Cancer research is happening all the time, all over the world. Sometimes there isn’t much progress to talk about, and on other days there is fantastic news. There’s some great news this week!
A group of cancer scientists in Germany made an ambitious plan five years ago to test a novel cancer vaccine against pancreatic cancer, one of the most virulent forms of the disease. On Wednesday, the scientists reported that the vaccine was successful in provoking an immune response in half of the 16 patients treated, and those patients showed no relapse of their cancer during the study, a result described by outside experts as extremely promising. The vaccines, which were produced by German biotech company BioNTech, were personalized to each patient and designed to teach their immune system to attack their tumors. The vaccines relied on messenger RNA, which instructed patients’ cells to make proteins found on their tumors, potentially provoking an immune response against cancer cells. The vaccine was part of a treatment regimen that included chemotherapy and a drug that intended to prevent tumors from evading people’s immune responses. The study’s success is a milestone in the yearslong effort to make cancer vaccines tailored to the tumors of individual patients.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest types. Approximately 44% of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in its early stages survive for five years after diagnosis. However, only 12% of cases are diagnosed in the early stages. The survival rate drops to an estimated 2-9% for those whose tumors have grown beyond their site of origin. Early diagnosis leads to early treatment which leads to increased survival rate, but early diagnosis is difficult, since symptoms often don’t show up until the cancer is advanced. Researchers from Harvard Medical School, the University of Copenhagen, VA Boston Healthcare System, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health have demonstrated an advanced artificial intelligence tool that can identify people at risk of pancreatic cancer up to three years prior to the actual diagnosis. The AI identified people who developed the cancer and correlated them with previous symptoms and “disease codes.” Many of the disease codes had nothing to do with the pancreas.
The most amazing news of all comes via researchers from Cornell University, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), and the biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. They used a new cancer treatment, consisting of “antibody fragments with molecularly engineered nanoparticles,” to permanently eliminate gastric cancer in treated mice. In a study involving mice with gastric cancer, researchers administered three doses of a therapeutic treatment. The results showed that the treatment was effective in completely eliminating the disease in every mouse, and there was no sign of tumor recurrence even after almost 200 days. Dr. Michelle Bradbury, who co-led the study and is the director of intraoperative imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and a professor of radiology at Weill Cornell Medicine, said that she had never seen a treatment that completely eradicated a tumor like this before, despite having seen other positive results in the past.
Reference:
“I’ve Never Seen Something That Eradicates a Tumor Like This” – New Therapeutic Permanently Eliminates Gastric Cancer – SciTechDaily
New Harvard-Developed AI Predicts Future Pancreatic Cancer Up to Three Years Before Diagnosis – SciTechDaily
Pancreatic Cancer Vaccine Shows Promise in Small Trial – Yahoo! News
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THIS WEEK IN STAR TREK HISTORY
13 May
1945 – Sam Anderson is born.
1946 – Marv Wolfman is born.
1951 – Ve Neill is born.
2005 – ENT: “These Are the Voyages…” airs. Series finale.
14 May
1929 – Kay Elliot is born.
2005 – Alyce Andrece dies.
15 May
1941 – June Westmore is born.
1960 – Rob Bowman and William S. McCullars are born.
1967 – Robert Meyer Burnett is born.
1996 – Virgil Ross dies.
1998 – Linwood G. Dunn dies.
2008 – Alexander Courage dies.
16 May
1918 – Barry Atwater is born.
1937 – Yvonne Craig is born.
1948 – David Carson is born.
1962 – Craig Weiss is born.
2013 – Star Trek Into Darkness premieres in the United States.
2018 – Joseph Campanella dies.
17 May
1989 – Geoff Brewer dies.
2005 – Frank Gorshin dies.
2011 – Rylee Alazraqui is born.
18 May
1916 – Joseph Westheimer is born.
1946 – Andreas Katsulas is born.
1947 – Gail Strickland is born.
1952 – Diane Duane is born.
1990 – Jill Ireland dies.
1995 – Elisha Cook dies.
2008 – Joseph Pevney dies.
19 May
1964 – Sean Whalen is born.
2018 – Vincent McEveety dies.
TODAY’S HUMOR
The United Federation Starfleet Blog is written by Fleet Captain Hal Jordan and is published every Friday. Join in the discussion! Engage with us on Discord at: discord.io/ufstarfleet
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