Monday, June 22, 2009

Mayo Doctors Use Ipilimumab To Get Rid of Prostate Cancer in 3 patients

I hope to hell that ObamaCare doesn't screw doctors like Dr. Kwon and Dr. Blute up in the future. In any case though this might be a great breakthrough in medicine of it can be repeatable to the rest of the people in this Phase 2 study.

With Nelson, Dr. Blute spent more time in the OR than planned. “I was cutting away scar tissue, while trying to find cancer cells. The pathologist was checking samples as we proceeded and sent word back asking if we had the right patient. He had a hard time finding any cancer. I had never seen anything like this before. The pathologists were floored.” The same story played out for Solano-Revuelta. In that case there were two phone calls from pathology, one asking if he was operating on the correct patient.

Whatever this combo did it got rid of all of the cancer cells. From the article it was hormone thearapy, then they used a drug called Ipilimumab (which is made by Medarex and Bristol Myers Squibb,) then surgery to cut away whatever cancers cells are left.

This drug is supposed to do something to the T-cells that cancer shuts off to get them running again. The doctors aren't even sure what is happening yet. What may make this a breakthrough though is that you might be able to repeat it on breast and ovarian cancer since they are dependant on homones as well. In any case more data will be in order but the idea that the cancer was essentially "cured" is a big deal.

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