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Matching Cancers With the Best Chemical Treatments
Roland Piquepaille writes "When oncologists meet a new patient affected by a cancer, they have to take decisions about the best possible treatment. Now, U.S. researchers have devised an algorithm which matches tumor profiles to best treatments. They've used a panel of 60 diverse human cancer cell lines from the National Cancer Institute — called NCI-60 — to develop their "coexpression extrapolation (COXEN) system." As said one researcher, "we believe we have found an effective way to personalize cancer therapy." Preliminary results have been encouraging and clinical trials are now planned."
Lets just hope that doctors who use this algorithm still throughly examine every patient before beginning treatment, because, while probably useful, I doubt its as effective as a full examination by a professional. I kinda wonder if this would be used in lesser insurance policies to substitute extensive examinations. Premium insurance plan gets a full examination prior to treatment, the plans that cost less have the cancer run through an equation, and a treatment is printed out.
Imagine this. You go to the supermarket. Right there, next to the pork chops and sirloin steaks, is a cancer. A real human cancer. No creature was ever killed for it, so it's even vegan and PETA would love it.
You take it home, grill it up, and... well how does it taste? Do different types of cancer have different flavors? Which ones are good?
The stuff is damn easy, too easy even, to grow. We might as well make use of it.
Most doctors won't even use computers to help them make diagnoses because they feel they should always be able to do better. What tends to happen is that if a rare condition presents they can miss it quite easily. I'm no doctor but I believe it has to do with the medical profession's heritage, culture and the politics of their licensing institutions. Doctors are taught that every diagnosis can be life or death. Using an aid like a computer to make the decision therefore is seen as a sign of weakness.
When you think about it that's insane. There's no way any doctor can know every medical condition that presents, even the rarer ones. What's needed is a system whereby the doctor can check his diagnosis against what comes up with a computer search against the same symptoms. There needs to be no stigma in doing this. If something comes up that's rare but could fit the doctor then needs to have a think about whether it's worth addressing. Systems like this have been rejected by the medical profession time and again which is unfortunate because to get good at diagnosis they'd need to be honed with a lot of feedback, particularly where multiple conditions present. However they have the potential to help pick up serious conditions earlier than what even the best doctor might without them.
Same goes for this system except we're talking treatment choice not diagnosis. One hurdle is getting other doctors to accept it. Another is making sure the control and final say remains with the doctor and patient not some machine. There'd be great temptation for the medical insurers to use such a system to avoid providing treatment that a doctor believes is necessary.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
There is a lab in Germany that's been doing that for years now. This isn't a new idea. I'm just really surprised and a bit disappointed that no one in the US has bothered to do something like this before.
int drug_choice_algorithm(){
int our_most_expensive_drug = 1;
int other_cheaper_option = 0;
if(patient_has_insurance()){
return our_most_expensive_drug;
}
else {
if (patient_is_rich()){
return our_most_expensive_drug;
}
}
return our_most_expensive_drug;
}
I work at the Huntsman Cancer Hospital, a division of the University of Utah hospital. I draw blood on dozens of patients every day and see the same pattern of treatment as we see similar cancer patients come in. I can only see this as a good thing to help diversify and specialize treatments.
As someone who won the lottery and was treated in a cancer hospital myself, I found my doctor seemed to put me on a fast track to treatment, straight out of the books, which involved removing an important part of my anatomy (not THAT part). With much resistance on my part, I got him to investigate other options and I actually got to keep my spleen.
From a doctors POV, I know it can be difficult as well as uneconomical to see every patient as a super-special-individual-with-their-own-needs-and- feelings, but with the type of stigma surrounding the C-word (not THAT C-word) it is pretty much a necessity, at least from my experience. If this new system requires doctors to spend a little more time with a patient and yield a higher success rate, then it is an all-around win.
"Thank you for using Stop-n-Drop, America's favorite suicide booth since 2008"
Replace int with long int to be more accurate. :-)
From TFA "Another issue is that the 60 cell lines did not include all important cancer types (for example, certain bladder cancers, lymphomas, and small cell lung cancers were not among the 60 lines studied)."
/. I hope it will eventually help someone to not go through the hell that is cancer treatment because it doesn't do anything for me
Soooo. My wife (Lymphoma when she was 32) and me (Small cell Lung Cancer at 37) aren't included. My treatment was with chemo drugs that have been in use for 30+ years (VP-16 & Cisplatin) with Chest Radiation. It really sucks that there aren't any new treatments for anything except Breast Cancer these days.
I would liked to know that advances in SCLC could give me more time than the (only 5% make it to 5 years) and I am 1 year into it.
I don't want to sound sour but everytime I see a cancer story on
Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion, you must set yourself on fire.