Many patients are concerned about this question: Can cancer be cured? In order to clarify this question, let’s first clarify the concept of “cure”. In China, what patients and their families call a cure is usually like this: “After some kind of miracle treatment, my cancer will never come back and metastasize again”. So, does such a “cure” actually exist? To illustrate this, let’s talk about a cold. If you go to the doctor with a cold today, and the doctor says take the medicine, you will be fine in three days after taking my medicine. You ask, “Can you guarantee that if I take your medicine, I will never get a cold in my life?” What do you think the doctor will say? The doctor will say: “Forget it, I don’t think you need to take the cold medicine, go to the next room, the psychiatrist next door is quite good”. That’s the joke of modern medicine. Doctors can’t guarantee that you will never get a cold. So, don’t talk about never getting cancer. With this in mind, let’s consider the fact that we get colds every year, several times a year, but we never ask our doctors to “cure” them. On the contrary, most of us will not get cancer once in our lifetime, so why are we so insistent on curing cancer? The answer is that everyone knows that colds are not life-threatening, but cancer is. Isn’t that what we all think? You must think so too, right? Wrong. Why is it wrong? It’s easy to understand when you think about it. From 1976 to the present, the lowest case of death from influenza is about 3,000 cases per year, and the highest is more than 40,000 people died from influenza in a year. Who says colds don’t kill you? If we look at cancer, it’s even more interesting. We all know a few acquaintances who got cancer, got treated, and are now 10 to 20 years old and doing well. Right? In Japan, 50% of the patients with stomach cancer will never get stomach cancer again after treatment. Who says cancer has to be fatal? So from a practical point of view, colds can be life-threatening and so can cancer. Why do we never ask for a cure for colds, but want to cure cancer? I believe you must have the right answer. This answer is actually called “probability”. This is the core issue I want to talk about —- probability. What is the probability of death from influenza, 7%! That is to say, 100 people get the flu, only 7 will die. What is the death rate of cancer, in China, 70%! 100 Chinese with cancer, about 70 will die from cancer. 70% versus 7%, and all the difference comes from that percentage difference. The problem with medicine, in many cases, is that it is a matter of probability. The Chinese, on the other hand, have a very poor scientific understanding of probability. You must be laughing again, oh, who doesn’t know about probability, it’s a child’s play. Really? Don’t read further, but what is the most important characteristic of probability? Think about it, what is it? Don’t know, right? Let me tell you. The greatest characteristic of probability is two, one, called certainty; two, called uncertainty. Some people already do not understand. Never mind, I’ll explain. Let’s start with certainty. For example, let’s say China has another flu this year, and about 100,000 people in the country have the flu, how many of these people will die from the flu, do you think? By the way, it is said above, 100,000 x 7% = 7,000, about 7,000 people will die from the flu. Will not a single person die? That’s impossible, right? Will 20,000 people die? This is also not possible. That’s the certainty of probability, that what the probability describes, it will happen, and it will happen within the range of values described by the probability. And then there is uncertainty. Let’s take this example: 100,000 people get the flu, and we now know that about 7,000 people will die from the flu. So, please help us predict which 7,000 of these 100,000 people will die from the flu? The man next door was hospitalized yesterday with the flu, so with your experience and knowledge, guess if he will die or not? You must have laughed again, how can you guess this? This is the uncertainty of probability, although you know that 7% of people will die from the flu, but at the beginning of their illness, you certainly have no way to predict, in the end, who is who, will be the unlucky 7%. This officially brings us back to the question, can cancer be cured? The doctor’s answer is that according to the principle of certainty, there is a 30% chance that cancer will be cured. But unfortunately, according to the uncertainty principle, only God knows if you are among the lucky 30%. Some people may start to feel indignant, “If God is the only one who knows, why should I spend money to see a doctor? Yes, with all the money spent, the doctor doesn’t even know if it can be cured or not. Anyone who obsesses about this issue is actually not thinking in terms of probability. The traditional way of thinking of Chinese people is black or white, such as film and television works are either good guys or bad guys, such as our leaders, always tall and big, the only drawback, or too hardworking and do not know how to love their bodies. So many people just habitually think, I spent money to buy the hospital services and drugs, then you should give me a cure. In fact, what you have spent money on is only the service and medicine itself, but no one can guarantee that you will be cured. So why should I see a doctor? Let’s go back to the probability. Take the example of Master Liu’s flu hospitalization next door. The average person only knows that there is a 7% chance that he will die, but after the hospitalization, the doctor, through his knowledge, may determine that the probability of his death is 50% because he also has a serious heart condition; then, through the right treatment, the probability of his death is reduced to 20%. That’s the value of medicine; that’s the value you’re paying for. A doctor’s diagnosis and treatment can turn 7 percent into 5 percent, and can turn 70 percent into 60 percent. The probability of what you know or get, is changed by the doctor. As for specialists, the value of specialists lies in the fact that they change the probabilities, more accurately and by a greater margin. Finally, coming back to the question of whether cancer can be cured, we now know that the exact formulation of the question should be something like, what percent of cancers can be cured? The answer is very specific, for example, more than 90% of early gastric cancer can be cured, while the possibility of curing advanced gastric cancer is less than 2%. In addition, I would like to list a few questions that I often struggle with without thinking about probability for the benefit of readers: ①Why did my cancer come back, did the surgeon not cut me clean? ②I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it didn’t work, the hospital is no good! ③Do something for me, spend as much money as you want, as long as you can cure me! ④My family’s who’s who, poor thing, walking in and lying down, it’s all because of this murderous hospital that’s killing people!