
Israeli scientists claim to have found cure for cancer - avalex33
https://www.wfla.com/news/israeli-scientists-claim-to-have-found-cure-for-cancer/1737416516
======
hannob
This is obviously quackery.

They made some experiments in mice. Now they claim they have a cure within a
year.

(This is not my opinion, this is the opinion of people who know better than I
do:
[https://twitter.com/MDankner/status/1090295041115983872](https://twitter.com/MDankner/status/1090295041115983872)
[https://twitter.com/VPrasadMDMPH/status/1090283969378054144](https://twitter.com/VPrasadMDMPH/status/1090283969378054144)
)

~~~
lazyjones
> _This is not my opinion, this is the opinion of people who know better than
> I do_

Knee-jerk reactions of Ph.D. students aren't really more convincing than the
original article.

I'll wait for more information before making such strong claims as "obvious
quackery".

~~~
amaccuish
> I'll wait for more information before making such strong claims as "obvious
> quackery".

IMHO science works the other way round.

~~~
lazyjones
Skepticism is essential in science. Gut-feelings based on newspaper articles
have no place there.

~~~
dekhn
gut feelings have a huge place in discovery science (what these scientists are
doing). It can lead you in directions that rational cannot. For example,
Kekule's dream of ouroborus: " He said that he had discovered the ring shape
of the benzene molecule after having a reverie or day-dream of a snake seizing
its own tail (this is an ancient symbol known as the ouroboros).[14]"

I've been privileged to know a lot of world-class scientists, and many of them
have told me their careers and their best ideas came from gut feelings. Of
course, they had to apply skepticism to the experimental results of their gut
feeling experiments.

~~~
vkreso
Exactly. Gut feeling is another word for intuition. Such background cognition
is a great tool in science and has been found in use by a lot of top
scientists and thinkers. Training it by broadening your knowledge and then
using skepticism and other science tools to focus your thinking is a great way
for finding stuff out.

------
epaga
From the actual article ( [https://m.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/A-cure-for-
cancer-Israeli...](https://m.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/A-cure-for-cancer-
Israeli-scientists-say-they-think-they-found-one-578939) ):

"Morad said that so far, the company has concluded its first exploratory mice
experiment, which inhibited human cancer cell growth and had no effect at all
on healthy mice cells, in addition to several in-vitro trials. AEBi is on the
cusp of beginning a round of clinical trials which could be completed within a
few years and would make the treatment available in specific cases."

vs.

"We believe we will offer in a year’s time a complete cure for cancer."

Don't those two statements contradict each other?

~~~
erlichmen
I'm pretty sure that the researcher didn't come up with the headline, its
journalism in the Trump age

------
onion2k
Cancer isn't just one thing; it's the general term for a whole bunch of
different problems. Saying you have a cure is like saying you have a cure for
"virus". Science just doesn't work like that.

~~~
tom_mellior
Mostly agreed, though from the handwaving in the article it seems that they
claim that they can identify and exploit suitable receptors for any of the
many cancers.

~~~
AstralStorm
So, they might be able to tailor a potentially unsafe or deadly hormone (read:
poison) to get at cancer. Sounds like chemo v2 to me, not a cure, won't work
in all cancers especially later stage which no longer depend on the receptor
stimulation.

------
colordrops
Original article:

[https://m.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/A-cure-for-cancer-
Israeli...](https://m.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/A-cure-for-cancer-Israeli-
scientists-say-they-think-they-found-one-578939)

~~~
h4l0
I was about to post the same link. Linked article by OP has close to no
information, meanwhile original article is easily accessible anyway.

------
ablation
Linked article from the OP: [https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/A-cure-for-
cancer-Israe...](https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/A-cure-for-cancer-
Israeli-scientists-say-they-think-they-found-one-578939)

More detail in that, but still nothing more than an interview with the the
scientists who claim to have developed the "cure".

------
vezycash
Read this a few days ago through reddit. It sounded outlandish - like
cryptocurrency ponzi promotion article.

That's why I didn't post it.

~~~
johnsimer
It would be ironic if an incredible invention like a cure to cancer went
unoticed because everyone thought it was fake

~~~
dvfjsdhgfv
If it works, it won't go unnoticed.

~~~
johnsimer
Ideally.

According to fast.ai there's this (very simple) technique to automate
optimizing the learning rate parameter for deep neural networks, that went
unnoticed for a couple years, because it was discovered by a no-name
researcher, while all the big wig researchers were spending tons of manual
hours finding the optimal learning rate.

------
bariswheel
I thought Reddit was finding cures for cancer on a periodic basis, is it going
to be Hacker News after all?

------
masonic
Submitted _12 times_ previously.

[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=cancer%20cure&sort=byDate&pref...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=cancer%20cure&sort=byDate&prefix=false&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story)

------
Protostome
Just a PR stunt... nothing to be concerned about. Cancer is here to stay for
the foreseeable future.

------
lanevorockz
There were some attempts to reprogram virus to cure cancer but ethical
concerns have stopped progress in this path.

Human made viruses can have significantly more impact than planned. If this
cure works, I believe that people should be kept in quarentine until clear of
the virus.

------
make3
reddit used to have at least one very confident claim of a full cure for
cancer make it to the front page per week, which we would then never hear from
again if course. I fear the same will be the case here

------
garyclarke27
Of course it sounds too good to be true, however I read the linked original
article, which provides much more detail and - everything they say sounds
plausible and coherent and most important is novel, they admit several years
away, let’s hope they have discovered a genuine breakthrough. Medicine is very
short on discoveries that actually make much difference to human health ie
hygiene, vaccines, anti-biotics, anti-virals(more limited) - there has not
been one for quite a long time, so the optimist in me says, maybe this is
another - stem cell and telomerase based therapies also seem to me to be on
the cusp of providing real benefits in dealing with the worst disease of all -
aging.

