Can we realistically expect to end cancer deaths in seven years? Economists predict nanotech products will reach $1 trillion by 2015. Driven by this financial push, forward-thinkers believe Americans will soon be enjoying a cancer-free “magical future.”

Impressive and plausible. One way to solve the health care crisis, is to eliminate disease altogether. This, I think, is not outside our reach.

ah, of course the question remains to what extent of society these new and highly promising technologies will reach, will we also cure the cancer of the poor? cancer in Africa? I love the promise of technology, but we must be careful with it, not to exacerbate the problems already existing, especially with regard to health care.

Yes, but we have to die from something.

Wildcat, 'cancer of the poor' is an ethical issue not a technological one. There is no point to mix the two as if a technological breakthrough changes a moral outlook or it s consequences. Cancer can be cured in Africa even today as much as it can be cured elsewhere. Having said this, however I do believe that effective and cheap therapies will eventually become available to all. What we should strive is to upgrade our ethical standards as a society in parallel to upgrading our technological capabilities. The only viable future I see is one where wealth, knowledge and other assets of humanity are sanely distributed.

every year it's announced that the latest breakthroughs will lead to an end to cancer deaths. then after a couple of years reality sets in and it becomes just one more weapon in our arsenal which works sometimes on some people.

realistically, can you even get a cure through clinical trials and human testing and on the market within 7 years?

OR, we could open a new war on Iran and prolong the one on Iraq, and suck down all available cash.

why starts wars, masbury... with your kind of thinking - simply committing suicide should do the trick.

Also, you'll be happy to add to your collection of xxx has nothing to do with 9/11 - nanotechnology and yet we're moving in that direction.

and HUGE KUDOS to American scientific community for making it happen! That's the real story.

sounds way too optimistic to me. cancer consists of hundreds of cell types. just look at the past 30 years;
the odds of surviving most cancers is no better today.
sure there's been success with a few variants, but much of that is due to earlier detection.
there is not now, and will never be a universal cure for cancer in our lifetimes.
after losing my sister and mother to lung cancer, I have researched the disease from many angles; biochemical,
holistic, radiation, chemo etc. Advances have been slow, despite what the "feel good" folks from American Cancer society & National Cancer Institute try to tell you.

I guess the old saying "If you think you can or if you think you can't ...your right" comes to mind.

I always believe that if you approach a subject with a negative outlook i.e "we'll never achieve that" you never will.

Maybe people make claims that we will be free of cancer etc etc and maybe most will fail. But the more people who believe and attempt to banish it, the more the law of averages come into play and the better the odds of them succeeding.