4 ms·

Individualized immune cancer therapy has been touted as the next big thing for half a century. It's nothing new, and with few exceptions, such as skin cancer, h

Individualized immune cancer therapy has been touted as the next big thing for half a century. It's nothing new, and with few exceptions, such as skin cancer, has failed to yield much. scientists, for decades, have tired to harness the immune system to attackcancer and it almost never works.

HedonicEscal8r 2mo ago
Personalized mRNA vaccines are in fact, extremely new, and only made possible by recent advances across multiple fields. This comment reveals a total lack of basic understanding on this topic.
- cogman10 2mo ago
  I believe the comment was talking specifically about immunotherapy rather than personalized mRNA. But I'd agree it's still misinformed as immunotherapy has been a game changer across multiple cancers.
  - HedonicEscal8r 2mo ago
    u/danjl was originally asking about "this class of drugs", which is more reasonably interpreted as referring to personalized mRNA vaccines rather than the much broader concept of (personalized or not) immunotherapy. The comment is wrong because it's stupid. Just because we've known that personalized immunotherapy was a promising idea for a long time, and have been trying it with the limited tools we had (CAR T being the poster child, and while an incredible advancement for blood cancers and many other diseases, it is notoriously dangerous and expensive), does not mean we had the technology to accomplish it. Today's results are only possible because of recent advancements in multiple fields, and to respond with "they've tried immunotherapy for decades" is profoundly ignorant. You may as well say, "scientists have been trying to cure cancer for years."
- ChickeNES 2mo ago
  > This comment reveals a total lack of basic understanding on this topic. My thoughts as well, Keytruda alone has been a miracle to many many people at this point (quoting GP: "scientists, for decades, have tired [sic] to harness the immune system to attack cancer and it almost never works."), I frequently get ads for local CAR-T centers (unthinkable a little over a decade ago)
bonsai_spool 2mo ago
> Individualized immune cancer therapy has been touted as the next big thing for half a century. It's nothing new, and with few exceptions, such as skin cancer, has failed to yield much. scientists, for decades, have tired to harness the immune system to attackcancer and it almost never works. "Almost never" is doing a lot of work. You may be aware that most drugs fail over the course of development and human trials? Anyway, checkpoint inhibitor therapy is a massive boon to oncology and was only brought into widespread use over the past 15 years.
cogman10 2mo ago
> and with few exceptions Those few exceptions have been monumental in how they've changed cancer treatment. Skin cancer has been particularly well treated with immunotherapy, but other cancers have also benefited from the exact same research and drugs (as it turns out, the specific mutations the immunotherapies like Keytruda target express in other cancers). The reason skin cancer gets so much attention is because it's one of the most commonly diagnosed and treated cancers. (Colon is more common, I believe, but it often doesn't get detected. Get your colonoscopies folks). It has moved fast enough that I've heard from multiple oncologists that the all 5 year survivability numbers are dated because the treatments are newer than the studies. We've come a LONG way in a very short period in terms of cancer treatment. It still sucks, but not as much as it once did.
- pfdietz 2mo ago
  Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treatment has been revolutionized by the checkpoint inhibitors (as well as some other drugs targeting specific mutations).
  - ulfw 2mo ago
    I don't like words like "revolutionized" as they set wrong expectations. For non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (such as pembrolizumab, nivolumab, or atezolizumab), median overall survival typically ranges from about 10 to 20 months in advanced stages as opposed to 10-12 months for standard chemotherapy treatments. That's great news especially as they would likely be better tolerated. Bt let's please not call living a handful of months longer as a 'revolution'.
preg_match 2mo ago
Every cancer is different. Immunotherapy is highly effective, even curative, for some cancers. For my cancer, chemotherapy is curative, while other cancer's just shrug chemotherapy off like it's nothing. Having a plethora of drugs and treatments is vital because cancer is not "one thing". Each type of cancer will respond better to some treatments than others.

HedonicEscal8r 2mo ago

Personalized mRNA vaccines are in fact, extremely new, and only made possible by recent advances across multiple fields. This comment reveals a total lack of basic understanding on this topic.

cogman10 2mo ago
I believe the comment was talking specifically about immunotherapy rather than personalized mRNA. But I'd agree it's still misinformed as immunotherapy has been a game changer across multiple cancers.
- HedonicEscal8r 2mo ago
  u/danjl was originally asking about "this class of drugs", which is more reasonably interpreted as referring to personalized mRNA vaccines rather than the much broader concept of (personalized or not) immunotherapy. The comment is wrong because it's stupid. Just because we've known that personalized immunotherapy was a promising idea for a long time, and have been trying it with the limited tools we had (CAR T being the poster child, and while an incredible advancement for blood cancers and many other diseases, it is notoriously dangerous and expensive), does not mean we had the technology to accomplish it. Today's results are only possible because of recent advancements in multiple fields, and to respond with "they've tried immunotherapy for decades" is profoundly ignorant. You may as well say, "scientists have been trying to cure cancer for years."
ChickeNES 2mo ago
> This comment reveals a total lack of basic understanding on this topic. My thoughts as well, Keytruda alone has been a miracle to many many people at this point (quoting GP: "scientists, for decades, have tired [sic] to harness the immune system to attack cancer and it almost never works."), I frequently get ads for local CAR-T centers (unthinkable a little over a decade ago)

bonsai_spool 2mo ago

> Individualized immune cancer therapy has been touted as the next big thing for half a century. It's nothing new, and with few exceptions, such as skin cancer, has failed to yield much. scientists, for decades, have tired to harness the immune system to attackcancer and it almost never works. "Almost never" is doing a lot of work. You may be aware that most drugs fail over the course of development and human trials? Anyway, checkpoint inhibitor therapy is a massive boon to oncology and was only brought into widespread use over the past 15 years.

cogman10 2mo ago

> and with few exceptions Those few exceptions have been monumental in how they've changed cancer treatment. Skin cancer has been particularly well treated with immunotherapy, but other cancers have also benefited from the exact same research and drugs (as it turns out, the specific mutations the immunotherapies like Keytruda target express in other cancers). The reason skin cancer gets so much attention is because it's one of the most commonly diagnosed and treated cancers. (Colon is more common, I believe, but it often doesn't get detected. Get your colonoscopies folks). It has moved fast enough that I've heard from multiple oncologists that the all 5 year survivability numbers are dated because the treatments are newer than the studies. We've come a LONG way in a very short period in terms of cancer treatment. It still sucks, but not as much as it once did.

pfdietz 2mo ago
Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treatment has been revolutionized by the checkpoint inhibitors (as well as some other drugs targeting specific mutations).
- ulfw 2mo ago
  I don't like words like "revolutionized" as they set wrong expectations. For non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (such as pembrolizumab, nivolumab, or atezolizumab), median overall survival typically ranges from about 10 to 20 months in advanced stages as opposed to 10-12 months for standard chemotherapy treatments. That's great news especially as they would likely be better tolerated. Bt let's please not call living a handful of months longer as a 'revolution'.

preg_match 2mo ago

Every cancer is different. Immunotherapy is highly effective, even curative, for some cancers. For my cancer, chemotherapy is curative, while other cancer's just shrug chemotherapy off like it's nothing. Having a plethora of drugs and treatments is vital because cancer is not "one thing". Each type of cancer will respond better to some treatments than others.