A Cure for Cancer?

[Octet]

I was trawling through the BBC news website the other day when I stumbled upon this article suggesting that mice who had the cancer virus have been cured by placing cancer eliminating viruses within the immune system.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20795977

So, wondering what everyone's thoughts are on this. It sounds like promising advances in ongoing research however as they have rightly said, it might not work in humans.

 

[biggs682]

any advance in a cure or treatment for the big C has to be good

 

[vernon]

Cancer is not a virus. The article outlined the use of viruses to kill one type of cancer. Not all cancers are the same. There's a lot more work to be done just on the prostate cancer cure before it's success as a treatment can be judged.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Some cancers are caused by viral infections - but the cancer isn't a virus. Cervical cancer IIRC. As Vernon says - cancers are different. Nevertheless, any stuff which helps the process of limiting or curing any cancer has to be a good thing.

 

[ASC1951]

Nevertheless, any stuff which helps the process of limiting or curing any cancer has to be a good thing.

Well, within limits. The main reason that more people are dying of cancer - and will continue to do so - is that in developed countries most of the diseases of youth and middle age have been subdued. I'm not a flag-wagger for adding an extra year or so to our lives at enormous expense and I do wish journalists would stop saying that Treatment X or Drug Y "will save 300 lives a year" - we would all have a more realistic understanding of what medicine can or should achieve if it was reported as 'will add Z years to the lives..'

 

[Milo]

Any news yet on that article about mdma maybe being useful in fighting cancer? Or was it just a good story.

 

[vernon]

Any news yet on that article about mdma maybe being useful in fighting cancer? Or was it just a good story.

Four months since the media reported on it is a long way away from being able to report significant progress. Pharmaceutical developments tend to be incremental and meticulously trialled before they are used therapeutically on humans.

It's more than a good story but the fairy tale ending is a long way off.

 

[PaulB]

I was trawling through the BBC news website the other day when I stumbled upon this article suggesting that mice who had the cancer virus have been cured by placing cancer eliminating viruses within the immune system.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20795977

So, wondering what everyone's thoughts are on this. It sounds like promising advances in ongoing research however as they have rightly said, it might not work in humans.

If you are genuinely interested and want to know all you can about cancer, my strong recommendation is to begin with Ben Goldacre's excellent book (which I think everyone should familiarise themselves with), "Bad Science'. Then you can log on to his website (same name) and if this interests you, and it will, get his latest book 'Bad Pharma'. Everything you need to know about the spin and the basic ignorance of journalists who report on these stories is contained within those pages. Basically, what will be revealed to you is that what 'sounds like promising advances in ongoing research' will be shown as nothing of the sort. Not wishing to micturate on your hopes but it's better to see things as they are, not how a journalist paints a picture he wants you to see.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Well, within limits. The main reason that more people are dying of cancer - and will continue to do so - is that in developed countries most of the diseases of youth and middle age have been subdued. I'm not a flag-wagger for adding an extra year or so to our lives at enormous expense and I do wish journalists would stop saying that Treatment X or Drug Y "will save 300 lives a year" - we would all have a more realistic understanding of what medicine can or should achieve if it was reported as 'will add Z years to the lives..'

Yes - such considerations are important. Any treatment has to be balanced by the risk to or quality of (any extended) life as well as expense. However - death by cancer isn't a nice way to go. Personally I would like to dodge that bullet if possible.