Alot of patents and inventions get bought and "Vaulted" by the government or Corporations if it would mean they lose profit. Great ideas forever hidden, just so some fat cat doesn't lose revenue or gain competition.
Cancer is actually an interesting one because there are so many types of cancer that work in different ways, that solving all of them with one cure is pretty much impossible. A lot of them would be like calling radiation therapy a cure. Sure, it works on some cancers, sometimes.
Edit: another point I meant to add, it's about the same reason we can't really cure or eradicate the flu.
They seem to constantly just dissappear because the media are irresponsible morons who have sold the public the concept of a magic bullet "cure for cancer" that will eradicate it as a disease entirely and instantly. They then present every new upcoming cancer treatment as that, and then stop reporting on it when it enters therapeutic use.
We've made huge strides in cancer care over the last few decades. Many types that were once lethal are now functionally curable (obviously it requires diagnosis and treatment delivery in a timely fashion, but mortality due to the more common cancers are plummeted).
The closest to thing to what you are talking about are some vaccines that are not widely avaliable because they were developed in Cuba are US are monomanical about that embargo.
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u/[deleted] Mar 05 '25
Alot of patents and inventions get bought and "Vaulted" by the government or Corporations if it would mean they lose profit. Great ideas forever hidden, just so some fat cat doesn't lose revenue or gain competition.