• CarrotBottom@lemmy.ml
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    2 years ago

    It’ll be reasonably expensive, but sequencing and gene alteration is way cheaper than in needs to be.

    If this can actually cure cancers, it may even be worth it.

    The thing is, surely there’s antibody against cancer antigens anyway, in ordinary cancer. A cancer cell expresses epitopes not on healthy cells.

    Why is this better?

    • qarbone@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      but sequencing and gene alteration is way cheaper than in[sic] needs to be.

      …what? this sounds like you’re advocating for price increases.

      • CarrotBottom@lemmy.ml
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        2 years ago

        Oops, new to Lemmy. But not new to typing, so no excuse.

        I meant than “it used to be”.

        I blame autocorrect.

    • arc@lemm.ee
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      2 years ago

      I think “reasonable” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Whatever price they charge it will be to maximize to Moderna’s profits - i.e. they’ll price it slightly lower than what insurers / national health systems would be stung for what 44% of melanoma patients needing a second round of expensive chemo would cost them but not so high that no one will cover the treatment. So I guess the price is “reasonable”, in that it’ll be cheaper than the alternative but it’s not like Moderna will be charitable or fair about it.

      It’s still an amazing breakthrough though.

    • theneverfox@pawb.social
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      2 years ago

      It’s not better, ideally the body finds and eliminates cancer cells all by itself. Just like it does with viruses or infection. It happens all the time, most of the time you’d never know it happened

      What this does is hardcore the “solution” into your immune cells. It tells them exactly what antibody to build, and spams that knowledge, so your immune cells are loaded up and ready to use that antibody

      • banneryear1868@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Yeah like we have cancerous cells in our bodies all the time, it’s when our immune system isn’t dealing with them that it becomes a growth or tumor.