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| A cancer patient receiving immunotherapy |
In this blog post, I'd like to take a closer look at the three issues I originally presented in my previous blog post. In an attempt to make the issues more accessible to those outside of the scientific community, I'd like to briefly discuss historical connections to these issues and how communication affects these issues.
1. Balancing Efficacy and Side Effects in Cancer Immunotherapy
Immunotherapies are cancer treatments that aim to supplement the immune system of the patient and use it to take down cancer without using radiation or chemotherapy. Clinical trials have shown astonishing results, with quick disposal of the cancer and very few patients relapsing. Though immunotherapy shows a great deal of promise, it is sometimes accompanied by high neurotoxicity (symptoms can include shakiness, brain fog, muscle twitching, and pain), permanent loss of the targeted cell type due to over-activity of immune cells, and/or a rare but dangerous condition called Cytokine Release Syndrome (CRS), which is characterized by systemic inflammation (high fever, malaise, headache, nausea, etc.). Maintaining the ability of immunotherapies to efficiently kill cancer cells while minimizing side effects is a difficult struggle that is a source of controversy in the scientific community.
- Historical Connection
The controversy of balancing cancer immunotherapy potency with side effects is in many ways the product of the enlightenment value of human rights. Life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness have been proudly proclaimed as basic human rights since the enlightenment era. Along this line of reasoning, it is not difficult to see why modern doctors struggle internally with the struggle to obtain treatment potency (which allows life) and to minimize negative side effects (the possiblle collateral damage of different treatments could potentially bar patients from pursuing happiness; for example, CAR-T cell therapy can cause acquired immunodeficiency as a side effect, or brain damage from a sustained fever exceeding 107.6*F in cases where patients develop severe CRS). The enlightenment value of human rights creates an intrinsic conundrum in any case where two of the basic human rights must be weighed against one another to complete treatment of a patient.
- Communication Connection
One of the major struggles faced by the scientific and medical community today is to accurately communicate to patients the balanced risk and rewards of different treatment courses to allow them to make informed decisions. In this day of overwhelmingly detailed and nuanced scientific research, putting treatments on terms that are understandable to anyone outside of the scientific community (or even specializing in a different area within the scientific community) becomes increasingly difficult.
2. Vaccination
Thankfully, many people are now aware that the publication indicating that vaccines cause Autism was written based on false evidence (it has been disproved by multiple subsequent academic publications). However, the original panic over the claim that vaccinations cause Autism spawned an anti-vac movement that still has momentum today. The anti-vac movement endangers the lives of children and immuno-compromised citizens.
- Historical Connection
The birth of the anti-vac movement ties back to the Enlightenment theme of "the Public Sphere." The dark side of having freedom of speech is that false information is allowed to circulate as freely as good information. During the Enlightenment, people discovered that the invention of the printing press gave opportunities for more voices to be heard than ever before. Magazines were born, gossip columns were spawned, and women's voices could reach beyond their circle of acquaintances for the first time due to the press. This circulation of a greater variety of media began to provoke discussion among the masses on many subjects.
- Communication Connection
Today, journalism continues to inform the public opinion of vaccination. Our society is somewhat addicted to breaking news and shocking headlines (vaccines causing Autism is a great example) and therefore has a harder time slowing down enough to listen to more moderate voices, such as the scientists and doctors who are hard at work to undo the damage caused by the original paper on Autism and vaccines. Due to our society-wide selective hearing of news, turning around the anti-vac movement will probably take either another decade of soaking in common sense media or the occurrence of a major front page pandemic.
3. Reconciling Religion and Science in the Workplace
In today's political climate, scientists who express belief in higher powers are often scoffed at by their peers, who attempt to undermine their work to prove the frailty of any scientist who dares to believe in God.
- Historical Connection
History offers a nearly perfect parallel for the dissonance between science and religion that we see reflected in our world today. Secularism first emerged during the enlightenment, when society largely underwent a shift from using faith to using logic and rational thinking to measure the world. Religion and science have struggled to coexist for ages. The trial and execution of Galileo by the Catholic church for his heretical scientific findings is a great example. Atheism first emerged in the Enlightenment period and has grown to be more and more popular with the rise of science.
- Communication Connection
The stigma within the scientific community of religiosity is clearly demonstrated at conferences where scientists coalesce to discuss their findings. As a student in a religious university, I have heard almost innumerable stories of my lab mates being attacked viciously at scientific conferences. While there are certainly scientists at the conventions who are equally critical of and unkind to every undergraduate, special negative attention is given to presenters from Brigham Young University due to the large percentage of our cohort who have both a personal relationship with God and a passion for the sciences. Hostile atheist professors from other universities are eager to confirm their beliefs that scientists who are also religious can't possibly produce good data. This creates a stumbling block within the scientific community as rage and contempt always do in situations that require good communication and mutual respect to support progress.
I like that you brought up the point that the "vaccines cause Autism" claim has been debunked. I think, though, that most people know that and are concerned more with putting chemicals into their children's bodies. I know a few anti-vax folk and the issue that always gets brought up to me is that they just are unaware of what's being injected into their children (which I can completely understand). I wonder if a higher focus on what vaccines actually are would encourage doubtful people to reexamine their beliefs and vaccinate their children.
ReplyDeleteI like what you mentioned about how one of the drawbacks of the public sphere is that false information is allowed to circulate. That is why it is so important to be technologically literate and understand how to determine what is a quality source of news and what is inherently biased.
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