Comments on: Controlling Cancer: Today's ebook review at Download the Universe http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2012/02/27/controlling-cancer-todays-ebook-review-at-download-the-universe/ Mon, 04 Feb 2013 17:13:44 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: Daniel J. Andrews http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2012/02/27/controlling-cancer-todays-ebook-review-at-download-the-universe/#comment-17700 Daniel J. Andrews Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:24:12 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/?p=5607#comment-17700 Is the cancer-virus connection making a comeback then? IIRC (and I probably don't) the discovery of chicken sarcomas caused by a virus resulted in a huge push to find other cancer-causing viruses and a promise of an innoculation against cancers in the 70s. It started the whole War on Cancer meme (was that Nixon?). Years went by though and this approach failed to be very productive as there weren't that many viruses that could be shown to cause cancers. Instead, they found very complex pathways, none of which acted like an infectious disease. Have things changed around again, or is Ewald's approach specific to just a few viruses like HPV, or bacteria (H. pylori), leaving the vast majority of cancers still only treatable by rather extreme means? Is the cancer-virus connection making a comeback then? IIRC (and I probably don’t) the discovery of chicken sarcomas caused by a virus resulted in a huge push to find other cancer-causing viruses and a promise of an innoculation against cancers in the 70s. It started the whole War on Cancer meme (was that Nixon?).

Years went by though and this approach failed to be very productive as there weren’t that many viruses that could be shown to cause cancers. Instead, they found very complex pathways, none of which acted like an infectious disease.

Have things changed around again, or is Ewald’s approach specific to just a few viruses like HPV, or bacteria (H. pylori), leaving the vast majority of cancers still only treatable by rather extreme means?

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