Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Lung cancer pill cuts risk of death by half

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 116 posts

Re: Lung cancer pill cuts risk of death by half

#41

Post by waboremo »

ramraj07 wrote: post #27
chrisamiller wrote: post #8

This is a great example of where cancer treatment is headed and why it's so hard - namely that cancer isn't one disease, it's many thousands of diseases. This is a drug that targets lung cancer (~12% of cancers) and only one type of lung cancer (non-small cell lung cancer, ~80% of cases). It targets a particular mutated gene that occurs in about 30% of that subtype. And then, about 50% of those patients respond. So d…

Just because this approach works doesn't mean this is the only approach out there. I sincerely believe that this thought has singlehandedly retarded progress towards more generic cancer treatments. Immune checkpoint inhibition is a clear proof that you could make one drug that could attack a wide swathe of cancers. Heck even chemo is proof of that. If this is the research you want to focus on, please go ahead. But do…

Why shouldn't he tell the public that every cancer is unique? It's technically true, much in the same way it's technically true you studied cancer but have for years been working with entirely unrelated fields to the advancement of cancer research. You're as much of an authoritative figure on this topic as a random person on the street.

Re: Lung cancer pill cuts risk of death by half

#42

Post by haldujai »

TrackerFF wrote: post #34
wahnfrieden wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

advice on how to catch earlier?

Lifestyle changes for one. Do you smoke? quit smoking. Do you live in areas with lots of air polution? High levels of radon where you live? Move. Do you work with a bunch of carcinogenic chemicals? Find something else to do. You can also get a gene test do see if you're suspectable to certain cancers. But most importantly: listen to your body. If you feel that something is wrong, take it up with your doctor.

The newest thing is to avoid ground level apartments in a city with traffic if you can.

I’ve been told brake (or tire) dust is the newest suspect for why young never-smokers are developing lung cancer (combined with certain relatively prevalent mutations).

Re: Lung cancer pill cuts risk of death by half

#43

Post by krona »

chrisamiller wrote: post #8

This is a great example of where cancer treatment is headed and why it's so hard - namely that cancer isn't one disease, it's many thousands of diseases. This is a drug that targets lung cancer (~12% of cancers) and only one type of lung cancer (non-small cell lung cancer, ~80% of cases). It targets a particular mutated gene that occurs in about 30% of that subtype. And then, about 50% of those patients respond. So d…

In the UK, 21% of all cancer deaths are from lung cancer. Surely this is the more appropriate way to assess efficacy in the context of all cancers.

Re: Lung cancer pill cuts risk of death by half

#44

Post by wahnfrieden »

TrackerFF wrote: post #34
wahnfrieden wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

advice on how to catch earlier?

Lifestyle changes for one. Do you smoke? quit smoking. Do you live in areas with lots of air polution? High levels of radon where you live? Move. Do you work with a bunch of carcinogenic chemicals? Find something else to do. You can also get a gene test do see if you're suspectable to certain cancers. But most importantly: listen to your body. If you feel that something is wrong, take it up with your doctor.

weed?

Re: Lung cancer pill cuts risk of death by half

#45

Post by evandijk70 »

phtrivier wrote: post #39

The pricing of drugs is always weird to me. Is there a good book / article / primer on why a drug can cost the price of a good house per person ? Is it just about recouping R&D, does manufacturing requires very rare raw materials, is the bill going up because of regulation, etc... ? How big a check would a government have to do to just "buy" the rights to a drug ? (Both in the "legal" and in the "an offer the CEO can…

All of the above, but my guess would be that the most expensive part is usually running the phase III clinical trial. You have to pay data managers to perform the randomization, train doctors and nurses to administer it, and the hospital for the added time it takes them to run the trial, pay the statisticians that perform the analysis, an agency that helps prepare the application, etcetera. You have to recruit patients, gather informed consent (though that is sometimes done by doctors and nurses). Also, you have to give the drug for free, since insurance companies do not cover experimental drugs. Sometimes patients also receive a fee for participating in the trial. All in all, the median cost of pivotal trials is 50 million dollars. This is the cost after you already did studies to discover the drug, and determine the dosage. Half of these trials fail, and all the previous investments are lost in that case.

[1] https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/6/e038863

Re: Lung cancer pill cuts risk of death by half

#46

Post by fendy3002 »

grecy wrote: post #22
wahnfrieden wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

advice on how to catch earlier?

The really crappy part of lung cancer is that it's very uncommon to detect it because there aren't really any symptoms to speak of. Eventually it will metastasize so some other part of the body and THAT will give symptoms. When my Mum was diagnosed the Dr. said the bad news is you have cancer in the bones in your neck. The really bad news is that it started in your lungs, and it's way, way to far along to do anything…

same here, my mother had cancer in spine when diagnosed, and it came from lung. Already late stage and metastasize. No symptom until it reached the spine and causing occasional pain and lately inability to move her legs.

Died on less than 2 months after that. It sucks.

Re: Lung cancer pill cuts risk of death by half

#47

Post by ChoGGi »

wahnfrieden wrote: post #44
TrackerFF wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lifestyle changes for one. Do you smoke? quit smoking. Do you live in areas with lots of air polution? High levels of radon where you live? Move. Do you work with a bunch of carcinogenic chemicals? Find something else to do. You can also get a gene test do see if you're suspectable to certain cancers. But most importantly: listen to your body. If you feel that something is wrong, take it up with your doctor.

weed?

Switch to edibles?

Re: Lung cancer pill cuts risk of death by half

#48

Post by GenerWork »

smileysteve wrote: post #38
faangguyindia wrote: post #37

I just wonder how we've not been able to make a drug to increase lean mass without negative effect on cardiovascular system

Aspirin, Creatine, l arginine, coq 10, ozempic

Out of all of these, creatine is the closest thing to what OP was describing, but even then it doesn't affect lean mass, it just draws water into muscles and increased endurance.

Re: Lung cancer pill cuts risk of death by half

#49

Post by uncletammy »

TrackerFF wrote: post #34
wahnfrieden wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

advice on how to catch earlier?

Lifestyle changes for one. Do you smoke? quit smoking. Do you live in areas with lots of air polution? High levels of radon where you live? Move. Do you work with a bunch of carcinogenic chemicals? Find something else to do. You can also get a gene test do see if you're suspectable to certain cancers. But most importantly: listen to your body. If you feel that something is wrong, take it up with your doctor.

Any recommendations on a genetic test to check for susceptibility?

Re: Lung cancer pill cuts risk of death by half

#50

Post by yieldcrv »

phtrivier wrote: post #39

The pricing of drugs is always weird to me. Is there a good book / article / primer on why a drug can cost the price of a good house per person ? Is it just about recouping R&D, does manufacturing requires very rare raw materials, is the bill going up because of regulation, etc... ? How big a check would a government have to do to just "buy" the rights to a drug ? (Both in the "legal" and in the "an offer the CEO can…

the pricing is partially due to a lack of collective negotiation

the government programs carry a lot of weight as a large client but are currently barred from negotiating on prices

part of some US universal healthcare proposals are to just allow existing government programs to negotiate on prices, while simultaneously extending coverage to more people

Post reply on HN