Test cancer drugs in old and unhealthy animals, not just young fit ones
Most cancer patients are older and have other illnesses, but nearly all animal experiments use young healthy mice. Results may not transfer.
Ageing changes immune function, drug metabolism, marrow reserve and the tumour microenvironment; obesity and diabetes alter drug distribution and immunotherapy response. Efficacy and toxicity studies in aged, obese or comorbid animals cost more and take longer, so they are rarely done. Requiring at least one aged-cohort confirmation before first-in-human studies of immunotherapies would be a targeted change.
- Preclinical models that do not predict people · Nine in ten cancer drugs that work in mice fail in humans. Our models are the reason.
- Older and multimorbid patients are excluded and undertreated · Most people with cancer are over 65 but most trial patients are younger and fitter. We guess how to treat the majority.
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not linked directly; found by shared links- IdeaPredict immune side-effects before they happen and pre-empt them
Shares Immune-related adverse events (irAEs), Immune checkpoint inhibitors.
- IdeaHumanised mice with an immune system matched to the tumour donor
Shares Preclinical models that do not predict people, Immune checkpoint inhibitors.
- TermImmune-related myocarditis
Shares Immune-related adverse events (irAEs), Immune checkpoint inhibitors.
- TermImmune-related endocrinopathies (thyroiditis, hypophysitis)
Shares Immune-related adverse events (irAEs), Immune checkpoint inhibitors.
- IdeaTreat immunotherapy side-effects without wiping out the response
Shares Immune-related adverse events (irAEs), Immune checkpoint inhibitors.
- TermImmune-mediated colitis and diarrhoea
Shares Immune-related adverse events (irAEs), Immune checkpoint inhibitors.
- IdeaImplant a tiny device that tests twenty drugs inside the patient's own tumour
Shares Preclinical models that do not predict people, Immune checkpoint inhibitors.
- IdeaWatch the immune system's response in the blood three weeks in
Shares Immune-related adverse events (irAEs), Immune checkpoint inhibitors.