

Researchers have identified how the ‘wall’ around cancer tumours functions - codebeaker
http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/breaking-down-cancers-defence-mechanisms

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tokenadult
The abstract of the published findings[1] says, "We show that despite the
presence of antitumor T cells, immunotherapeutic antibodies are ineffective in
a murine pancreatic cancer model recapitulating the human disease." And the
word "murine" here means "mouse," as the journal article makes more clear than
the press release kindly submitted here. The press release uses neither the
word "murine" nor the word "mouse," and mentions "animal models" in passing
just once, so when I first read the press release, I wasn't completely sure
whether or not the findings were from a study of human patients. It will be
important to check whether or not these findings translate into a safe and
effective treatment for human patients after many more follow-up studies. As
the authors note, pancreatic cancer is commonplace enough that an effective
treatment for it would have a substantial good effect on human health.

Many, many submissions to HN are based at bottom on press releases, and press
releases are well known for spinning preliminary research findings beyond all
recognition. This has been commented on in the PhD comic "The Science News
Cycle,"[2] which only exaggerates the process a very little. More serious
commentary in the edited group blog post "Related by coincidence only?
University and medical journal press releases versus journal articles"[3]
points to the same danger of taking press releases (and news aggregator
website articles based solely on press releases) too seriously. Press releases
are usually misleading, promising more than the research result can be sure to
deliver.

The most sure and certain finding of any preliminary study will be that more
research is needed. All too often, preliminary findings don't lead to further
useful discoveries in science, because the preliminary findings are flawed.
The obligatory link for any discussion of a report on a research result like
the one kindly submitted here is the article "Warning Signs in Experimental
Design and Interpretation"[4] by Peter Norvig, director of research at Google,
on how to interpret scientific research. Check each news story you read for
how many of the important issues in interpreting research are NOT discussed in
the story.

[1]
[http://www.pnas.org/content/110/50/20212.full](http://www.pnas.org/content/110/50/20212.full)

[2]
[http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1174](http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1174)

[3] [http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/related-by-
coi...](http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/related-by-coincidence-
only-journal-press-releases-versus-journal-articles/)

[4] [http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html](http://norvig.com/experiment-
design.html)

~~~
dekhn
I call this "science by press release". I don't blame universities for using
these publication opportunities to call attention to their work, but it would
be nice if there was a mechanism to ensure scientific accuracy in them. I
can't see how to incentivize it, and regulation seems heavy handed.

~~~
crusso
_ensure scientific accuracy in them_

That phrase strikes me as almost redundant. Since ensuring accuracy is what
"science" is supposed to be about.

~~~
shawnz
He is talking about ensuring scientific accuracy in the _press release_. Press
releases are not about accuracy and have never been. They are about rallying
support for a particular business decision, and there is nothing wrong or
immoral about that.

~~~
crusso
You're addressing a point I didn't make. I was talking about language, not
morality.

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jreed91
My father was just recently diagnosed with melanoma which is also a solid
state cancer. It is in its very advanced stages so his prognosis is poor but
if this would of happened just a few years ago he would have no choices for
treatments. But now with these new immunotherapies we are starting to uncover
new ways to treat these very advance cancers and they are becoming more
effective with each new uncovering.

~~~
ThomPete
Sorry to hear about your dad.

I have already have one melanoma but luckily they found it very early on. I
have more than a thousand moles though so I am constantly being checked.

Lets hope your dad will survive. It is possible even at stage 4.

~~~
jreed91
Thank you for your support, I'm glad you were able to catch yours very early
as that is truly the key. Surprisingly we have yet to find the primary
location where it started. Which most likely means his body fought that
location off already, this gives him a bit of a better chance but it also
means we weren't able to find it early enough.

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maho
The press release unfortunately omits the fact that the treatment was only
tested on mice [0]. I'm not from the medical field, but my understanding is
that you shouldn't get too excited about therapies that are this early in
their development. Still, it looks like a nice finding and is worth keeping an
eye on!

[0]
[http://www.pnas.org/content/110/50/20212.full](http://www.pnas.org/content/110/50/20212.full)

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foobacca
Here's a rather more balanced report on the research and the implications of
it - [http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2014/01/07/can-
pancr...](http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2014/01/07/can-pancreatic-
cancer-really-be-wiped-out-in-less-than-a-week-not-yet/)

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codereflection
As someone who was lost family members to cancer, any news of advances in the
fight against cancer is very exciting.

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greatquux
This is an interesting find. And unlike new weapons in the war on virii and
bacteria, there's no way for evolution to "win" this: a cancer cell that
evolved a better defense would almost surely wind up killing its host before
it could reproduce.

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pistle
Steve Jobs?

~~~
abe_duarte
Yes [http://healthland.time.com/2011/10/05/the-pancreatic-
cancer-...](http://healthland.time.com/2011/10/05/the-pancreatic-cancer-that-
killed-steve-jobs/)

