5 ms·

- HIV/AIDs - Cancer - Tooth regrowth It feels like it won’t ever be done for some reason

by lloydatkinson 11mo ago

foxandmouse 11mo ago
+ Male birth control + Alzheimer’s cure + Hair regrowth
- paulpauper 11mo ago
  Cancer immunotherapy . Only works in a handful of cases
- scottlamb 11mo ago
  + weight loss pills ...they were persistent vaporware or scams, then suddenly they were real and everywhere. Hopefully that happens for the others too?
  - fallat 11mo ago
    Have we solved anything? /s
  - palmotea 11mo ago
    > + weight loss pills They've had those for decades. It's called meth.
    - doubled112 11mo ago
      Coffee and cigarettes for a safer but less effective solution.
      - nkmnz 11mo ago
        Cigarettes are no way safer than small doses of amphetamines. Check where the name "Ritalin" came from!
ajoseps 11mo ago
i thought the first two have had huge improvements in the last decade?
- ashleyn 11mo ago
  HIV prevention has been reduced to a twice a year shot given mainly to MSM. It's pretty damn close to the original goal of a vaccine.
- trenchpilgrim 11mo ago
  HIV has become a manageable disease in my lifetime. The main issue today is access to medication as I understand it.
  - toomuchtodo 11mo ago
    The first widespread cure for HIV could be in children - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44765981 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44765981 - August 2025 One-and-done HIV protection in infants - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44736988 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44736988 - July 2025 (First author of the paper even commented here at the time: "labanimalster - First author here. We solved a 30-year problem in gene therapy by leveraging neonatal immune tolerance. A single AAV vector injection encoding HIV antibodies achieved 89% success in newborns vs 33% in 2-year-olds, with protection lasting through adolescence. This could transform HIV prevention in regions where maintaining regular medical care is challenging. Happy to answer questions about the science or implications.") US FDA approves Gilead's twice-yearly injection [lenacapavir] for HIV prevention - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44312729 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44312729 - June 2025
- agumonkey 11mo ago
  it might be slow exponential thing, 60 years of low to medium improvements in cancer, and hopefully suddenly a few big cracks to turn it into a chronic liveable condition (or maybe cure it). there are more articles about advanced tumors being shrunk to nothing than before (based on my personal monitoring)
tootie 11mo ago
While a cure remains elusive, HIV treatment is now extremely effective. Antiretroviral shots can keep people symptom free indefinitely. Cancer treatment varies by type of cancer but many have dramatically improved outcomes.
toyg 11mo ago
- hair regrowth
- f4uCL9dNSnQm 11mo ago
  I find it interesting that we are closer to regrowing teeth than hair. At least there was human clinical test for TRG-035. Is it just cause hair transplant is "good enough" stopgap solution?
  - toyg 11mo ago
    I think it's more that fixing teeth is largely about replicating a specific material with one-off procedures, whereas fixing hair is all about controlling a complex never-ending process that is linked to all sorts of factors. Also, everyone has teeth issues, whereas hair issues are mostly limited to a subsection of the population (older males, and not even all of them).
    - sumedh 11mo ago
      > subsection of the population (older males, and not even all of them) Those men will pay lot of money to get back their hair though. If I not mistaken it was Bill Gates who said more money is spent in hair regrowth research compared to vaccine to prevent diseases like malaria which kills thousand of people.
EvanAnderson 11mo ago
Tooth regrowth is something I was really hoping for. I abused one of my molars. After years of efforts (repeated fillings, a crown) to stave off losing the tooth it finally had to come out last month. Now I'm waiting for the bone graft to "take" before getting an implant. I was hoping I'd waited long enough for tooth regrowth to become "a thing" but I have not. (Should have taken better care of it when I was younger and not ignored the massive hole that was growing in it. Chalk it up to a bad dental experience as a child and 25+ years of avoiding dentists as a result...)
- dijit 11mo ago
  In the same boat as you, maybe less years behind you than I’d like to believe. Just in case you need someone to, y’know, empathise with you. I have a lot of people in my life who don’t understand why I don’t just go to the dentist
  - EvanAnderson 11mo ago
    The anxiety about having actual problems with my tooth eventually overrode the anxiety about going to the dentist and I started going regularly (after a pause of 26 years). I'm pleased that I found a good dentist and I've been able to overcome my anxiety. I recognize that I'm lucky in this regard. I was also lucky in that, aside from this one problem tooth, my oral care regimen in my 26 years of not having regular dental care were sufficient to prevent any further issues. I expected to come out of that first checkup with massive problems (even though I'd never had any pain or issues) and I was pleasantly surprised. All in all I think I'm very lucky. I tried to take care of my teeth on my own, and largely succeeded, but I do wish I'd taken care of this one problem tooth before it was too late.
- flyinglizard 11mo ago
  I was reading your comment just as I was sat in the dentist office paying for my partner’s kid long due treatment. She was afraid of dentists and neglected treatment for too long but I took her to the same superb (and expensive) dentist I use for my own kids and she was happy and had everything done. Your comment reminded me why I do it. Thank you.
stefs 11mo ago
HIV/Aids have made huge progress and so did cancer. Also "cancer" isn't a single disease, they're quite different.
alphager 11mo ago
Cancers have had extremely effective new treatments developed for in the last ten years. Depending on the type of cancer, we now have cures or treatments that stave off death for years. My wife has a rare type of cancer with not much research thrown at it, and even her type of cancer went from a median time of survival measured in months to several years.
throwaway2037 11mo ago
I am confused by this comment about HIV/AIDS. Is it cynical? Are you confused why we have not "cured" HIV? I grew up during the AIDS Crisis. It was awful. People were dropping like flies. Today, you can be "technically" HIV positive, but test negative, give birth to HIV-negative children, and have unprotected sex (and not infect your partner). As far as I am concerned, the battle has been won. It is a miracle in my eyes.
- Taek 11mo ago
  HIV meds have a slew unpleasant but tolerable (certainly far superior to HIV itself) side effects, imo the battle isn't "won" until the treatment is entirely inconsequential. That said, the progress has indeed been miraculous. A great example of the capabilities modern medicine.
inglor_cz 11mo ago
Compared to the 1980s, HIV is a chronic manageable disease that does not even reduce your quality of life. Plenty of cancers have become manageable with the advent of immunological treatments. Tooth regrowth seems to be the most complicated of those three, which isn't even surprising, given that it is basically organ regeneration.

- HIV/AIDs - Cancer - Tooth regrowth It feels like it won’t ever be done for some reason

foxandmouse 11mo ago

+ Male birth control + Alzheimer’s cure + Hair regrowth

paulpauper 11mo ago
Cancer immunotherapy . Only works in a handful of cases
scottlamb 11mo ago
+ weight loss pills ...they were persistent vaporware or scams, then suddenly they were real and everywhere. Hopefully that happens for the others too?
- fallat 11mo ago
  Have we solved anything? /s
- palmotea 11mo ago
  > + weight loss pills They've had those for decades. It's called meth.
  - doubled112 11mo ago
    Coffee and cigarettes for a safer but less effective solution.
    - nkmnz 11mo ago
      Cigarettes are no way safer than small doses of amphetamines. Check where the name "Ritalin" came from!

ajoseps 11mo ago

i thought the first two have had huge improvements in the last decade?

ashleyn 11mo ago
HIV prevention has been reduced to a twice a year shot given mainly to MSM. It's pretty damn close to the original goal of a vaccine.
trenchpilgrim 11mo ago
HIV has become a manageable disease in my lifetime. The main issue today is access to medication as I understand it.
- toomuchtodo 11mo ago
  The first widespread cure for HIV could be in children - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44765981 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44765981 - August 2025 One-and-done HIV protection in infants - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44736988 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44736988 - July 2025 (First author of the paper even commented here at the time: "labanimalster - First author here. We solved a 30-year problem in gene therapy by leveraging neonatal immune tolerance. A single AAV vector injection encoding HIV antibodies achieved 89% success in newborns vs 33% in 2-year-olds, with protection lasting through adolescence. This could transform HIV prevention in regions where maintaining regular medical care is challenging. Happy to answer questions about the science or implications.") US FDA approves Gilead's twice-yearly injection [lenacapavir] for HIV prevention - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44312729 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44312729 - June 2025
agumonkey 11mo ago
it might be slow exponential thing, 60 years of low to medium improvements in cancer, and hopefully suddenly a few big cracks to turn it into a chronic liveable condition (or maybe cure it). there are more articles about advanced tumors being shrunk to nothing than before (based on my personal monitoring)

tootie 11mo ago

While a cure remains elusive, HIV treatment is now extremely effective. Antiretroviral shots can keep people symptom free indefinitely. Cancer treatment varies by type of cancer but many have dramatically improved outcomes.

toyg 11mo ago

- hair regrowth

f4uCL9dNSnQm 11mo ago
I find it interesting that we are closer to regrowing teeth than hair. At least there was human clinical test for TRG-035. Is it just cause hair transplant is "good enough" stopgap solution?
- toyg 11mo ago
  I think it's more that fixing teeth is largely about replicating a specific material with one-off procedures, whereas fixing hair is all about controlling a complex never-ending process that is linked to all sorts of factors. Also, everyone has teeth issues, whereas hair issues are mostly limited to a subsection of the population (older males, and not even all of them).
  - sumedh 11mo ago
    > subsection of the population (older males, and not even all of them) Those men will pay lot of money to get back their hair though. If I not mistaken it was Bill Gates who said more money is spent in hair regrowth research compared to vaccine to prevent diseases like malaria which kills thousand of people.

EvanAnderson 11mo ago

Tooth regrowth is something I was really hoping for. I abused one of my molars. After years of efforts (repeated fillings, a crown) to stave off losing the tooth it finally had to come out last month. Now I'm waiting for the bone graft to "take" before getting an implant. I was hoping I'd waited long enough for tooth regrowth to become "a thing" but I have not. (Should have taken better care of it when I was younger and not ignored the massive hole that was growing in it. Chalk it up to a bad dental experience as a child and 25+ years of avoiding dentists as a result...)

dijit 11mo ago
In the same boat as you, maybe less years behind you than I’d like to believe. Just in case you need someone to, y’know, empathise with you. I have a lot of people in my life who don’t understand why I don’t just go to the dentist
- EvanAnderson 11mo ago
  The anxiety about having actual problems with my tooth eventually overrode the anxiety about going to the dentist and I started going regularly (after a pause of 26 years). I'm pleased that I found a good dentist and I've been able to overcome my anxiety. I recognize that I'm lucky in this regard. I was also lucky in that, aside from this one problem tooth, my oral care regimen in my 26 years of not having regular dental care were sufficient to prevent any further issues. I expected to come out of that first checkup with massive problems (even though I'd never had any pain or issues) and I was pleasantly surprised. All in all I think I'm very lucky. I tried to take care of my teeth on my own, and largely succeeded, but I do wish I'd taken care of this one problem tooth before it was too late.
flyinglizard 11mo ago
I was reading your comment just as I was sat in the dentist office paying for my partner’s kid long due treatment. She was afraid of dentists and neglected treatment for too long but I took her to the same superb (and expensive) dentist I use for my own kids and she was happy and had everything done. Your comment reminded me why I do it. Thank you.

stefs 11mo ago

HIV/Aids have made huge progress and so did cancer. Also "cancer" isn't a single disease, they're quite different.

alphager 11mo ago

Cancers have had extremely effective new treatments developed for in the last ten years. Depending on the type of cancer, we now have cures or treatments that stave off death for years. My wife has a rare type of cancer with not much research thrown at it, and even her type of cancer went from a median time of survival measured in months to several years.

throwaway2037 11mo ago

I am confused by this comment about HIV/AIDS. Is it cynical? Are you confused why we have not "cured" HIV? I grew up during the AIDS Crisis. It was awful. People were dropping like flies. Today, you can be "technically" HIV positive, but test negative, give birth to HIV-negative children, and have unprotected sex (and not infect your partner). As far as I am concerned, the battle has been won. It is a miracle in my eyes.

Taek 11mo ago
HIV meds have a slew unpleasant but tolerable (certainly far superior to HIV itself) side effects, imo the battle isn't "won" until the treatment is entirely inconsequential. That said, the progress has indeed been miraculous. A great example of the capabilities modern medicine.

inglor_cz 11mo ago

Compared to the 1980s, HIV is a chronic manageable disease that does not even reduce your quality of life. Plenty of cancers have become manageable with the advent of immunological treatments. Tooth regrowth seems to be the most complicated of those three, which isn't even surprising, given that it is basically organ regeneration.