This would've likely saved Steve Jobs, had it arrived 15 years earlier.
FDA approves first in class targeted therapy for metastatic pancreatic cancer
51–60 of 76 posts
Re: FDA approves first in class targeted therapy for metastatic pancreatic cancer
#52Not a nice disease to get. Ranks up there with glioblastoma multiforme, advanced oesophageal cancer and advanced duodenal cancer.
I am aggressive and investigate aggressively to detect pancreatic cancer early. One even had a Whipple procedure (pancreaticoduodenectomy ), since I detected it so early.
Despite that, the longest anyone I diagnosed has lived has only been 8 months.
Sad, they were all nice people.
Re: FDA approves first in class targeted therapy for metastatic pancreatic cancer
#53This would've likely saved Steve Jobs, had it arrived 15 years earlier.
No, this is for metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma, not what he had
Re: FDA approves first in class targeted therapy for metastatic pancreatic cancer
#54My aunt died of this last year. It took all of three months. That has given some food for thought in my family over what the most humane and merciful way to die is; 5 minutes and a heart attack, three months and this, or several years in other forms of cancer and tumours.
Ignoring the pain aspect of the disease, three months seems not to be a bad time to come to grips, say your goodbyes, tie up loose ends but not prolong suffering indefinitely and waste away.
Also, hail to healthcare systems that facilitate legal euthanasia.
Re: FDA approves first in class targeted therapy for metastatic pancreatic cancer
#55FDA is just too slow. Whole I’d like to do more radical reform, at a minimum this stupid long wait should be tossed. If someone hits a target endpoint auto approval pending further review or something
Remember in COVID when results. Came in and they took a month to schedule the meeting?
Re: FDA approves first in class targeted therapy for metastatic pancreatic cancer
#56This would've likely saved Steve Jobs, had it arrived 15 years earlier.
No it wouldn't have. This treatment is for pancreatic adenocarcinoma.
Steve Jobs had pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor, which is a rare form of pancreatic cancer.
Same organ, but fundamentally different diseases.
Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor is usually quite treatable, but Steve Jobs delayed surgery for almost a year to try to beat his cancer "naturally" - with a fruit diet, herbs, and acupuncture. Were he had gotten the surgery right away, there's a very good chance the cancer wouldn't have spread and he would be alive today.
Beyond that, from tfa
>Rasonque improved median overall survival to 13.2 months compared to 6.7 months for standard chemotherapy.
Re: FDA approves first in class targeted therapy for metastatic pancreatic cancer
#57FDA is just too slow. Whole I’d like to do more radical reform, at a minimum this stupid long wait should be tossed. If someone hits a target endpoint auto approval pending further review or something Remember in COVID when results. Came in and they took a month to schedule the meeting?
Self approval? Like Boeing?
Re: FDA approves first in class targeted therapy for metastatic pancreatic cancer
#58My sister was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in October (48 years old) and died in June from it. I'm glad to see a drug like this developed for people suffering from pancreatic cancer. I don't wish what my sister went through on anyone. Damn if I don't wish it had come a little sooner.
I’m terribly sorry. I lost my wife to metastatic melanoma.
It’s hard as in 2013, the treatment was “get your affairs in order”. In 2023 her chances were 60/40 due to immunotherapy. Unfortunately she ended up on the wrong side of those odds. Today, the Moderna trials are improving those outcomes significantly, and I think that cancer will be fully treatable in a decade or so.
It’s almost a miracle… but the road to “better” is built on the shoulders of those who came before. I find it both a source of hope and of regret for what could have been.
Re: FDA approves first in class targeted therapy for metastatic pancreatic cancer
#59FDA is just too slow. Whole I’d like to do more radical reform, at a minimum this stupid long wait should be tossed. If someone hits a target endpoint auto approval pending further review or something Remember in COVID when results. Came in and they took a month to schedule the meeting?
Self approval? Like Boeing?
Not self-approval, but maybe look at the clinical trial reforms in China (2016). There seems to be a lesson there to learn from. They made the trial system a lot more flexible, and China has recently overtaken the US in the # of new drugs patented, about a third worldwide.
That number was ~ zero mere ten years ago.
Re: FDA approves first in class targeted therapy for metastatic pancreatic cancer
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good post but the whole "buy time to see your child graduate, get married or give birth" trope is quite frankly very annoying. Older people have more going on, and more reasons to live, than whatever the next generations are up to. Even if we have children. I had curative (hopefully, presumably) kidney cancer surgery 11 years ago. So far I've enjoyed travelling, socializing, working, coding, chess and other hobbies i…
I have kids. I also travel, socialize, work, code, play video games, solve puzzles, etc. Love all that shit. I'd be sad to "miss" some novels, or to never see the Ocarina remake, etc. Or just the time I spend piddling around with things. But I think if I was about to die and an advance bought me a few months of moderate quality life, it'd mostly be about seeing my kids cross milestones. I don't imagine I'd spend near…
Understood. No doubt I would be similarly inclined if I'd gone down that path in life. My beef is that I feel this is a trope that gets rolled out without question, and it doesn't even bother paying lip service to the diversity of human experience.
I feel similarly whenever I hear about someone expressing empathy with someone, but apparently only after realizing they are someone's daughter/brother/sister/mother whatever type of relative. What's that about? I feel empathy for any innocent victim, they're human, they're living a life, maybe a very enjoyable life even if they don't have a single relative.