Breast cancer drug trial: Woman given months to live told she is cancer free | Hacker News Reader

Breast cancer drug trial: Woman given months to live told she is cancer free

bbc.co.uk

108 pointsiamben40 comments

She underwent six months of chemotherapy and a mastectomy in April 2018, followed by 15 cycles of radiotherapy which cleared her body of cancer.

But in October 2019 the cancer returned, and scans showed it had spread to her lung, lymph nodes and chest bone and she was told she had a poor prognosis. 'Horrible side effects'

Two months later, the mother-of-two was offered a two-year trial at The Christie of an experimental medicine combined with Atezolizumab, an immunotherapy drug. Doctors have told her she is now showing no evidence of the disease.

Worth noting that "no evidence of disease" is not the same as cured. My mother was diagnosed with a moderately-aggressive terminal metastatic breast cancer and given months to live, but enjoyed a few years of high quality of life after her doctor cleared her with "no evidence of disease" thanks to an aggressive chemotherapy protocol. That was about 15 years ago. She passed just under 7 years from diagnosis.

Is it even possible to prove you are completely cancer free? Or is that like proving a negative?

Possible? Sure! Individual evaluation of every cell in your body is possible.

Our capability to do so, however...

So it’s not possible?

About 100% of older people have cancer. It's just that many of those cancers are tiny and slow growing, such that they don't cause any serious clinical symptoms and often aren't even detectible with routine screening tests.

I've never heard of that, where did you read about it?

You’d have to come up with a definition of cancer free. Cells replicating poorly resulting in a cancerous single cell happens all the time and gets cleaned up.

No, we don't have the technology. Once cancer cells are systemic (metastatic), they can end up in bone or brain, where it can be extremely difficult to detect or treat. Cancer cells only need one rogue cell, and takes about 2 years to grow to a size that appears in tests.

Sadly, cancer can also mutate to avoid the PD-L1 pathway.

Similar story here.

My mom was diagnosed around 2003, extremely aggressive breast cancer, they gave her around 9 months as I recall.

It went into remission. Treatment was very effective. Her doctor had no idea how such an aggressive cancer was put into remission so quickly.

Around 3 years later it was back despite routine checks and her being clear of cancer. This time it was everywhere very suddenly, yet it took 4 years to kill her. Such an awful way to go.

Really sad to hear that story. Out of curiosity, has she changed her way of living post treatment? I always wondered, if you stick in the same environment with the same lifestyle, I feel like it's something that could retrigger it. Could be the water, the polution, the food, lack of sun ...

Out of curiosity, has she changed her way of living post treatment? I always wondered, if you stick in the same environment with the same lifestyle, I feel like it's something that could retrigger it. Could be the water, the polution, the food, lack of sun ... Also I read that it's not great to stay at the same place that made you sick in the first place.

Impressive story in line with the impressive efficacy of some immunotherapy candidates. However not every patient gets a miracle which is something the press is terrible at conveying

The press needs to convey that not everyone who gets cancer is going to get an 11th hour miracle treatment, really?

What exactly do you think the average persons impression of cancer prognosis and treatment is exactly?

> The press needs to convey that not everyone who gets cancer is going to get an 11th hour miracle treatment, really?

empathy matters

It's almost unbelievable to read about quick and clean solutions like these for cancer (especially with long history of treatment and relapse). Very uplifting.

News site at The Christie: https://www.christie.nhs.uk/about-us/news-at-the-christie/la...

Article (no specifics): https://www.christie.nhs.uk/about-us/news-at-the-christie/la...

Any specifics about the drugs involved and availability in the EU for patients willing to try the treatment on themselves? My girlfriend works as a psycho-oncologist; she's in contact with terminal patients on a daily basis.

I wonder what happened with the Doxycycline, Azithromycin and Vitamin C therapy plus fasting plus exogenous ketones therapy, which was bringing hopes a few years ago.

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