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Ask HN: A friend has brain cancer: any bio hacks that worked?

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Re: Ask HN: A friend has brain cancer: any bio hacks that worked?

#191

Post by EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK »

lambdaphagy wrote: post #119
lambdaphagy wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My impression formed from my time in cancer drug discovery is that bro science is, within practical bounds, a perfectly reasonable option for one arm of a comprehensive plan for treatment. A lot of things that sound like bro science are actually broadly supported in the literature. But studying this stuff is hard because of all of the usual issues with human subjects, the less than complete reliability of our epistem…

To give a practical example, grapefruit juice contains some compounds that inhibit CYP3A4, a metabolic enzyme that influences the metabolism and absorption of many drugs, which is why many prescriptions tell you not to drink it while taking a given medication. This interaction was not discovered until 1989, and not reported until two years after that. So before 1991, a simple dietary intervention that affected like h…

Is it juice specifically that should be avoided? What about grapefruit in solid form? Pomelo?

Re: Ask HN: A friend has brain cancer: any bio hacks that worked?

#192

Post by ballooney »

znpy wrote: post #53
alecst wrote: post #10

I'm really sorry to hear that. Since you're asking for moonshots and weird things to try, here's something they can ask their doctor about: > Case reports involving glioblastoma patients using water-only fasting regimens in conjunction with other forms of cancer treatment have reported favorable outcomes with respect to tumor growth https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2874558/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articl…

There was an episode from “diary of a ceo” (don’t let the title fool you) where a scientist was making similar remarks: https://youtu.be/VaVC3PAWqLk I wouldn’t usually post these kind of things, but since OP is asking for moonshots i’ll take a chance. Best of luck to your friend!

You still shouldn’t post that kind of thing. Especially not that fraudulent bullshitter host.

Re: Ask HN: A friend has brain cancer: any bio hacks that worked?

#193

Post by totallynothoney »

Beyond the obvious fact that wasting the last of your friend's life by pushing him to become a one-subject experiment from a random pubmed article is bad. HN is a tech nerd VC forum, and as a rule, nobody here knows anything about medicine. Even if there are one or two actual subject matter experts in this thread, you can't distinguish them from every idiot who thinks they are god's chosen genius because mommy got them an Apple II when they were kids. If, and only if, he's interested himself, try to get him into a clinical trial; don't get Zika virus from who knows where for the love of God. You'll be a good friend to him during this time. Best of luck.

(4 vaguely related people getting the same aggressive brain tumor sounds worrying)

Re: Ask HN: A friend has brain cancer: any bio hacks that worked?

#194

Post by anigbrowl »

serf wrote: post #154
OPisntauthority wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone wants to be reminded of their situation or turn major aspects of their life into a struggle.

first: the person who doesn't want to be reminded is probably not the person that is approaching you and actively telling you that they are approaching the end of their life. second: speaking to them about their plight isn't the struggle; DEATH IS -- and we're all in that same boat.

Telling people that you're terminally ill doesn't necessarily mean you're desperate to avoid death. It can be that you want to make the most of the time you have left, or ask for help with doing that, or need reassurances about protecting loved ones, a legacy, getting creative or scholarly work out into the world, or need help dealing with your fears/regrets or...many other things.

I don't get this existential fear of death many people have. Entropy is a fundamental fact fo existence. I think a lot of people are fer less concerned with dying as such than they are with minimizing the suffering, loss of autonomy, or inability to prepare that often precedes it.

Re: Ask HN: A friend has brain cancer: any bio hacks that worked?

#195

Post by farseer »

63 wrote: post #115

You may not like hearing this, but the best thing you can do for him is be a supportive friend and try to make him happy when you get the time to. You are not an expert on brain cancer. You will not become an expert on brain cancer before he dies. You know who is an expert on brain cancer? His oncologist. I know grief is hard and you're motivated by your love for the people in your life, but there isn't some cheap ha…

His Oncologist is definitely an expert but is not allowed to practice unorthodox moonshot treatments or unproven "hacks" at the risk of loosing his license. This is a desperate situation, and there is no harm in trying something, anything. I am sure his friend doesn't want people around him to give up on him either.

Re: Ask HN: A friend has brain cancer: any bio hacks that worked?

#196

Post by totallynothoney »

hsuduebc2 wrote: post #142
lambdaphagy wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My impression formed from my time in cancer drug discovery is that bro science is, within practical bounds, a perfectly reasonable option for one arm of a comprehensive plan for treatment. A lot of things that sound like bro science are actually broadly supported in the literature. But studying this stuff is hard because of all of the usual issues with human subjects, the less than complete reliability of our epistem…

I love that someone asks for advice. Even for individual experience because he is miserable and some people are basically like "Nah just die. It would be uNeThIcaL."

Time is precious.

Re: Ask HN: A friend has brain cancer: any bio hacks that worked?

#197

Post by JumpCrisscross »

mllev wrote: post #178
_DeadFred_ wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

↑This. Stop. No. Don't go down the false hope path. It's cruel AF and puts off acceptance, wasting time that they can put to better use post acceptance. Maybe let your friend explore what they want to do and you just give support. Celebrate what they celebrate and cry with them when they cry. Find(or better make) them some comfy/cute hats. If you want to research the things about the hospital, the procedures they are…

I guess hope can be false now.

> guess hope can be false now

"Hope is false if it is based on ignorance of the correct assessment of the probability that a desire is fulfilled or on ignorance with regard to the desirability of the object of desire. Hope is justified—realistic—when the hoping person knows and accepts experts’ judgement about the probability of hope fulfillment. However, I argued, what matters for evaluating a person’s hope is not only whether it is realistic, but also whether it is reasonable in light of the aim and goals for which the person strives in (the remainder of) his life

...a person’s hope that an (experimental) treatment may prolong his or her life or improve the quality of his or her life can only be called false when he or she thinks that the chances of personal benefits are greater than those estimated by experts. If he or she does accept their judgement, continuing to hope is realistic. Hope is moreover reasonable if it contributes to realizing what a person strives for in (the remainder of) his life" [1].

[1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6900746/#s10

Re: Ask HN: A friend has brain cancer: any bio hacks that worked?

#198

Post by totallynothoney »

threeseed wrote: post #158
scotty79 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can be bit annoying because people people think "can't hurt to try" but there's thousand unfounded things to try, little time, no way to pick and some of them could hurt. There's no harm in listening to ideas, being expected to implement them is another thing.

a) Nobody here is talking about unfounded things nor demanding anyone do anything. b) There are not thousands of things to try. In fact in most cases there will be no options since you will need to be in a clinical trial, asking a Doctor to try something unproven and unethical or need substantial resources.

> Nobody here is talking about unfounded things nor demanding anyone do anything.

You sure? There's people commenting "just checked google scholar" and naming random plants without citing anything.

Re: Ask HN: A friend has brain cancer: any bio hacks that worked?

#199

Post by _yb2s »

_DeadFred_ wrote: post #137
ausbah wrote: post #87

I know when someone’s faced with certain death they’ll do almost anything they can to survive if only for a little bit longer, but this thread full of personal antectodes and largely non-reproduced effects from random pubmed articles is the hackernews equivalent of essential oils or smth

↑This. Stop. No. Don't go down the false hope path. It's cruel AF and puts off acceptance, wasting time that they can put to better use post acceptance. Maybe let your friend explore what they want to do and you just give support. Celebrate what they celebrate and cry with them when they cry. Find(or better make) them some comfy/cute hats. If you want to research the things about the hospital, the procedures they are…

Personally, if I were dying and someone kept saying fake nonsense like "you are getting the best care" I'd probably cut off contact with them, or at least wish they would stop. I'd know I'm getting mediocre care like everyone else, that's also part of accepting the reality of the situation. I'd know my doctor probably graduated at the bottom of his/her class or else he/she wouldn't be an authorized provider on an HMO- and he/she probably can't understand or doesn't read the latest medical research on his/her own. And that probably doesn't matter one bit, because the "best care" wouldn't work either.

I might also want them to share technical ideas they think might help, or at least I would tell them if I wanted them to or not. If you decide to experiment on yourself, you can still accept the reality of a terminal illness. For me, that would be part of ending my life with dignity- knowing I sincerely tried to understand and solve the problem my own, and share what I learned with others, just like I did in the rest of my life.

Re: Ask HN: A friend has brain cancer: any bio hacks that worked?

#200

Post by WithinReason »

DriftRegion wrote: post #187
d--b wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This fucking pisses me off. The current treatments ARE essential oils, and EVERY FUCKING ONE is recommending my friend he goes through chemo, radiation therapy and risky surgery, all of which are proved to be extremely debilitating, in the sake of following the standard protocol, with a potential reward of living some weeks more. Meanwhile, it is proven that the Zika virus does kill GBM cells in humans. This is what…

> Remember than when the AIDS epidemic broke out. The doctors and labs didn’t help much. People took things in their own hands and tried stuff, and in the end, they found things that worked. What? how did people take things into their own hands?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Buyers_Club
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