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'Although the cases drew wide media attention in Britain, some researchers said that because the London team also gave the children standard chemotherapy, they
by gt565k 10y ago
'Although the cases drew wide media attention in Britain, some researchers said that because the London team also gave the children standard chemotherapy, they failed to show the cell treatment actually cured the kids. “There is a hint of efficacy but no proof,” says Stephan Grupp, director of cancer immunotherapy at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who collaborates with Novartis. “It would be great if it works, but that just hasn’t been shown yet.”'
So the title is basically click-bait, as the treatment is unconfirmed.
- blisterpeanuts 10y agoPoint taken, but the title doesn't actually say the universal immune cells cured the disease.
- mikeash 10y agoMost clickbait isn't outright false, just highly suggestive in a misleading way.
- dmoy 10y agoThere's no way they don't also give them chemo. Doing otherwise would be hugely unethical. Just need more data points before we would know more...
- blacksmith_tb 10y agoTrue, but it could still be the case the combination of traditional chemo and the experimental therapy would work on other patients. Obviously it'd be preferable if it worked without chemo (given the side effects), but the cure is the goal.
- esalazar 10y ago'says Stephan Grupp, director of cancer immunotherapy at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who collaborates with Novartis.' I don't know if I would trust the opinion of somebody that 'collaborates' with one of the companies that has already lost millions trying a different approach and has the most to lose if this actually works. It even points this out earlier in the article - 'The ready-made approach could pose a challenge to companies including Juno Therapeutics and Novartis, each of which has spent tens of millions of dollars pioneering treatments that require collecting a patient’s own blood cells, engineering them, and then re-infusing them.'