My unfounded $0.02 is that the best way to beat cancer is the same as the best way to beat HIV: multidrug targeted molecular therapy to prevent resistance. This is currently mostly a pipe dream as our targeted molecular therapies are few.

Early detection is useful if you can treat appropriately. Early detection of HIV (where 'early' means no AIDS-defining illness) is an example here. Early detection is a tool, but it's not the point. It's the debates, but not the election.

Again, I am not a cancer biologist but the parallels have long struck me. The goal IMHO is to make cancer a typical chronic disease that you live with but can tolerate for decades. Perhaps I am not dreaming big enough, but I think this would be a huge stepping stone. If you can cure a cancer already, of course, by all means do so.