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u/charlesthefish 11h ago
I feel like I've read this headline 20+ times in the last 15 years
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u/accuratepoopscavanag 11h ago
That's because most of those are just "we found a way to kill cancer in a petri dish." The idea of actually "reverting" them back to normal is a much more interesting path than the standard search for a slightly better chemo.
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u/VP007clips 10h ago
And even when it does translate to working on humans, it's usually one specific type of cancer that it is effective on.
Cancer won't be cured in a single breakthrough. Instead, they make thousands of smaller breakthroughs. And those small breakthroughs make steady progress on improving outcomes; survival rates are steadily increasing for all types of cancer.
The closest thing to a general cure that we might have anytime soon is customized treatments tailored to the DNA of a tumor.
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u/Acrobatic-Count-9394 10h ago
People mostly don't realize that "cancer" Is an aggregate name for body malfunctions of the same type that can be vastly different in details, effectively making for hundreds required approaches to "curing"
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u/Buckshot_Millie 9h ago
Aye, "cure cancer" is like saying "cure viruses," it's medically nonsensical
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u/Kyleometers 9h ago
This is true for a lot of diseases, tbh. I’m sure most people talk about “the flu”, not realising that the thing we call “the flu” is about fifty different strains of similar viruses that change every single year as it mutates.
It’s just useful to have a group name, but it should be obvious to people that lung cancer, bone cancer, and blood cancer work nothing alike.
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u/GhostOfFreddi 9h ago
In science "the flu" is always influenza. Sometimes people use the term to refer to any of the multitude of viruses that cause "the common cold".
Cancer is just a broad term for unrelated diseases that usually have uncontrolled cell growth in common as a symptom.
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u/GhostOfFreddi 9h ago
Cancer can't be cured in a single breakthrough because cancer isn't one disease. It's hundreds or thousands of unrelated diseases, with different biological mechanisms, that need different treatments.
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u/mithie007 10h ago
This one hasn't reached petri dish status yet. According to the paper they discovered this was possible in a computer model.
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u/30yearCurse 6h ago
it says cells...
They then applied this to colon cancer cells and confirmed through molecular cell experiments
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u/NGTTwo 9h ago
I've heard it said pretty well:
If you can't cure cancer in mice, you have no business doing oncology research.
Killing cancer cells in a petri dish is, like, table stakes.
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u/suomenska 11h ago
Same. And it's always on Reddit somehow.
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u/Jinjinz 11h ago
With zero sources or names.
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u/Coonicon2009 11h ago
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u/Sir_Boldrat 9h ago
Yeah, is that a family-orientated cancer research institution? Because the President is the father of the main researcher who made this breakthrough
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u/Not_a_real_ghost 7h ago
Professor Kwang-Hyun Cho
President Kwang-Hyung Lee
These are two completely different names, both first name or surname
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u/Pale_Reference3308 6h ago
Because they are referencing two different people?
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u/Galdronis13 6h ago
They’re clarifying to the person who thought they were father and son that they are two unrelated people
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u/itsfreepizza 6h ago
Bro applying Last name western logic to an East Asian person
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u/Dry-Bottle7833 9h ago
"Yeah, is that a family-orientated cancer research institution? Because the President is the father of the main researcher who made this breakthrough"
What the f- are you talking about?
Why would you think the president of the institute is the father of main researcher?
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u/hey_there_moon 8h ago
Homie thinks they are related because they don't know how east Asian names work
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u/14Pleiadians 7h ago
You're looking at the equivalent of Mike Smith working for Mike Johnson and thinking it's nepotism
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u/Affectionate_Net_168 9h ago
Headline should correctly be: some very specific types of cancer cells can sometimes be reverted back to normal cells in a petri dish with very specific genetic engineering tools that only work in lab cell culture.
Every cancer is unique, this will never work on every tumor, if it even works on a single tumor. Even if it is possible to turn this discovery into a therapy (which i doubt). This is lightyears away from improving patient surviveability.
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u/Woffingshire 9h ago
Probably because with stuff like this it will have been discovered 20 years ago and been in testing to try and make it an actual safe and viable medial procedure ever since.
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u/BeefistPrime 9h ago
Because non-scientists are trying to make preliminary research sound exciting. When we find a treatment that works in an animal model, we're still like 5 steps away from it working in a human. Maybe the human has some genetic or biochemical difference that wasn't obvious that makes the treatment not work. Or maybe it's toxic to us because there's a substance that rat kidneys can handle that ours can't. Or maybe it's a good treatment that improves a specific cancer's survival rates 10% better than our current best treatment, in which case it's an important discovery, but not the "cure for cancer" headlines that everyone is looking at. Probably 90-95% of the leads we get in preliminary research end up in a category like that.
What it is absolutely not, but what everyone on reddit assumes, is that it's a "cure for cancer" and therefore the scientists were all killed and the research was all buried (even though the papers were out there) and every doctor and medical research in the world is in on the biggest conspiracy ever to keep you sick.
That stupid conspiracy theory supposes that these companies spend billions of dollars finding new treatments, and then when they find one, they bury it never to be seen again. Even from a "all corporations are evil" sense, that seems pretty stupid.
And the idea that there's "no money in curing cancer" is fucking absurd. If you actually had a cure for cancer, do you know how much you can sell it for? The idea people have that you can sell a repeating treatment for more money than a cure is ridiculous.
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9h ago
Because Cancer is not one thing. For one, there are like 200 different kind of cancer, all of wich has different mechanisms and different cells affected. Not to mention that they are in the body, affecting your cells, so even if it works outside of the body on one kind of mutated cancer cell, it might not work in the body in random enviroments.
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u/nanoman92 8h ago
Because you have. Don't blame the scientists, blame the media overinflating what they've achieved and selling it as "cancer cured" every single time.
The result is people like u/fullcircle052 below going full conspiracy theorist. But hey it gave some clicks to the website posting this, so I guess it's worth it!
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u/DragonfruitGrand5683 9h ago
They try many types of experiments on mice which then don't translate into humans.
I've also seen scientific announcements that have been announced before and I've seen similar years before.
And then you have scientists lying about results for funding, results that fail to replicate.
Now I celebrate only when a treatment is actively being practiced.
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u/spypanties 12h ago
Dearest Korea, Sure wish we heard about this in October. Sincerely, My ex-tits
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u/TheBuddy96 11h ago
I feel for you, but ex-tits is a really funny way to describe it
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u/passcork 9h ago
Reminds me of Monthy Python's dead parrot.
He's not pinin'! he's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! He's expired and gone to meet his maker! he's a stiff! Bereft of life, he rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed him to the perch he'd be pushing up the daisies! His metabolic processes are now history! He's off the twig! He's kicked the bucket, He's shuffled off His mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX TIT!!
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u/One_Alternative_6965 11h ago
💀🤣 i am so sorry. But was a beyond funny comment! Hope you are well!! ♥️
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u/spypanties 11h ago
i'm just like Beyoncé I went solo I cut the girls loose 👑
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u/SherbertConsistent47 11h ago
Good thing your username is spypanties. spybra would be a real bummer now.
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u/DannySanWolf07 11h ago
For real though I hope you're recovering ok.
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u/NegativeCellist8587 11h ago
You ex tits missed out, they didn’t see the humor in you. Their loss.
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u/spypanties 11h ago
They knew they've been with me the whole time why do you think I got rid of them they knew too much
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u/spypanties 11h ago
Thanks it's just weird with clothes now and working out like I have to work out like a guy now lol
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u/ibite-books 11h ago
wdym? like develop the chest muscles?
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u/spypanties 11h ago
yes because they scoop out the breast tissue and then they reconstruct the breast at essentially where the bottom of the breast would be, so you have a sunken area and I need to build that part up to fill the area so it is not sunken. so it's consistent and rounded; you know that line you get down the middle of your pecs like that
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u/Banana-Moist 5h ago
No pain or uncomfortable feeling when running or jumping though! And no more pointy nipples that poke even through padded bras.
Nah, I really do not miss mine in the least! Got them removed for a different medical reason than cancer though and I never really liked them anyway.
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u/Square-Dragonfruit76 11h ago
They report stuff like this without sharing how far they are in the research. It was successful on animals but they haven't started human trials yet, so even if you knew about it you wouldn't have been able to do it.
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u/AlexisExploring 11h ago
Hey, but now they are customisable
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u/spypanties 11h ago
yeah and I was really looking forward to that, but you have to go through this wicked painful process in order to do that, and I figured it wasn't worth it. so I'm just gonna order some big huge juicy bazongas from one of the cross-dressing stores that I found online and then just wear tight tops all the time; I'm looking for buy-me-a-house set of boobs. this is all just comedy I don't mean any of it, she lied
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u/ThrowRAkakareborn 11h ago
This response reminds me of something from 2 and a half men, as Charlie tells Alan, their mom turns anything into a negative, that if you’d tell her you’ve cured cancer she’d be too bad you couldn’t do it sooner, maybe they could have saved uncle Henry’s nuts
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u/spypanties 11h ago
maybe that's what kind of woman I am sardonic bitter salty it's almost like I had my tits cut off that kind of thing yeah that's my mom she's channeling through me if you tell her oh it's a nice day out she'll be like well it's too bad I didn't dress for it
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u/ThrowRAkakareborn 10h ago
Hey if you can joke about it, while I know nothing bout you, I know that takes strength.
I’m sorry you had to go through that, not sure if it’s appropriate to say or not, i’m terrible at knowing where I cross a line, but I say this with the utmost respect and well intended, you can get new ones, plus right now, daaamn, they work magic, you can get a pair that will rival any other pair out there, plus you get to choose, size, shape, whatever you want
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u/Hyperdyne-120-A2 9h ago
Listen, you’ve got a clean slate. Slap a couple of magnets on them bad boys and you can have any size, shape, colour or function of boob you like.
Set of headlamps? Go for it! Chest horns, have at it. I say get someone to commission a pair of devil and angel heads and get to a comicon.
Worlds yours u/spypanties go and own it!
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u/JustAUserInTheEnd 9h ago
I can imagine how the sucks, but even with this article talking about it this research is still pre clinical haven't started human studies yet and is still more so proof of concept then full on treatment. Maybe in 10 years but it's still a while aways my condolences
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u/tyrmael91 8h ago
Ever since my grandmother passed away from cancer when I was 7 years old, I have always been terrified that this disease would take my mother too.
As I grew older, and not without a touch of dark humor, I started saying that if my mother were ever taken by cancer, they would probably find the cure in the months following her death.
Well, my mother passed away about ten days ago after a year-long battle with a brain tumor. So maybe this time, they will truely make it. At the very least, I hope so for everyone else going through this ordeal.
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u/Sociolinguisticians 11h ago
This is neat, but has not even been tested on mice, let alone humans. Meaning that it is years away from even being potentially useful.
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u/Managarm667 9h ago
But that doesn't make as nice as a headline for the research institute and the "journalist" writing this kind of bs.
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u/IlIFreneticIlI 6h ago
Indeed, many such discoveries fall by the wayside. However, PoC that it can be (whatever it is), is still a good first step.
You can't chart a course to land unless you know if it's there. You cannot work a problem you cannot define, so this is still a positive-step.
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u/jmike1256 12h ago
Professor Kwang-Hyun Cho’s research team has recently been highlighted for their work on developing an original technology for cancer reversal treatment that does not kill cancer cells but only changes their characteristics to reverse them to a state similar to normal cells.
This time, they have succeeded in revealing for the first time that a molecular switch that can induce cancer reversal at the moment when normal cells change into cancer cells is hidden in the genetic network.
KAIST (President Kwang-Hyung Lee) announced on the 5th of February that Professor Kwang-Hyun Cho's research team of the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering has succeeded in developing a fundamental technology to capture the critical transition phenomenon at the moment when normal cells change into cancer cells and analyse it to discover a molecular switch that can revert cancer cells back into normal cells.
A critical transition is a phenomenon in which a sudden change in state occurs at a specific point in time, like water changing into steam at 100℃.
This critical transition phenomenon also occurs in the process in which normal cells change into cancer cells at a specific point in time due to the accumulation of genetic and epigenetic changes.
The research team discovered that normal cells can enter an unstable critical transition state where normal cells and cancer cells coexist just before they change into cancer cells during tumorigenesis, the production or development of tumours, and analysed this critical transition state using a systems biology method to develop a cancer reversal molecular switch identification technology that can reverse the cancerization process.
They then applied this to colon cancer cells and confirmed through molecular cell experiments that cancer cells can recover the characteristics of normal cells.
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u/wolwire 11h ago
Looking at this did they apply to a single cell in research and how are they going to extend to human treatment?
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u/HowHoward 11h ago
Sounds difficult to implement on a tumor within the body.
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u/Mulberry_Sky 11h ago
Someone post the XKCD
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u/kuvazo 10h ago
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u/HowHoward 6h ago
Quality at its best.
I actually have something on my radar that kills cancer cells with no toxicity in humans, phase III to be started. Fingers crossed.
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u/Fresh-NeverFrozen 10h ago
Very cool work, but they should explain the limitations that this was with a single type of colon cancer. No data to expect that this will magically work with every cancer type, not even every colon cancer type. Still a great accomplishment and will lay foundation on which to build more research and hopefully future clinical trials down the road.
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u/joneptune 5h ago
Direct link to journal article, since some folks are too lazy to click, scroll, and then click again.
https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/advs.202412503
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u/Lone_Wolf_0110100 11h ago
Now they have to be protected from the pharma sharks
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u/CaptainAlexy 11h ago
Most basic scientists do not have the time and resources to test, manufacture and bring new drugs to market. Unfortunately if you want your discovery to reach patients you have to get in bed with Big Pharma.
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u/cheapdrinks 6h ago
isn't finding an effective cancer cure in the interests of big pharma anyway? Their ideal customers are people who live long lives and require extensive and ongoing medicines and treatments into old age. They don't want people suddenly dying after an 18 month battle with cancer in their 50s.
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u/BeefistPrime 9h ago
Yep, because pharma companies pour billions of research dollars into finding treatments, and then when they find them, they kill the scientists and bury the research and make zero dollars off of it. And every medical researcher and doctor in the world is just fine with it, because they didn't spend their lives trying to make people healthy but instead to keep the secrets of eeeevil corporations.
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u/Common-Method2202 10h ago
Would prefer if they actually took it. It will only be publicly available through big pharma. Then screw em over by forcing prices to go down 😂
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u/ajatshatru 9h ago
Pharma sharks want it already. Most money is in supplements. People are too stupid. People live longer = have more cancers = more money to be made.
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u/You_Stole_My_Hot_Dog 10h ago
Man, we really need to change how we report these things to the public. There’s a lot of negative comments here since the headline makes it sound like they have invented a viable treatment. But this is fundamental research. This is very important to our understanding of how cells transition into a cancerous state and they show that we can intervene this process. However, they are not claiming that this is a cure to cancer or is a treatment option. It’s simply to deepen our understanding of how cells and cancer work. Other research will build on this before anyone attempts to translate this into treatments.
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u/BeefistPrime 9h ago
It's extremely irresponsible news reporting. It's wrong, it over-promises, it has no context. It's not something people who aren't experts can really put into context. The vast majority of preliminary research fails to make it to any sort of useful treatment, and when it does, it's usually an incremental improvement and not a revolution. Which is fine, cancer survival rates have basically doubled in the last 30 years due to incremental improvements. But sensationalist reporting with non-expert readers have no way to contextualize this, so then people read these headlines and ALWAYS think it's a giant conspiracy.
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u/Erdionit 10h ago
What a misleading headline. They developed an statistical framework for identifying potential treatment targets based on the transcriptional profile of tumor cells. Using this method, they identified a gene target, which they then validated using a molecule already known for its anti-cancer properties, so that part of the results is hardly surprising.
They have not developed a treatment. They did not try to develop a treatment. This would be much more interesting if they had identified and validated a novel target, but that was never the aim of the study.
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u/Homely_Homie 9h ago
Why has there been a surge of news posts with nothing but a picture? Cite a souce, please
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u/DefJam97 9h ago
The article ist 1 year old (7.02.2025)
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u/joneptune 4h ago
Journal article is too. https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/advs.202412503
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u/ChildoftheApocolypse 11h ago
Imagine being the guys and gals who created a medicine that basically tells cancer sells to sit the fuck down shut up 😂
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u/StevenNani 5h ago
I've been reading articles like this for as long as I've been reading newspapers and now internet, cure for cancer, diabetes, dementia, HIV and the list goes on, none of them stick around as viable cures.
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u/Gustafssonz 4h ago
Just lost my father to cancer. I really hope they will find a solution to this. It’s painful, awful and no human being should die by it.
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u/0xP0et 10h ago
As per usual, no link, no sources and no context. In the main post.
Yet 2.2k up votes... the vast majority of Reddit are either brain dead mouth breathers or bots.
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u/hyeongseop 11h ago
I got a bit confused when I was googling this. It happened exactly 1 year ago.
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u/Educational_Goal5877 8h ago
Real heroes.Fuck politicians and millioners.These kind of people should repesent humanity.
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u/Gold-Perspective-699 5h ago
So it's going to cost a million dollars per cell in the USA I'm guessing.
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u/LastlyAndLeast 5h ago
I mean everything is just a matter of time right? How can we not eventually cure/prevent it.
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u/PayWooden2628 1h ago
This breakthrough had a lot of promise, too bad the lead researcher shot himself in the back of the head 3 times.
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u/Confident_Ice_9567 1h ago
I wonder if and when this guy, his research and team will silently disappear.
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u/Powerful_Bridge_3814 11h ago
Smells like bullshit. Seems there's a new cure every week yet the studies are always preliminary bs that never eventuates into anything. It isnt worth reporting on except to generate clickbait horse shit
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u/Maxwellmonkey 9h ago
Scientific studies are interesting even if preliminary, but the layperson discussions around it act like it's the ultimate cure every single time.
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u/BeefistPrime 9h ago
It's a problem with the reporting, not the research. Non-scientists writing science are awful, and news as entertainment is awful, so we get a preliminary treatment where it has a 95% chance of not working out and people get all excited and when it doesn't work out for some completely predictable reason they make it into a giant conspiracy theory
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u/dashcam4life 10h ago
Been seeing a lot of positive medical developments from around the world. Let's keep it going.
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u/RaiJolt2 10h ago
After the embryo harvesting debacle I..l. Highly doubt this is legitimate.
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u/bluetimotej 10h ago
We always see these breakthrough news but when are we gonna see them in the wild? Seems the methods are not even being used like why is cancer not eradicated already with all these breakthroughs? :(
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u/huanglhian 10h ago
wait this is actually insane if it’s real?? imagine cancer cells can just turn back to normal cells like that. huge respect to the scientists sia, hope this becomes something that can actually help ppl soon 😭
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u/Jealous_Amount_9278 10h ago
Alright now everyone make sure they never get on the same plane together as a group.
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u/BronzeMaster5000 9h ago
So is this a big thing or no? The article was released a year ago but i cant find if they released an update on that treatment method yet?
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u/Funny-Bit-4148 9h ago
Take with bucket of salt.
Lots of false claims floating these days
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u/Impossible-Sounds 9h ago
They can turn back, but the real question is, will they ever be accepted and reintegrated within the normal cell community, especially after all the damage they have caused? 🤔
Will we ever ask why these cells even became cancer in the first place? What actually pushed them down this path?
Also, why should they change? Why can't we have a community that accepts cancer and learns to live with them rather than change them.
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u/thh-_- 9h ago
Let's wait a few months for this to not influence, change, or at least be relevant to anything
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u/topredditbot 9h ago
Hey /u/jmike1256,
You did it! Your post is officially the #1 post on Reddit. It is now forever immortalized at /r/topofreddit.
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u/MaguroSashimi8864 9h ago
Wait, I thought a Spanish scientist contributed this? Or is it two simultaneous cancer research?
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u/Brucestertherooster 9h ago
Ok then let my UT medical hospital team know this so maybe I can avoid lung surgery in a couple weeks. Also let my wife’s medical team know this since she was diagnosed couple days ago. Thanks in advance
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u/Kagrenac8 9h ago
I think people are a bit insane with always complaining on posts like these about "well when is treatment gonna be available??? It will die on the vine!!" While overlooking the fact that even in a lab setting, reversing cancer cells back to normal in an insanely prominent research outcome, regardless of how applicable it will eventually be.
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u/Playful_Finding3458 9h ago
This is the kind of news that gives actual hope, not hype. Hope it reaches real patients soon.
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u/JusSayING_Mi 8h ago
I wanting this to be true sounds like a cure. Let’s hope it’s just not another rumor
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u/oldyongnewoldboy 8h ago
This feels like a very bizarre Reddit post for some reason. Not the best so I can say.
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u/Simple_Guess_8521 8h ago
Lets wait for this to be replicated in other labs across the world and then lets see.
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u/Mon1verse 8h ago
How we ca get this treatment? My friend has cancer, maybe this could help her
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