In Mice, a Potential New Treatment Eradicates Ovarian and Colorectal Cancer In Days (sciencealert.com) 38
An experimental new type of cancer treatment has yielded some impressive results in mice: the eradication of advanced-stage ovarian and colorectal cancer in the animals as little as six days. ScienceAlert reports: The new therapy has only been tested in mice so far, so let's not get too excited just yet. However, the early signs are promising, and human clinical trials could be underway by the end of the year. The treatment involves tiny 'drug factory' beads that are implanted into the body and deliver a continuous, high dose of interleukin-2 (IL2) -- a natural compound that enlists white blood cells in the fight against cancer.
"We just administer once, but the drug factories keep making the dose every day, where it's needed until the cancer is eliminated," says bioengineer Omid Veiseh from Rice University in Texas. "Once we determined the correct dose -- how many factories we needed -- we were able to eradicate tumors in 100 percent of animals with ovarian cancer and in seven of eight animals with colorectal cancer." The research has been published in the journal Science Advances.
"We just administer once, but the drug factories keep making the dose every day, where it's needed until the cancer is eliminated," says bioengineer Omid Veiseh from Rice University in Texas. "Once we determined the correct dose -- how many factories we needed -- we were able to eradicate tumors in 100 percent of animals with ovarian cancer and in seven of eight animals with colorectal cancer." The research has been published in the journal Science Advances.
So frustrating! (Score:2)
Look, I know science is science and all but mice again? AGAIN?! Come on! These scientists are so fascinated with saving their pet mice that they've completely forgotten they are supposed to be finding treatments for humans! ;)
Re: So frustrating! (Score:2)
Don't worry! Your buddy Putin will be trying human experimentation soon enough! (In the death camps. Yes, like the Nazis.)
There is a reason why mouse trials come first, some people are too stupid to see it I guess.
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Yes, some people are stupid. Some are even so stupid - if you can believe this - to take an obvious joke seriously. It boggles the mind, doesn't it?
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These scientists are so fascinated with saving their pet mice that they've completely forgotten they are supposed to be finding treatments for humans! ;)
I dunno . . . if someone studies the statistics, they will find that research scientists are the leading cause of death for mice.
Kitty-Cats and Owls don't even come close.
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People a willing to spend way more money on their pets than they are on fixing a broken healthcare system.
Great news for unhealthy... (Score:3)
Re: Great news for unhealthy... (Score:2)
How does one prevent colorectal cancer, pray tell?
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"How does one prevent colorectal cancer, pray tell?"
Ask a Vegan.
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I don't think "spend your life in misery eating shitty food and looking like a malnourished orphan" is a good answer, here.
People eat meat because it tastes good, and because we need protein in our diets that's hard to get in sufficient quantities from super-processed soy and legumes and black beans.
And why the actual fuck would I not eat the fresh eggs my chickens happily give me every day, or put butter on my toast?
Vegans are ruiners, ruiners of fun. Ok I'll back that up a little... I have no real proble
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" I have no real problem with people who choose to eat a Vegan diet, but I have a big problem with militant Vegans who want to change MY diet"
Naw, they just wait until you are dead.
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How does one prevent colorectal cancer, pray tell?
I don't know about mice, but in humans, colorectal cancer is correlated with a high-meat low-fiber diet with lots of processed food, as well as tobacco use and heavy alcohol consumption. There is also a genetic factor, so choose your parents wisely.
Re: Great news for unhealthy... (Score:2)
"There is also a genetic factor, so choose your parents wisely."
Nobody chooses their parents. But they could choose CRISPR experimentation.
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It's lot clear if CRISPR will make things better or worse for an individual. That's precisely why it would be considered an experiment.
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wouldn't prevention be better than cure?
Cancer is the final state for DNA replication and is therefore unavoidable (given enough time) until we correct the OBO copying flaw in DNA replication. Furthermore, a single instance of DNA being damaged in just the right spot also leads to cancer.
Until we develop the technology to prevent DNA degradation and damaged DNA replication then cancer will always be an inevitability.
Re: Great news for unhealthy... (Score:2)
Some species of turtles live for hundreds of years. So, it's probably possible in some form of "humans" after you've tweaked their genetics a bit.
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"...mice but wouldn't prevention be better than cure? Can't we educate mice about healthier lifestyles? Wouldn't that be better for all mice in the longer term?"
We did.
We told them to vaccinate their young at age 12-15 against the HPV that causes ovarian cancer, but did they listen? No.
Re: Great news for unhealthy... (Score:2)
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"They listened but most mice become sexually active long before they reach 12-15 years of age. "
The joke was that they would be long dead. :-)
Re: Great news for unhealthy... (Score:2)
Their religious leaders told them that the HPV vaccine is only for sexually active children. Who should be burned at the stake in the 21st century???
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...mice but wouldn't prevention be better than cure? Can't we educate mice about healthier lifestyles? Wouldn't that be better for all mice in the longer term?
We're really giving the mice fish instead of teaching them to fish, aren't we?
Andy Grove (Score:2)
This is very interesting in that drug delivery method is the solution, not a new drug (TLDR so YMMV). It reminds me of a story I read about, Andy Grove the head of Intel had prostate cancer and on his own investigated and decided which treatment to take. IIRC it involved putting radioactive beads in the prostate, which sounds very similar in delivery concept to this method. After googling it is called HDR brachytherapy, in which radioactive seeds are implanted in the gland, with success due to avoiding "col
Does it work for keyboards as well? (Score:2)
Ideally it would be a good treatment for all peripherals.
Great time... (Score:2)
... to be a mouse.
In mice (Score:2)
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...that's why we need to start distinguishing the two kinds of lab mice. We now (I think it's only in the last few years, i.e. covid) have lab mice that actually have a human immune system.
In those cases, it's not about translating what works in mice to what may work in humans -- it's already working in a human immune system, simply contained within a mouse.
It's become a brilliant way to literally experiment on a human immune system without experimenting on humans. A human trial might have 100 humans. But
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My understanding is that they aren't "simulated human immune systems" anymore. They are actual human immune systems, I'll use the word "grafted" into a mouse. If so, then across 5'000 mice, you'd get your 1 in 5'000 human genetic difference.
We're really far out of my expertise here, and I gather outside of everyone's, short of the hundred lab-nerds working with them (and I say that respectfully).
But we can certainly agree that "as long as used responsibly" ought to be the banner headline of any action, sc
Really?? 7/8 mice? (Score:2)
Unless that represents some kind of heavily reduced fraction, this ratio does not seem like something to get really excited about.
Unless you're a mouse.
Great News! (Score:2)
Great news! ...for mice.