Post

Saloni
@scientificdiscovery.dev

Few people are aware of how much progress has been made against cancers. Leukemia is probably the most striking example. Before the 1970s, most children affected by leukemia would soon die from it. Now, most children in rich countries survive. ourworldindata.org/childhood-le...

Mike Black@mikeblack114.bsky.social

Cancer wasn't quite a literal death sentence like HIV was, but you had a barely coin flip chance of making it across the board 5 years, and a whole lot of different kinds that were close to a death sentence in 1980 that are extremely treatable today

Vaughn Cooper
@vscooper.micropopbio.org

True, but the treatments haven't changed much since the '70s and remain as brutally toxic with myriad long term side effects including secondary malignancies, cardiac, reproductive, and psychological effects, etc. The problem is that beating the 5-year cure rate is difficult and poorly incentivized

Joel Rosenbaum
@joelrosenbaum.bsky.social

But knowing which and when is half the game, and we have gotten a lot better at that. What’s interesting is that the category of childhood leukemia eliminates the one class where we’ve made the biggest breakthrough (CML).

Jeff Gentry
@geoffjentry.bsky.social

Tho chemo isn't used nearly as often. So many cancers now have indications of targeted therapies, immunotherapy, etc. It used to be that chemo was the only option.