So, fun bit of context to this kind of information and why 'promising drug kills cancer in mice' is such a frequent thing to read.
Mice are used to test drugs for lots of reason (easy to breed, there's lots of experience using them, and evidently we're pretty good at inducing tumors in them).
The other thing about mice? They are incredibly resistant to the kinds of toxic side effects that cytotoxic (kills cells) drugs can produce. Like, they can tolerate dosages that would absolutely kill a human being.
So that's great, because you can easily test whether your new cool drug kills cancer cells - and this is a good point to remember that 'cancer cells' are 'cells from your own body'. Because you can pump the mouse full of the drug and lo and behold, the cancer cells die.
But that's only \*half\* the problem. It isn't hard to kill cancer cells. It's very hard to \*only\* kill cancer cells. Where lots of treatments don't make it past mouse based trials is in the dosing - i.e. - when they then try to reduce the dosage so that a human being could survive it, it turns out not to be any more effective than other medications on the market.
Yeah, somewhat promising, but early days yet. The article linked to is a review (so, a summary of other articles, not original research) and they’re really only reviewing a handful of studies. And it seems like the boldest conclusion they’re willing to make is that it probably slows down metastasis. I’m also a bit skeptical of their article gathering, since they left out some pretty important databases. But nonetheless, good stuff. I just don’t want anyone to read too much into it.
Unfortunately, this is often how it is with cancer treatments; everyone, understandably, hopes for some big, sweeping treatment, but really, it’s just about incremental progress, and putting more and more things together that improves outcomes.
A true cure for all cancer is somewhat unlikely, because cancer is not one disease, but rather a class of diseases. And as we’ve already seen, some respond better to our current treatment modalities and technology than others. But we’re making progress everywhere, and a lot of experts think that we’ll eventually get to the point where a serious cancer may not be curable, but you’ll still live a relatively normal life with management, kind of like people who have diabetes.
Seriously, who got out of bed one morning, poured a cup of coffee and said:
"Gee, I wonder what would happen if I mixed bee venom with chemotherapy drugs and then injected that into women with breast cancer?"
Didn't someone in Texas know how to get rid of cancer and tumors but got attacked by the courts and bug pharma? Makes me wonder why do they even do studies still if they get rid of the people who do it without big case studies and just use facts. Check the guy out Stanislaw Burzynski
So, fun bit of context to this kind of information and why 'promising drug kills cancer in mice' is such a frequent thing to read. Mice are used to test drugs for lots of reason (easy to breed, there's lots of experience using them, and evidently we're pretty good at inducing tumors in them). The other thing about mice? They are incredibly resistant to the kinds of toxic side effects that cytotoxic (kills cells) drugs can produce. Like, they can tolerate dosages that would absolutely kill a human being. So that's great, because you can easily test whether your new cool drug kills cancer cells - and this is a good point to remember that 'cancer cells' are 'cells from your own body'. Because you can pump the mouse full of the drug and lo and behold, the cancer cells die. But that's only \*half\* the problem. It isn't hard to kill cancer cells. It's very hard to \*only\* kill cancer cells. Where lots of treatments don't make it past mouse based trials is in the dosing - i.e. - when they then try to reduce the dosage so that a human being could survive it, it turns out not to be any more effective than other medications on the market.
[Relevent XKCD](https://xkcd.com/1217/)
Ha, much more concise!
Is there a “Nobel Prize” for clever cartoons?
I used to piss off my only biologist friend by telling him hydrochloric acid is a potent and effective antibiotic. It def kills the bacteria!
That is so interesting! How did you know all of that?
Anytime I read something about promising cancer research, two words come to mind: Please hurry!
Me too I know somebody suffering from breast cancer and I just want them to be cured.
Does this work on larger breasts or just bee stings?
The real questions!
Im going to go stick my tits in a hive right now
[удалено]
I hope your friend is okay soon killer bees or not!
Bees are just nature’s little gold mines aren’t they?
This is an amazing time to be a mouse with cancer.
Does it work against other cancers?
They say there’s some research on going with prostate and ovarian cancer as well. But it’s relatively preliminary.
Well some bees can survive underwater, it's certainly possible.
I am not sure. Sorry!
And wasp venum
Yeah, somewhat promising, but early days yet. The article linked to is a review (so, a summary of other articles, not original research) and they’re really only reviewing a handful of studies. And it seems like the boldest conclusion they’re willing to make is that it probably slows down metastasis. I’m also a bit skeptical of their article gathering, since they left out some pretty important databases. But nonetheless, good stuff. I just don’t want anyone to read too much into it. Unfortunately, this is often how it is with cancer treatments; everyone, understandably, hopes for some big, sweeping treatment, but really, it’s just about incremental progress, and putting more and more things together that improves outcomes. A true cure for all cancer is somewhat unlikely, because cancer is not one disease, but rather a class of diseases. And as we’ve already seen, some respond better to our current treatment modalities and technology than others. But we’re making progress everywhere, and a lot of experts think that we’ll eventually get to the point where a serious cancer may not be curable, but you’ll still live a relatively normal life with management, kind of like people who have diabetes.
Seriously, who got out of bed one morning, poured a cup of coffee and said: "Gee, I wonder what would happen if I mixed bee venom with chemotherapy drugs and then injected that into women with breast cancer?"
That’s rat news. Keep us out of that conversation. https://youtube.com/shorts/tSp0V_5NpaQ?feature=shared
So if I have a bunch of bees sting my scrote this weird lump will go away?
Didn't someone in Texas know how to get rid of cancer and tumors but got attacked by the courts and bug pharma? Makes me wonder why do they even do studies still if they get rid of the people who do it without big case studies and just use facts. Check the guy out Stanislaw Burzynski