What an irresponsible headline. I'm not familiar with the research in question but I've worked on cancer during my PhD and the headline alone is sufficient to discredit the article.
Every kind of tumor? Really? Because we don't even know all the kinds of tumors that are out there. What we do know, however, is that, to this date, no commonality between _all_ tumors has been identified. The smart money is on the hypothesis that there is no commonality, since many possible combinations of cellular malfunction can lead to tumorgenesis.
For instance, I distinctly remember having read a review in Nature a few weeks back about a study of certain brain tumors that can either be caused by mutations of some genes, or alternatively can be caused through a purely epigenetic mechanism. How about that!
So given all this, how likely is it that the antibody they created blocks CD47 in cancer cells and only cancer cells but of course all types cancer cells, as the article claims?
Why don't journalists think/care about the consequences of tabloidizing cancer? These articles play on the feelings of very desperate people, just to get some asshat a few more click-throughs for the monthly metrics.
So...Fox News gets their story from a Reddit post referencing a two year old article.
I don't know anything about drug trials. I do know that terminal patients often cannot get experimental therapies. This Fox article has around 250k Facebook shares....so far. Surely this will create a lot of pressure to fast track trials, wouldn't it?
TL;DR: Clinical trials expected in the first half of 2014
(1/14/14) Update on the anti-CD47 cancer therapy clinical trials
Researchers and staff at Stanford are continuing to work hard preparing the groundwork for the clinical trials of our anti-CD47 antibody as a cancer therapy. We are anticipating the start of clinical trials sometime in the first half of this year, though unforeseen delays may yet slow that progress. As we get closer to the start of the clinical trials, we will be posting information about eligibility for the trials and how to apply.
There has been a huge amount of interest in these trials from patients and their families and friends. However, we feel compelled to emphasize that, as is typical of FDA phase I clinical trials, the first tests of this therapy will be very small safety trials involving only a very few patients. Unfortunately, this means only a tiny fraction of those interested will be admitted to the first phase I clinical trials. Accordingly, we are urging patients to continue exploring existing treatments and other clinical trials.
Every kind of tumor? Really? Because we don't even know all the kinds of tumors that are out there. What we do know, however, is that, to this date, no commonality between _all_ tumors has been identified. The smart money is on the hypothesis that there is no commonality, since many possible combinations of cellular malfunction can lead to tumorgenesis.
For instance, I distinctly remember having read a review in Nature a few weeks back about a study of certain brain tumors that can either be caused by mutations of some genes, or alternatively can be caused through a purely epigenetic mechanism. How about that!
So given all this, how likely is it that the antibody they created blocks CD47 in cancer cells and only cancer cells but of course all types cancer cells, as the article claims?
Why don't journalists think/care about the consequences of tabloidizing cancer? These articles play on the feelings of very desperate people, just to get some asshat a few more click-throughs for the monthly metrics.