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In 1971 Richard Nixon declared The War on Cancer, appropriated $100 million and hoped it would be won within a decade. Why has this not happened?

Cancer is the result of normal cells going wrong. The ingredients that make a cancer cell are found in every other cell type in the body.  When a cancer cell grows and divides it relies on the body to provide it with oxygen and food, and also to remove all its nasty waste products.  This is like any other cell, and because of this the body happily responds in a predictable way. Blood vessels carry nutrients all around the body, and the tumour tells blood vessels to grow closer and closer, and eventually into the cancer itself. This is an entirely normal response, and in healthy people it is generally only found in embryonic development, exercise training, and phases of the reproductive cycle. So Cancer uses the methods that make the body grow.

Andrew Benest is involved in research using the human immune system and common viruses to attack cancer cells.