Burnet 15 has alluded to the current illusion, that what can happen in E. coli can also be made to happen in an elephant . Cure of cancer through gene- manipulation is as tall an order as that. And the incontrovertible facts that we do have, are enough to carry us all towards an understanding of cancer. The result, therefore of all this research has been essentially unhelpful towards the elucidation either of the cause or the cure of cancer. Contemplative cancer research requires three qualities - the humility to consider man on par with other animals, the comprehensive approach of a generalist and from these two, the acceptance of cancer as a part of living, and dying.
Cancer is researchable, but only at the level of understanding.
To the frontiersmen of science, Ardrey 160 points out, the discovery of natural laws meant no more than that we had come to know certain forces governing the dispositions of man. The 'hoi-polloiness' of cancer scientists has been charitably described by Burnet 5 as a beneficient trait, devoid of biological scholarship.