In a recent issue of TIME magazine the cover story is about the new cancer drug, gleevec. The greatest hopes of researchers for the drug is that within ten years it will convert cancer from an often-fatal disease into a chronic but treatable one.
Let’s assume that hope is justified, and by 2010 cancer is no one’s big worry anymore.
Let’s further assume a healthy lifestyle that won’t lead to such (usually) preventable diseases like heart disease, emphysema or diabetes.
Up to now hasn’t it usually been cancer that fells the very old? If cancer goes away, what will become the biggest killer of centenarians? What extremes of longevity will start to become common?
Just a WAG: If you took cancer out of the mix, the other leading leading causes of death would stay leading causes of death (heart disease, strokes, etc). Even if you could stay perfectly healthy, the body still just starts falling apart eventually.
Hate to be the voice of pessimism and all, but the media are notorious for reporting these things long before they’re scientifically justified. There are a lot of very good reasons drugs go through such intensive studies before being approved, and the majority of candidates don’t make it all the way through. The media, OTOH, will report even the earliest hopeful results. I once saw a report on a drug going through Phase I trials. During Phase I, the researchers aren’t even looking to see if it works at all - just if it’s safe.
On the bright side, I haven’t read this article, and I’m not familiar with the drug, so it’s possible my first reaction is wrong.
I can only imagine how much those greedy fucking pharm companies will charge for this shit! This is people’s lives at stake, so I doubt they’ll charge less than $1000/pill. I quite honestly wouldn’t be suprised. Greedy fuckers.
Oh, and they’re working on controlling telemeres/telomerase, so aging shouldn’t be a factor for Gen Z. I’m sure anti-aging pills will be about $1000/pill, too.
I saw a recent Nova episode on the new and relatively radical approach to cancer treatment. I imagine that this is where Gleevec comes from. Basically, instead of trying to kill the cancer itself, these new drugs are meant to inhibit the supply of blood to the tumor, thus preventing it from growing. As Fiver mentioned, it’s not a cure, just a treatment (as well as a headache that I’m sure Raziel’s addicted associates would rather do without). It’s kind of interesting to note that thalidomide is another drug they have tested for its inhibitive qualities, the more negative effects of which are well documented.
I also think we should lay off the greedy fucking pharm companies for a while on this one. This is the kind of shit a lot of people won’t mind taking… of course I’m a Canadian here so things like this tend to be freeish.
As for the OP, I’m sure that some of the slack will be taken up by a dramatic increase in Retirement Home violence caused by the isolating tensions of overcrowded living.
Homer, sure the pharm companies are greedy bastards. But I have faith in other greedy bastards wanting their share of the pie. The companies may well be able to patent/copyright/whatever the drugs here, but in places like say, India, they can only patent the process used to make the drug, not the actual product.
Competition. That and smuggling should help the situation.
I don’t know about most people, buy my morality allows me to circumvent greedy bastards to save my own life.
Angiogenesis inhibitors stop new blood vessels from forming, shrinking (but not killing) some tumors in mice. Studies in people are going on now, although the rumor is they aren’t giving such spectacular results as the mouse trials did. Gleevec isn’t an angiogenesis inhibitor; it clogs up one step in a long pathway leading to the production of a molecule that triggers uncontrolled growth (i.e. cancer). However, Gleevec only works in chronic myelogenous leukemia (the most common form of adult leukemia, but pretty rare - less than 10,000 cases in the US annually) and a rare form of stomach cancer whose name escapes me at the moment. People (at least scientists) are getting really really excited about this one drug not because it’s so incredible on its own but because it represents a new way of treating cancer (attacking its molecular triggers rather than blasting away at every rapidly dividing cell in the body, including many healthy ones).
And of course it’s going to be really expensive. Gleevec will cost about $2,400 (US) a month, although its manufacturer said that they would give it for less to people who couldn’t afford it.
As far as what will kill people, yeah, a healthy lifestyle would significantly lower the rates of (although not get rid of entirely) the diseases mentioned in the OP. And how many people really radically overhaul their lifestyles in order to avoid this?
Sorry that I went on so much.
One can only imagine how wonderful it would be to not have to sit at home for days waiting on the doctor to call with the results from your biopsy. Staring at the clock, pacing around the room, just hoping that when he calls the first word out of his mouth will be “benign”. Let us all hope that the research goes well, and the expectations of the researchers are all met,and even surpassed. In the meantime, don’t pray for the miracle cure, and do your best to take care of yourself as best you can, and avoid all the things that lead to the big C. We can’t prevent it all, but we can do our best to not increase our risks. (and throw the American Cancer Society a few bucks if you can afford it…lord knows they need all the help they can get.)
And on a side note…lets all also hope that the latest Alzheimers breakthrough in Japan really is a breakthrough. It usually kills slower than cancer, but it also is a very very ugly disease.
Be healthy folks…and if you cant be healthy, keep a healthy attitude.
My father-in-law was on thalidomide for his kidney cancer. They are VERY cautious about the possible side effects - he had to agree not to impregnate his wife. I wasn’t aware that thalidomide use by the FATHER could cause birth-defects, but apparently they aren’t going to risk it.
Incidentally, these drugs are a prime example of what I was talking about earlier. Angiogenesis inhibitors performed wonderfully in animal tests. They seemed to be wonder drugs, that could cure or help just about any cancer at any stage. That’s when we started hearing about them in the media. Unfortunately, last I heard, human trials were proving to be far less hopeful. They’re still testing, and there may be useful drugs there to be found, but generally they’re not living up to the expectations. That’s why I made my above post. It just pays to be cautious.