Fweethawt Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 http://www.bbc.com/news/health-38304076 The approach, tested across Europe, uses lasers and a drug made from deep sea bacteria to eliminate tumours, but without causing severe side effects. Trials on 413 men - published in The Lancet Oncology - showed nearly half of them had no remaining trace of cancer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RogueScholar Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 I'd say it depends. One thing that needs to be stressed is that this therapy is not going to be used to treat folks who have actively evolving prostate cancer. Therefore, it will not be a replacement for the typical approaches that treat aggressive cancers. I think this is an important point to make. With that said, it does appear to be of benefit in certain situations. Many cases of prostate cancer are so slow to grow, that they often require no specific treatment aside from frequent follow up to identify if/when the cancer becomes more aggressive. It is in these cases where this therapy may be of benefit. Two groups of a couple hundred patients were used. One group got the conventional watch and wait (control group) and one got this new intervention. Again, both groups where people who initially did not require the standard therapies for the more aggressive forms of prostate cancer. After two years, the treatment groups had substantially lower numbers of conversion to the more aggressive forms of cancer. So, this therapy appears to be an effective preventative option for certain patients. It is in this milieu that the new therapy may be transformative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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