Cancer fight stalls amid push for profits, doctors say
Excerpt from the Guardian:
Only a few years ago, many cancer experts thought the arrival of targeted medicines, designed to attack the genetic makeup of the tumour, would make dramatic inroads into cancer deaths. That has not happened. Instead, these therapies have only bought a few extra months of life. If the question was whether the world was winning the war on cancer, said Douglas Hanahan of the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research, who outlined the latest state of drug research, "in general, for most forms of human cancer, the answer is clearly no".
The excitement generated by targeted drugs, which interfere with specific molecules involved in tumour growth and suppression, has been short-lived.
Doctors reported apparently miraculous results from the use of the BRAF-inhibitor vemurafenib in advanced malignant melanoma, a usually fatal form of skin cancer. Within two weeks, the tumours had melted away.
"But six months later, [the cancer] is back with a vengeance," he said.
Other drugs working in a similar way – including erlotinib (Tarceva) for a form of lung cancer, bevacizumab (Avastin) for breast, colorectal and other cancers, and sunitinib (Sutent) for renal cell carcinoma and gastrointestinal sarcoma – have also not done so well, said Hanahan. Resistance to the drugs builds up, sometimes very quickly. "All came on line with great expectations. The reality check is they are all working in the important first step, but we have a long way to go in terms of winning the war."
Full article: Cancer fight stalls amid push for profits, doctors say | Society | The Guardian.
How does this sad situation play out in the lab? From the perspective of the cancer cells, life is great. For researchers, it's been a frustrating, uphill battle.
The Onion reports:
Latest Study Finds Cancer Cells Now Cruelly Mocking Researchers
ROCHESTER, MN—Stating that cancer cells are now “laughing in our f*cking faces,” a new Mayo Clinic study with widespread implications for the treatment and potential cure of the disease has found that the malignant growths have begun cruelly mocking researchers. ?
The findings—published this week in a rambling, expletive-laden 8,000-word article in The Journal Of The American Medical Association—provides the strongest evidence yet that abnormal cells targeted with cutting-edge cancer treatments are basically flipping off scientists left and right, and get a huge kick out of making oncologists feel like a bunch of bumbling dipshit chumps.
“By mounting comprehensive and systematic attacks on malignancies with emerging technologies such as low-cost genetic sequencing, artificial intelligence, and monoclonal antibody treatments, what we’ve discovered is that cancer cells are little pricks that think they’re the king of the f*cking world,” lead author Dr. Charles Sepkowitz said of the study, which found that most leading cancers are pretty goddamn proud of themselves, especially when exasperated oncologists feel like their research is going nowhere…
Keep reading: Latest Study Finds Cancer Cells Now Cruelly Mocking Researchers
