# Ipilimumab, Major step in curing cancer?

**URL:** <https://forums.speedlife.net/t/ipilimumab-major-step-in-curing-cancer/156087>\
**Category:** NYSpeed Off Topic\
**Created:** [June 5, 2010, 3:58pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/ipilimumab-major-step-in-curing-cancer/156087 "2010-06-05T15:58:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![burnt\_toast](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/burnt_toast/32/7518_2.png) [@burnt\_toast](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/burnt_toast)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 3:58pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/ipilimumab-major-step-in-curing-cancer/156087/1 "2010-06-05T15:58:11Z")

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Articles are all over, it’s on the news right now… Although it may not seem like staggering numbers, in comparison it’s a pretty exciting breakthrough

[http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6542C020100605](http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6542C020100605)

…or it’s the first step in creating the zombie epidemic… sounds a lot like “Resident Evil” or “I Am Legend” stuff to me…

> “This is just the beginning. We’re changing the view of how we can manipulate the immune system to fight cancer in people,” said Dr. Stephen Hodi of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, whose study on ipilimumab appears in the New England Journal of Medicine.  
> More than 20 percent of patients with advanced melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, were alive two years after getting the drug – compared to a usual nine months.

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**Author:** ![traumadog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@traumadog](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/traumadog)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2010, 1:55pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/ipilimumab-major-step-in-curing-cancer/156087/2 "2010-06-06T13:55:38Z")

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First, the drug is an antibody, not a live virus. It just happens to tweak the patient’s own immune system to attack the cancer. But it won’t do anything sustained re: mutations like you mentioned.

Second, the drug **didn’t** work for some 70 percent of the patients it was tried on, so more work is needed to figure out why.

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**Author:** ![burnt\_toast](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/burnt_toast/32/7518_2.png) [@burnt\_toast](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/burnt_toast)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2010, 1:58pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/ipilimumab-major-step-in-curing-cancer/156087/3 "2010-06-06T13:58:25Z")

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The zombie thing was a joke…

And it **did** work on some 30% of the patients it was tried on, which is about 29% higher than usual/previous treatments. Obviously more work is needed, and it’s being done, but I’d say that’s a pretty big step in the right direction.

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**Author:** ![RedGoober4Life](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/redgoober4life/32/7610_2.png) [@RedGoober4Life](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/RedGoober4Life)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2010, 7:40pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/ipilimumab-major-step-in-curing-cancer/156087/4 "2010-06-06T19:40:34Z")

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it’s pretty sexy.

anybody in research probably just cringed and thought of that one annoying researcher they know who uses “sexy” to describe a topic. you’re welcome.