If in reality scientists found a cure for cancer, and it was readily available to everyone, how do you think that would effect society?

Extending the lives of many retirees would put a burden on the economy, causing the government to extend the age at which you can receive Social Security.

Since ‘cancer’ is a general term, encompassing many different diseases, I think there probably won’t ever be one single cure(unless nanobots or something work out)... so no, I don’t think all the specialists would immediately be out of work. Bad habits- I dunno, plenty of people keep the bad habits now, with no cure. Maybe that would make a difference, but for me personally, I wouldn’t be inclined to take up smoking again even if there was a cure.

Assuming that it would be available to everyone. Which is a massive assumption.
For example, with South Africa’s aids epidemic, they decided to manufacture their own generic version of anti-hiv drugs, and were promptly sued by big pharma.
The same happened when Brazil tried to do the same.

It would greatly speed up the ill effects of Earth’s over-population.

There is a possibility that through DNA research that cancer will one day be preventable through alteration of a person’s genetic blueprint by some yet to be discovered method or treatment.

At our present rate of overconsumption of the world’s resources and destruction to the planets’ health, I don’t think we’ll reach a cure or prevention point unless we reel ourselves back in before nature’s self cleansing forces are activated to rid itself of the plague of humanity.

Don’t mean to sound like a doomsdayer but the industrial age and its byproducts are beginning to seem like an attack on nature that is going to have drastic consequences in the coming years.

Well, currently they’re experimenting curing cancer with modified T-cells (a type of white blood cell). These cells target the cancer cells and kill them off- so far, from what I’ve seen, the results look quite promising.
It would extend life expectancy, but we would still have many other diseases to combat, such as heart disease, diabetes and many others.
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/36994/title/Tumor-Targeting-T-Cells-Engineered/

It would never be released. The drug would be suppressed.

The cancer “industry”—by this I mean oncologists, treatment centers, insurance companies, nurses, etc. – all those people and companies that profit every day from the the people who suffer from cancer – would lobby very hard to suppress the drugs because it would put them out of jobs.

I don’t think we would ever see such a drug released, because of the all the money that would be lost,

Why would prisoners not be able to take advantage of this cure? They get treatment for diabetes, HIV, and other illnesses while in prison. They still have the right not to die from treatable illnesses.

@elbanditoroso No. If such a cure were developed it would be far too valuable to the “industry” to not market. Plus it doesn’t matter if the doctor cures all his patients today. Tomorrow there will be new patients, always.

At least here in the U.S., the cure wouldn’t be readily available to everyone. The cost would be prohibitively high to consumers, so only those who can afford the price would have access. The masses of the uninsured would be denied treatment. Most physicians want nothing to do with Medicaid recipients, so those people, too, would be out of the loop.

I thought cancer cannot exist in an alkaline environment so all you have to do is change your PH to alkaline and you will most likely get well. No?

^ That is complete hokum, @Aster

Depends on how simple it is… Like consuming a preparation of nasturtiums and beer, or avoiding all sweeteners natural and otherwise. Then it might go viral before someone can control it.
But you can bet that one way or another Monsanto and Pfizer will want a piece of it.