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New treatment eliminates bladder cancer in 82% of patients

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Re: New treatment eliminates bladder cancer in 82% of patients

#91
post #32
post #4

“almost half the patients were cancer-free a year later.”

One of the things I learned going through my own treatment (prostate) was that everyone's cancer is different. Which makes sense if you think about the variability in malignant cell growth. So something that cures half the patients and only requires an office or outpatient visit every few weeks (no surgery, no radiation) is astounding. This result will likely lead to further research using this approach.

Yes my father died in 3 months after getting lutetium 177.

Re: New treatment eliminates bladder cancer in 82% of patients

#92
"New treatment eliminates bladder cancer in 82% of patients" - current HN title (matches article)

I don't like headlines like this because they lack any necessary context. Knowing that a treatment eliminates cancer in 82% of patients isn't data unless we know more or already experts in this field. For all I know the previous treatment was 99% effective but just cost more or something. PR-style headlines very often use misleading statistics to get attention, so this wouldn't even be surprising.

- What was the previous treatment's success rate? Was it 22% or 81%?

- What are the other tradeoffs? If the previous treatment was also 82% maybe this one doesn't cause incontinence, or maybe it's non-invasive?

How you should make a title:

"New treatment eliminates cancer in 82% of patients, a major improvement"

"New treatment is first non-invasive way to eliminates cancer in 82% of patients"

"New treatment way to eliminates cancer in 82% of patients - without causing incontinence"

"New treatment eliminates cancer in 82% of patients without radiation"

Re: New treatment eliminates bladder cancer in 82% of patients

#93
post #4

“almost half the patients were cancer-free a year later.”

That's one way of looking at the glass half empty. If half of people get rid of cancer for 1 year that is still outstanding - ESPECIALLY if the majority of those remain cancer free for quite some time after.

> remain cancer free for quite some time after.

OS is more relevant than PFS

Re: New treatment eliminates bladder cancer in 82% of patients

#94
post #14

My (non-AI) Summary: - "TAR-200 is a miniature, pretzel-shaped drug-device duo containing a chemotherapy drug, gemcitabine, which is inserted into the bladder through a catheter. Once inside the bladder, the TAR-200 slowly and consistently releases the gemcitabine into the organ for three weeks per treatment cycle." - Phase 2 Clinical Trial - 85 patients with high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer - "treated pa…

Unfortunately the recurrence rate after 1 year here is still quite high. Good progress, but not a cure yet.

Bladder cancer has a notoriously high recurrence rate, unfortunately. (I worked for years in NMIBC molecular diagnostics.)

Re: New treatment eliminates bladder cancer in 82% of patients

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The scale of the US research program, compared to the rest of the world, is about an order of magnitude difference.

The model proved itself, so consensus can be reached in other places to reach parity if the issue is important to them

I have no idea what you even mean by this. Are you suggesting the rest of the world, with no centralized government or single budget, could grow to match what the USA previously had because it worked in the USA?

Re: New treatment eliminates bladder cancer in 82% of patients

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In any sizable group, you're going to find a vocal jackass minority. But here, at least, they genuinely seem to be the minority.

I'm surprised you see it that way. I find that HN has far more techbro fascists on it than most other places for rather clear and obvious reasons.

In raw numbers, sure. But as a percentage, I don't see that. For every fascitechbro, I come across 10 hardcore GPL furries. There's still a huge representation of Information Wants To Be Free types, and that keeps me coming back.

Re: New treatment eliminates bladder cancer in 82% of patients

#97
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And for some reason a contingent of HN is cheering it on. We are breaking the innovation machine and pretending discoveries will just keep happening.

I'm probably part of the contingent you're alluding to. I'm not cheering. I am however a lot less likely to be depressed, mostly because whenever I tried to fact check a doom-like piece of news, I found it failing, hard. So now I'm at a "once every three months" rotation - which will of course change the first time I manage to confirm a piece of news. I am moderately pessimistic about the state of research because I…

I'm an academic. I am of the mind that the whole system has been upended and we'll be lucky if we're making any progress towards research in two years. Part of me thinks we're in a lame duck situation for the NSF and NIH.

Re: New treatment eliminates bladder cancer in 82% of patients

#98
post #7

[flagged]

You’re right, those bright, talented kids will just give up and quit their careers because US government funding has been reduced for research in their field. It’s so sad that the only way innovation can happen is if it’s funded by the government.

How many innovations have been made without government funding or subsidies?

Re: New treatment eliminates bladder cancer in 82% of patients

#99
post #50
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Emphatically so, yes

Return customers generate more profit.

Cynical take, but not wrong.

Though this reads as though the implied message is preaching the suppressed cure conspiracy theory so I'll respond to that interpretation.

What you're missing the competitive factor of this. If your drug strings your patients along while your competitor releases an effective cure, guess who's getting all the business? Look to Sovaldi and Keytruda for recent examples.

Re: New treatment eliminates bladder cancer in 82% of patients

#100
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Return customers generate more profit.

Cynical take, but not wrong. Though this reads as though the implied message is preaching the suppressed cure conspiracy theory so I'll respond to that interpretation. What you're missing the competitive factor of this. If your drug strings your patients along while your competitor releases an effective cure, guess who's getting all the business? Look to Sovaldi and Keytruda for recent examples.

The competitor with the effective cancer cure will take all the business.
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