Is the War on Cancer Over?

I watched a CBS 60 Minute story tonight about phthalates, a chemical that resides in nearly everything made of plastic that needs to be soft and flexible – shower curtains, beach balls, rubber ducks, to name but a few. These chemicals, which are used in thousands of everyday items, are allegedly linked to deformity in male genitalia, congenital hernias and changes in the hormonal balances of men. But is it really any surprise that chemicals (of any sort) in our environment have a potential negative impact on our health or our progeny?

The experts that accuse phthalates of having potential to do harm cannot say anything definitive about the toxic effect of these chemicals without “more data”. And, of course, the chemical manufacturers that make these substances deny there is any linkage to birth deformities, even though data proving this does not exist. Last year congress, “split the baby”, so to speak, by banning certain phthalates from use in toys.

When I was a kid, it seemed like we were a nation that had all the answers. John Wayne and the Lone Ranger persuaded me that the good guys in white hats always prevailed. Right won over might, usually just in the nick of time.

I grew up in an America that gloried in winning World War II. When I was a kid our nation was fighting communism and the cold war. We were the predominant economic power having invented and manufactured many of the world’s modern conveniences – the electric light, the automobile, the telephone, the airplane, the transistor, and the television. I was seven years old when John Kennedy inspired our nation to reach for the stars. In less than 10 years we landed on the moon. It seemed there was nothing we couldn’t do.

In my lifetime, America has always been the leading political, military, economic and technological power. It still is, but I have to say that, lately, my faith in America to get to the truth, figure out what’s right for the nation, and move forward with good public policy has been shaken.

I have a hard time fathoming that we could allow drilling in the ocean with deep water rigs and not have a contingency plan for a blow-out oil disaster, like the one unfolding in the Gulf. Are you kidding me? Isn’t it common sense that the government would require contingency disaster plans before issuing permits for offshore drilling? All I can say is that if they didn’t imagine this kind of thing could happen, they don’t have much of an imagination, which brings me to the topic of government sponsored cancer research.

Richard Nixon declared a “War on Cancer” in 1971, yet here we are nearly four decades later no closer to a cure than we were back then. In fact, no one talks about a cure any longer. Today, we only speak of treatments.

The basic approach to treating cancer has not changed in 50 years. The tools are new and improved, but the strategy is the same – search and destroy cancerous cells using chemotherapy, surgery and radiation. There is nothing new or radically innovative or imaginative in our approach, so it’s hard to see how the outcome will change. As my father use to say, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. Perhaps it’s finally time to look at other approaches.

Someone recommended that I read Suzanne Somers’s book “Knockout: Interviews with Doctors Who Are Curing Cancer.” I purchased a copy to see what she had to say. The doctors she interviewed have interesting new strategies about curing cancer that does not involve search and destroy treatments. Why aren’t some of these non-toxic “cures” being seriously tested? First I need to find an oncologist even willing to read the book.