
Ethanol: A Lethal Injection for Tumors - cdvonstinkpot
https://www.acsh.org/news/2017/09/02/ethanol-lethal-injection-tumors-11779
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jszymborski
This is a really neat and elegant study. All they're missing is a long-term
survival curve.

You're probably wondering what the catch is if you haven't spotted it yet.

Ethanol ablation is usually used for carcinomas of the liver, although it
sometimes sees use in some very rare cancers. So, this falls under the
"extremely effective but with limited application" category. That doesn't mean
it doesn't have great value, but you also don't want folk to think it's a
"lethal injection for _all_ tumours".

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Pica_soO
The unique thing about this approach was that is is a gel- not being limited
to encapsulated tumors?

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jszymborski
This article is just a proof-of-concept, and unfortunately we can't make the
claim that this means we can effectively use EtOH+Gel to treat tumours that
are not encapsulated; particularly because it isn't clear to me whether the
cancer model used is a good model of those "hard-to-treat-w/-EtOH-ablation"
cancers.

There is also a very honest list of caveats in the discussion,

"Although we have demonstrated the efficacy of enhanced ethanol ablation in
the treatment of squamous cell carcinomas in the hamster cheek pouch, there
are several limitations to this study. First, the use of a chemically-induced
tumor model (in which spontaneous tumors arising in sites adjacent to a
treated site would be indistinguishable from the original tumor) precluded the
possibility of any long-term monitoring of tumor recurrence. Second, a single
animal tumor model was utilized. Further study in other tumor models is needed
to investigate such recurrence, and demonstrate therapeutic efficacy more
broadly. Since this study was a proof-of-concept, sample sizes were relatively
low. Although other studies have shown systemic safety of ethanol ablation in
a variety of applications, more research is needed to investigate the
possibility of damage to surrounding tissue. Leakage of ethanol and nearby
necrosis should be minimized, and details may be specific to tumor types.
Although ethyl cellulose-ethanol has been used in the treatment of venous
malformations, further safety evaluations of injections to tumors are clearly
necessary. The ethanol-ethyl cellulose-water system has shown promise; but its
more complete characterization will inform optimization. For example, better
understand- ing of physicochemical details of the sol-gel transition, e.g.
involving pressure and temperature, will benefit from improved discrimination
between the sol and gel phases. The mechanical phantoms proved helpful in this
initial study. Follow up use of them can improve details of their poroelastic
structures and properties, and thus improve their role in the design process
for enhanced ethanol ablation."

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jszymborski
The article is available here[0] and is open-access.

[0]
[https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-09371-2](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-09371-2)

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jeffdavis
"Alcohol: the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems." \-- Homer
Simpson

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HillaryBriss
If this cancer therapy ever makes it into US healthcare I will be amazed.
There's too little profit to fund clinical trials and FDA approval.

US residents could perhaps travel abroad for the treatment. Maybe it will be
offered in Mexico some day.

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microcolonel
> _There 's too little profit to fund clinical trials and FDA approval._

People think they can have their cake and eat it too with the FDA. The
administration likely kills many people through opportunity cost. People
really need to ask themselves if the FDA are the ones who should be making the
decision whether something is risky enough that you shouldn't have access to
it. In my eyes, if drug companies had standard product liability, then drugs
would be safer _and_ cheaper.

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falcolas
Just remember: the FDA is also the organization that keeps homeopathy from
marketing itself as legitimate cure to every disease out there.

For every potentially legitimate treatment held back, a hundred illegitimate -
if not harmful - treatments are also stopped. I won't claim this excuses the
costs and time associated with getting FDA approval, but it's one more thing
to consider when judging them.

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microcolonel
> _Just remember: the FDA is also the organization that keeps homeopathy from
> marketing itself as legitimate cure to every disease out there._

Who cares? Homeopathy is largely harmless, the vast majority of people who
practice it are not actually treating anything. Unless something goes
seriously wrong, an extreme dilution is not going to have the same devastating
effect as an untreated serious condition, unless the patient sticks it out
like a fool, in which case can anyone except the charlatan who convinced them
really be blamed?

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dizzystar
>> Homeopathy is largely harmless

Steve Jobs had a curable form of cancer. He chose homeopathy instead.

Let's not pretend this is an isolated case.

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HillaryBriss
Jobs used homeopathy for cancer?

i was able to find this Scientific American article about Jobs, which mentions
dietary changes and acupuncture, but it doesn't mention that he used
homeopathy.

[https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/alternative-
medic...](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/alternative-medicine-
extend-abbreviate-steve-jobs-life/)

is that documented somewhere else?

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damnfine
I can already smell the breath of the alternative (read: fake) medicine
version of this as I type. Is the liquortarian diet more effective than the
fruitatarian diet? You betcha! Just look at this study!

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tyingq
It's simple enough that I worry a bit about unqualified people offering it as
a service.

