text_1: CAR-T therapy makes early inroads in treating brain cancer
text_2: This story in STAT, like the one in TIME.com that we also reviewed, describes the successful, and apparently first positive response of a glioblastoma brain tumor to CAR-T therapy. This is an experimental immunotherapy that depends on on injections of modified immune cell proteins and that has had a few successes in blood cancers but essentially none in solid tumors, including those in the brain. Described in a report in the The New England Journal of Medicine, the study was conducted and promoted by officials and physicians at the City of Hope Beckman Research Institute and Medical Center, an organization that has a somewhat unfortunate history of touting treatments as bringing about “miracles” and encouraging coverage of compelling individual cancer patient stories to support sometimes exaggerated claims of major advances in cancer treatment. This STAT story does a better job than TIME of putting what is essentially a single, unexpected experimental result into perspective. Its strongest points are that it avoids touting this one patient’s experience as any kind of broad “success,” calling it an “early inroad;’ emphasizing its “notorious” potential side effects; and most of all quoting sources outside City of Hope who made clear that, as one put it, the success was possibly a “flash in the pan.” Bravo. One thing that would have made the story stronger? Early on emphasizing how a single case study makes for weak evidence. See our six tips for writing accurately about cancer immunotherapy drugs. Unlike the TIME story (see our review), this story included important voices of caution to help keep expectations in check. Starting with the headline, readers of this story are likely to come away with a more realistic perspective on this treatment. (Meanwhile, TIME’s headline was misleading: “Experimental Brain Cancer Treatment Is a Success.”)