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onion2k | on: Richard Scolyer Has Died
One of the reasons cancer kills 1 in 4 people because we've eradicated lots of things that killed people before they were old enough to develop cancer. If we ever manage to cure cancer (or some cancers, because it's a taxonomy rather than a thing) then people will die of something else. No doubt we'll then wonder why we never spent enough effort curing whatever that is.

There will always be a reason why people die, and it will never feel like we're doing enough.

lukan | parent | next
"because we've eradicated lots of things that killed people before they were old enough to develop cancer"

The other reason might be, we introduced lots of new cancer inducing compounds.

Also cancer is very complex and a broad term. "Solving" it likely requires solving the human body first, as in understanding every mechanism to the finest details.

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perilunar | parent | next
> If we ever manage to cure cancer ... then people will die of something else.

Well yes, people will still die, but in the process average life expectancy goes up. I think Aubrey de Grey once said that if you cured cancer and aging then the average life span would be seven hundred years or so, based on death rates due to accidents and murder, etc.

dsign | parent | next
> There will always be a reason why people die, and it will never feel like we're doing enough.

That's the best of humanity: love for fellow human beings, and a desire to preserve life. And seeing that we live in an inconceivably vast and empty universe, I see nothing wrong with the idea.

melling | parent
Yes, and the other reason is we don’t invest enough.