
The company developed a molecular toxin
that could connect to a series of cancer cells,
and destroy them all in just one treatment.
Of course, this claim raised many eyebrows.
First of all, because it's hard to differentiate
good cells from bad ones,
there's a risk of hitting the wrong target.
But more importantly, this "cure"
hasn't been tested on humans.
Luckily, that's only one potential cure
among several ideas that are being tested.
Another treatment might include
self-regulating nanoparticles that are
designed to kill cancer cells.
Meanwhile, scientists are also
working on ways
to stop nutrients from feeding and growing
a malignant tumor.
Whichever method might actually
be able to cure cancer,
it still doesn't mean we'll eradicate it.
After all, it's just a cure, not a vaccine,
which means new cases of cancer
will still occur.
Knowing there's a cure, some people
might decide to live more dangerously.
They might not be as inclined to quit smoking,
or to eat healthier,
unless, they couldn't afford
to continue their bad habits...
The U.S. has the best
cancer survival rates in the world,
thanks to sophisticated
medication and technology.
But all that comes at very high prices,
often costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
If a company did develop
a successful cancer cure,
we can almost guarantee
that it wouldn't be cheap.
The economic impacts of this discovery
would affect pharmaceutical companies
around the world,
as well as people in about
70 different medical professions.
People in developing countries
might not even have access
to the cancer cure,
meaning that their lives would
barely be affected by this breakthrough
– at least not immediately.
While a cure for cancer might begin as
costly and exclusive,
it would still be among the
biggest milestones in medical history.
And we could probably employ the same
research, techniques or technology
to fight other challenging diseases.
So if you're a doctor or a scientist
who is watching this right now,
get back to working on that cure!
But when it's time for a break,
or a little inspiration,
we'll be waiting for you right here
with another "What If."