Progress In the War Against Cancer

The last several days have brought good news on multiple fronts in the war against cancer.  News stories have spotlighted major strides, including:

·         Dr. Vincent Tuohy, an immunologist at the Cleveland Clinic, said he believes he has discovered a vaccine that can prevent breast cancer.  If tests go well, Dr. Tuohy noted in the accompanying video, he hopes that a vaccine for women over 40 can be available a decade from now.

·         The drugmaker AstraZeneca has experienced good results with a medicine that can attack thyroid cancer.  Patients with advanced medullary thyroid cancer who took the drug experienced a 54 percent reduction in the rate at which their disease progressed, compared to those who took a placebo.  AstraZeneca said it will file for regulatory approval of the drug later this year.

·         A new study from Canada shows that men with prostate cancer have a better chance of stopping the cancer from spreading, and thus increasing their odds of survival, is radiation treatments are used in conjunction with conventional hormone therapies.

Dr. Robert Waller, the former CEO of the Mayo Clinic, used to tell me that medical advances happen so rapidly, attempting to get a handle on all of the new emerging innovations is like trying to drink water from a fire hose.  Good weeks like this one, with real progress in the fight against cancer, remind me exactly what Dr. Waller was talking about.