Good News for Cancer Patients

[Charissa, That's Ms. Obnoxious Twat to You.]

In what could be a breakthrough in cancer therapy, researchers report in The New England Journal of Medicine today that they succeeded in bolstering a patient's immune system enough to wipe out late-stage malignant tumors on its own. The scientists say the successful experiment could pave the way for new treatments of advanced cancer that spare patients the side effects of chemotherapy, which kills healthy as well as malignant cells.

This is not the first time that researchers attempted to use immunotherapy—or a patient's own infection-fighting cells—to try to destroy tumors. But researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle say this is the first time such a therapy worked on its own, without combining it with drugs or chemotherapy.

Full Article: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=p...

[Lori]

A friend of mine in Seattle, who is a doctor and so has connections, got something like this for her breast cancer. I think she still got a bit of radiation, but no chemo. So far so good! And altho the radiation made her tired, she was out and about everyday.

This is great news!

[Amanda]

You think a similar type of immunotherapy might be used to wipe out HIV? That would be very cool. Two birds, one stone (kinda). I'm sure it would be a bit more complicated, but quite worth a look.

Hmmm...

[Gus]

Charissa, thanks a billion for this. My mom's got a brain tumour caused from her having ovarian cancer. I'm going to print this article and send it to her. I'd e-mail it to her, but she's all thumbs when it comes to this fandangled Internet stuff...

[Jenn]

Thank you for posting that Charissa. My father passed away last year from cancer, he had numerous types but to make a long story short his skin cancer developed into bone cancer. I hope that something comes from this research.

[Charissa, That's Ms. Obnoxious Twat to You.]

I have used naturopathy and homeopathy and herbal remedies for both myself and my daughter since she was about 3 years old. It has been remarkably effective, and all of those work to stimulate the body's natural defenses. I have been hoping that Western medicine would find a way to improve on this, and incorporate it... it's so thrilling to see happen.

I know several people who are battling cancer at the moment. I don't know if this breakthrough could be applied to them in any way, but I pray it could. Unfortunately they all are in the midst of intensive chemotherapy.

Cancer seems to be becoming quite prevalent... I hope this starts to stem the tide in a less invasive way.

Lori... we'll keep our fingers crossed! Gus... I wish your mom all luck in her battle. Jenn.. I'm so sorry for your loss. xoxo

[Ruth]

Very interesting. And by coincidence it comes just as I'm celebrating the 5 year survival mark after my surgery for breast cancer. That's an important anniversary statistically. But I will say that once you have had cancer, you never really dismiss the possibility that it will rear its ugly head again. I'm glad to hear of this research.