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Cancer ‘vaccine’ eliminates tumors in mice

med.stanford.edu

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Re: Cancer ‘vaccine’ eliminates tumors in mice

#161

Post by epmaybe »

matte_black wrote: post #136
epmaybe wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My gut tells me that if the treatment is given for free (my original comment mentioned I was concerned if the company was charging for said treatments) then there's far less of a problem. However, there's still this incentive for a company to take advantage of this situation. Giving the treatment for free could technically be cheaper than providing the drug in a trial while also paying a participant.

So? Earlier human trials means faster to market drugs means competitive advantage.

Without being as vague, my main concern is that a pharmaceutical company could find value in business practices that put patients, even those with terminal illnesses, at an unacceptable risk of harm that the patient may not be cognizant of. If the company begins a campaign of fraudulent kickbacks to healthcare professionals we end up with a corrupt system in which we take advantage of patients and their families.

Medicine and medical research goes slowly and cautiously because we wish to protect people. To end this comment, I wish to go back to my statement that if this country goes in the direction of right to try, I sincerely hope lawmakers ensure protection of the patients that could benefit.

Re: Cancer ‘vaccine’ eliminates tumors in mice

#163

Post by stochastic_monk »

dsjoerg wrote: post #134
stochastic_monk wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This cancer is being evolutionarily selected for proliferation and resistance to regulation. It is being constantly engineered to destroy. See also epithelial to mesenchymal (ETM) transition, in which cells lose their anchors and become an entirely different kind of cell so that it can better infiltrate other parts of the body. It's pernicious and highly specialized because that's why it survives. And that's why ever…

Are you saying that cancers that are particularly good at their job are more likely to be passed on to the next generation in other people? By what mechanism does a cancer or a cancer mutation spread to the next person? EDIT: OK I've done some reading about cancer and evolution. Clearly there is an evolutionary process happening inside each person's body that "selects" for cancers that are good at their "job". Howeve…

You are right, I was referring to the fact that cancer cells are rewarded as being "more fit" in the body than their neighbors. By gorging themselves on resources and disabling the body's mechanisms for slowing growth, they are rewarded with proliferation.

Re: Cancer ‘vaccine’ eliminates tumors in mice

#164

Post by taneq »

danieltillett wrote: post #54
taneq wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't that just mean we don't know whether it works or not?

Yes, but I was responding to the OP that claimed we know how to cure cancer in mice, when we have never tried. I suspect that we are actually a lot better at curing real cancer in people than in mice.

Fair point, I was just saying there's still a good chance it'll work (at least if the induced tumors are anything like 'natural' tumors.) Very interested in seeing how this goes, either way.

Re: Cancer ‘vaccine’ eliminates tumors in mice

#165

Post by taneq »

vkou wrote: post #148
jcims wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks so much for this heartfelt comment. The personification of cancer as an enemy didn't really click with me until my family was directly threatened by it. Reading through the drugs in her chemo cocktail, I come across bevacizumab. A little bit of googling and: A cancer needs a good blood supply to provide itself with food and oxygen and to remove waste products. When it has reached 1 to 2mm across, a tumour need…

> This thing isn't just some dumb pathogen floating around that just DoSes your body. It's digging tunnels and cutting phone lines. It has strategy. The cancers that haven't mutated to emit VEGF don't survive to grow and kill you. It's natural selection, not intelligence.

Natural selection is a form of intelligence (aka directed goal-seeking).

Re: Cancer ‘vaccine’ eliminates tumors in mice

#166

Post by invalid-access »

cryoshon wrote: post #104
dazc wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a regular man in the street, how excited should I be about this? What's the chance of this developing into a regular treatment for most types of cancers, within, say, the next ten years?

as a former immunooncology scientist i'd say you should be guardedly optimistic. you should be aware that there probably won't be a generalized cancer cure, but i think we'll be starting to tackle a lot of different cancers in the next 2-3 years, just like we have been for the previous 3-5 years. beyond that, who knows. immunotherapies don't work for 100% of people or 100% of cancers, and some cancers seem to grow re…

Thanks for the info!

For people outside this field of work like me (a software / cleantech guy), is there a concise spreadsheet to show the state-of-the-art?

i.e. Listing different types of cancers with the most promising immunotherapy treatments for each type, expected confidence and success rates, trials that one can enroll into?

It'd be a good first place to go to whenever we hear of someone who has 'cancer' - that word is so generic that it's hard to figure out what our action item should be.

Re: Cancer ‘vaccine’ eliminates tumors in mice

#167

Post by SubiculumCode »

hwillis wrote: post #77
jcims wrote: post #55

Writing this from a squeaky recliner set beside my wife’s bed in the oncology department of a local research hospital. Three weeks ago she had a radical hysterectomy and partial lymphadenectomy to treat stage IIIc ovarian cancer, and we’re back to try to aid her in her recovery to prepare for chemotherapy. Chemo should start next week, but we are hoping to also participate in a clinical trial for atezolizumab. This i…

Squeeze her hand for a stranger. Every person who has lost someone to cancer, and everyone who has survived it, and all of the people who watched that fight- all of us have her back and stand with her. She's fighting one of the hardest battles put to a person, and she has our respect and awe. I saw my friend at his weakest, and also when he was stronger than anyone I've ever known. It's been years but still, I'm cryi…

Fuck cancer.

Re: Cancer ‘vaccine’ eliminates tumors in mice

#169

Post by mitchtbaum »

jhiska wrote: post #168

Whenever you hear about amazing breakthroughs in medicine, look to see if it is an animal study. Those usually do not translate into results in humans. Do not get your hopes up just yet.

> Those usually do not translate into results in humans.

Why would that be the case?

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