You might think that the cancer they have in Canada is the same as the cancer we have in the U.S., but the news this week suggests otherwise.
The Canadian papers were full of news of a cancer "breakthrough" that attracted little or no attention in the United States. Apparently it applies only to Canadian cancer.
"Cancer breakthrough: New drug shown to prevent cancer growth ready for human testing," was the headline on a Toronto Star story by Kamila Hinkson. The Chronicle Herald of Halifax, Nova Scotia ran a Canadian Press story by Sheryl Ubelacker that said, "A team of Canadian and U.S. researchers has developed a new 'sharp-shooter' drug they hope may be a breakthrough in treating several types of aggressive cancer." And CTV reported that researchers "are working on what they call a new class of 'sharpshooter' drugs they hope will slow the growth of a number of forms of cancer tumours, including breast and prostate cancers, as well as colorectal and brain cancers."
If you want to understand in the simplest terms why exaggerated news coverage such as this is a very bad idea, look at the first comment on the CTV story:
I have pancreatic cancer………even though clinical trials take a long time….this gives me hope for myself and others with this type of cancer.
A drug based on the new research is at least a decade away, according to a press release. The five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is 6 percent.
If the story gives this patient hope, it's a cruel and false hope. No matter how good this drug might turn out to be, the chances it will help this patient are near zero.
For a sobering corrective, the place to look is The Toronto Globe and Mail, where Andre Picard reviews "some of the important details and context that were glossed over a bit too quickly." First, he points out, "This seemingly miraculous 'breakthrough' drug has not been tested on a single person." It has been used only in mice. Further, the promising results in mice have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed medical journal or replicated by others, Picard reports.
The researchers who developed the drug have taken a decade to get to this point and "are understandably excited because the drug will now be tested in humans–and 90 percent of drugs never get that far."
The press release that prompted the coverage came from the Princess Margaret Cancer Center in Toronto, which was itself guilty of applying the b-word to this news. Here is how it began:
In a media event held this morning, two of the world's most acclaimed cancer researchers, Drs. Tak Mak of the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and Dennis Slamon of the University of California, Los Angeles, shared news of a major breakthrough in the decade-long pursuit to develop a new class of "sharpshooter" cancer drugs.
The italics are mine. This was not just a breakthrough, mind you, but a major one. Why would the Princess Margaret Cancer Center–which exists to help cancer patients–falsely claim that a cure is nearly at hand? "The principal reason," Picard reports, "seems to have been to thank the donors who paid for the research–$40 million and counting–with a public pep talk from two cancer research superstars." Courting donors is a legitimate activity, Picard writes. "It's just unfortunate that the media went along for the ride."
It's also unfortunate that the researchers went along for the ride. These are no strangers to publicity and press coverage. Dennis Slamon, of UCLA, is one of the developers of the breast-cancer drug Herceptin, and Tak Mak led the group that discovered the T-cell receptor, a key player in the immune system. With a word from them, the cancer center likely would have shrunk the claims it made in its press release. The cancer center should have been able to find a way to thank donors without inflaming the public over a hypothetical new cancer treatment that is at least a decade away.
What's also unfortunate about this episode is that from the brief information provided in the release, it seems that this might indeed be an important advance. It might even be a "breakthrough." But we won't know that for at least a decade. Make a note on your calendar to check on Slamon and Mak in June, 2023.
-Paul Raeburn
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