Question: which do you believe will be discovered sooner?: a cure for cancer, or a cure for AIDS?

Wei Xun answered on 13 Jun 2011:

Hmm, that’s a very good question. If I had to, I’d put my money on AIDs cures.

AIDs is caused by a virus, the Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). It hides in and destroys the immune cells that are meant to defend us against things like bacteria and viruses, which is why it is so hard to treat. But we have drugs that can control the virus, contraception to stop the spread and even a vaccine to prevent people from getting infected (http://www.iavi.org/Pages/home.aspx). There are even reports of people evolving to be immune to HIV naturally. I really hope that in my lifetime, AIDs will be well controlled so it doesn’t harm anywhere near as many people now.

In contrast, cancer is a group of different diseases, even something like lung cancer can be broken down into groups, depending on where the tumour is, which cells they have originated from, how they grow etc. Which means there might be many different causes that can all work together. We’re still trying to work out all the background stuff before we can hope to control or change them. Also older people are more likely to get cancer, which looks like it’s partly to do with the aging process, we can’t stop that (yet)!