Biontech is planning cancer vaccines before 2030::undefined

  • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    1 year ago

    Right? Not all cancer is the same on a cellular level and to think there would be a vaccine against “cellular mutation” as a broad topic would be asinine. Especially since a lot of those mutations are from environmental exposure.

    I’m certainly not one to dismiss scientific progress, but call me skeptical about the 1,000th cure/treatment/vaccine for “cancer” announcement this year.

    • crashfrog@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      But cancers aren’t generally random mutations; they’re specific mutations to specific genes (oncogenes) that tend to be associated with cell replication and planned cell death.

      So it actually does make sense that you can target cancer mutations, since you’re looking at a fairly small set of mutations (about 300, I think.) In any case, the body destroying its own pre-cancerous cells is an important mechanism for day-to-day cancer prevention that’s already working in people, so it makes sense to try to strengthen and broaden the response.

    • SCB@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Not all cancer is the same on a cellular level

      I’m certainly not one to dismiss scientific progress, but call me skeptical about the 1,000th cure/treatment/vaccine for “cancer” announcement this year.

      One imagines there are many cure/treatment/vaccines because there are many different cancers

      • Maalus@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yet they all scream “we have found a cure for cancer!” As if they have found one for all of them.

        • SCB@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          They have literally found a cure for cancer. This is one application.