Cancer Moonshot to Bring Hope to Desperate Cancer Patients

Abstract

It was very sad to learn that President Jimmy Carter and Jane Fonda have given up fights to battle cancer. Terminal stage cancer patients all end up like these two very distinguished figures hopeless to carry on fighting. At terminal stage, patient’s cancer cells (CCs) are loaded with cancer stem cells (CSCs) unresponsive to therapies currently in practice, which are actually responsible for the creation of hopeless situation.  Perpetual replication of CCs is the most outstanding feature of cancer. Naturally, killing of replicating CCs becomes the top choice of cancer establishments to combat cancer. Killing of replicating CCs is actually a wrong approach of cancer therapy, because cancer is caused by wound not healing properly.  Wound creates symptom, and healing is an effort to eliminate the symptom created by the wound. Wound healing requires the proliferation and the terminal differentiation of progenitor stem cells (PSCs) [1-3]. Terminal differentiation of PSCs is the most important mechanism of wound healing, because only terminally differentiated cells can restore biological function damaged by the wound. Thus, terminal differentiation of PSCs is the critical mechanism to dictate the success of wound healing. If wound is not healed properly, the symptom created by the wound will force PSCs to keep on replicating, but the replication of PSCs is limited by the rule of contact inhibition. PSCs are normal stem cells which obey the rule of contact inhibition. They are then forced to evolved into CSCs to escape contact inhibition, and then to progress to faster growing CCs.  Henceforth, the replication of CSCs and CCs is an effort to heal the wound. Promotion of terminal differentiation of CSCs and CCs is, therefore, the right approach of cancer therapy [4]. The hopeless situation of terminal cancer patients is the result of wrong therapies put forth by cancer establishments. Cancer arises due to the collapse of chemo-surveillance which is a mechanism created by the nature to ensure perfection of wound healing to avoid cancer. The functionality of chemo-surveillance has been badly damaged for the symptom of cancer to show up. Cytotoxic agents further aggravate the already badly damaged chemo-surveillance by creating more wounds. Killing of CCs also triggers CSCs to proliferate to heal the damages created by cytotoxic agents. In the end, CCs are replaced by CSCs which are not responding to cytotoxic agents, because these cells are protected by drug resistance and anti-apoptosis mechanisms. Restoration of chemo-surveillance is an effective measure to limit the build up of CSCs [5]. Development of CDA formulations to restore the functionality of chemo-surveillance is a right remedy to correct the mistakes created by cancer establishments [6-12]. Cancer establishments were definitely not doing the things right to fail the challenge of war on cancer.  They continued to use the failed strategy on killing of CCs to cause deaths of cancer patients [13,14]. There is no mechanism within the health profession to correct the mistakes made by cancer establishments. President Biden was genuinely committed to save cancer patients to declare cancer moonshot initiative. He has the authority to replace leaderships of federal health agencies to correct the mistakes of cancer establishments to bring hope to desperate cancer patients.