New leukemia treatment exceeds 'wildest expectations'

[Playinghardball]

Source: MSNBC

Doctors have treated only three leukemia patients, but the sensational results from a single shot could be one of the most significant advances in cancer research in decades. And it almost never happened.

In the research published Wednesday, doctors at the University of Pennsylvania say the treatment made the most common type of leukemia completely disappear in two of the patients and reduced it by 70 percent in the third. In each of the patients as much as five pounds of cancerous tissue completely melted away in a few weeks, and a year later it is still gone.

The results of the preliminary test “exceeded our wildest expectations,” says immunologist Dr. Carl June a member of the Abramson Cancer Center's research team.

Dr. Edgar Engleman, a cancer immunologist at Stanford University School of Medicine who was not involved in the research calls the results “remarkable ... great stuff.”

More at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44090512/ns/health-cancer/?GT1=43001

[MineralMan]

1. Cautiously crossing my fingers.

So many promising things turn out not to pan out.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. the only side effect is a marked preference for

socialized medicine, government funding for research, and medicare for all.

Which means that we may not see this drug for years.

[closeupready]

3. Wow.

K&R

[Swede]

4. Good news.

[drm604]

5. Sounds like it's definitely a step in the right direction.

:applause:

[Ilsa]

6. This is awesome. My late friend would be pleased to hear it. nt

[Arugula Latte]

7. Fantastic! Hopefully this will save thousands eventually.

[in_cog_ni_to]

8. This is amazing! My B-I-L is a Leukemia survivor. He was only 20 something at the time he was

diagnosed. He spent so much time in the hospital during treatment. It was nothing short of BRUTAL. He finally ended up having a bone marrow transplant. He was one of the lucky ones because he had 5 brothers and a sister. One brother was a perfect match. That was 35+ years ago. He's still with us! Cured.

THIS is wonderful news! One shot? This is a miracle. Truly a miracle.

[valerief]

9. self dele dupe

[Parker CA]

10. BIG Kick and Rec for this. Fantastic news!!

[valerief]

11. Wonderful news. I have a feeling they might even treat Americans with it.

That is, if the E*P*A allows industries to freely dump all the toxins that cause leukemia.

[whosinpower]

12. My late sister died of leukemia

I am tearing up reading this.

Remarkable news. Read the whole article. Amazing technology.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

14. my condolences, I had a family member lost to it, too.

It has been 50 years since the war on cancer was declared. And only now are we achieving some wonderful results.

[mzmolly]

13. "So why has this remarkable treatment been tried so far on only three patients? "

Both the National Cancer Institute and several pharmaceutical companies declined to pay for the research. Neither applicants nor funders discuss the reasons an application is turned down. But good guesses are the general shortage of funds and the concept tried in this experiment was too novel and, thus, too risky for consideration.

The researchers did manage to get a grant from the Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy, a charity founded by Barbara and Edward Netter after their daughter-in-law died of cancer. The money was enough to finance the trials on the first three patients.

I hope we'll see more funding for continued research on this.

K and R.