3 ms·

Well, the flipside is that if you stop chemo, the damage to your body stops. But if the immune system over reacts, it can run out of control and kill you. I h

Well, the flipside is that if you stop chemo, the damage to your body stops. But if the immune system over reacts, it can run out of control and kill you. I have a relative with stage IV melanoma. She was included in a research trial that used a pair of immune stimulating drugs in an attempt to get her own body to fight the cancer. What they didn't realize is she had a latent, undiagnosed autoimmune condition called vasculitis. Unfortunately, while vasculitis is normally isolated to a particular part of the body, hers was systemic. What followed was an immediate halt of the drug regimen and massive doses of steroids to get it under control. If that hadn't have worked, it would have killed her. Full stop. The condition is now fortunately under control, but she has 30% kidney function, and the steroids pushed her over to full non-insulin-dependent diabetes. She's now on a targeted therapy that, for now, has pushed her into full remission, but it's only a matter of time before the melanoma becomes resistant to the drug. The reality is, doctors do not fully understand the immune system. Period. These treatments are in many ways astonishing, but they can turn frightening very very quickly. And they don't always work, either. Unfortunately, there are no miracles, here. Not yet.

lr4444lr 9y ago
That's true, but assuming this specific treatment doesn't reprogram the native immune system, it sounds like the side effects are much shorter and less devastating than the systemic damage of chemo, even if requiring repeated attempts.
- zzalpha 9y ago
  Well, given the doctors in the article flat out stated that: There was a chance that his immune system would go into overdrive, and there was a chance that the edited T-cells wouldn’t be as potent as they expected. The medical team just really couldn’t be sure what would happen. That article goes on to note all manner of side effects with this style of therapy: fever, tremors, convulsions, encephalitis... and right at the end we have this quote: He had an atypical skin growth, a chronic cough, a sinus infection, a puddle of fluid at the bottom of his lungs, a virus in his right eye, and bad heartburn. Of course, as far as side effects go, this is pretty minor. But there's no understanding of why these types of things happen in the first place because our understanding of the immune system in vivo is just not very good.

lr4444lr 9y ago

That's true, but assuming this specific treatment doesn't reprogram the native immune system, it sounds like the side effects are much shorter and less devastating than the systemic damage of chemo, even if requiring repeated attempts.

zzalpha 9y ago
Well, given the doctors in the article flat out stated that: There was a chance that his immune system would go into overdrive, and there was a chance that the edited T-cells wouldn’t be as potent as they expected. The medical team just really couldn’t be sure what would happen. That article goes on to note all manner of side effects with this style of therapy: fever, tremors, convulsions, encephalitis... and right at the end we have this quote: He had an atypical skin growth, a chronic cough, a sinus infection, a puddle of fluid at the bottom of his lungs, a virus in his right eye, and bad heartburn. Of course, as far as side effects go, this is pretty minor. But there's no understanding of why these types of things happen in the first place because our understanding of the immune system in vivo is just not very good.