I do not see any fundamental progress here. Using a radioactive implant may eliminate the primary tumor - just like a surgical resection. Unfortunately, the majority of patients suffer a recurrence even after R0 resection (no tumor cells in the resection margins) because the primary tumor has already spread before the resection. The same applies to the local insertion of an implant. A game changer would be a targeted systemic therapy (such as trastuzumab for HER2+ breast cancer). However, we are still far away from this due to the lack of possible targets.
dontkry4me t1_itbcobe wrote
Reply to Using a gel-like, radioactive implant, engineers have demonstrated the most effective treatment for pancreatic cancer ever recorded in mouse models, the new treatment completely eliminated tumors in 80 percent of mice across several model types, including those considered the most difficult to treat by giuliomagnifico
I do not see any fundamental progress here. Using a radioactive implant may eliminate the primary tumor - just like a surgical resection. Unfortunately, the majority of patients suffer a recurrence even after R0 resection (no tumor cells in the resection margins) because the primary tumor has already spread before the resection. The same applies to the local insertion of an implant. A game changer would be a targeted systemic therapy (such as trastuzumab for HER2+ breast cancer). However, we are still far away from this due to the lack of possible targets.