Is cancer a disease that can be cured? An answer based on a new classification of diseases

Abstract: Is cancer a disease that can be cured or a degenerative disease which comes predominantly with old age? We give an answer based on a two-dimensional representation of diseases. These two dimensions are defined as follows. In mortality curves there is an age, namely a_c = 10 years, which plays a crucial role in the sense that the mortality rate decreases in the interval I1=(a<a_c) and increases in the interval I2=(a>a_c). The respective trends in I1 and I2 are the two parameters used in our classification of diseases. Within the framework of reliability analysis, I1 and I2 would be referred to as the "burn-in" and "wear-out" phases. This leads to define three broad groups of diseases. (AS1) Asymmetry with prevalence of I1. (AS2) Asymmetry with prevalence of I2. (S) Symmetry, with I1 and I2 both playing roles of comparable importance. Not surprisingly, among AS1-cases one finds all diseases due to congenital malformations. In the AS2-class one finds degenerative diseases, e.g. Alzheimer's disease. Among S-cases one finds most diseases due to external pathogens or to wear-out processes. Cancer is one of those mixed cases and it is closer to (AS2) than to (AS1). This representation also explains what we call an OVERKILL EFFECT in old age. It tells us that even an effective cancer therapy would have no influence whatsoever on the extent of human life unless ALL other diseases are cured simultaneously. We conclude that whilst one might develop a cure for many of the known diseases of old age, new diseases will arise and the quest for the ultimate cure will be never ending. Death before the age of 120 seems firmly written in our genetic code and the best we shall be able to do is to help people cope with the inevitability of death as and when it arises.