Cell Language Theory, The: Connecting Mind And Matter

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“6x9” b2861 The Cell Language Theory: Connecting Mind and Matter

would further add to the unmanageable complexity of the picture.

Following the high hopes of the development and utilization of various

large scale -omics technologies, the long expected clear-cut under-

standing of cancer is actually fading away.... What is the real prob-

lem? Not enough molecular data yet? No suitable model for data

analyses? Or on an even more serious note, has there been a wrong

conceptual framework all along? (7.1)

Of the three possible explanations for the “cancer paradox” that Heng

is conceptualizing, I think that the last possibility is the most likely expla-

nation, i.e., a wrong conceptual framework for not only cancer research,

but also for the biomedical science research and education, in general.

7.1.1 The Inefficiency of the Current Methods of Drug Development

One evidence for the “wrong conceptual framework” of the contemporary

biomedical science, I think, is provided by the inefficiency of the current

drug development research. According to Bain & Company [298], the cost

of developing a new drug is estimated to be $1.7 billion and it takes 12–16

years to complete a drug development process from the compound discov-

ery stage to marketing. The overall attrition rate for developing a drug is

calculated to be 10,000:1. According to another survey, the United States

invested a total of $25 billion in 2000 on the research and development for

pharmaceuticals and produced only 11 new drugs on the market in that

year, costing the US pharmaceutical industry $2.3 billion per new drug. In

addition, once a drug is approved by the FDA, the success rate of drug

treatment is only 30–60% [299]: Only about 50% of the patients treated

with drugs respond favorably.

7.1.2 Precision Medicine

In his State of the Union Address on January 30, 2015, President Obama

launched the Precision Medicine Initiative with the following statement:

Doctors have always recognized that every patient is unique, and doc-

tors have always tried to tailor their treatments as best they can to

individuals. You can match a blood transfusion to a blood type — that

was an important discovery. What if matching a cancer cure to our

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