Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by lwhalen 3054 days ago
We have cured cancer in mice many times. The trick is getting it formulated for humans in ways that are similarly effective and non-lethal. Put another way, signs of efficacy in mice is necessary, but not sufficient, of a human-applicable treatment.
1 comments

As far as I know we aren’t able to cure cancer in mice. Sure we can cure them of artificial cancers we give them in the lab, but actually curing spontaneous mouse cancer in outbred mouse populations (i.e. something like human cancer) is not something I have ever seen anyone try, let alone succeed.
The article does mention that they also treated a strain of mice that routinely develops tumors in "all ten breasts" and they responded to the therapy too, but not as fully, requiring multiple treatments and not yielding as high a rate of success.
Wouldn't that just mean we don't know whether it works or not?
Yes, but I was responding to the OP that claimed we know how to cure cancer in mice, when we have never tried. I suspect that we are actually a lot better at curing real cancer in people than in mice.
Fair point, I was just saying there's still a good chance it'll work (at least if the induced tumors are anything like 'natural' tumors.) Very interested in seeing how this goes, either way.