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Comment by asdfasgasdgasdg | Hacker News Reader

Well that's fantastic news, and I'm glad to hear it. I expect we will more or less beat cancer someday, and heart disease too. Probably long after I'm gone, but I'm happy for future generations that will no longer have to fear this scourge. (Assuming we don't wipe ourselves out some other way first.)

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The sad thing is that most instances of cancer and heart disease are down to diet and lifestyle. We already have the "cure" to these conditions, but people won't take care of themselves.

No, we can barely convince people to take prescribed drug; we don't have effective intervention to change diet and lifestyle. If we had effective intervention to change people's diet, that would qualify as "cure" and would be a great boon; we don't.

Is that really true?

I mean, it might well be true that most people could live an extra 20 years with a suitable change of diet and lifestyle.

But even if that's the case, isn't everyone going to die of cancer or heart failure at the end of those extra 20 years?

No, you're absolutely incorrect that most cancer is down to lifestyle. As someone with cancer, I don't smoke, I never really drank, there's no history in my family for my type of cancer, and I haven't eaten meat in years. I've exercised more than the average person. Most cancer is due to dumb luck. The only cancers we know of that are attributable to lifestyle are basically lung cancers. Breast, Colon, Pancreatic, Stomach, Leukemia, etc. are all just dumb luck or family history. You obviously didn't read the article. We're only better at things we know how to screen for. Survival rates in Asia for Stomach cancer are significantly better than the US because they have regular screenings for it. The typical cases are salty diets, but Americans still get this even though we've changed our diets.

There's no "cure" for cancer as of yet, you can't even guarantee prevention. It's a combination of genetic damage and an immune system that gets prevented from stopping the proliferation of cancer cells because the cells mask themselves as healthy cells. In effect cancer is an immune disease, but that's not fully accurate. Saying it's down to lifestyle is like telling people who got the plague they should have just moved. We have barely more understanding about cancer causes than doctors at the time did about disease.

We now (since 2015) have approved PCSK9 inhibitors. We didn't know about PCSK9 until 2003. Gene to drug in 12 years! Yes, it's very exciting and I am very hopeful about heart disease.

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