Cancer Institute Brags About Therapy That Doesn't Actually Exist Yet

The Roswell Park Cancer Institute recently issued this.

Wow, that press release overpromises. They claim "The new ... vaccine is expected to show great promise in patients with bladder, brain, breast, esophageal, gastrointestinal, hepatocellular, kidney, lung, melanoma, ovarian, prostate, sarcoma and uterine tumors."

Notice that they're claiming its effectiveness against many utterly dissimilar tumor types ... and note the key phrase "is expected to show great promise ..." It doesn't even show promise yet, it's just expected to eventually be promising. Did they just press-release the start of a research program, before a single experiment is even conducted?

I'm especially interested in the use of a one person anecdote, the story of Christine Sable. Ms. Sable didn't even receive the vaccine this release is touting, but the "story" implies that her not experiencing recurrence of her cancer demonstrates its effectiveness. The unstated premise is that all cancer vaccines are the same, but if I state it baldly like that, it's obviously stupid. In any case, by the release's own testimony she had about a 25% chance of no recurrence. With a sample size of one (given) the result is literally of no value in determining the effectiveness of the treatment.

They call it a "story" on their web page, either meaning to imply that it's coverage by an outside news source, or offering it as a "drop-in" story for cheap newspapers/magazines/web sites to use without making it clear it's a press release.

In the opinion of the author, the whole exercise is misleading and unethical and RPCI should be embarrassed.