A universal cancer cure

What makes this fascinating

• Our own cells turn against us — Cancer isn't one disease but thousands, each driven by a different tangle of mutations.

• It evolves to evade us — Tumors mutate and adapt, defeating drugs the way bacteria defeat antibiotics.

• Immunotherapy changed the game — Teaching the immune system to attack tumors has produced real cures — but only for some cancers, so far.

Frequently asked questions

Why is there no universal cure for cancer?

Cancer is not one disease but hundreds, driven by different mutations in our own cells that evolve and resist treatment — so a single cure defeating them all has proven extraordinarily hard.

Are we close to curing cancer?

Many cancers are now far more treatable, and immunotherapies have produced lasting remissions in some patients, but a general cure remains a research goal rather than a reality.

What makes cancer so hard to treat?

Because tumor cells are our own cells gone wrong, they are hard to target without harming healthy tissue, and their genetic instability lets them adapt and evade therapies.

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