QotNews Hacker News, Reddit, Lobsters, and Tildes articles rendered in reader mode.
Researchers say a world-first cancer vaccine is delivering results even better than they had hoped for. The “transformational” breakthrough is detailed in a study that found a 42% reduction in the risk of melanoma recurrence.
Depends on the midterms amigo. Don’t forget to vote everyone! And always check the expiration date of the promises they make…chances are, if you aren’t a top dog, your “benefits” are just a carrot for you to vote for the wrong person.
If they can't charge huge amounts it would not have been worth the investment. It sounds evil, but ultimately making new drugs is one of the most expensive, time consuming processes on the planet and the vast majority of these pharm projects never make it to market. Without the incentive of having a temporary monopoly on the drug (and thus crazy prices) they simply would not be able to justify the R&D
Well when it comes to biologics, especially this one that is made custom for each patient to their own specific cancer's genetics, it may not be so easy
We aren’t quite seeing that yet. We are seeing drugs come out that are specific to, say, 2% of lung cancer patients. But they aren’t specific to the individual.
>The treatment works by adding intismeran, a type of personalised mRNA-based vaccine made with genetic information from a patient's tumour, to pembrolizumab immunotherapy after the surgical removal of melanoma
I've been following this revolutionary melanoma treatment for a bit. They are actually individualized. The DNA of each patient's tumor is sequenced and neoantigens are identified and a custom, bespoke vaccine is developed for that specific person's cancer.
The data was actually a little worse than anticipated and much worse than the Phase 2 data. That said, it's still really impressive just didn't meet investors insane expectations.
based on what? Vaccines have eradicated diseases that have killed tens of millions. You really believe a publicly traded corporation with a fiduciary duty to shareholders would choose a one-time cure over a lifetime maintenance drug if the lifetime value of a chronic patient is exponentially higher? Look at Hepatitis C treatments: when curative drugs hit the market, sales spiked briefly and then plummeted because the patient pool dried up.
Have you ever worked in a research lab or met anyone who does? Its really not that hard to get a job there. Do it and you will realise how far from reality your views are.
Medicine as buisness is shit. That doesnt mean buisnesses hold back cures.
Even if the current 42% reduction is less than investors apparently hoped for, this is still pretty amazing:
> The treatment works by adding intismeran, a type of personalised mRNA-based vaccine made with genetic information from a patient's tumour, to pembrolizumab immunotherapy after the surgical removal of melanoma.
>
>"Adding the two drugs together rather than one improves or decreases their risk of recurrence or death by 42 per cent," Professor Long said.
>
>"This was aimed at melanoma patients who are at a very high risk of the melanoma coming back as advanced melanoma. That used to be deadly."
>
>She said the vaccine was developed by taking a biopsy of the patient's tumour and comparing its cells to the patient's healthy cells to see what was different.
>
>"There's a list of things that are very different, that are unique to the patient's tumour. They're not shared with anyone else's tumour," Professor Long said.
>
>"We rank them, and the top 34 differences we can then encode and that's called the fingerprint."
>
>The mRNA platform is used to code that fingerprint, or neoantigen, which is injected into the patient and establishes a target for the immune system.
>
>"It's like a wanted poster that gets printed into the body so … the immune cells can see," Professor Long said.
>
>The trial involved 1,137 patients whose melanoma had been surgically removed and compared the combined treatment with with patients receiving only immunotherapy treatment.
Humm, Moderna stocks are baking suspended from trading; because of a free fall following the news that their cancer vaccine is not working as expected.
Well, that's still up 10% over the last month and 280% over the last 6 months even with the 10% drop. And 660% up over a year. A 10% drop with the meteroic spike seems somewhat reasonable with that consideration. Even if they are still down from their high with COVID which is nuts to consider.
More money for the billion dollar cancer cure industry. Industry comments really trying to prop this up.
This vaccine is basically useless without Keytruda which is a treatment that it’s meant to be taken with. Taking Keytruda alone, 79% of patients were recurrence-free after 2 years. Adding the vaccine only bumps that up 10% more.
Their 42% relative risk reduction is highly deceiving and made for a PR headline.
This is the first clinical application with success using personalized mRNA vaccines to prevent cancer recurrence, no?
I think most folks (in this thread, at least) are excited at the possibility of personalized vaccines eventually being used to prevent recurrence of other types of cancer.
Now I’m not a cancer researcher, so I’m really not qualified to say whether this is a meaningful step toward that goal or not… but the headline certainly makes it seem so.
I mean sure. If the multi-hundred-billion-dollar cancer cure industry would focus on causes instead of covering them up so they can make billions on cures, I might be more inclined to say this could be successful.
u/justtinyquestions I like reading what you guys come up with. It’s getting old though. You should really come up with new keywords and talking points.
u/backcountry_bandit It sure would. Because land developers keep building on toxic land with legacy pesticides like DDT and lead arsenate. How ridiculous to think tobacco and smoking is the singular cause of cancer. But we both know this is a talking point and not your actual thoughts.
You think pharmaceutical companies should focus on tobacco cessation or sunscreen? That should be their role in this? This comment really doesn’t make any sense.
Your takes here are really awful. Cancer would exist regardless of whether or not everybody stopped smoking. Being against funding research for a cure for cancer is unbelievable to the point that I’m wondering if this is poorly done satire.
Eat--The--Rich-- | 20 hours ago
How long till it costs $2 million per dose
AlarmedSnek | 17 hours ago
Depends on the midterms amigo. Don’t forget to vote everyone! And always check the expiration date of the promises they make…chances are, if you aren’t a top dog, your “benefits” are just a carrot for you to vote for the wrong person.
UntowardHatter | 15 hours ago
And triple check that the machine actually registers the right name.
We're getting shitloads of reports of machines selecting the republican candidate when you press the Democrat one. Florida and Tennessee.
It's all over SoMe right now.
Odd-Outcome-3191 | 17 hours ago
If they can't charge huge amounts it would not have been worth the investment. It sounds evil, but ultimately making new drugs is one of the most expensive, time consuming processes on the planet and the vast majority of these pharm projects never make it to market. Without the incentive of having a temporary monopoly on the drug (and thus crazy prices) they simply would not be able to justify the R&D
YT-Deliveries | 17 hours ago
Which is why outside the US it will be orders of magnitude less expensive.
Odd-Outcome-3191 | 17 hours ago
Well when it comes to biologics, especially this one that is made custom for each patient to their own specific cancer's genetics, it may not be so easy
justtinyquestions | 11 hours ago
We aren’t quite seeing that yet. We are seeing drugs come out that are specific to, say, 2% of lung cancer patients. But they aren’t specific to the individual.
Odd-Outcome-3191 | 11 hours ago
The 6th paragraph in the article
>The treatment works by adding intismeran, a type of personalised mRNA-based vaccine made with genetic information from a patient's tumour, to pembrolizumab immunotherapy after the surgical removal of melanoma
I've been following this revolutionary melanoma treatment for a bit. They are actually individualized. The DNA of each patient's tumor is sequenced and neoantigens are identified and a custom, bespoke vaccine is developed for that specific person's cancer.
justtinyquestions | 11 hours ago
Oh man, thank you for correcting me. I work in the cancer space but a different tumor type and didn’t know. Thanks!
Odd-Outcome-3191 | 11 hours ago
It's so cool! I hope someday soon it'll be available for the one I have :) and also all the other ones but mine first 😂
nothingbutbotshere | 20 hours ago
Is this the transformational drug responsible for the 20% stock dip yesterday? If so, wtf?
d0ctorzaius | 18 hours ago
The data was actually a little worse than anticipated and much worse than the Phase 2 data. That said, it's still really impressive just didn't meet investors insane expectations.
eliminate1337 | 16 hours ago
Normal behavior for pharmaceutical stocks. They’re incredibly volatile around the specific details of trial results.
j4_jjjj | 17 hours ago
Stock prices dont matter. Its all controlled by Market Makers
_JohnWisdom | 19 hours ago
You earn no money by preventing/curing. Maintenance is where the business is.
turnerz | 11 hours ago
I can promise you, a cancer cure drug would make an insane amount of money
_JohnWisdom | 11 hours ago
based on what? Vaccines have eradicated diseases that have killed tens of millions. You really believe a publicly traded corporation with a fiduciary duty to shareholders would choose a one-time cure over a lifetime maintenance drug if the lifetime value of a chronic patient is exponentially higher? Look at Hepatitis C treatments: when curative drugs hit the market, sales spiked briefly and then plummeted because the patient pool dried up.
turnerz | 11 hours ago
Have you ever worked in a research lab or met anyone who does? Its really not that hard to get a job there. Do it and you will realise how far from reality your views are.
Medicine as buisness is shit. That doesnt mean buisnesses hold back cures.
_JohnWisdom | 9 hours ago
what is your point mate?
turnerz | 6 hours ago
That your understanding of medical research and the incentives within are incorrect and lead you to incorrect conclusions based on it.
Maintenence does make more money than cures, that doesnt mean companies dont look for cures, thats ludicrous.
_JohnWisdom | an hour ago
I never stated the opposite? I explained why the 20% stock drop occurred.
neuronexmachina | 17 hours ago
Even if the current 42% reduction is less than investors apparently hoped for, this is still pretty amazing:
> The treatment works by adding intismeran, a type of personalised mRNA-based vaccine made with genetic information from a patient's tumour, to pembrolizumab immunotherapy after the surgical removal of melanoma. > >"Adding the two drugs together rather than one improves or decreases their risk of recurrence or death by 42 per cent," Professor Long said. > >"This was aimed at melanoma patients who are at a very high risk of the melanoma coming back as advanced melanoma. That used to be deadly." > >She said the vaccine was developed by taking a biopsy of the patient's tumour and comparing its cells to the patient's healthy cells to see what was different. > >"There's a list of things that are very different, that are unique to the patient's tumour. They're not shared with anyone else's tumour," Professor Long said. > >"We rank them, and the top 34 differences we can then encode and that's called the fingerprint." > >The mRNA platform is used to code that fingerprint, or neoantigen, which is injected into the patient and establishes a target for the immune system. > >"It's like a wanted poster that gets printed into the body so … the immune cells can see," Professor Long said. > >The trial involved 1,137 patients whose melanoma had been surgically removed and compared the combined treatment with with patients receiving only immunotherapy treatment.
Eelroots | 20 hours ago
Humm, Moderna stocks are baking suspended from trading; because of a free fall following the news that their cancer vaccine is not working as expected.
Lopsided_Tiger_0296 | 18 hours ago
Because investors expected closer to 100% instead of 42% decrease in reoccurrence
MrClickstoomuch | 9 hours ago
Well, that's still up 10% over the last month and 280% over the last 6 months even with the 10% drop. And 660% up over a year. A 10% drop with the meteroic spike seems somewhat reasonable with that consideration. Even if they are still down from their high with COVID which is nuts to consider.
fumblingforwords | 11 hours ago
I saw “I am Legend”. I’ll give it a few years before taking a cancer vaccine myself lol
Exciting-Fruit1830 | 16 hours ago
More money for the billion dollar cancer cure industry. Industry comments really trying to prop this up.
This vaccine is basically useless without Keytruda which is a treatment that it’s meant to be taken with. Taking Keytruda alone, 79% of patients were recurrence-free after 2 years. Adding the vaccine only bumps that up 10% more.
Their 42% relative risk reduction is highly deceiving and made for a PR headline.
rbobby | 12 hours ago
> only bumps that up 10%
For cancer patients, that extra 10% is way more significant than only.
DefinitelyNotTheFBI1 | 13 hours ago
This is the first clinical application with success using personalized mRNA vaccines to prevent cancer recurrence, no?
I think most folks (in this thread, at least) are excited at the possibility of personalized vaccines eventually being used to prevent recurrence of other types of cancer.
Now I’m not a cancer researcher, so I’m really not qualified to say whether this is a meaningful step toward that goal or not… but the headline certainly makes it seem so.
Exciting-Fruit1830 | 13 hours ago
I mean sure. If the multi-hundred-billion-dollar cancer cure industry would focus on causes instead of covering them up so they can make billions on cures, I might be more inclined to say this could be successful.
u/justtinyquestions I like reading what you guys come up with. It’s getting old though. You should really come up with new keywords and talking points.
u/backcountry_bandit It sure would. Because land developers keep building on toxic land with legacy pesticides like DDT and lead arsenate. How ridiculous to think tobacco and smoking is the singular cause of cancer. But we both know this is a talking point and not your actual thoughts.
justtinyquestions | 11 hours ago
You think pharmaceutical companies should focus on tobacco cessation or sunscreen? That should be their role in this? This comment really doesn’t make any sense.
backcountry_bandit | 11 hours ago
Your takes here are really awful. Cancer would exist regardless of whether or not everybody stopped smoking. Being against funding research for a cure for cancer is unbelievable to the point that I’m wondering if this is poorly done satire.
turnerz | 11 hours ago
What?! 42% less cancer is still 42% less cancer even if theres also other treatments available.
Are you actually against effectibe cancer treatment? I dont understand your thought process - what is it?
Commercial-Life-9998 | 17 hours ago
This is so exhilarating.
mycall | 19 hours ago
I sure hope it grows a third arm too as I always wanted one.