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Comment by caminante

2 days ago

It's not just *in vitro.

Per article (and not arguing it's effective for human oncology), there are also studies with mice showing effectiveness.

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caminante

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cthalupa  2 days ago

Sure, there's a few. But 3 rodent studies isn't exactly enough evidence for a layperson to worry about, either. It's not even much of a signal for scientists in that area of research.

Ivermectin is pretty safe for people to use regardless of whether or not they have parasites, so sure, do the human RCTs. Maybe we'll get lucky and have another tool in our anti-cancer toolbox.

But trying to extrapolate out that it's reasonable for people to take it for cancer based on the current evidence is premature, at best.

  • caminante  2 days ago

    My point remains (and that I learned) is efficacy in rodent studies is more than just "in vitro" or quackery.

    >layperson to worry about, either.

    We're not talking about laypeople without money nor access to pursue. Adams had money, access, and desperation.

    Society would love to put this to bed, but pharma typically avoids funding RCTs for out-of-patent/cheap drugs so we may never get the answer.

gus_massa  2 days ago

During peak covid-19 I read a lot of ivermectin studies posted in HN. Most were just horrible, with obvious mistakes. If you pick one, I can give a try to roast it.

  • cthalupa  2 days ago

    My personal quick rubric for determining if an ivermectin study showing improvement for cv19 outcomes is likely to be trustworthy:

    Was the population being studied one where parasite infections that ivermectin can take care of are endemic?

    Yes - improves outcomes in this population because many of them are likely to have parasites and killing them reduces strain on the body and frees up immune system resources to deal with covid

    No - you'll find glaring flaws even in a quick once-over.

    Hasn't failed me yet.

    • gus_massa  1 day ago

      I remember a preprint. I think it was comparing the recorery rate of

      a) Ivermectin in the best hospital in the capital city of one of our most poor provinces in Argentina

      b) The average in the same poor province

      I don't expect too many problems with parasites there. They implicitly decided that the difference was ivermectin, not that the hospital is probably x10 better than the average of the province.

      Doble blind randomized controlled group or it didn't happen.