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Why cancer science is more complex and difficult than rocket science

Q: Why is it impossible for scientists to invent a cure for cancer and other ailments?

Krishna: Some time back a rocket scientist said after reading an article about cancer, “Oh my! Cancer science is harder than rocket science!”
Yes, cancer science and drug discovery are often considered harder than rocket science because living biology is vastly more complex and less predictable than the laws of physics.

Why can rocket science be controlled and easy in comparison?

We know the rocket science rules very well. Rocket science relies on well-defined physical laws, like Newton's laws of motion and gravity.

Systems can be controlled. Engineers build machines from scratch using predictable materials and run extensive pre-launch tests, simulations, and redundancies.

We know the exact answers: Physics and engineering have clear, mathematical right and wrong answers.

Image source: Getty Images

And why is cancer science harder than the other ones in the field?

Because of highly complex living systems! A rocket is a machine, whereas a human body is made of trillions of interacting, evolving living cells. There are several genetic subtypes in cancers each with its own unique qualities.

The target always moves and changes like a chameleon in a living system. Cancer is not just one disease; it is a collection of genetic mutations that adapt, mutate, and build resistance to treatments.

The failure rates are very high because of the complexity. Developing a new medicine takes over 10 years and billions of dollars because biological systems are harder to model and predict than spaceflight. For example, research into treatments often faces dozens or hundreds of failed clinical trials before finding a safe and working cure.

The medicine is mostly probabilistic with regard to living begins. Unlike engineering, medical decisions often deal with uncertainty, human variability, and trial-and-error healing rather than strict formulas.

Cancer is not one disease. It is an umbrella term for more than 200 distinct diseases and countless genetic sub-types.

Reasons why a single cancer cure does not exist

It is not one disease: Cancer starts when normal cells develop genetic mutations, grow uncontrollably, and destroy healthy tissue. Breast cancer, lung cancer, leukemia, and melanoma all behave, spread, and respond to treatment differently.

Tumour heterogeneity: Cancer cells inside a single tumour are not identical. A treatment might kill 95% of the cells, while resistant or different sub-types of cells survive and multiply.

Genetic evolution and Drug Resistance: As cancer grows, it mutates. A therapy that works at first can stop working because the cancer adapts and builds resistance to chemotherapy, radiation, or targeted drugs.

Metastasis: When cancer spreads from its original site to other organs (metastasis), it becomes much harder to control or completely eliminate.

Cancer is made of your body’s own cells: Unlike bacterial or viral infections (like polio or smallpox), which come from outside the body, cancer comes from your own mutated cells. Destroying them without harming healthy organs is very difficult.

But still scientists are trying their very best and succeeded too in some cases.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy achieves complete remission rates of up to 80% to 100% in pediatric patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (1).

Similarly brain science and surgery. Neuroscience is devoid of formulas while rocket science is full of formulas and how to apply them.

It is easy to study Biology but difficult in the practical sense. Rocket science or physics, (rocket science is technically an applied multidisciplinary field rather than a standalone branch of pure physics, though) is a bit difficult to understand but easy to work with once you comprehend it correctly.

Okay, like always let me add this complaint in the end.

Cancer or any drug research needs lots of money.

People spend and donate a lot of money to religious purposes, art, music, sport and other entertainment. But if you ask them to give the money to scientific research, they tighten their purse strings.

Funds are being cut everywhere. Without money scientists can’t do much.

So get your priorities right first before complaining and questioning.

Footnotes:

1. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12398623/

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