Unlocking The Secrets of Malignancy

"With these new discoveries, cancer actually looks like it is beatable. I can see defeat on the horizon"

Brenda O. Locklear

Chattanooga, Tennessee

Many advances in cancer research ((SCIENCE, April 25)) have been made beyond the laboratory in caring for cancer patients. Our control of the effects of cancer on the body and psyche has made treatment more tolerable for millions. Technology is fighting the war against nausea, vomiting, pain and appetite loss with new and different medications, portable infusion pumps and patches delivering medications through the skin. Specialists in psycho-oncology help patients handle the stresses of the disease. Cancer is not necessarily a death sentence. Its treatment can be more easily endured until the day that the science of genetics may prevent it entirely.

Stewart B. Fleishman, M.D.

Long Island Jewish Medical Center

New Hyde Park, New York

Since my 37-year-old wife was killed by malignant melanoma 1 1/2 years ago, news of how cancer may be attacked has passed through my mind with a sigh and a feeling that it just doesn't matter anymore. I am cynical when I read of "advances" in cancer treatment, though I am inspired by the work of scientists. Their efforts, combined with education on preventive measures, ( give me hope that others may not have to live through the same atrocity.

Clifton D. Eshbach

Lebanon, Pennsylvania

How can I believe in a war against cancer? I find it much easier and safer to have hope in a life-style that keeps my body healthy. For me, that is getting enough rest and exercise, drinking purified water and eating natural foods, including herbs and medicinal plants. We each have a choice. Will it be modern medicine or a natural therapy that activates the body's self-healing process?

Carolyn Hochstetler

Wellman, Iowa

If a cure for cancer was announced today, what then? Does our government have a rapid-deployment plan, the medical equivalent of a military rapid-deployment plan? Hundreds of thousands of terminal cancer patients would read nothing but good news until the day they died, knowing all the while that their problem was not cancer but the institutional inertia that separates discovery from deployment.

Steven R. Linton

Salt Lake City, Utah

As we sit around hoping for a cure for cancer to be discovered, we should focus on preventing it.

Amr Radwan

Strongsville, Ohio

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