Finding the cure for cancer is about as sought after as any elusive treasure. But there’s a reason nobody’s found it yet: Cancer isn’t actually a singular disease, but a broader genre of affliction, like viral infections. As much variation as there is between humans in their normal DNA, there’s even more genetic variation between any two types of cancer. That doesn’t mean researchers aren’t hard at work to figure out the best therapeutics possible and yes, even cures, for cancers.
Cancers happen when a genetic mutation causes cells to start growing unchecked, which leads to tumors and body-wide issues like changes in metabolism that lead to weight loss. There are countless ways DNA can mutate that could cause cancer, which makes it challenging to target the source of the problem — the mutated gene and the cellular mechanism it messes up — for each unique person.
One of cancer’s ...
