Some good news on cancer, for once

tl;dr: A new combination of drugs long used in the treatment of breast cancer has produced some stunning results:

New breast cancer treatment wipes out tumours in just 11 DAYS

A new treatment for breast cancer has completely eradicated tumours in just 11 days.

Doctors today described the unexpected results as ‘staggering’ – and said the new two-pronged technique could spare thousands of women from gruelling chemotherapy.

The UK team, announcing their results at the European Breast Cancer Conference in Amsterdam, said they had never seen breast patients respond so quickly to a cancer treatment.

Women who were newly diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer were given the therapy at 23 UK hospitals.

Of the participants in the trial the vast majority – 87 per cent – responded to the treatment, with tests showing that the cancer had stopped producing more cells.

But for some women the results were more dramatic.

In 11 per cent the tumours had completely vanished, to the surprise of surgeons, and for another 17 per cent they had significantly shrunk.

The drugs involved aren’t particularly expensive, either, as cancer drugs go: around $2150 for an 11-day course.  The patent on one of them is about to expire, which should knock that price down a fair bit.