LessWrong (Curated & Popular) “Cancer has a surprising amount of detail” by Abhishaike Mahajan
Oct 30, 2025
Abhishek Mahajan, a writer and researcher focused on cancer's complexities, discusses the intricate details of cancer that influence treatment and understanding. He explores how historical pathology reveals cancer diversity and the significance of genetic discoveries like the Philadelphia chromosome. Mahajan emphasizes the limitations of traditional biomarkers, advocating for machine intelligence in developing multi-gene panels. He predicts that combining various data types will enhance predictions, revolutionizing cancer diagnosis and treatment.
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Cancer's Hidden Microheterogeneity
- Cancer displays vast, clinically meaningful microscopic and genetic heterogeneity across tumor types.
- Early pathology classifications revealed visual patterns that predict aggression and outcomes.
How HER2 Led To Herceptin
- Abbot Ulrich's protein work and Dennis Sleiman's clinical data converged to inspire trastuzumab.
- Herceptin transformed HER2-positive breast cancer survival by targeting HER2 overexpression.
Treatment Depends On Molecular Detail
- Targeted cancer drugs only work when the tumor bears the specific biological detail the drug targets.
- A drug can be life-saving in one molecular subgroup and useless or harmful in another.
