Patients with terminal cancer could "effectively be cured" by the discovery of a pair of drugs which can shrink tumours or bring them under control in nearly 60% of people with advanced melanoma.
In an international trial of 945 patients, treatment with the drugs ipilimumab and nivolumab stopped the cancer advancing for nearly a year in 58% of cases. This was compared with 19% of cases for ipilimumab alone, which resulted in tumours stabilising or shrinking for an average of two and a half months.
The treatment, known as immunotherapy, uses the body's immune system to attack cancerous cells. Researchers say it could replace chemotherapy as the standard treatment for cancer within five years.
[Paper]: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1504030#t=article
(Score: 4, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Friday June 05 2015, @01:24AM
"effectively be cured"
stopped the cancer advancing for nearly a year
in 58% of cases.
One of these things is not like the others...
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 05 2015, @05:07AM
are you saying it's inconceivable?
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Saturday June 06 2015, @12:45AM
I'm saying you can't cure cancer if the "cure" only works on 58% of people.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 05 2015, @08:50AM
"Terminal" though.
Doesn't that mean "Under current typical treatment, you're fucked?"
so 58% of those that are fucked under what we've got now would survive with these new drugs. that's pretty damn good in my opinion.
Especially if they can catch it sooner (not so fucked, should be a much higher chance of killing it).