Beating Cancer

After decades of research and testing, oncologists have found treatments that demonstrably prolong the life of patients with melanoma, lung cancer and leukemia. “Though the prolongation of life offered by the antibody was not huge—3½ months, on average—it was real. And it was a first. Small-scale trials of other drugs have suggested such life extension. This is the only time, though, that tests to the highest scientific standard, that of randomised double-blindness on several hundred people, have demonstrated it beyond doubt for advanced melanoma,” says The Economist.