Monday, 14 March 2016

Week 1 [14-20.03.2016] Dramatic remissions in blood cancer in immunotherapy treatment trial



Hello Everyone,

Welcome in new semester :) I would like to present an article that I read a few days ago, which has had a tremendous impression on me. In my opinion it will have a huge impact on the development of methods of combating cancer.  Article’s called “Dramatic remissions in blood cancer in immunotherapy treatment trial”


I would like to ask:
1-      What do you think about that kind of method of fighting cancer?
2-      Do you think it will be available to the public soon and it would be inexpensive?
3-      Should this doctor receive Nobel prize in medicine?

If you are more interesting in this topic you may find also very interesting information at the link below:

60 comments:

  1. Hi Kinga, I think it's too early to speak about the Nobel prize until we haven't more evidence of treatment. Certainly this research sound promising and I would like to believe that will be helpful in cancer treatment in most cases. On the other hand I am afraid will be very expensive if will be available to the public (it is not pills like painkillers). Because of that will not be available for everyone as should be, I guess. Regards.

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    1. Hi Przemek, thank you very much for your opinion. I am very pleasantly surprised to receive the early response, which is very rare experience in our group conversations so far :)
      However, I would like to respectfully disagree with most of your statements, starting with the possible Nobel price nomination. In my opinion this is a monumental discovery in both the medical science and genetic biology. It can only be compared with such feats like discovery of penicillin or construction of first X-ray machine. It is almost granted in my opinion, that the group led by dr. Stanley Riddell, M.D. shall receive the highest prices in number of disciplines, and the Nobel price will be the first one. This discovery opens a completely new and shockingly effective, revolutionary way to treat most of the cancers, especially the hardest and until now deadly kinds, like leukemia or pancreas cancer. The procedure has been successfully tried on terminal patients, who already underwent failing chemotherapy and X-ray treatments. In all cases the remission was amazingly quick – 2 weeks and 100% positive. This is a very new method, so there was limited number of different kinds of cancer treated so far, but because of it’s very universal basis it appears to be suitable for essentially any type of cancer treatment. And because of the genius simplicity of the method, which does not require any expensive devices or drugs, but a basic genetic manipulation of the patient blood T-cells, the expected cost of this treatment is going to be very low. If you read the abstract of their paper published in “2016 Annual Meeting of the American Association of the Advancement of Science, Washington, D.C., Feb 2016” , you can easily appreciate how inexpensive the whole procedure is. I have a microbiology professor in my family, who is an expert on the genetic microbiology, and he confirmed that described process is very inexpensive and can be easily repeated in any lab equipped with the basic gene sequencer, like in his own Institute in Warsaw. Therefore one can expect now a real revolution in cancer treatment accessible to general population. This is also opinion shared by the most of experts widely commenting this discovery in press and Internet. I hope, that after reviewing my arguments and/or reading more on the subject you are going to agree with me :)

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  4. Hi Kinga, thanks for this interesting subject. At first I wanted to agree with Przemyslaw but after your reasoning I will suspend any definite response until I read some more about this treatment.
    Btw (hope you do not consider it off topic) what annoys me the most in cancer related topics is that some types of cancer are potentially preventable because major factors are diet and lifestyle but it seems like most people do not know it. Concerning diet basically we should eat less products from animal origin and much much less sugar. But if you start reading labels or ask about the content it is not that easy not to eat sugar nowadays, here is an interesting example: http://mashable.com/2016/02/17/sugar-levels-hot-drinks/#RnK8VPIKmPq0

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    1. Hi Julia, thank you for your comment :) I hope that by the end of the week you are able to read a few articles to share with us their opinion.

      As for the second part of your respond I totally agree with you. Wrong diet and lifestyle is sadly the cause of many diseases starting from a obesity and ending with cancer :(

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  5. Hi All,

    I read the article and it showed that sometimes relatively cheap solutions are the best :). It is totally not in my interests scope, so i won't be a good partner for this discussion. I've been hearing in media, time to time that some one had invented new method to fight cancer. I read that one Polish student found method of fighting with cancer by isolation sugar from. I've also heard also that there are guys in US, that are trying to fight with cancer by using nanotechnology.
    I think that nobel prize will be in range of that team, but not now. We will see how the tests will go in the future.

    My friend has been fighting with cancer last year, he said that very important is your lifestyle and diet.

    I end my post with that sentence: cancer is our own fault, fault of consumptionism and our laziness.

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    1. Hi Maciej, I totally disagree with you. I'm shocked by your opinion :( . Laziness and bad diet can be definitely a factor faciltating a development of any sickness including cancer. However it's not a primary cause of it. There are hundrets of thousands children sick with cancer. Very young children, starting with one or two years old. They are definetely not lazy or consumptionists. Most of current medical researches are showing genetic condictions as the primary cause of cancer. I also disagree with your statement about Nobel prize chances for dr.S.R team. I think believe they are going to receive this award next year.

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  6. I just wanted to say that in my opinion cancer is a diseases of civilization. I agree with you that there are hundreds of thousands children sick with cancer but main fault,in my opinion, is the way how we treat our environment and our bodies. I could only assume that in the past there were significant smaller amount of cancer events.

    I'm out, that is not my topic. I've had to write something in this topic, so here it is :)

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    1. I understand that is not your scope of intrest :) however thank you very much for your opinion, which I continue to disagree with. :)

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  7. But to my knowledge cancer is a disease of civilization, isn't it? And we have epidemic of it. In my opinion also the main thing that changed (althouh longevity is definately a factor) is environment and the way we live.

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    1. Where did get your information that cancer is a "disease of civilization"? Please provide the source. Last time I have made a research on the subject cancer was defined by all medical authorities as hereditary somatic disease. Best regards, Kinga :)

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    2. Given the fact that archaeologists discovered a few thousand old mummy with well-developed tumor, it will be hard to say that cancer is a industrial revolution's side-effect.
      It is just the fact, that in the previous centuries, people didn't have things like antibiotics, widespread vaccinations and well developed medicine.
      The poverty also played certain role (things like nutrition) in a death toll.
      What I am trying to say, that few hundreds years ago you would be more likely to die out of "simple" infection or from hunger rather than cancer.

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    3. Yes from the historical perspective dying of cancer was relatively much less "popular" than it's nowadays. In that sense cancer maybe concidered a "civilization dependent" disease. It is not, however, civilization, that is the cause of cancer :) Thank you for your understanding.

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    4. Sorry for late reply I only could see it now.

      Here are some sources:
      http://www.mz.gov.pl/zdrowie-i-profilaktyka/choroby-cywilizacyjne/
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle_disease

      Just to be clear I am not denying genetic origin of cancer I am just saying that there are some types of cancer that have other factors.

      Also it seems to me that disease of civilization doesn't mean that these diseases never appeared before but that they become more frequent with industrial development.

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  8. I'm usually skeptical when it comes to genetic modifications. I think that we can't predict long-term consequences of genetic modifications of living organisms and tissues, especially in the immunological system.
    On the other hand malignant tumors are very likely to kill patients anyway and obviously boosting immunity the natural ways isn't going to help.
    Current results are promising but further research and clinical experiments are needed before the therapy is made available. Also Nobel Prize requires more clinical tests and long-term periodical examination of patients to discover any possible side effects.

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    1. Thank you for youre comment :). I mostly agree with you. As far as the standard procedures in research I am sure they are followed very meticulously. I would be very careful with expressing the skepticism towards the genetic research, especially in view of the latest results from research on the suposing harmfulness of GMO foods. After couple of years of intensive clinical studies it was proved that GMO food have absolutly no effects on humans.

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  9. Before I dive into your questions, I must admit I didn't expect to understand a single thing from the material. Turns out I know more about biology that I thought.

    1- What do you think about that kind of method of fighting cancer?

    I am skeptical, as usual. On one hand, this is truly revolutionary method (although in a sense nothing new), on the other I doubt that it could reach mass adoption.

    We use immunotherapy for more than century now. Just think about all these vaccines we created. It is nothing else than training blood cells capable of eliminating certain microbes. The novelty here is engineering blood cells instead of training them. This way we can create very specific blood cells that kill either specific malignant tissues or certain viruses and bacterias.

    However, the problem is these cells are engineered, that is these cell are genetically modified patient's blood cells. I am afraid that puts limits to widespread adoption. I suspect that the cost of this kind of therapy will simply be prohibitive to less developed countries.

    The article begs the question. What if the patient suffers from T-Cell type of leukemia? Do re-engineered T-Cells will be able to kill the cancerous ones? Personally, I doubt that but I know next to nothing about this field, so I might be wrong.

    2- Do you think it will be available to the public soon and it would be inexpensive?

    I guess I already mentioned, that I believe the costs will be prohibitive. That is, unless we can find the way to automate blood cells re-engineering.

    3- Should this doctor receive Nobel prize in medicine?

    Thank God, I am not the one to decide :)
    It is usually the case for breakthrough in medicine, that the ones involved receive the prize after about 2 decades. I guess we will see in 20 years :)

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    1. Thank you very much for your detailed opinion :) I disagree with a lot of your statements, but such is a nature of any democratic discousion :) I suggest you read the original paper from the convention in your free time, if you want to :)

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  10. 1- What do you think about that kind of method of fighting cancer?
    In my honest opinion, it's awesome. Dangerous, because we are changing our DNA, but still I think it's promising. Moreover, we could use this technique versus any disease. Imagine that yesterday we had problems with flu, tuberculosis etc. With improved immune system we will forget about them or our childrens will , or granchildrens... Anyway, it's a breaktrough if it's real. Although, I'm wondering about side effects of this treatment.
    2- Do you think it will be available to the public soon and it would be inexpensive?
    I don't think so. However, it shouldn't be expensive. I estimate around 10k$ per treatment, but as it's something new they will probably charge around 100k$ or more.
    3- Should this doctor receive Nobel prize in medicine?
    After additional tests, opinions etc. They should, who knows when, because it's still experimental. Maybe they will get it in next 5 years or so.

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    1. First of all the treatment is not changing patient's DNA! :( Genetically modified blood cells have very a short live span and after distroying the cancer's cells they quickly die out without going into any interaction with patient's body. On the questions of the cost of the treatment and chances for Nobel prize I have already stated my position and I am not going to repeat myself. :)

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  11. Hi Kinga, thanks for your article recommendation. It is really nice to see that there is progress being made in fighting with this terrible disease. Throughout time I've heard and read of many new treatments and perhaps cures for cancer however it still seems there isn't one that is definitive. There is even this conspiracy theory that claims that the cure to cancer exists however medical companies profit more from its lack and therefore try to hinder the progress. The method that is mentioned in the article seems to bring positive initial results and there is hope that it can be a breakthrough. However more tests have to be done in order to see the final results. It is hard for me to estimate the cost of this new treatment, however I suspect it won't be too cheap at least in the first years of it successful deployment. We can't really debate a Nobel prize yet, since the work is still in progress. If it is a successful and revolutionary treatment then I believe it is worth 10 Nobel prizes. ;)

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    1. Thank you for your frank opinion :) we share similar thoughts. I hope the reaserch will be done soon producing a universal and inexpensive treatment avilable for everybody.

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  12. Hi Kinga,
    1.What do you think about that kind of method of fighting cancer?
    In my opinion it is good kind of method but dangerous, but people who don't have other opportunities they can use this method for rescure his/her life. In other hand doctors try a lot of methods for war with cancer but now medicine isn't have a method to "kill"cancer.

    2 Do you think it will be available to the public soon and it would be inexpensive?

    In my opinion it shouldn't be expensive. I am totally agree with Mateusz P.

    3 Should this doctor receive Nobel prize in medicine?

    In my opinion if this kind of method will be work , doctor will receive Nobel prize in medicine.

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    1. Why do you think it's dangerous? Can you explain?

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  13. Beautiful article and it is not from IT sector :-). Sometimes it is nice to read some smart stuff. I must agree with Pawel about text understanding, at the beginning I saw this weird picture of T cells and I said to myself "Oh my God" but after reading it, I must say that it was not so bad :-).
    1- What do you think about that kind of method of fighting cancer?
    I must say that I am the kind of person that believes that any interference in human body without the really good reason should be banned.
    And this is really good case even extremely good case to disagree with my statement.
    Every time when there is any possibility to cure disease and in this case cancer, there should be no ethical and religious questions about treatment, even when it comes to changing your DNA.
    Life and health is the most important thing that we have and we should look after it as much as we can and also we should fight for it as much as we can. If there is any hope to cure your disease we should try.

    Summarizing my reasoning if this method can give you any chance to beat cancer, you should try and don't think about long-term consequences when you can have any chance to live longer.

    This is really wonderful to watch how science is growing and helping us in our life.

    2- Do you think it will be available to the public soon and it would be inexpensive?
    Yes this would be wonderfull, I think that medicine should be available for any person (poor or rich) in the same way.

    3- Should this doctor receive Nobel prize in medicine?
    At this point I agree with Michail, if it works give him as many Nobel prizes as he wants.

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    1. After the last semester I decided that enough is enough and changing subject of our discussions seemed like the best idea :) I agree essentially with everything you said. I already replied Mateusz P that this method isn't changing patient's DNA.

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  14. 1- What do you think about that kind of method of fighting cancer?
    In my opinion each method should be analyzed by experts, and verified by the medical community. I have heard many times breaking news about cancer treatment. As Mikołaj Szypke wrote we are not able to predict future consequences. If results of this solution might be helpful in cancer treatment then it should be implemented. On the other hand each supportive method of battle with cancer, which moves us a little bit closer to win the war is good.

    2- Do you think it will be available to the public soon and it would be inexpensive?

    I hope I am wrong but each “super treatment method” is expensive on the beggining and it is very profitable for medical corporations. It is very easy to earn money when we will use hope of people who are fighting with medical verdict. THey are able to pay each price for this hope. First I want to know an answer about effectiveness of this method.

    3- Should this doctor receive Nobel prize in medicine?

    This should be assessed by medical community. I do not know. In my opinion to talk about breakthrough in medicine we have to wait about 10 years on verification.

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    1. Thank you for your opinion :) The future will tell.

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  15. Extremely interesting article.
    "For Approximately 100 years, the main tools to treat cancer were surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. But since around 2000 doctors have had access to a type of immunotherapy based on engineered antibodies That can target specific molecules on cancer cells."
    In fact, the above statement shows that the revolution is presented method of treatment. It is interesting and seems to be almost non-invasive compared to previous methods.
    As it is written in the article is currently in initial testing in patients. Key to this method after refining was available for a wide range of patients.
    I can not say anything about the Nobel Prize. I do not follow the field of medicine so much, but I keep my fingers crossed!

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    1. Congratulation on reading the source article :) not many people on this disscusion bother to read the source :) Otherwise I agree with your opinion.

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  16. 1- What do you think about that kind of method of fighting cancer?
    2- Do you think it will be available to the public soon and it would be inexpensive?
    3- Should this doctor receive Nobel prize in medicine?

    I think that every new methods makes us closer to finding the final solution. We need to remember that there are many different types of cancer. They evolve with us because cancer is our cells. About the access. New treatments are never available in a fast rate. I don't think that this time will something chnge.
    It is much to early to talk about Nobel prize. Lets wait for full results, lets look at this from perspective of time. Than we can talk about prizes :)

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    1. The future will tell who was right. I hope this treatment is general enough for any kind of cancer. Btw, what do you mean by saying "They evolve with us because cancer is our cells"?

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  17. I do admit it was an interesting article, but to be honest until we got a production line manufacturing medicine working in majority of cases, then such novels will be just a seasonal news.

    1 - What do you think about that kind of method of fighting cancer?
    I can respond only by saying 'whatever works'. I'm not a specialist here, hence I wont even a pick side in this discussion. But from problem solving perspective only, if there is a solution or a cure (more applicable in this context) and if it is fighting the cancer - great! let's make it popular and available among all the patient who could be cured by this method.
    But I do have exactly the same opinion about other potential methods. If tested and working, let's use it.

    2 - Do you think it will be available to the public soon and it would be inexpensive?
    Naively, I'd like to. Though in this cases, it may not be the case. Global pharmecutical companies would like to monetize it or even make sure that the previously used cures paid their R&D and marketing costs.

    3 - Should this doctor receive Nobel prize in medicine?
    Frankly speaking, I do have exactly the same view as Paweł.. let's prove it first, before the decision is made. Of course, I do support any scientist here.

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    1. I agree with you, this article is very interesting, that is why I have chosen it :) I am very happy next person sad it. :)

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  18. 1- What do you think about that kind of method of fighting cancer?
    > Fingers crossed.

    2- Do you think it will be available to the public soon and it would be inexpensive?
    > I don't know. I hope for the public good.

    3- Should this doctor receive Nobel prize in medicine?
    > Perhaps he should receive a prize.

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  19. Hi Kinga!
    Very interesting article. The method described in there is kind of amazing and shows how fast and efficient medicine is changing. Answering to your questions:

    1. What do you think about that kind of method of fighting cancer?

    The method is completely different that the ones that are applied to a cancer patients now. Firstly, it is not so offensive to a human organism than surgeries, chemotherapy or radiotherapy. It does not cause any pain or inconveniences itself. The patient does not have to spend a lot of time in a hospital. If I correctly understood, from the patient point of view it looks like application of any other medicine.
    Secondly it is a totally different approach of treating cancer, not based on strong drugs or external intervention, but on the patient own immune system, modified genetically to improve its effectiveness.
    If the method occurs to be success, in my opinion, it will be a real breakthrough in cancer treatment.

    2. Do you think it will be available to the public soon and it would be inexpensive?

    It is quite a new idea, and is on a stage of clinical trials with not so many patients, so I think it requires a lot more research and trials to be publicly and commonly used.
    As the method requires an individual approach to every patient it might be very expensive, at least at the beginning, but I hope finally will become cheaper. Maybe if treatment turns out to be very effective it will be refunded from a social security.

    3. Should this doctor receive Nobel prize in medicine?

    If he succeds with his researches, than for sure yes.

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    1. You are the first person to correctly grasp the bottom of the idea. :) Like from his add Bravo you :) !!!

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    2. I am glad you like my opinion :)

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  20. Hello Kinga, this is a really interesting and important article. Unfortunately I had known people who lost their fight with cancer, so this article definitely raises the hopes for the future. Thanks for sharing it with us!

    I’ll try to answer the questions which you’ve raised, although I feel that medicine and oncology are way too far from my expertise areas.

    1- What do you think about that kind of method of fighting cancer?
    Every solution which raises the chances of getting rid of cancer needs to be carefully tested. The treatment from the article seems to be really invasive. The results are amazing, still I feel a lot of research needs to be done to be sure that it won’t cause some unexpected problems in the patients body.

    2- Do you think it will be available to the public soon and it would be inexpensive?
    As mentioned earlier, I feel that this is just the beginning and making this treatment public requires years of research.

    The pharmaceutical market is huge, and there are too many parties interested in keeping the prices of medicines high, so I think this treatment will be expensive. To get the idea you can see what happened with drugs helping HIV patients here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Shkreli#Price_hike_controversy.

    3- Should this doctor receive Nobel prize in medicine?
    I think it’s way to early to speculate about this. Once the treatment will be thoroughly tested and proven to be safe and effective awarding the inventors would make great sense.

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    1. First of all I think you meant "non invasive" when you have said "invasive", because this procedure is non invasive in extreme. Secondly, speaking about the cost you are mixing apples with oranges. In this case there are no drugs involved and therefore no pharma industry. The procedure itself is the cure, no drugs.

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  21. 1-      What do you think about that kind of method of fighting cancer?
    I'm not the person with that kind of knowledge. Maybe this method is harder than just for example eating pills. It seems like they have to change cells to something else and give that new cells the patients. Every day we can hear and read about new method of cancer treatment. That's the main reason why this info is not so interesting as it should be.
    2-      Do you think it will be available to the public soon and it would be inexpensive?
    This method could be expensive, but it would be great if that medicine could really work. As I mention above, every day I can hear about new cancer treatment and still people are dying because of tumor.
    3-      Should this doctor receive Nobel prize in medicine?
    If that method really work they should receive Nobel prize. Probably we should wait for the results of that method and more experiments during therapy.

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    1. Thank you for opinion. But did you read the orginal article?

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  22. Hello Kinga,
    Thank you for such an interesting article.
    I am afraid that the medicine market is all about the money. I think that there exist many simple as well as cheap ways to fight cancer but large pharmaceutical companies are blocking the best solutions.
    However, I hope this method will be available soon and it will be quite inexpensive. Unfortunately, It will take some time becaue many people are able to pay as much as they can to recover.
    It is too early to consider if this doctor should receive the Nobel prize. It depends on the performance of the results. Nobel prize is not really the most important issue regarding this matter.

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    1. Of course is not about the Nobel prize but about the cure for cancer. And I do not subscribe to your conspiracy theories. Fortunetly, as I mentioned in another reply, there are no drugs required so no pharmaceutical companies large or small will be involved.

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  23. Hi Kinga,

    That was gratefull article. It was very informative to read article from outside of IT. Themes of medicine and science has got influence to us! It is nice to hear that medicine is still grow up and the processing of develop this kind of science is more and more fast. It give me hope to belive that people can fight with every disease in the future.

    Time to your questions:

    1- What do you think about that kind of method of fighting cancer?
    Unfortunattly – I agree with Paweł Dyda – I’m almost sure that method will not be implemented. There are many revolutionary methods of the world but only some has got implemented.

    2- Do you think it will be available to the public soon and it would be inexpensive?
    Hmmm, I agree with Tomasz Sznajder – It will be wonderfull when medicine will be availabe for everyone, but when or if at all…?

    3- Should this doctor receive Nobel prize in medicine?
    I don’t know – it is not simple to get the Nobel. That method have to be test many times and we must know more about specifications, threats and defects.

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    1. Don't be so pesimistic. I hope you don't mind me saying you are wrong. :)

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    1. As I mentioned before few times already, this is a wrong thinking :(. Please read the original article before answering otherwise you are bringing conspiracy theories to this discussion. Thank you :)

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  25. Hi,
    I have similar feelings as others - it was a pleasure to read an article that is not associated with IT.
    In my opinion that method won't be implemented (unfortunately). Is seems to be too innovative to become available to "regular" people.
    If it will be be available to the public soon and it would be inexpensive? -Not really. As I wrote above.I also agree with Tomasz – It would be wonderful when medicine will be available for everyone. So far we can only dream about it.
    Should this doctor receive Nobel prize in medicine?
    I don’t know if that method (discovery?) really wprks. Therefore, I'm not sure if it is worth a special prize, especially Nobel Prize.

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    1. Why do you agree with Tomasz? after all, in a very short time news about this discovery have reached hundreds of mln of people thanks to the Internet. Even TV and press were full of information about this treatment. With this kind of popularity gaining track everyday, it will be impossible to hide or ignore such tremendous achievement.

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  26. 1- What do you think about that kind of method of fighting cancer?
    It is innovative indeed. But I would like to know more on the side effects of treatment involving cells genetic modification. I strongly agree with Julia saying that healthier diet and lifestyle could prevent many types of cancer.

    2- Do you think it will be available to the public soon and it would be inexpensive?
    I do not think it will ever be inexpensive although it may be available to the public depending which pharmaceutical company wants to implement it and on negotiations with NHS in different countries.

    3- Should this doctor receive Nobel prize in medicine?
    Not for me to judge who should win the Nobel Prize. The most important is to find a less offensive ways of oncological treatment than what we have now and to diversify them.

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  27. I hope and I believe in that science will soon find more effective methods to combat cancer, the problem affects several people close to me in addition to my family. Cancer took a few people and it is at a young age so all the new methods I approach with great hope, because it is a major problem of our civilization.
    Regarding the second question, there is a lot of unknowns, I'd like to ekektywne methods to combat cancer they were widely available, both in financial terms and localization. However, as Following the availability of medicine in Poland to see huge problems, although oncology is ok, but in other areas are very big problems with access to specialists, although we have insurance, it can not guarantee access to specialists. If you want to quickly get to a specialist does not see what offer insurance only private search is currently the most effective solution. If there is the price it is hard to say, the price is relative, after all, one of 500 zl is almost nothing for the second lot. As for the Nobel Prize I have no orientation what other successful medical sciences at her waiting, I can not contain the voice because I am not versed in the subject. Certainly any breakthrough in this field will push our civilization forward - and this is important.

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  28. The Article which you present touches upon a very important but sad and sensitive problem in the current world. According to my personal and my family experiences every day we may be informed that we have a cancer. Regardless of age and sex everybody can have a cancer without a clear cause. Some doctors say that special diet or healthy lifestyle can help us to avoid this illness, but in my opinion everything depends on our genotype. Personally I know elderly people who all their lives smoke cigarettes and eat a lot of junk food but they enjoy good health up till the old age. Despite my opinion about cancer’s’ reason each piece of news about possibility to defeat this disorder makes me happy. It is generally very difficult to express my opinion without medical knowledge, however I hope this new method can really help ill people. I hope if this method finally is introduced it will be a kind of revolution in cancer treatments. these doctors will receive Nobel prize of course. Moreover when I look at medicine business I think that this new method will be only for rich people because pharmacological companies don’t care about people because they care about their money. I suspect these companies artificially will hold every treatment method out of reach of ordinary people.

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  29. 1- What do you think about that kind of method of fighting cancer?
    "Genetically modified blood cells have very a short live span and after distroying the cancer's cells they quickly die out without going into any interaction with patient's body" - sounds very promising and very dangerous. Without long-term tests in very different enviroments you cannot be assure that this cells not mutate and kill the host.
    I think that future of the medicine is nanotechnology.

    2- Do you think it will be available to the public soon and it would be inexpensive?
    No I dont belive that it will be availabe soon (long-term tests). This tests will be very expensive... Pharm Enterprises like earn money on newest, brightest ideas... Only fortune counts...

    3- Should this doctor receive Nobel prize in medicine?
    After successfully tests maybe....

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  30. 1- What do you think about that kind of method of fighting cancer?

    As far as I can understand this therapy is very well-tolerated by our patients. Side effects are generally mild. Scientists still have to overcome some hurdles before the treatment can be used widely. They need to figure out ways to:
    • Identify or generate T cells that will work best for each individual case, whether from the patient or from a suitable donor.
    • Avoid or counter potential side-effects.
    • Find ways to shorten the path from laboratory to patient.

    2- Do you think it will be available to the public soon and it would be inexpensive?

    At the beginning such treatment will be extremely expensive. I hope that is sort period of time price will drop. However if I look at Martin Shkreli behavior I am rather pessimistic.

    3- Should this doctor receive Nobel prize in medicine?

    Mentioned research looks promising. Please have a look at the statistics:
    “In the most promising study, about 35 patients with ALL were treated with Cars-modified T-cells; 94% went into remission, though symptoms could reappear. More than 40 patients with lymphoma have also been treated, with remission rates of more than 50%. In a group with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, there was evidence of diminished cancer symptoms in more than 80% of cases.”
    I thing that for such “extraordinary” success doctor should receive the Nobel Prize in medicine.

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  31. Hi,

    I found this article very interesting.

    1- What do you think about that kind of method of fighting cancer?

    Affecting natural immune systems sounds scary but it sounds promising as well. It makes sense that there should be different treatment depending on particular immune system, opposed to "one fits all" solutions. However, I'm happy that researchers keep working on finding innovative solutions for combating cancer.

    2. Do you think it will be available to the public soon and it would be inexpensive?

    As sad as it sounds such treatments are usually really expensive and it's hard to scale it enough to lower the price. It should be available to the public but it's all the matter of politics and economics.

    3. Should this doctor receive Nobel prize in medicine?

    It's not in my expertise to judge who should receive Nobel prize in medicine. I think it's innovative and if it works they probably deserve the price.

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  32. I'm not unfortunately a doctor and especially I am not familiar with cancer genesis, but i read article and hope that this procedure won't be only cheap and successful but also without long term consequences. Killing cancer are the goal for current USA administration in the official program Cancer Moon Shot. In short time we are going to see lot of revolutionary ideas of fighting these disease. But if I make a short digression here: Cancer is a dramatic disease and I hardly can imagine another disease after cancer that we are going to suffer in future. Frankly speaking living organism are not design to live forever. Paradoxically are fertility and mortality is a key for us immortality. But let's return to are main subject.

    I don’t want to interfere any conspiracy theory or economy of pharmaceutic sector. However any cheap procedure can only be positive for treating any disease. I fear only that someday after wide acceptance and euphoric in modifying our genotype we will initiate unstoppable process that leads us unrevertable changings with consequence to extinction of human species. But as I mansion before I am not medicine doctor and I hope that all this research are under control.

    Another issue is a Nobel prize award. Like most of previous commentators I admit that only after long research process with proven dominance of benefits over problems are likely end up with Nobel prize.

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