Ronnie James Dio Diagnosed with Cancer

[Tig***]

Wow, I didn't expect this news. It's sometimes hard to realize that the guys we grew up listening to are in their 60's now.

Full article
Iconic metal singer Ronnie James Dio has been diagnosed with stomach cancer, his wife and manager reports. Concerns were first raised about the 65-year-old's health when Dio's UK tour was cancelled at short notice last week, and it was announced the shows would not be rescheduled.

Wendy Dio said at the time her husband had been hospitalised, but provided no more details except to thank well-wishers for their messages of support. Now she reports: "Ronnie has been diagnosed with the early stages of stomach cancer. We are starting treatment immediately at the Mayo Clinic."

[FrankenFretter***]

Wow, that sucks. So many icons from my youth have passed away recently; Farrah, Mikey Jackson, David Carradine...

[sumitomo]

Oh man,We need to kick this Cancers butt!!!I'll be lifting Ronnie up in prayer,I hear stomach cancer can be very painful.Sumi

[Commodore 64***]

OMG NOOOOOOOOOOOO!

<3 Dio

[Tone2TheBone]

You'd think by now they'd have found cures for "cancer". Also what about all that money that gets raised every Labor Day Weekend? MD is still a threat?

[Tig***]

You'd think by now they'd have found cures for "cancer". Also what about all that money that gets raised every Labor Day Weekend? MD is still a threat?

I'll try to keep this as non-political as possible...
The giant pharmaceutical companies are in the business of selling treatments, but not necessarily curing people. A patient that needs your product for the rest of their life is money in the bank, but a cured patient no longer needs you. In the 5 years following pharmaceutical company TV advertising in the US, prescriptions have more than doubled. I believe that some scripts heal insecurity more then an actual ailment in many patients. "Ask you doctor about _______." commercials blanket TV, and use the number one best seller, fear! (source: The Science of Fear by Daniel Gardner)

Anyway, stem cell research and medicine comes along and threatens the pharmaceutical corporations, because it has the potential to actually cure you in some situations, with your own body! Let's stay away from stem cell sources for the sake of keeping this fairly non-political, but I have to mention one important detail that can't be ignored: Anti-stem cell lobbies are funded by pharmaceutical corporations. A simple fact.

The good news is, stem cell research and cures are being made from non-embryo stem cells, even though the process take significantly longer. This is medicine's future, and there's no way we can not embrace the possibilities. So many of the currently incurable conditions and diseases like cancer, MS, MD, etc., may be controlled, prevented, or cured over the next few decades.

Yes, pharmaceuticals will be necessary for a long time. Ask anyone who is still alive because of beta blockers, cholesterol lowering statins or other critical medicines. I'd be at a high risk for esophageal cancer if I didn't take a PPI (proton pump inhibitor) daily.

What I have an issue with, are the medicines that cause many more side effects that have a greater threat to your health than the original problem caused, as well as the trend to "get people hooked" by the pharmaceutical giants.

Sorry for being so long winded and opinionated.
/rant

[Kodiak3D]

First off, best wishes to Ronnie James Dio. I heard about his stomach cancer last week. He is truly one of the icons of rock and metal and I hope he continues to be for many more years.

On to science!

From a scientific point of view (my "mad scientist" moniker isn't just for fun, it's my job) cancer is incredibly difficult to deal with. When it comes to CURING a disease, typically it means destroying something that has invaded your body (such as a virus or a bacteria) or correcting a disorder (such as muscular dystrophy, but that's another story). With cancer it's not that simple. Cancer cells are still YOUR cells, which is why your own immune system does nothing to stop their growth. Finding something that will destroy cancer cells but not your other healthy cells is very difficult. That's why chemo treatments are so horrible and are done over several visits. The chemo is killing the tumor, but it's also harming YOU.

Also, money alone doesn't cure disease. It takes research...often lots of it, and research can be very expensive. Also remember that on a grander scale, we're still very early in our evolution of medical science. "Modern" medicine has really only been around for 70 years or so, which may sound like a long time to us, but in the big picture, it's really very small. Not long ago, before the discovery of streptomycin in 1946, tuberculosis was a death sentence. Now, even HIV is now at least treatable, and there are human trials going on right now of a viable vaccination that is showing promise. Trust me, science is working on cures for everything that it can.

I'll come down off my high horse now, but I felt that, as a scientist, I should come to the defense of science.

[Tone2TheBone]

Oh yes of course I want to send mojo to Ronnie with this situation. I am hopeful he can come through victoriously with as much energy as he puts into his music in order to fight this. Meant to say this on my original post sorry. Good responses on the medical stuff though too guys.

[Tig***]

On to science!

I'll come down off my high horse now, but I felt that, as a scientist, I should come to the defense of science.

No need to defend science! Actually, I was more on the attack against certain marketing practices than anything else. I tried to generalize my rantings to cut back on the volume of text at the cost of accuracy.

You are right that cancer/CA treatments are quite different than other diseases and conditions. I'd have to ask my researcher doc friends who work at MD Anderson for better details, but some cancers even have viral links.

Between my past medical work and my wife's daily nursing experiences, I get a little opinionated when it comes to healthcare, or did anyone notice that?

[Kodiak3D]

Not going to argue with you about shady marketing practices. I'm fully on board with you there.