Avid Bioservices Inc (CDMO)

[sulaco]

Sunstar, great post and indicative of a central aspect of immuno-oncology.

It takes time. LOTS of time.

We live in a culture of instant gratification (now more than ever). My brother jokes that "Only in the U.S. does instant gratification take too long."

If a person has cancer, they want that cancer GONE. As in, "yesterday." Doctors have this mentality even more so.

Think about your typical oncologist. Poor Sue has breast cancer and is in tears. She's had a mastectomy, feels traumatized already, and now here come her "white knight" (literally, in a white coat).

Doc says "Don't worry, dear, we're going full-steam ahead, full-attack, and hopefully (he knows better, but doesn't say anything) we'll have your cancer in remission in 3 months." Sue brightens up immediately, placing all her hope in Dear Doctor's chemo.

What Sue doesn't know, and what Dear Doctor fails to tell her, is that BREAST CANCER MORTALITY HASN'T CHANGED IN 50 YEARS. "Cut, poison, and burn" i.e. surgery, chemo, and radiation, will, 100 years from now, be seen as BARBARIC. But right now, Sue thinks she's found her white knight.

[url][/http://io9.com/5883180/why-havent-we-cured-cancer-yeturl][tag]Article: Cancer mortality hasn't changed in 50 years[/tag]

So what's wrong with this picture? Easy. Everybody thinks we're gonna get this "cancer thing" in 3 months, and then get Sue back to drinking lattes with the girlfriends at Starbucks.

As we all know, it doesn't work out that way. The very thing that can save Sue from her breast cancer, her immune system, is being systematically destroyed by the very chemo and radiation she is so eager and anxious to get. She, and even more so, Dear Doctor, are gonna get this breast cancer "quick."

But the immune system doesn't work that way. It's a loping elephant, taking plenty of time to get up and get organized. Now with sustained support and prompting, it can be turned into a CHARGING elephant (with Bavi in the mix, of course).

Now a charging elephant is going to beat the stuffing out of Sue's breast cancer and either cure her outright, or put her into a 30 year remission. She'll probably die of something else first. Kinda like the slow-growing, indolent prostate cancers that don't kill older men because their hearts wear out first.

So what's the answer with immuno-oncology? Answer: time, time, time.

But the trick is that a patience-centered approach (sorry for the pun), runs counter to the culture.

We want "quick-cures," so we can get back to our fast-paced lifestyles.

But maybe it's precisely that fast-paced lifestyle that led to the cancer in the first place....


Joe