Is there a cure for cancer? If not what would a person need to do to reach that point?

im 13 yrs old im so exciting when i grow up i want to do some kind of research for AIDS or cancer? What would i need to study, etc...

Is there a cure for cancer? If not what would a person need to do to reach that point?
You'd want a Ph.D. in one of the biomedical sciences; biochemistry, cell biology, pharmacology, and microbiology would all be possibilities. Having an M.D. also couldn't hurt, and might help, but isn't necessary for research. Doing good research without a Ph.D. is not incredibly likely, but there are certainly examples of folks who've made major contributions without a Ph.D.





There is no cure for cancer, cancer being many many different diseases none of which is possible to detect before it's difficult to cure and none of which is easily completely eliminated from the body. There have been some remarkable advances in treatment, though, and your generation will make more of them.





So, you'd want a college degree with math through calculus and differential equations, biology courses, first year physics, chemistry, organic chemistry, physical chemistry perhaps, and biochemistry would help a lot.





To get to that point, you shouldn't take any shortcuts in high school. Take the biology, chemistry, and physics, take the math through calculus. And good luck! I've been doing research science for over 30 years and it doesn't stop being fun. I've been lucky enough to be in labs that made some contributions to cancer research or where someone won a Nobel Prize in medicine, and it can be very exciting rewarding work.
Reply:Good for you son! We need more researchers. You should study chemistry, physics, and of course biology. Do not neglect your writing classes (a lot of scientists and engineers I know should have focused a bit more on them). Also, don't focus on any one particular area too much, even if you know that you want to study cancer and HIV. We have many scientists from many fields who study these afflictions. I am a biomedical engineer who designs drugs to combat all sorts of illnesses. I did my graduate work on anti-retro-viral drug synthesis (now standard in HIV treatment), and I'm currently working on drugs for certain types of lung cancer, and pain management drugs. Other types of scientists I work with include biochemists, biophysicists, biologists, chemists, organic chemists, physical chemists, etc, etc. There are dozens of sub-specialties that would allow you to help the fight against these diseases, so focus on learning the basics.
Reply:Medicine.
Reply:medicine, biology





Helps if you have a MD