PhD Comics Explains the Problem of the "Cure" for Cancer

PhD Comics is a comic strip that's really popular amongst people in graduate school (particulaly the sciences) because it finds the humor in our lives, and the way people perceive them. The writer is actually has his PhD and started to pursue an career in academic research before he determined this to be a profitable endeavor. Interestingly, the prestigious journal Science recently did a profile of Piled Higher and Deeper (actual name) where I found out more about the author.

I appreciated the comic strip below because I often get frustrated when I hear people talking about finding a 'cure' for cancer. It leads me to believe that people lack proper understanding of cancer specifically and medicine/science in general. For reasons better than I can explain, the comic sums up why a 'cure' is a false goal.

If you get a chance, also look at this one here, making fun of how TV bastardizes what science can actually accomplish (and how fast). I feel this whenever I watch Bones and see them take a piece of tissue under the microscope and what appears is a perfect sectioned and stained tissue sample that would take me a minimum of 3 days to recreate (much more if I have to decalcify the bone)...