Breaking Cancer's Gene Code

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oDieFD

Xhsjbuhf of OK 2:46AM July 15, 2009

Great post! Just wanted to let you know you have a new subscriber- me!

How I Lost Thirty Pounds in Thirty Days of AL 12:04AM April 29, 2009

Drink green tea! Once a day has preventive effects, five times a day can, as the Mayo Clinic found that a component in green tea helps kill cells of the nation's most common form of leukemia.
The green tea component -- EGCG -- helps kill the cancer cells by cutting off the communication signals they need to survive.
Christopher Thaens
Tampa Bay, Florida

Christopher Thaens of FL 12:20AM November 08, 2008

Body chemistry- environment or the fluid inside and out side the body cells gets out of balance (unhealthy).
Reason for that is vital mineral deficiencies and environmental toxins (Chemical or biological). There could be inherited weakness (? 5-10%).
We are all living in this toxic and selectively depleted bubble and given long enough time genetic sequence malfunctions during cell division and cancer cell is born. So for there is no way yet to reverse it back to normal cell- like lemon once turned to pickle cannot be brought back to lemon. These cells can be induced to die off though- Apoptosis.
Cancer cells leave the nest through lymphatics and veins and start new colony at filter sites- like lungs/ bone/ brain/ liver etc.
Nanotechnology and new research will detect circulating cancer cells and find high tech way to destroy it.
The fact is by the time cancer cell is circulating in the blood the hoarse is already out of the barn. Diagnosing early is already too late.
Research should be focused not only on destroying the cancer cell but finding a prevention like "POLYPILL" so normal cell are immune from turning into cancer cells. But may be that is not a money making machine idea to interest big money. (cancer prone population group should be on this kind of prevention regimen.

Tapryal, Pritam of HI 2:38PM November 06, 2008

I BLEVE THAT A LOT OF CANCER IS CAUSED BY HAVING TO MUCH STRESS AND LONG BOUTS OF DEPPERISSON NONE OF THESE DOCTORS OR SINTEST HAVE EVER LUCKED IN TO THE THINGS I HAVE JUST SAID I BLEIVE IF YOU GOT RID OF THE STRESS AND DEPPERISSON POPLE WOULD HAVE LESS PROBLEMS THANK YOU STASNLEY FISHMAN WHO HAD THESE PROBLEMS

STANLEY FISHMAN of AZ 2:25AM November 02, 2008

The discipline alluded to already exists. It is called bioinformatics and computational biology. This is my profession and I love it!

of NY 3:19PM October 28, 2008

Anyone with a computer can help in Cancer research via Public Distributed Computing at www.worldcommunitygrid.org. There is a project, Help Conquer Cancer, on which thousands of us "crunchers" are processing data in cancer research. The project is base at The Ontario Cancer Institute. We previously worked on another project, Help Cure cancer, at the New Jersey Cancer Institute.
Go to http://worldcommunitygrid.org, download the BOINC agent, and attach to this worthy project.
You will find other projects on AIDS, Dengue Fever, and a project to find a better rice for the world. All of this is non-profit, knowledge gained stays in the public domain.
We could use some help.

Richard Mitnick of NJ 2:16PM October 28, 2008

Please ask Bernadette Healy to check out CSAMedical.com It is a relatively new company located in Baltimore. They are using Liquid Nitrogen to kill cancer cells (Cyber Spray Ablation) hence the name of company. The nitrogen is delivered through a tube in the esophagus. They are treating esophageal cancer this way. They are begining lung cancer treatment using the same technique but through the trachea. Results have been very good. If you read the article in the Baltimore Examiner on Sunday October 12, it will be a lot clearer.At least, I think thatis the date. The president is Tim Askew and when I senthim an e-mail, he responded in six hours. I am a retired Dietitian and have no affiliation with the company butn am thrilled with the possibilities. Their website is well done and you will be interested in the number of outstanding hospitals using their equipment and techniques. I think it will change much of the current cancer treatments while others will work on the cures. Thank you for the opportunity to send this correspondance.

Lucille P. Crumling of MD 5:59PM October 27, 2008

While Dr. Healy along with my others is perfectly right that tailored therapies are coming, there is far too little attention paid to the embedded impediments to widespread adoption.
1. Disruption is more Difficult - In the normal course of new technologies and business models supplanting those currently entrenched, the same would be expected in high-value diagnostics driving tailored therapy. Unfortunately in this case the disruption is systemic and requires every level to change.
FDA - The governing body that regulates the marketing of healthcare technologies is ill-prepared to handle the huge paradigm shift required to evaluate tailored therapies. From statistical analytical techniques to standards of care, FDA will be very slow in allowing diagnostic tests to truly direct therapy.
BigPharma - Even though the economics of smaller markets for drugs that are targeted to genetic instead of clinical diagnoses, BigPharma is still following the old school method of drug development. You can hardly blame them though, FDA is looking for that instead of being more facilitative of the new approach. It is very clear that they are not particularly interested in recognizing (economically) the contribution of a high-value diagnostic test provider in their development efforts.
Payers - Insurance companies have long operated on the cost-benefit analysis system, which makes perfect sense. To bring high-value diagnostics to market, reimbursement must be in place. Obtaining diagnostic reimbursement requires preparation presentation of an economic analysis that shows a savings from the use of an expense test that prevents treating non-responders. No easy feat and one requiring extensive negotiation with a very large number of insurers.
Physicians - While the majority agree that this is the future, specific tests available today are still not universally adopted into practice. Mostly this is due to the lack of credible data in large cohorts of patients that mitigate risks of mismanagement of patients (read as "malpractice"). Incorporation into practice guidelines from major medical societies is rightly also evidence-driven so essentially it is all about the data.
The Data - This is by far the biggest barrier. It is the data that will drive approval, adoption, reimbursement and allow personalized medicine to become a reality. Companies do not share data with each other or the public. Every patient record is governed by HIPAA issues and those in possession of medical records are very unlikely to contribute those records to community data sets - no matter how well protected - out of fear of the consequences that someone is somehow identified and harmed (complain to your Congressman about tort reform if you would like to see that go away).
As a patient and as a professional I am invested in personalized therapies becoming the norm. While it will come, I am pessimistic about a profound paradigm shift happening quickly enough to satisfy.

David M. Jackson, Ph.D. of CA 2:43PM October 27, 2008

You are an investor and bought stock in a pharmaceutical company and
you demand profits and punish the company by dumping the stock if it
doesn't perform. If I was the CEO of the company (2 kids private school, huge mortgage, trophy wife, country club, nice cars) and my scientists or R*D decide to look for a product to treat some disease, all our efforts and money will go towards some form of consumable, meaning, how do we keep you alive long enough with what you have without curing you so you can buy and take our pharmacological several times a day forever, even if your survival is precarious. Would we put our resources in finding a quick cure with something you take once or get treated a couple of times and done with? No way. As long as market forces prevail, nothing will get cured, except by accident or by someone who is a real humanist. Why look for a cure for the common cold when we can have you popping pills every time you catch a cold.

joe davis of LA 8:50AM October 25, 2008