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Scientists on verge of finding effective weapon against cancer? (1 Viewer)

CurlyNight

Footballguy
Very interesting. Wouldn't this be great?? History has many accidental findings. Claritin, the allergy reliever, was taken by someone who had body aches and pains from the drug Neulesta (used to increase white blood cell counts during chemo) and found it helped significantly with it. Advil was created for headaches but someone with arthritis found it significantly helped that problem. You never know!

us.tomonews.net/287041826045952?utm_campaign=101515+cure+for+cancer&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook+NMAtv

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK — Scientists researching for a vaccine against malaria in pregnant women may have accidentally discovered an effective weapon against cancer.

Scientists from the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) and the University of British Columbia (UBC) may have found a breakthrough in fighting cancer, which could result in a medical treatment for those affected with the deadly disease.

Malaria researcher Professor Ali Salanti from UCPH in collaboration with cancer researcher Mads Daugaard from UBC have revealed that the carbohydrate the malaria parasite attaches itself to in the placenta in pregnant women is identical to a carbohydrate present in cancer cells.

Scientists have created the protein that the malaria parasite uses to attach to the placenta in a laboratory and have added a toxin.

The combination of malaria protein and toxin finds cancer cells, is absorbed, then the toxin is released inside, causing the cancer cells to die.

The process has been witnessed in cell cultures and in trials of mice with cancer. The discovery has been detailed in the scientific journal Cancer Cell.

"For decades, scientists have been searching for similarities between the growth of a placenta and a tumor. The placenta is an organ, which within a few months grows from only few cells into an organ weighing approx. two pounds, and it provides the embryo with oxygen and nourishment in a relatively foreign environment. In a manner of speaking, tumors do much the same, they grow aggressively in a relatively foreign environment," says Ali Salanti from the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at the University of Copenhagen.

Research groups from the two universities have tested thousands of samples from brain tumors to leukemias and have found that the malaria protein is able to attack more than 90% of all types of tumors.

The drug was tested on mice implanted with three types of human tumors: non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, prostate cancer and metastatic bone cancer. With the non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the treated mice tumors were about a quarter of the size of the tumors in the control group. With prostate cancer, the tumors disappeared in two of the six treated mice a month after receiving the first dose. With metastatic bone cancer, five out of six of the mice treated were alive after nearly eight weeks, compared to none of the mice in a control group.

Researchers are now working towards being able to conduct human trials. They say the earliest possible timeframe would be in four years.

 
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Be nice if true but I've heard of tons of cancer treatments and cures that end up not working. Today our most effective treatment is still killing the cancer cells (and healthy cells along with them) via toxic cocktails and focused radiation.

Hopefully this time is different.

 
You would think there would be something better by now with all the research and funding that has and does go to cancer. Makes you wonder if someone's not in bed with the pharmaceutical companies. Cancer is after all a very big business..

 
Sigh... Nope.

ETA: I'm a cancer researcher and I click on every single one of these links hoping to be pleasantly surprised. Cancer sucks

 
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We are personal friends with two cancer researchers at MD Anderson, and have come to know two other cancer researchers very well in connection with our foundation work. I bristle every time I hear the suggestion that these researchers are in bed with the pharmaceutical companies or are somehow not interested in finding a cure (because the money is in the treatment). These people have dedicated their lives to finding a cure. Do pharmaceutical companies fund research efforts? Sure. But so does the NIH and a host of other organizations not tied to Big Pharma. And if you are concerned about funding from sources other than the pharmaceutical industry, one way to help is to donate to cancer research and direct your dollars to those research initiatives that you believe in.

 
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Sigh... Nope.

ETA: I'm a cancer researcher and I click on every single one of these links hoping to be pleasantly surprised. Cancer sucks
Just curious, but what about this one causes you to dismiss it so fast?
The headline sucks. It's an exciting finding, recently published in Cell, but it's no panacea. For starters, the protein in question is only expressed in a couple of tumor types.

 
I'm happy people are trying, but really there hasn't been a major breakthrough other than tiny tweaks to the current protocols in what? 20 years?

Same thing in Type1 diabetes. There are actually trials planned for a vaccine for that so maybe the prevention is the cure and at least that's something.

 
I wonder if we'll ever see a "cure"? Foks have been saying "in 20 years cancer will be cured" for as long as I can remember. Even with all the technology we now have, gene therapy, etc, maybe a cure is just not something that's not in our near future.

We should a be thankful for the tremendous advances that have been made in treating many different kinds of cancer. My brother died when he was 6 from Leukemia in 1970. Now childhood Leukemia is very curable and no longer the death sentence it once was. So progress is definitely being made.

 
Sigh... Nope.

ETA: I'm a cancer researcher and I click on every single one of these links hoping to be pleasantly surprised. Cancer sucks
Just curious, but what about this one causes you to dismiss it so fast?
The headline sucks. It's an exciting finding, recently published in Cell, but it's no panacea. For starters, the protein in question is only expressed in a couple of tumor types.
It sounds like they tested the drug on only three types of cancers but the protein was able to attach to many types of cancers:

Research groups from the two universities have tested thousands of samples from brain tumors to leukemias and have found that the malaria protein is able to attack more than 90% of all types of tumors
Did the Cancer Cell Journal report something different?

 
What about that idea on 60 minutes where the docs used polio to kill the cells?
This one continues to move along and is doing well in my buddy. He's cancer free. My dad was just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The tumor is 2-3mm in size. They are hopping on chemo and radiation treatment quickly with hopes of being able to do the whipple surgery to remove the tumor in a couple months. The good news for him is that it is completely contained in his pancreas, so they think they caught it early. However, since he's a survivor of both bladder and prostate cancer, he isn't a candidate for the Duke study using the polio.

 
What about that idea on 60 minutes where the docs used polio to kill the cells?
This one continues to move along and is doing well in my buddy. He's cancer free. My dad was just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The tumor is 2-3mm in size. They are hopping on chemo and radiation treatment quickly with hopes of being able to do the whipple surgery to remove the tumor in a couple months. The good news for him is that it is completely contained in his pancreas, so they think they caught it early. However, since he's a survivor of both bladder and prostate cancer, he isn't a candidate for the Duke study using the polio.
Yeesh your pops has had a bad run of it. Does he carry any identified genes for increased cancer risk?

 
What about that idea on 60 minutes where the docs used polio to kill the cells?
This one continues to move along and is doing well in my buddy. He's cancer free. My dad was just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The tumor is 2-3mm in size. They are hopping on chemo and radiation treatment quickly with hopes of being able to do the whipple surgery to remove the tumor in a couple months. The good news for him is that it is completely contained in his pancreas, so they think they caught it early. However, since he's a survivor of both bladder and prostate cancer, he isn't a candidate for the Duke study using the polio.
Yeesh your pops has had a bad run of it. Does he carry any identified genes for increased cancer risk?
I'm not sure he's had any sort of screening done, but no one in his family had any sort of cancer ever until his mom (my grandmother) got colon cancer when I was 6-7. Fortunately for him, he goes to the Dr regularly and has routine scans done. They began that after his prostate cancer. The irony here is that if he hadn't had the prostate cancer, he'd probably be dead by now. His doctor has never seen anyone get three different cancers at three different times.

 
I wonder if we'll ever see a "cure"? Foks have been saying "in 20 years cancer will be cured" for as long as I can remember. Even with all the technology we now have, gene therapy, etc, maybe a cure is just not something that's not in our near future.

We should a be thankful for the tremendous advances that have been made in treating many different kinds of cancer. My brother died when he was 6 from Leukemia in 1970. Now childhood Leukemia is very curable and no longer the death sentence it once was. So progress is definitely being made.
I'm not going to put a date on it - could be 20, 50, 100+ years - but I do believe most cancers will be cured using nanotechnology.

 
What about that idea on 60 minutes where the docs used polio to kill the cells?
This one continues to move along and is doing well in my buddy. He's cancer free. My dad was just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The tumor is 2-3mm in size. They are hopping on chemo and radiation treatment quickly with hopes of being able to do the whipple surgery to remove the tumor in a couple months. The good news for him is that it is completely contained in his pancreas, so they think they caught it early. However, since he's a survivor of both bladder and prostate cancer, he isn't a candidate for the Duke study using the polio.
Yeesh your pops has had a bad run of it. Does he carry any identified genes for increased cancer risk?
I'm not sure he's had any sort of screening done, but no one in his family had any sort of cancer ever until his mom (my grandmother) got colon cancer when I was 6-7. Fortunately for him, he goes to the Dr regularly and has routine scans done. They began that after his prostate cancer. The irony here is that if he hadn't had the prostate cancer, he'd probably be dead by now. His doctor has never seen anyone get three different cancers at three different times.
Sounds like your dad is kicking all the cancers ### though!

 
The combination of malaria protein and toxin finds cancer cells, is absorbed, then the toxin is released inside, causing the cancer cells to die.....

....and I Am Legend is born.

 
What about that idea on 60 minutes where the docs used polio to kill the cells?
This one continues to move along and is doing well in my buddy. He's cancer free. My dad was just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The tumor is 2-3mm in size. They are hopping on chemo and radiation treatment quickly with hopes of being able to do the whipple surgery to remove the tumor in a couple months. The good news for him is that it is completely contained in his pancreas, so they think they caught it early. However, since he's a survivor of both bladder and prostate cancer, he isn't a candidate for the Duke study using the polio.
Yeesh your pops has had a bad run of it. Does he carry any identified genes for increased cancer risk?
I'm not sure he's had any sort of screening done, but no one in his family had any sort of cancer ever until his mom (my grandmother) got colon cancer when I was 6-7. Fortunately for him, he goes to the Dr regularly and has routine scans done. They began that after his prostate cancer. The irony here is that if he hadn't had the prostate cancer, he'd probably be dead by now. His doctor has never seen anyone get three different cancers at three different times.
Sounds like your dad is kicking all the cancers ### though!
So far, but this one has me a bit on edge. It's such a tricky area of the body, it's going to be some really intense and exhausting treatment. He just turned 70, though you wouldn't know it by looking at him. It's gonna be tough on him.

 
The Commish said:
James Daulton said:
The Commish said:
James Daulton said:
The Commish said:
James Daulton said:
What about that idea on 60 minutes where the docs used polio to kill the cells?
This one continues to move along and is doing well in my buddy. He's cancer free. My dad was just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The tumor is 2-3mm in size. They are hopping on chemo and radiation treatment quickly with hopes of being able to do the whipple surgery to remove the tumor in a couple months. The good news for him is that it is completely contained in his pancreas, so they think they caught it early. However, since he's a survivor of both bladder and prostate cancer, he isn't a candidate for the Duke study using the polio.
Yeesh your pops has had a bad run of it. Does he carry any identified genes for increased cancer risk?
I'm not sure he's had any sort of screening done, but no one in his family had any sort of cancer ever until his mom (my grandmother) got colon cancer when I was 6-7. Fortunately for him, he goes to the Dr regularly and has routine scans done. They began that after his prostate cancer. The irony here is that if he hadn't had the prostate cancer, he'd probably be dead by now. His doctor has never seen anyone get three different cancers at three different times.
Sounds like your dad is kicking all the cancers ### though!
So far, but this one has me a bit on edge. It's such a tricky area of the body, it's going to be some really intense and exhausting treatment. He just turned 70, though you wouldn't know it by looking at him. It's gonna be tough on him.
Maybe the researchers should focus on replicating your dads' cancer-kicking cells. Good for him. Maybe play catch with him, watch a game or play cribbage with him for us. Enjoy your time with him. :thumbup:

 
The Commish said:
James Daulton said:
The Commish said:
James Daulton said:
The Commish said:
James Daulton said:
What about that idea on 60 minutes where the docs used polio to kill the cells?
This one continues to move along and is doing well in my buddy. He's cancer free. My dad was just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The tumor is 2-3mm in size. They are hopping on chemo and radiation treatment quickly with hopes of being able to do the whipple surgery to remove the tumor in a couple months. The good news for him is that it is completely contained in his pancreas, so they think they caught it early. However, since he's a survivor of both bladder and prostate cancer, he isn't a candidate for the Duke study using the polio.
Yeesh your pops has had a bad run of it. Does he carry any identified genes for increased cancer risk?
I'm not sure he's had any sort of screening done, but no one in his family had any sort of cancer ever until his mom (my grandmother) got colon cancer when I was 6-7. Fortunately for him, he goes to the Dr regularly and has routine scans done. They began that after his prostate cancer. The irony here is that if he hadn't had the prostate cancer, he'd probably be dead by now. His doctor has never seen anyone get three different cancers at three different times.
Sounds like your dad is kicking all the cancers ### though!
So far, but this one has me a bit on edge. It's such a tricky area of the body, it's going to be some really intense and exhausting treatment. He just turned 70, though you wouldn't know it by looking at him. It's gonna be tough on him.
Maybe the researchers should focus on replicating your dads' cancer-kicking cells.Good for him. Maybe play catch with him, watch a game or play cribbage with him for us. Enjoy your time with him. :thumbup:
They've gotten pretty good at treating prostate and the bladder was caught so early, they did a surgery to remove the cells plus a "chemo cocktail" they washed his bladder with. This pancreas stuff is a whole other beast though. Really complicated organ to operate on. Don't want to make a wrong move. Also radiation has to be pin point accurate...don't want to mess with other areas if it can be avoided. We're just praying everything goes as planned.

 
The Commish said:
James Daulton said:
The Commish said:
James Daulton said:
The Commish said:
James Daulton said:
What about that idea on 60 minutes where the docs used polio to kill the cells?
This one continues to move along and is doing well in my buddy. He's cancer free. My dad was just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The tumor is 2-3mm in size. They are hopping on chemo and radiation treatment quickly with hopes of being able to do the whipple surgery to remove the tumor in a couple months. The good news for him is that it is completely contained in his pancreas, so they think they caught it early. However, since he's a survivor of both bladder and prostate cancer, he isn't a candidate for the Duke study using the polio.
Yeesh your pops has had a bad run of it. Does he carry any identified genes for increased cancer risk?
I'm not sure he's had any sort of screening done, but no one in his family had any sort of cancer ever until his mom (my grandmother) got colon cancer when I was 6-7. Fortunately for him, he goes to the Dr regularly and has routine scans done. They began that after his prostate cancer. The irony here is that if he hadn't had the prostate cancer, he'd probably be dead by now. His doctor has never seen anyone get three different cancers at three different times.
Sounds like your dad is kicking all the cancers ### though!
So far, but this one has me a bit on edge. It's such a tricky area of the body, it's going to be some really intense and exhausting treatment. He just turned 70, though you wouldn't know it by looking at him. It's gonna be tough on him.
Maybe the researchers should focus on replicating your dads' cancer-kicking cells.Good for him. Maybe play catch with him, watch a game or play cribbage with him for us. Enjoy your time with him. :thumbup:
They've gotten pretty good at treating prostate and the bladder was caught so early, they did a surgery to remove the cells plus a "chemo cocktail" they washed his bladder with. This pancreas stuff is a whole other beast though. Really complicated organ to operate on. Don't want to make a wrong move. Also radiation has to be pin point accurate...don't want to mess with other areas if it can be avoided. We're just praying everything goes as planned.
Many thoughts and prayers for your dad. A true warrior.

 
Cancer Sucks.

Agreed with the earlier statement... I know folks get desperate when they or their loved ones suffer. However many bad folks feed on that helplessness offering bogus sciences backed by conspiracy theories. Please don't be that sucker... :(

 
We are personal friends with two cancer researchers at MD Anderson, and have come to know two other cancer researchers very well in connection with our foundation work. I bristle every time I hear the suggestion that these researchers are in bed with the pharmaceutical companies or are somehow not interested in finding a cure (because the money is in the treatment). These people have dedicated their lives to finding a cure. Do pharmaceutical companies fund research efforts? Sure. But so does the NIH and a host of other organizations not tied to Big Pharma. And if you are concerned about funding from sources other than the pharmaceutical industry, one way to help is to donate to cancer research and direct your dollars to those research initiatives that you believe in.
I work for a biotech in cancer research. Trust me there is a lot of time and money directed towards cures. To this point, better treatments and better maintenance have actually made it to market. And given the nature of the disease it isn't surprising. There is no such thing as a "cure for cancer" IMO. Individual cancers are very different and require different approaches to treatment. Look at the breast cancer and HPV vaccines as well as the B-RAF inhibitors for certain mutations of melanoma- small subsets of cancers are being cured or are close to it.

 
Didn't want to hijack the thread and make it about my dad, but the well wishes are appreciated. He's assuming this is just a bump in the road and will be cleared up. That's what I'm rolling with for now as well. He's in fantastic hands when it comes to the team working with him. He couldn't ask for a better situation in those terms.

 
We are personal friends with two cancer researchers at MD Anderson, and have come to know two other cancer researchers very well in connection with our foundation work. I bristle every time I hear the suggestion that these researchers are in bed with the pharmaceutical companies or are somehow not interested in finding a cure (because the money is in the treatment). These people have dedicated their lives to finding a cure. Do pharmaceutical companies fund research efforts? Sure. But so does the NIH and a host of other organizations not tied to Big Pharma. And if you are concerned about funding from sources other than the pharmaceutical industry, one way to help is to donate to cancer research and direct your dollars to those research initiatives that you believe in.
I work for a biotech in cancer research. Trust me there is a lot of time and money directed towards cures. To this point, better treatments and better maintenance have actually made it to market. And given the nature of the disease it isn't surprising. There is no such thing as a "cure for cancer" IMO. Individual cancers are very different and require different approaches to treatment. Look at the breast cancer and HPV vaccines as well as the B-RAF inhibitors for certain mutations of melanoma- small subsets of cancers are being cured or are close to it.
Agree. In the bc world at least, we call it "NED" which means no evidence of disease. That's what we all strive for and continue to strive for and hope for the rest of our lives. To imply cure imo means you don't look back, it's over. But it really never is. You will always be left wondering as you continue on with periodic tests and scans- and the meds you need to be on for years to come. Due to my highly aggressive tumor that it was, the size, a node having metastasized cancer cells found in it and now possibly being stage IV, I will be on a strong med for 10 years after I"m done with tx. Cured? No. NED. I hope so, for all of us going through this #### of a disease.

 
For those of you in this field, I would love to hear about things that you are working on. Here is the news release on the cancer research initiative to which our Foundation just awarded a funding grant.

[SIZE=14pt]Chance for Hope Foundation Awards First Major Research Grant to Texas Children's Cancer Center[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt]Chance for Hope Foundation is excited to announce the awarding of a $50,000 research grant to support the Precision Oncology research initiative, a cutting edge research effort being undertaken by the Neuro-Oncology Program at Texas Children's Cancer Center (TCCC). This grant was awarded following an in-depth evaluation process in which Foundation representatives and medical consultants met with the Directors of the Brain Tumor and Cancer Genetics and Genomics Programs at TCCC, and reviewed detailed materials regarding ongoing and planned research efforts. The Chance for Hope Foundation grant will fund the costs of a Neuro-Oncology Junior Faculty Researcher who will be conducting critical research in connection with the Precision Oncology research initiative.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]Due to rapid technological advances, the determination of the entire genetic sequence of individual cancers is now possible. The ultimate goal of the Precision Oncology research initiative is to bring genomic sequencing technologies from the laboratory into the pediatric oncology clinic, providing real-time genetic information that will guide the personalized treatment of each individual child with cancer. The project requires the development and application of the advanced sequencing technologies necessary to analyze each patient's cancer, as well as the clinical infrastructure and expertise to translate this information into optimal patient treatment.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]Although survival rates have improved for many cancer types, successful treatment of children with central nervous system tumors (brain and spinal tumors) remains a significant challenge. Neuro-Oncology researchers anticipate that the Precision Oncology research initiative will provide crucial biological and clinical information relevant to the treatment of children with these deadly CNS tumors. In addition, the initiative will serve as a prototype for the clinical application of genomic sequencing for personalized cancer care in pediatrics.[/SIZE]
 
sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/10/20/american-cancer-society-says-start-mammograms-at-45-not-40/

Interesting change here with the American Cancer Society guidelines. They went from recommending mammo yearly for women over 40 to now start annually at 45, and every 2 years for the over 55 women. WTF? Do you not see how many women just on bc.org alone are in the age groups you are skipping over? So yes, you do consider the negatives associated with so much screening with the radiation and false positives that send women into anxiety overload, but ask these women who did the screenings, fretted with anxiety over if they have cancer but turned out to be false positives and they'll tell you they'd rather have gone through the high anxiety of having cancer and be told it really isn't than not having been checked at all.

Stats be damned. Every life matters. We're talking lives and a deadly disease that if you don't catch it early could very well kill you. Or if you are "lucky" like me, I'm holding at stage III instead of stage IV (I hope- will know better in 6 months)and while I'm not dying, I still have to have very aggressive and long tx because it was not an early catch. The stage I and II folks are done about 3 months ahead of me with chemo. And chemo doesn't come without it's own issues. Sure it kills cancer cells but you also are damaging normal cells. The radiation on my left foob I'll be getting after chemo is going to hit the edge of my heart and lung which causes damage. Taking all this into consideration, and from the responses I've been reading to the article I posted on this new change of theirs on bc.org, this is stupid to essentially wait longer when what you may be facing is worse than false positives and radiation from scans. We can only hope that people won't take it as the rule but be smart about asking for mammos, especially the higher risk group such as women with dense breasts. Until I got bc, I thought if it wasn't in the fam that I didn't have a good chance. Turns out the opposite is true. 75% of bc pts don't have any fam history. Go figure.

There are so many women in those age ranges that "don't need to worry" that had they not gotten a mammo would be stage IV instead of III. It is also known that younger women's bc is more aggressive than their counterparts.

So yes, it is not statistically common for women under 40 to get breast cancer, and perhaps it is equally uncommon for older postmenopausal women to get aggressive tumors, but it still happens--often enough to be in the tens of thousands per year.

ACS is looking at survival rates alone and not other factors. One's 5 year survival rate might be the same if the cancer wasn't found for another year, but what about the fact that you'd need to now have a mastectomy or two or harsher chemo treatment and suffer more and longer? Had I not let this thing go for 5 1/2 years of tomorrow tomorrow, no cancer in my fam, until the pain sent me to the doc I would most definitely not be going through what I'm going through now. The ACS isn't to blame in my case, I am. But to those women who aren't educating themselves and just going by what the "experts" say is where the concern is of those of us battling this nasty disease.

 
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For those of you in this field, I would love to hear about things that you are working on. Here is the news release on the cancer research initiative to which our Foundation just awarded a funding grant.

[SIZE=14pt]Chance for Hope Foundation Awards First Major Research Grant to Texas Children's Cancer Center[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt]Chance for Hope Foundation is excited to announce the awarding of a $50,000 research grant to support the Precision Oncology research initiative, a cutting edge research effort being undertaken by the Neuro-Oncology Program at Texas Children's Cancer Center (TCCC). This grant was awarded following an in-depth evaluation process in which Foundation representatives and medical consultants met with the Directors of the Brain Tumor and Cancer Genetics and Genomics Programs at TCCC, and reviewed detailed materials regarding ongoing and planned research efforts. The Chance for Hope Foundation grant will fund the costs of a Neuro-Oncology Junior Faculty Researcher who will be conducting critical research in connection with the Precision Oncology research initiative.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]Due to rapid technological advances, the determination of the entire genetic sequence of individual cancers is now possible. The ultimate goal of the Precision Oncology research initiative is to bring genomic sequencing technologies from the laboratory into the pediatric oncology clinic, providing real-time genetic information that will guide the personalized treatment of each individual child with cancer. The project requires the development and application of the advanced sequencing technologies necessary to analyze each patient's cancer, as well as the clinical infrastructure and expertise to translate this information into optimal patient treatment.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]Although survival rates have improved for many cancer types, successful treatment of children with central nervous system tumors (brain and spinal tumors) remains a significant challenge. Neuro-Oncology researchers anticipate that the Precision Oncology research initiative will provide crucial biological and clinical information relevant to the treatment of children with these deadly CNS tumors. In addition, the initiative will serve as a prototype for the clinical application of genomic sequencing for personalized cancer care in pediatrics.[/SIZE]
First off, best of luck Curly and Commish's dad in their battles. Its not science but I do believe that a positive outlook helps both you and those around you.

As to the grant- that area of cancer isn't my expertise but in general, with genomic sequencing becoming so quick and easy there is a ton of information we can gather about individual cancer mutations. By gathering this database researchers can see if one or a few genetic mutations is overly common is a specific cancer type (The V600E mutation occurs in up to 50% of melanoma cases) and this can help in leading to treatments for specific mutations (B-Raf inhibitors for the V600E mutation). This is a long term effort though as you need a lot of sequences to start finding patterns. I do think at least somewhat personalized medicine will happen and these are the types of databases which will lead to those treatments.

Pharma will also use this type of technology but in reverse. They will collect this information from patients in clinical trials and then try to see if there are genetic commonalities among those patients who respond. This is what led to the HER2+ breast cancer vaccine. That is why some treatments are only approved for a subset of patients for a given cancer.

 
Was about to take a nap when at 1:20 pm saw my bff name come up on my phone. I knew this was the call, the one I was hoping not to get for awhile yet. Just maybe it wouldn't be bad news, but my gut was saying otherwise. Anna could barely talk. Her sis Maria and my friend passed an hour ago after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in June. Maria had asked permission to go. She was always like that, very loving and considerate of others. Special needs people are very gifted that way. Anna told her to go be at peace and with their father. She closed her eyes and was gone to become an angel on Anna's shoulder now, looking out for her.

#### cancer yet again. Friend # 2 since July who has died of cancer.

 

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