Cancer vaccine?

Post #317,887 by crazy 11/28/09 7:07:15 AM Reply	Cancer vaccine? http://www.scienceda.../091125145819.htm How many years before this hits the public if it is real? How much will it cost? What are the implications of large numbers of people suddenly not dying from cancer? It that good or bad for the economy? Huge amounts of money go to the final few months of a long illness. Will it sidestep that cost for most of the people? Would insurance prefer to pay for this than the cancer treatments, especially if they can't cut the inusurance to the really expensive people in a few years (when it becomes illegal)?
Post #317,894 by Mycroft_Holmes_Iv 11/28/09 11:10:47 AM Reply	Re: Cancer vaccine? First, I don't believe (all) cancers are something that can be vaccinated against. That said, the dynamics will shift. People will live (a little) longer and we'll find something new that will kill us.
Post #317,899 by Another Scott 11/28/09 8:10:44 PM Reply	Yup. Cancer is not one disease. There are already vaccines for at least one cancer - a type caused by some strains of HPV. http://www.cdc.gov/s...e-young-women.htm It sounds like the article discusses a very clever delivery system for a vaccine, but it sounds like it will have to be tailored for each cancer. It's not a general anti-cancer vaccine. Cheers, Scott.
Post #317,913 by crazy 11/29/09 10:33:13 AM Reply	Different HPV is a virus that then causes changes to then trigger cancer. So that is a virus vaccination. Yes, there are many cancers, and this thing needs to be coded for specific ones. And I have no idea how difficult it is on an individual tumor basis. So I'll be watching. Something tells me this particular technology is going to be a big one.
Post #317,949 by Mycroft_Holmes_Iv 11/29/09 11:55:17 PM Reply	I'm going to second this There's still a lot about cancers as a whole we don't know about. The majority of them seem to be involved in the breakdown of DNA. So a vaccine against a virus (that affects DNA) would make sense. But we also know about a large number of carcinogens that seem to break down DNA. That said, the key word above is "seem". I strongly feel that cancers are right now a "catch-all" and we're going to recategorize them in the next few years. That all said, it's an incredibly novel delivery mechanism.
Post #317,936 by jay 11/29/09 6:35:58 PM Reply	True but most kinds of cancer are very rare There are a lot of kinds of cancer, but the most common six or so are the majority of cases. If it's cheap enough, safe enough and reliable enough that everybody can be given the shot, it will save a lot of lives. Jay
Post #317,951 by beepster 11/30/09 12:14:32 AM Reply	Didn't I just see that movie? I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose freewill.

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