We can’t fail to see ourselves, our friends and our families in these stories. We are immersed in the stories of the brave, desperate patients who try emerging therapies: Sometimes they are cured, often they are not. Exotic-sounding medicines take a turn in the spotlight before slinking off the stage, unable to live up to expectations. Graeber’s hands, the evolution of immuno-oncology is both captivating and heartbreaking. The recent acquisitions of Juno Therapeutics (for $9 billion) and Kite Pharma (for nearly $12 billion) highlight the potential that some see in this technique. Others aim to remove immune cells from patients, supercharge them and then reinsert them back into patients. Some seek ways of selectively blocking the off signal. Graeber reports that there are nearly 1,000 immuno-oncology drugs in clinical testing. Graeber’s words, has morphed into one of the hottest areas of science. Immuno-oncology, once “a no-go zone as a career choice,” in Mr. For revealing the therapeutic value of blocking these off signals, James Allison in Houston and Tasuku Honju in Kyoto, Japan, received a 2018 Nobel Prize. Rosenberg and other researchers, scientists have learned how cancer tricks the immune system, persuading it to stand down rather than attack essentially, cancer co-opts the “off” signals that the body normally uses to keep its own cells from being targeted. Rosenberg soon joined the National Institutes of Health and began what remains a lifelong effort to build upon this chance observation. Despite a consensus that he was embarking on “a misguided and futile pursuit,” as Mr. Rosenberg, the implication was clear: D’Angelo’s cancer-presumably like Stein’s in the previous century-was killed by the patient’s immune system, which had been revved up by the bacterial infection. Rosenberg performed the gall-bladder operation, he examined D’Angelo’s abdomen and found no evidence of cancer. Graeber says, “with no expectation of surviving the year.” Yet here he was, in front of Dr. D’Angelo’s already slim odds were made worse by a severe post-op infection. When surgeons operated to remove the tumor, they found that his abdomen was sprinkled with nodules representing metastatic disease. Rosenberg learned that D’Angelo had been treated for stomach cancer 12 years before. Graeber says, “were a century ahead of any science that might make sense of them.”Ĭoley’s efforts were largely relegated to the dustbin of medical history until 1968, when another inquisitive young surgeon, Steven Rosenberg, found himself captivated by another “exceptional responder”-a 63-year-old Korean War veteran, James D’Angelo, who required a simple gall-bladder operation. Coley tweaked his technique-e.g., replacing live bacteria with a concentrated toxin-and achieved some remarkable responses. Ultimately, Stein was discharged without evidence of either fever or cancer, an apparent miracle that Coley thought might have something to do with the pus.Ĭoley’s efforts to replicate this result-to rescue cancer patients by deliberately infecting them-generated “more failures than successes,” Mr. Yet as his fever raged, the tumor seemed to recede. He found Fred Stein, a German immigrant who had also been diagnosed with bone cancer and was treated with palliative operations Stein’s recovery was further complicated by a pustulant bacterial infection. After watching a woman die of bone cancer, he combed through the hospital records seeking examples of similar patients who fared better. The idea that we might have within us the ability to fend off cancer can be traced to William Coley, an inquisitive young surgeon who in 1890 had just started his internship at New York Hospital. Graeber’s engaging chronicle, is the science of helping our bodies fight back. This year the Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded to researchers who added a fourth category: unleash. Until recently, journalist Charles Graeber explains in “The Breakthrough,” doctors treating cancer patients had three unsavory options: cut (surgery), burn (radiation) or poison (chemotherapy).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |