Cancer is probably the number one research area among all human endeavors, receiving the largest portion of science funding in most countries. This is because cancer remains one of the oldest conundrums among all human maladies. Although we now have a greater understanding of the biological and molecular basis of cancer, its diagnosis and therapy still pose great challenges. | Turkish Journal of Biology Turk J Biol (2014) 38: 701-707 © TÜBİTAK doi: Review Article Triumph or tragedy: progress in cancer 1 2, Ayşe Şebnem ERENLER , Hikmet GEÇKİL * Department of Biology, İnönü University, Malatya, Turkey 2 Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, İnönü University, Malatya, Turkey 1 Received: Accepted: Published Online: Printed: Abstract: Cancer is probably the number one research area among all human endeavors, receiving the largest portion of science funding in most countries. This is because cancer remains one of the oldest conundrums among all human maladies. Although we now have a greater understanding of the biological and molecular basis of cancer, its diagnosis and therapy still pose great challenges. In this review, our aim is not to establish a comprehensive understanding of cancer, which is essentially impossible, but to outline, in a more provocative way, why cancer research in the pursuit of a cure did not live up to its promise, as the death rate from cancer has not changed much after almost half a century. In addition, we discuss some future perspectives to give some insight into cancer research and debunk the old view that pouring money into cancer research is the only way to overcome this dreadful disease. Key words: Cancer, cancer research, cancer statistics, progress in cancer, cancer publications 1. Introduction The term ‘carcinos’, meaning ‘cancer’, was first used by Hippocrates (460–370 BC) long before the terms ‘biology’, ‘chemistry’, or ‘physics’ were around. The causes of this disease have puzzled researchers and practitioners from the earliest times to date. Today, there is no single metabolic pathway or signal transduction network that cancer has not been associated with. Cancer is regarded as a group of complex genetic disorders resulting from mutations at multiple genetic loci and discovery of an
