I have decided to take a hiatus from politics.. and concentrate on things which are important, and uplifting. Today, I will blog on cancer, and on the most amazing story of a man whose wife instructed him to find a cure for it (apologies in advance if I am breaking any blog rules).
The story is of Prof. Mark Davis of Caltech. Mark's wife was diagnosed with breast cancer in the mid-90s. While undergoing the painful chemotherapy regimen, she instructed (or demanded) that he find a better way to treat cancer... one that does not have all the sideeffects (loss of hair, fingernails, appetite, vomiting etc.), one that extends life substantially, one that requires less supervision etc. Mark protested that he was a simple engineer, and that several smart biologists were already working on the problem, and what could he do that they had not done.
His wife instructed him to never mind all that... he was a smart guy, and could he please find a better cure. (This story was documented in the Pasadena Star News and the LA Times about 3 years back, I am unable to locate a link).
This diary is about Mark's quest to find a cure...
Mark looked around, read some books, read some papers, talked to some people, attended conferences...and eventually decided on a strategy: size matters
The basic problems with chemotherapy are that (a) the toxin (the molecule that attacks fast growing cells) attacks all fast growing cells ~ and only some of these fast growing cells are the tumor cells, destruction of other fast growing cells results in the sideeffects & (b) the toxins go straight through the sieves in the kidneys, and are rapidly lost from the body. The upshot of point (b) is that you need to use a high dose of toxins and repeat it often (because most of it is lost very quickly), and the upshot of point (a) is that you incur all the sideeffects which limits your dosage.
If only the toxins could be delivered specifically to the tumor, and if only they could be maintained in the body for weeks and not days
Mark found a solution:
Tumor cells are vascularized in a hurry (this means that blood vessels that lead up to a tumor cell are formed quickly... because the tumor cells are growing in a hurry), and are somewhat leaky as a result...but only to particulates of the right size. Thus, if the toxin (the part of the chemotherapy that kills the cell) was made to piggyback on another particle of just the right size, then they could be made to selectively attack the tumor, and not the healthy tissue. Further, if the piggyback host particle was of the right size, then it would not pass through the sieve in the kidney, and could be maintained in the body for weeks.
Mark implemented this solution, and went onto Phase I clinical trials. Phase I trials are supposed to be about safety, and not efficacy: you want to make sure your drug does not do any harm... at this point, the question is not whether it works. The subjects were people who were at the end of the rope ~ people for whom all conventional treatments had failed.
The subjects survived for 6 months (the duration of the trial), at which point they were put on a "compassionate use" trial... since these people were expected to die before the 6 month period, you are allowed to subject them to a continued experimental treatment.
Some of those subjects have been alive for an additional 24 months now. This is quite impressive because the patients were people with terminal cancer (liver, pancreas etc.)
I say "some" and not "all"... because I do not know if "all" have survived. The Phase I trial results are not public... so we do not know if anyone died. We do know that some have survived because they (the survivors) have been very vocal about this miracle treatment (once again, documented in the Pasadena StarNews..sorry, I am writing from memory, I do not have a link).
This appears to be a very promising treatment for most forms cancer (some tumors that form in the brain are currently not reachable because they are behind the blood brain barrier). It is not a "cure", as suggested by the title of this diary... because it does not remove the cancer completely from your body. It is, however, a very promising method for managing your cancer because it will mean that you die of something else, and that you lead a high quality of life while you live.
You can find a link to a lecture given by Mark here (they should have the lecture up and running in a few days).
Finally, there is a link to this blog. One of the biggest drains in budget expenditures is healthcare spending: with a big chunk of that coming from cancer medications. Mark's approach would eliminate all that (it is dirt cheap). Health care reform may become redundant...
And oh...Mark's wife is in remission !! And his treatment is now in Phase II clinical trials in the US and in Europe. And he is working on 2nd and 3rd generation versions of his treatments.
