

The first cancer vaccine that works - inshane
http://io9.com/5813493/the-first-cancer-vaccine-that-works

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tejaswiy
"The big question now is whether this therapy could work in humans. Clinical
trials that would lead to using this therapy on humans could begin in two
years."

I really should stop getting overly optimistic about these articles.

Also, I realize HN terms loosely say that anything that can be termed as items
of interest to hackers is acceptable, but as a community can we please keep
off miracle cures for AIDS, Cancer, Incredibly efficient batteries and Super
cheap solar cells and <Insert prototype of cure-all renewable energy source
here> until something real materializes?

If not, I'd honestly like to know if anyone really derives value from these
articles and remembers them for more than 10 seconds.

~~~
mechanical_fish
I wish these articles were more useful. However, I will beat my usual drum and
point out that a major reason we cannot tell one such article from another is
that _the original articles are behind a thirty-two-dollar-per-article
paywall_.

I worked as a cancer researcher for a few years, and I assure you that the
details can be quite interesting if you can _see_ them. But from this writeup
I can't see a thing. They delivered DNA to a mouse with cancer. Did the mouse
have mouse cancer or transplanted human cancer? If the mouse had mouse cancer,
how did it get that cancer? Did they administer carcinogens, or use mutant
mice with cancer-prone prostates? If the mouse had human prostate cancer
transplants (a typical technique) and those were cured by mouse anti-human
antibodies formed in response to virus-borne human prostate DNA... does this
have any relevance to human treatment at all, given that humans don't
routinely come down with cancers that were transplanted from other mammals?
And, crucially, what happened to the prostates of the mice? Did they get
attacked by the antibodies that attacked the cancer? If not, why not? If so,
are we really prepared to attack, say, stomach cancer by inducing an
autoimmune response that might also attack the stomach itself? That doesn't
sound so great!

These aren't even very sophisticated questions. (I was never a very _good_
cancer researcher.) Anyone with a freshman education in bio could ask these
basic but enlightening questions. And maybe someone with a _Nature Medicine_
subscription would be kind enough to answer them. Because this popular-press
rehash of a press release sure doesn't help much. As you say, such rehashes
all sound the same. The devil is in the details, and the details are always
missing.

EDIT: in my eagerness to give examples of basic questions I realize that I'm
being a little too cartoonishly obtuse. In fact, we can deduce from the fact
that the mice apparently _can_ form antibodies that they are immunocompetent,
which implies that they probably do have mouse cancer, because it's hard to
transplant human cancer into a mouse with a functioning immune system. They
reject it. But I shouldn't have to guess this stuff. It's all right there in
_Nature Medicine_. Somewhere. Pity that the karma I'd earn for this comment
isn't worth thirty-two dollars to me.

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alphaoverlord
There are both vaccines for HPV (cause of cervical cancer) and HBV (cause of
liver cancer).

~~~
sp332
That's a bit like saying sunscreen is a vaccine for skin cancer.

~~~
mechanical_fish
No, actually, it is like saying there is a vaccine that prevents many cervical
cancers. And there is:

[http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cervical-cancer-
vaccine/WO0...](http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cervical-cancer-
vaccine/WO00120)

If you're a woman under age 26 you should get this at once.

The cited article totally skips over these existing vaccines, of course.
Probably someone along the line deleted one too many words from a more
factually accurate sentence in the original press release.

~~~
JacobAldridge
And it's increasingly showing value for boys as well -
<http://www.slate.com/id/2296748/pagenum/all>

Saddens me that the take up has not been much, much higher, but I have other
forums for expressing my views on anti-vaccination liars.

~~~
ahoyhere
Sad to say it but the reason the HPV vaccines haven't been more popular has
little to do with anti-vaccination propaganda, and much more to do with anti-
sexual-promiscuity propaganda. Lots of people -- including many, many, many
women -- think that vaccinating their daughters against HPV will encourage
them to be promiscuous and that it is somehow preferable to risk their lives.

~~~
JacobAldridge
True, and from what I understand that's more the case in the US where the
'Abstinence Only' type model is more common (compared to Australia). Given the
choice between sex and cancer, I know which one I'd prefer my child to be
hiding from me - I'd also much prefer they understood safe sex, as opposed to
an all or nothing approach.

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SoftwareMaven
Given my father was just diagnosed with prostate cancer, my grandfather died
of it, and two of my uncles have been treated for it, I REALLY hope this works
out.

I won't be skipping my prostate exam when the time comes while waiting for it.

~~~
msie
I just saw on the news that a low carb diet can prevent cancer but of course
the experiment was performed on mice.

[http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/early/2011/06/10/0...](http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/early/2011/06/10/0008-5472.CAN-10-3973.abstract)

Take care.

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ZoFreX
How is this the "first cancer vaccine that works" by any stretch of the
imagination? There are vaccines that have completed testing and are on the
market, and have been for years.

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phatbyte
Anyone recalls the movie "I'm a legend" ? Just saying..... :P

On topic: If this is true, this is great news. I know they are supposed to
test it and that takes time, but I find that a lot of these "found cure for
xxx" news kind of fade away after awhile to never be heard. It's not the first
time I read a cure for cancer or HIV, but never comes out.

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busyant
This cancer vaccine is already on the market and it already works:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sipuleucel-T>

The study mentioned in the i09.com article is just public relations -- in
particular, b/c mouse cancer models are often not predictive of human results.

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mdkess
s/theory/hypothesis/g

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johnx123
Read somewhere that Steve Jobs was under alternate medication. Anybody knows
any details about that alternate medicine?

