My mother has been an oncology nurse specializing in chemotherapy for most of my life, I grew up hearing about a first person view of cancer treatment. Her patients typically lack insurance, come from the lower classes. Nonetheless, my mother goes out of her way every day to make everyone she meets as comfortable and at ease as possible. I know how expensive the drugs used in cancer care are, and how chemo cycles without insurance can be devastating financially.

Recently, I asked my mother how she'd feel if they did just cure the entire zoo of cancers and she'd be out of the job.
She said she wouldn't care if all she could do was greet at Wal-Mart if it meant that the people she sees every day didn't need these treatments.

I also have to comment, that the survival rates for most cancers are on the uprise. There are some types of cancer that I don't make much of a deal about after growing up hearing the survival rates for each kind. Others, though...
An aunt of mine had Hodgekins twenty years ago, recently they found tumors taking up most of her digestive track. All together, these tumors would be the size of a volleyball, this is in a five foot hundred twenty pound woman mind you.
...As of last week, she's in remission and was barely halfway through chemo.
Do you think the medical industry is going to be ticked that we only paid for half a chemo cycle? Was the chemotherapy nurse smiling through her teeth when she told us?

I'll say it right now, the medical industry isn't all in the right with what they charge and their testing procedures. But when it comes to cancer, I'm unfortunately born into that kind of world.