[austinjp]

An oncologist gave a friend of mine the ridiculous opinion that there would be a cure for cancer within 5 years. That was 6 years ago.

I say ridiculous because medicine is awash with similar predictions, the vast majority of which have never come true, or materialise far far later than anticipated.

The future does indeed look bright... from the very specific perspective of the researchers. Unfortunately if you are someone actually living with lung cancer or pancreatic cancer, for example, that bright future suddenly looks a lot murkier.

Fortunately my friend remains in remission, while I remain flabbergasted at the irresponsibility of that oncologist.

[robryk]

"Cure for cancer" or "cure for that particular cancer"? First one sounds bizarre (cancer is a set of diseases that are generally similar, but very different in specifics), second is essentially already true for some kinds of cancer (e.g. testicular cancer in males).