Could another factor impeding broad spectrum research be that the two big broad spectrum approaches in use today, chemotherapy and radiation, are both pretty brutal to the patient and many people believe they’ll be looked back on as barbaric in the future? That’s not to say that future broad spectrum treatments necessarily have to share these characteristics, but there’s sort of a “guilt by association” problem.
well, they are brutal, but we are not replacing them. for many cancers, they’re so effective (and leaving the cancer untreated is so deadly) that studies simply won’t consider skipping chemo/radiation and trying some new drug as first-line therapy. I assume there’s a medical ethics concern that would come up, and it’s not a crazy one.
Could another factor impeding broad spectrum research be that the two big broad spectrum approaches in use today, chemotherapy and radiation, are both pretty brutal to the patient and many people believe they’ll be looked back on as barbaric in the future? That’s not to say that future broad spectrum treatments necessarily have to share these characteristics, but there’s sort of a “guilt by association” problem.
well, they are brutal, but we are not replacing them. for many cancers, they’re so effective (and leaving the cancer untreated is so deadly) that studies simply won’t consider skipping chemo/radiation and trying some new drug as first-line therapy. I assume there’s a medical ethics concern that would come up, and it’s not a crazy one.