system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why is cancer research so expensive?

Where is all the money from fundraisers and charities going?
gpt
Cancer is not one disease, it is a huge variety of different diseases.  People who study cancer and develop treatments are doctors (MD and PhD) who require a lot of expensive education.  They are assisted by technicians that also have expensive educations.  The lab equipment they use is very expensive.  Tests of new treatments and drugs take a long time and require extensive oversight and documentation.  FDA approval of new treatments takes a long time.  Equipment to synthesize and manufacture new drugs is expensive.

On top of that, millions may be spent pursuing new treatments that are ultimately determined to be failures, requiring researchers to abandon them and start over.

On top of that, many charities may not actually devote much of their earnings to research.  Use charitynavigator.com to research charities to see how they spend their money.