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Cancer is mostly a problem of genetics as we age. Most people get cancer when they are older and is probably caused by genetic mutation that occurs as a natural part of genetic replication.
Your genes copy themselves so many billions of times a day. I think it's trillions per year or something. Every time the DNA separates to make new copies there is a chance of a mistake. Most of these mistakes are harmless or at least they seem to be. As the mistakes add up however they materialize as various diseases.
In the case of children with cancer it is often a specific bad gene or serious of mutations passed on by the parent that mean the child will develop cancer early on.
It all comes down to DNA and it is very hard to fix. You are going to have to engineer a virus to replace these genes. We have done this with a few disease but it's very difficult. I expect when they have a breakthrough and find a fix it all type of virus delivery system this is when you will see real cancer cures.
While we wait a decade or 2 for this cancer vaccines may be the best bet or maybe treatments live we have for HIV where you are on lifetime meds. It sucks but it's not a scam. It's just that genetic engineering is not so easy.
Of course this means that when we really get permanent cures for cancer we are also going to have cures for hundreds of other things and we might even be changing our eye and hair color or how strong we want our bones to be.
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