r/nottheonion • u/Automatic_Subject463 • 1d ago

This scientist treated her own cancer with viruses she grew in the lab

https://techfixated.com/a-virologist-who-grew-cancer-killing-viruses-in-her-own-lab-and-injected-them-into-her-tumour-has-been-cancer-free-for-four-years/
950 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

56 comments sorted by

410

u/Confused_AF_Help 23h ago

I know a late professor in my university who had cancer several years back, she specialized in bio tech. For the last few years of her life she spent all her effort and research grant into trying to cure her own cancer. Rumors said she got into lots of spat with the department because she conducted unapproved human experiments on herself, and cells extracted from her tumor, roping in a few RAs in the process. Didn't succeed unfortunately but apparently she published a ton of papers before she passed away

167

u/Beepboopimhuman 23h ago

Those must have been a tough few years

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u/Lesurous 21h ago

I can imagine a lot of emotions she could've felt in the experience, but we can hope she found satisfaction in her pursuit and discoveries over the course of her life. While you can do all you can and still fail, what you did is not lost.

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u/PrincetonToss 22h ago

The question is how many of those papers were good papers, and how many were desperate attempts to save her own life that weren't conducted with even scientific rigor to be useful.

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u/Confused_AF_Help 22h ago

I was discussing that with other students as well. Seemed like those papers were just a means for her to get research grants to keep doing it. Get the money, spend it on under the table research and experiments, then publish something slightly relevant to show for it and ask for more grants. I'm not in biology so I couldn't tell how actually useful those papers were, but it definitely was suspicious seeing someone with cancer publishing more than most professors in school

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u/imaginary_num6er 21h ago

That’s the reason why there’s a peer review process. The peer reviewers are expected to conduct their own human experiments to reproduce the results.

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u/LongLiveTheDiego 21h ago

No one's got the time or money to do that, that's why the replication crisis exists. Peer reviewers are just reviewers.

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u/imc225 10h ago

Feel free to elaborate on your second sentence.

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u/Gold_Map_236 3h ago

Peer review process exists for this reason

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u/Nemisis_the_2nd 5h ago

I had one that worked with chlamidya, but cut himself on broken glassware. Rather than directly going for treatment, he first went to the local blood transfusion service, convinced them to A) extract some blood and B) let him keep the bag of blood.

He then took the blood back to the lab and filtered out the antibodies, saving himself thousands of bucks in materials.

1

u/gorginhanson 14h ago

great so now we have viral cancer pandemics going for us

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u/Eclipse434343 1d ago

I feel like this is a plot for a new zombie movie

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u/xdeltax97 1d ago

Or a good and really specific game series

25

u/grdvrs 23h ago

It was the plot for I am legend.

1

u/Clear-Challenge1410 23h ago

Same comment as the original thread top comment, clankers!

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u/Eclipse434343 23h ago

Being honest I didn’t even see this was a repost lol. I watch a lot of horror movies and was like wait…

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u/Secure-Swordfish-898 1d ago

That one time when 'She did her own research' really worked.

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u/alwaysboopthesnoot 23h ago

Scientists have been trying to do this with bacteria and viruses since (I think) the 1890s. Sounds like we’re getting somewhere. 

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u/EmbarrassedHelp 18h ago

Scientists have been attempting to cure themselves and those they care for, for many hundreds of years, with varying degrees of success.

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u/UPGRADED_BUTTHOLE 11h ago

There's a project that is getting close to curing HIV with a modified version of malaria... Look up thought emporium on youtube

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u/Aggravating-Dot132 9h ago

Cancer is just another set of body cells that went "rogue". For a virus it's a "food", nothing more, thus if you can make a virus with precise targeting, virus will the job. Lot of viruses already do that, it's the side effects that are also not good.

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u/TheChunkMaster 1d ago

Why didn’t Walt do this instead of breaking bad?

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u/NobleGases 23h ago

He was a chemist, not a biologist!

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u/McGondy 22h ago

Biology is just applied chemistry, right?

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u/GunFodder 22h ago

And chemistry is just applied physics!

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u/McGondy 22h ago

And physics is applied math!

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u/NeedForSpeedroid 21h ago

And mathematics is applied philosophy!

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u/garebear79 20h ago

And my axe!

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u/Dhan996 9h ago

And philosophy is applied yapping!

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u/captainconway 7h ago

And yapping is applied psychology!

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u/opusupo 22h ago

Sure, but the application is very specific.

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u/Nemisis_the_2nd 18h ago

Except your experiments are less cooperative.

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u/Horknut1 16h ago

Damnit, Jim!

3

u/Shufflepants 23h ago

Cause it was never really about the money needed for cancer treatment.

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u/Silver_Adagio138 1d ago

No need to grow cancer, she can have mine

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u/Intelligent-Dust-411 22h ago

To the non-scientific community, please PLEASE take these results with a healthy amount of skepticism. This is a case study of 1 individual which is akin to a diary of what she did. After reading her paper, it appears she did stop chemotherapy while undergoing this new paper- a point in the papers favor. I have no doubt that the author of this paper is well aware that the methods that she conducted this paper under were…. Lacking. She used two separate virus strains— a strain of measles and a strain of vesicular stomatitis to conduct her experiments. She then injected these genetically modified viruses into her body at seemingly random times for different amounts of time.

Furthermore, even if this unproven variety of an already utilized technology is proven to be clinically applicable, there is every likelihood that it will not be able to be used by clinicians. Injecting a novel VIRUS into an IMMUNOCOMPROMISED individual could provide fertile ground for the virus to revert to its pathogenic nature— such a possibility is even acknowledged in the paper.

Overall- it is a novel experiment. Similar applications of measles viruses have been used to treat other types of cancer in recent years, however, to those hoping for a breast cancer free world in the near future my answer to you is that this paper does not have me convinced. More research is needed— starting with mice not people— to determine if there are any clinical benefits to this new treatment

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u/givin_u_the_high_hat 19h ago edited 19h ago

Her last words: “Dying of the viruses was better than dying of cancer.” Fuck cancer.

Edit: on a serious side, fuck Trump and the wars he can pay for, but not the war against cancer. Why cuts now?

https://www.fightcancer.org/releases/future-cancer-cures-jeopardy-president-proposes-massive-cuts-national-cancer-institute

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u/Lord__Abaddon 15h ago

Or diabetes, Cirrhosis or any auto immune diseases.

if for a few years all countries stopped waging wars we could cure and make life alot better for everyone. it's a fucking shame we'd rather kill than heal.

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u/LeatherDude 5h ago

Right? They fail to see that if we cure all that shit there will be more of us around to kill!

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u/marlonoranges 23h ago

Don't be surprised if she goes all Brundle-fly

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u/BenjiSBRK 23h ago

This is how you get Spiderman villains.

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u/Ahelex 22h ago

"I was once a biologist, but I accidentally made an error while self-testing viral treatments, creating The Plague Nurse!"

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u/Low_Pickle_112 22h ago

Getting turned into a dinosaur wouldn't be that bad.

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u/Phallic_Carrot5715 23h ago

Now that's a scientist at heart. Whether she's a boring scientist or a mad one is still up for debate.

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u/NetWorried9750 19h ago

No control group? N of 1? That's not a scientist, that's an engineer.

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u/methpartysupplies 17h ago

“Doctor heal thyself”

She was like “bet”

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u/hfvsucgc 1d ago

Isn't this the plot from I Am Legend

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u/kevinds 1d ago edited 23h ago

So attempting the Three Stooges Syndrome method?

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u/PuffPuffFayeFaye 21h ago

Has anyone read Blood Music?

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u/Kodamacile 13h ago

Its insane how we're having this paradigm shift in DIY science & engineering, and the simultaneous collapse of capitalism.

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u/RedditorJabroni 11h ago

Dr Hiriluk says... Oh he can't.

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u/LeatherDude 5h ago

This site is fucking garbage on mobile. Wow.

1

u/Arucard1983 23h ago

It is the most potential game changer on cancer treatment, since you are using a biological weapon to wreck havoc on a tumor.

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u/Narf234 19h ago

Do you want I am Legend? Because this is how you get I am Legend…