Thousands of people across the world are diagnosed each day with the most dreaded disease: cancer. And despite the illness still killing massive numbers of people each year, many are becoming hopeful that a cure could be just around the corner.

Of course, curing the disease is simpler than it might sound. There are over 200 types of cancers, and each one is essentially a different illness than the others.

Still, with a massive amount of global brainpower devoted to decoding the mystifying disease, there are some signs that we are tantalizingly close to a cure for it – at least in some form.

Scientists revealed in recent days that a vaccine developed at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan could prevent pancreatic cancer from returning after surgery – a major development that could significantly increase life expectancy for sufferers and raises hopes for a total cure.

The news came on the heels of a drug being trialed at the same hospital to treat colorectal cancer curing every single patient that has been tested with it thus far. The sample size is only 12 right now, but it is still a massive step forward in treating that form of cancer – and perhaps all types of cancers.

Cancer is currently mainly treated with chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and then surgery – all of which could have terrible effects on the body. But increasingly, doctors are able to treat patients with specialized therapies based on genetic or other abnormalities in a patient’s tumor, with treatments matched up based on those markers.

The drug being used in the colorectal cancer trial at Memorial Sloan Kettering is just one of those – it is being given specifically to patients whose tumors exhibit a specific genetic abnormality, and thus far, the results are astounding.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)