Leukemia Treatment "Virtually Eradicates" Cancer

speedingtime · Aug 12, 2011

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/...700.html?1313011575&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008

A new leukemia treatment is wowing even the researchers behind its creation, providing results beyond their wildest expectations.

It's virtually eradicated cancerous leukemia cells in the first three patients it's been tested on.

In two of the first three patients the process was tested on the treatment completely destroyed the most common type of leukemia, according to MSNBC. In the third patient, the treatment seems to have reduced the cancerous cells to 70 percent of what they once were.

"Within three weeks, the tumors had been blown away, in a way that was much more violent than we ever expected," said senior author Carl June, MD told Penn Medicine.

Amazingly, the breakthrough actually uses patients' own T cells to fight the cancer, according to the University of Pennsylvania's news release. Researchers took the T cells of the patients, ran them through Penn's vaccine production facility, and then reintroduced them to the patients' bodies following chemotherapy.

In more scientific terms, from Penn Medicine:

After removing the patients' cells, the team reprogrammed them to attack tumor cells by genetically modifying them using a lentivirus vector. The vector encodes an antibody-like protein, called a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR), which is expressed on the surface of the T cells and designed to bind to a protein called CD19.
Once the T cells start expressing the CAR, they focus all of their killing activity on cells that express CD19, which includes CLL tumor cells and normal B cells. All of the other cells in the patient that do not express CD19 are ignored by the modified T cells, which limits side effects typically experienced during standard therapies.
The result was a very, very effect means of treatment that showed very positive results within 28 days. "In addition to an extensive capacity for self-replication, the infused T cells are serial killers. On average, each infused T cell led to the killing of thousands of tumor cells and overall, destroyed at least two pounds of tumor in each patient," June told Penn.

Those who took part in the study were nearly out of options before the treatment. The news release states that short of a bone marrow transplant (which carries at lest a 20 percent mortality risk and only 50 percent chance of recovery) none of these patients had alternative medical options.

The next step for scientists is to test the treatment on different types of leukemia. In the future, the process may be modified to target other types of tumors, including non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and acute lymphocytic leukemia.

Amazingly, MSNBC reports that this radical treatment almost never happened. Funding for the experiment was apparently hard to find, and is one reason the treatment has only been tried on three patients.

From MSNBC:

Both the National Cancer Institute and several pharmaceutical companies declined to pay for the research. Neither applicants nor funders discuss the reasons an application is turned down. But good guesses are the general shortage of funds and the concept tried in this experiment was too novel and, thus, too risky for consideration.
With promising results like this, it's hard to imagine how it could be so hard to get funding.
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I'm not going to set my hope too high, but this is great news so far.

Doug_yvr · Aug 12, 2011

This is a pretty amazing development and I look forward to what other cancers they can eliminate when they program t-cells to attack specific types.

Joe Six-pack · Aug 12, 2011

This doesn't surprise me, but it's good news.

FactChecker · Aug 12, 2011

3 patients isn't a significant enough sample size to determine anything at all. The fact that they felt the need to make a press release about this implies that they're not so interested in the science, and just want to get paid.

The first successful human test of a Polio vaccine was done in early 1950. The first effective method was in 1952. In 1953, Salk was telling people to be patient, and that it takes time. First significant test (also ended up being the largest test in history) was started in early 1954. It was made publically available in mid-1955.

The problem with things like this, is that science reporting gets blown way out of proportion, as in cases like this. In science, people spend years developing a treatment, years testing it on one group, years testing it on another group, and at the end of that, it's something worth saying, "This might work." But people don't like hearing that because it's not exciting, it's not concrete.

In the end, you can pretty much ignore all science reporting. They want the "exciting" discoveries, and want nothing to do with real science.

waltky · Aug 16, 2011

Mebbe dey could use it against other cancers...

'Serial Killer' Cells Demolish Leukemia Tumors
August 15, 2011 - Test patients show complete remission or significant improvement

U.S. researchers say they've been able to modify a patient's immune system T cells, turning them into serial killer cells which zero in on cancer and obliterate it. Its being called a breakthrough in the treatment of a form of leukemia, a hard to treat and usually fatal blood cancer. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is marked by a slow increase in immune system white blood cells, called B lymphocytes. These B cells, as they're known, are manufactured by the bone marrow, the spongy tissue inside bones that also manufactures red blood cells.

Eventually, the healthy blood cells are crowded out by the proliferating B cells, the patient experiences bone marrow failure, and - without a bone marrow transplant - dies. A transplant of healthy bone marrow from a donor has been the only treatment and potential cure for chronic lymphocytic leukemia. But it is very difficult to find a match and many people with CLL die while waiting. Even with a transplant, experts say only about half of CLL patients survive the procedure. Three CLL patients who had run out of treatment options were selected for an experiment at the University of Pennsylvania. Researchers genetically engineered another one of their immune system cells, the T lymphocytes, to attack cancerous B cells.

Carl June, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the schools Abramson Cancer Center, was the studys lead author. The actual trial exceeded our wildest outcome and imagination actually," says Carl June, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, who was the studys lead author, "because what we found is all three patients have had a remarkable anti-tumor response and that literally pounds of leukemia have been eradicated in all three patients. Two of the three CLL patients had a complete remission of their disease and there was a significant improvement in the third.

MORE
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Mushroom · Aug 16, 2011

But I thought Fetal Stem Cells were the cure to all cancers?

This is interesting, but it is a long ways from being any form of treatment. And now that this is out, expect 500 off-shore clinics in thried world nations to pop up claiming to give the exact same treatments.

waltky · Sep 5, 2011

Mebbe kids should play inna dirt...

Soil bacterium helps kill cancers
4 September 2011 - Clostridium sporogenes cannot grow where there is oxygen

A bacterium found in soil is a showing promise as a way of delivering cancer drugs into tumours. Spores of the Clostridium sporogenes bacterium can grow within tumours because there is no oxygen. UK and Dutch scientists have been able to genetically engineer an enzyme into the bacteria to activate a cancer drug. Experts said it would be some time before the potential benefits of the work - presented to the Society of Microbiology - were known. The work is being presented to the society's autumn conference at the University of York. The spores grow only within solid tumours, such as breast, brain and prostate tumours and not in other tissue in the body, where oxygen is present.

Healthy tissue 'unscathed'

Researchers have been investigating the possibilities of clostridium "vectors" to deliver cancer drugs for decades. The scientists from the University of Nottingham and Maastricht University were able to genetically engineer an improved version of an enzyme into C.sporogenes. In animal tests, a drug was also injected into the bloodstream which becomes active only when it is triggered by this enzyme. It then destroys only the cells in its vicinity - the tumour cells.

Professor Nigel Minton, who led the research, said: "Clostridia are an ancient group of bacteria that evolved on the planet before it had an oxygen-rich atmosphere and so they thrive in low oxygen conditions. "When Clostridia spores are injected into a cancer patient, they will only grow in oxygen-depleted environments, ie the centre of solid tumours. "This is a totally natural phenomenon, which requires no fundamental alterations and is exquisitely specific. "We can exploit this specificity to kill tumour cells but leave healthy tissue unscathed."

The team are now planning to work with other researchers on patient trials, due to start in 2013. Nell Barrie, senior science information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: "Finding ways to target treatments to cancer cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed is a key aim of researchers around the world. "But it's a difficult problem to solve, especially because every cancer is different. This particular approach hasn't yet been tested in patients so it will be some time before researchers know whether it will offer real benefits."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14761417
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waltky · Dec 12, 2012

Disabled AIDS virus kills leukemia cells...

Researchers Develop Promising Treatment for Leukemia
December 11, 2012 - An experimental leukemia therapy appears to have successfully eliminated the lethal blood cancer in some patients. The treatment, which involves a disabled form of the virus that causes AIDS, revs-up immune system cells that then specifically target the malignant cells.

A dozen patients have now undergone the experimental therapy, developed at the University of Pennsylvania. The treatment involves removing millions of T-cells, a type of white blood cell, from each patient and inserting genes that have been programmed to kill B-cells, another type of cell that becomes malignant in leukemia. The researchers used a non-infectious form of the AIDS virus to transport genetic material into the T-cells, which were then infused back into the cancer patient following chemotherapy. The genetically modified cells attack a protein on the surface of B-cells, killing them, and prompting the production of more modified T-cells.

So far, the experimental treatment has been used successfully on a child with an aggressive form of leukemia and on three adults, all of whom show no signs of disease two years after receiving the therapy. John Wagner, director of pediatric and bone marrow transplantation at the University of Minnesota, is among those widely praising the new therapy to treat the lethal cancer. Basically what this is now is its a whole new strategy above and beyond chemotherapy or radiation that uses a whole difficult mechanism to eradicate leukemia thats particularly resistant, said Wagner. Although the treatment was very effective in eliminating disease in four patients, it was only partially effective in two others, who relapsed after therapy. Two patients did not respond at all.

While the new, modified T-cell therapy is an exciting development, Wagner said it only targets a narrow aspect of the blood cancer. The conventional treatment approach is a bone-marrow transplant, which is designed to create a healthy new immune system. Bone marrow transplant sort of tackles it all. Its like throwing the kitchen sink at everything, whereas this is very specific. Clearly, this is very effective in some patients," he said. "But Im going to be using it in combination to see whether or not I can actually improve the outcome after transplant, above and beyond what we currently see today. Details of the experimental leukemia therapy were presented this week at a meeting of the American Society of Hematology in Atlanta. The findings were recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine and Science Translational Medicine.

Source
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JP5 · Dec 12, 2012

I have been hearing about this on the tv and radio this week. It is GREAT news. Finally....some hope that they could be on the right track for curing cancer. Truly amazing that they can take something so awful....HIV virus....and turn it into something good. Having lost 2 close family members to cancer.....and many close friends, I am PRAYING this is going to be the answer.

The other good news about it is that it is supposedly not as expensive as a bone marrow transplant.

fifthofnovember · Dec 12, 2012

So, if they're going in and modifying DNA, couldn't they make someone genetically immune to certain cancers, and make that hereditary?

Mushroom · Dec 13, 2012

JP5 said: ↑

The other good news about it is that it is supposedly not as expensive as a bone marrow transplant.
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However, this is also a very dangerous form of treatment. It was only given to her because she would not have lived more then 2 or 3 days otherwise. It had also been tried 2 times before, both times the treatment was a failure (however, Emily and the other 7 who got it afterwards have survived, with various levels of leukemia reduction).

And even successfull, the treatment was not without risk. The girl then went through a "Cytokine Storm", which is the result of the now mutated T-cells attacking the cancerous cells. This put her in the ICU, and almost killed her. Her lungs filled up with fluid, her blood pressure dropped dangerously low, her kidneys grew in danger of shutting down because of the now deadly levels of dead cells flooding her system, and she was on death's door when yet another drug was given to her to try and save her life yet again (this time it was an experimental arthritis drug). She still spent over a week in a coma.

And now her immune system is permanently altered, with her body now producing the mutated T-cells. What this will mean to her imune system in the years and decades to come will remain to be seen (not being alarmist, just being realistic here). The cells will continue to attack her leukemia if it tries to return, but will the modified T-cells be as effective in fighting off other infections? While I have no doubt that she will not get HIV, who knows what the long term effect on her T-cells and their ability to fight infections?

This is in no way ready to be used other then in extreme situations. If given a choice between this or bone marrow, I know which I would take, hands down.

Oh, and for those that scream that drug companies make to much money, this entire research project was funded by a drug company. Over $20 million has been spent on this so far. That is a lot of money for a possible treatment that may never be used.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/10/h...sing-altered-t-cells.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

This is yet another case of something I find very disturbing. I have seen and read many reports of this but almost none talk about how she almost died from the treatment. Once again people are claiming that this is a panacea, but I see it as to dangerous to use other then in extreme situations with unknown long-term effects. We may save people from leukemia, only to see them die from something else like chicken pox, because her modified cells can no longer fight off the other diseases.

So consider me sceptical, awaiting the long-term results before encouraging more experimentation is done along this line.

waltky · Apr 9, 2013

Leukemia's origins tracked back to the womb...

Scientists track leukaemia's origins 'back to the womb'
8 April 2013 - Scientists say they have traced the root genetic cause of leukaemia back to early life in the womb.

The Institute of Cancer Research experts analysed the entire three billion letter sequence of DNA-coding in identical twins to reveal what sets off the disease. They hope the findings, published in PNAS journal, could lead to new drugs to fight the condition at source. Leukaemia is the most common cancer diagnosed in children. It affects a third of young cancer sufferers and kills 100 children a year in the UK. The twins studied by the researchers had the most common form of leukaemia that affects children - acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) which is a cancer of the white blood cells. It is already known that multiple faulty genes are linked to the condition and that environmental factors probably act as triggers along the way. But the precise sequence of events leading up to a diagnosis of ALL is unclear.

Root cause

The researchers wanted to find out more about the disease so that, ultimately, a better treatment could be found. Although ALL is often curable, the medicines used to treat it can cause unpleasant and sometimes severe side effects. Prof Mel Greaves and his colleagues decided to study identical twins who shared the same DNA inherited from their parents. Both twins developed ALL in early childhood, at around four years of age. By comparing blood and bone marrow samples of the twins in later childhood, the researchers found one genetic mutation identical in both twins - a common leukaemia-causing gene called ETV6-RUNX1.

The researchers reason that this mutation must have arisen in one of the twins while in the womb. Cells carrying the mutation then spread to the other twin via their shared placental blood circulation. The identical twins had a total of 22 other mutations, but none of these mutations was shared by both twins, and so they must have accumulated after birth as the disease progressed, say the researchers. Study co-author Prof Greaves said: "We were able to sequence the entire human genome. It told us for the first time that this is the key mutation that starts the whole process of leukaemia. The other mutations must have happened after birth."

Dr Julie Sharp of Cancer Research UK said: "This interesting research shows how studying the DNA of twins can shed light on the genetic mistakes that first initiate cancer in children and the subsequent faults that occur as the cancer evolves. "Studies like this could reveal new ways to target the very roots of cancer and help us better understand how the disease develops over time. Survival rates have increased significantly over the past decades thanks to research, but there is still more to do to make treatments better with fewer side-effects."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22062616
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waltky · Nov 7, 2015

Granny says, "Awww - ain't dat a cute baby?...

Gene-edited immune cells treat 1-year-old's 'incurable' leukemia
Nov. 6, 2015 | Doctors called the success of the treatment "a miracle," and the company developing it is accelerating the start of clinical trials.

Doctors cleared a 1-year-old of an aggressive form of leukemia using an experimental treatment that had previously only been tested in mice, which researchers said could be a "huge" step forward in treating leukemia and other cancers. The girl, named Layla, had relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, or ALL, and already been treated with chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, as well as another experimental treatment -- none of which kept the cancer from getting worse.

At the point doctors were beginning to recommend palliative care because they were out of options, Layla's parents were told about experimental work being done on genetically-edited immune cells at the hospital where she was being treated. "The approach was looking incredibly successful in laboratory studies, and so when I heard there were no options left for treating this child's disease, I thought 'why don't we use the new UCART19 cells?'' said Dr. Waseem Qasim, a professor of cell and gene therapy at University College London, in a press release. "The treatment was highly experimental and we had to get special permissions, but she appeared ideally suited for this type of approach." Layla was diagnosed with ALL at 14 weeks old -- doctors called it "one of the most aggressive" forms of the disease they'd ever seen -- starting several rounds of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant almost immediately. The disease returned seven weeks later.

One-year-old Layla, above, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia when she was 14 weeks old. An experimental immune cell treatment cleared her body of the disease after several rounds of chemotherapy and another experimental treatment failed to cure the cancer.

After trying another experimental treatment, doctors suggested moving Layla to palliative care unless her parents were open to trying UCART19, modified T-cells that are genetically reprogrammed to target and kill leukemia cells. Once doctors received special clearance to use the cells with Layla, because they'd only been tested with mice, they gave her 1 ml of UCART19 intravenously. Several weeks passed before doctors saw an immune response, in Layla's case in the form of a rash, which meant the treatment was working. "As this was the first time that the treatment had been used, we didn't know if or when it would work and so we were over the moon when it did," said Dr. Paul Veys, director of bone marrow transplants at Great Ormond Street Hospital and Layla's lead doctor. "Her leukemia was so aggressive that such a response is almost a miracle."

The company developing UCART19, Cellectis, said in a press release it would accelerate its clinical development after the success with Layla. Doctors caution that, in addition to further tests with more human patients, a long-term view of Layla's health will also help show how effective UCART19 is, especially considering her history of relapse. An account of Layla's case is published in Nature.

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2015...1446821315/?spt=rec_feat&or=2&r=5941446827199
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See also:

Study: Gut Bacteria May Improve Cancer Drugs' Effectiveness
November 06, 2015 - There are hundreds of trillions of microscopic, single-celled microbes in your gut, approximately 10 times the number of cells in your entire body. Most of them benefit us in some way. Entire scientific endeavors are now devoted to trying to figure what these so-called microbiota do.

The latest study, reported in the journal Science, strongly suggests that some of them can help fight cancer. In studies of mice, oncologist Tom Gajewsky and colleagues at the University of Chicago found that microbiota in the guts of certain mice produced a strong immune response against melanoma, a lethal skin cancer. When the mice were given the chemotherapy drug PD-L1, their tumors shrank significantly and almost completely went away. “We now have patients who have complete elimination of their tumor and, you know, are quite stable now for years," Gajewsky said. "That’s a small minority of patients. Now, if we could figure out all of the tricks to improve that immune response, maybe we can expand the number of patients who get this good immune response against their tumor.”

Researchers first noticed that mice obtained from one lab had a strong immune response against small melanoma tumors. Mice from another laboratory had a weaker anti-tumor response. But when the mice were put together, researchers saw tumor reduction in both groups. The researchers believed that living together transferred some beneficial gut microbiota to the rodents that didn’t do well when given PD-L1. Investigators transferred fecal samples from the mice that had strong immune responses to the poor responders. A short time later, they saw significantly slower tumor growth in both groups of mice. One family of gut bacterium, called Bifidobacterium, appeared to be especially beneficial.

Bifidobacterium worked as well as PD-L1, and when used together, Gajewski said, they could potentially produce a cure for certain cancers, including lung and head and neck cancers. The antibody drugs are extremely expensive, but given with a dose of gut microbiota, Gajewski said, the treatment antibodies could become more widely accessible. “And maybe more exportable to developing countries, as you think forward," he said. "Some of these expensive therapies, you might imagine, are not going to be available for a while in more developing countries, and something like a probiotic could be cheap and easy.” Some microbiota, also called probiotics, are already available on the market. But Gajewsky cautioned against taking them at this point because some might weaken the immune system, promoting cancer or causing anti-tumor drugs to be less effective.

http://www.voanews.com/content/gut-bacteria-may-improve-cancer-drugs-effectiveness/3044102.html
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waltky · Nov 12, 2015

Useful against a hard to treat form of leukemia...

Blood cancer drug has "life-changing" results in study
Nov. 11, 2015 - The drug had a swift effect in most patients and showed "significant" improvement when used in one hard-to-treat form of leukemia.

Leukemia patients in a clinical trial for the drug ONO/GS-4059, which inhibits a protein important to the growth of cancer cells, experienced what researchers are calling a dramatic effect in response to the experimental treatment. Researchers at the University of Leicester report the patients' cancer responded to the drug in nearly two-thirds of evaluable patients in the trial, with 75 percent of adverse health events associated with the treatment being minor. "These patients were confronted with a cruel reality: they had failed multiple chemotherapy lines and there were no other treatment options available for them," said Dr. Harriet Walter, a researcher at the University of Leicester, in a press release. "This drug has changed their lives; from desperate and tired they are now leading a normal and really active life."

Researchers said called the results of the drug trial even more significant because of the quick effect the treatment had on participants cancer.

The researchers started with 90 patients in January 2012 at medical centers in England and France, all of whom had one of three types of leukemia: chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or CLL; Mantle Cell Lymphoma, or MCL; and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, or DLBCL. CLL patients showed the best response, with 96 percent responding to the drug during a median treatment period of 80 weeks. The researchers said CLL also responded quickly to ONO/GS-4059, which 21 patients continue to receive. Of patients with MCL, 92 percent responded during a median treatment period of 40 weeks and 8 patients are still being treated with the drug. Just 35 percent of patients with DLBCL responded to the drug during a median treatment period of 12 weeks, which was cut short for many patients because their cancer continued to develop. The researchers regard this response, however, as significant because of the difficulty treating DLBCL, writing in the study that the drug had "significant activity" without major drug-related toxicity.

Most also patients did not experience serious side effects during treatment with ONO/GS-4059, as researchers reported 75 percent of all health events were minor and most others were recovered from spontaneously during treatment. Researchers said further studies will be conducted that combine the drug with others to improve the overall response of disease during treatment, in addition to continuing research into how the drug works and ways to avoid potential tumor resistance to it. The study is published in the journal Blood.

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2015...-results-in-study/4431447254968/?spt=slh&or=4
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See also:

FDA approves drug combination for melanoma treatment
Nov. 11, 2015 | A two-drug combination proved more effective than use of single drugs, resulting in fewer secondary tumors and better effects on shrinking tumors that cannot be removed with surgery.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new two-drug combination for metastatic melanoma after it was shown to be more effective at slowing the growth of tumors and preventing the growth of secondary tumors in some patients. The combination was so effective with patients in a clinical trial the FDA granted it "priority review" status to speed its approval for use with patients. Vemurafenib, sold as Zelboraf, is used to treat patients with melanoma that has spread to other parts of the body and whose tumors express a gene mutation called BRAF V600E. The mutation causes melanoma to grow continuously as a cancer, an effect not completely stopped by vemurafenib according to research.

Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles combined vemurafenib with cobimetinib, sold as Cotellic, that blocks an enzyme called MEK in another signalling pathway of cancer cells, restricting the ability of tumors to grow. "[The] approval is a very significant advance in the treatment of metastatic melanoma," Dr. Antoni Ribas, a researcher at UCLA, said in a press release. "For patients with a BRAF mutated melanoma, the combination has higher activity to shrink their tumors, and with less side effects than the drugs on their own." Researchers tested the two-drug combination in a randomized study with 495 patients who had previously untreated, BRAF V600 mutation-positive melanoma. In all cases, the cancer was either advanced or could not be removed with surgery.

The two-drug combination was shown to be so effective at shrinking melanoma tumors the FDA granted it "priority" status to speed its approval for use with patients.

All the patients received vemurafenib, and then were randomly given either cobimetinib or a placebo. The researchers reported that, on average, patients taking both drugs did not see their cancer worsen for 12.3 months after treatment, as opposed to just 7.2 months for patients only given vemurafenib. Among patients given the combination, 70 percent saw complete or partial shrinkage of tumors, which only 50 percent of those taking vemurafenib and the placebo saw. Additionally, 65 percent of patients on the combination were still alive 17 months after starting treatment, while those only receiving vemurafenib had a 50 percent mortality rate.

A small subset of melanoma patients experience the growth of secondary tumors during treatment with vemurafenib -- previous studies have shown it to be about 25 percent -- however this decreased among patients who took both drugs in the clinical trial. "As we continue to advance our knowledge of tumor biology, we have learned that cancer cells have a remarkable ability to adapt and become resistant to targeted therapies," said Dr. Richard Pazdur, director of the office of hematology and oncology products at the FDA, in a press release. "Combining two or more treatments addressing different cancer-causing targets may help to address this challenge."

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2015...for-melanoma-treatment/7741447246762/?spt=trc
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ryobi · Nov 25, 2015

waltky said: ↑

Disabled AIDS virus kills leukemia cells...

Researchers Develop Promising Treatment for Leukemia
December 11, 2012 - An experimental leukemia therapy appears to have successfully eliminated the lethal blood cancer in some patients. The treatment, which involves a disabled form of the virus that causes AIDS, revs-up immune system cells that then specifically target the malignant cells.
Click to expand...

JP5 said: ↑

I have been hearing about this on the tv and radio this week. It is GREAT news. Finally....some hope that they could be on the right track for curing cancer. Truly amazing that they can take something so awful....HIV virus....and turn it into something good. Having lost 2 close family members to cancer.....and many close friends, I am PRAYING this is going to be the answer.

The other good news about it is that it is supposedly not as expensive as a bone marrow transplant.
Click to expand...

Retroviral vectors like the vector based on the HIV virus are great vectors for gene therapy because they're so infectious except for retroviral vectors tendency to attach to the hosts genome and then detach and re-attach somewhere else in a process known as template switching.

Template switching makes the likelyhood of turning on oncogenes (genes that cause cancer) and turning off tumor suppressor genes greater.

I earned a High Distinction in Applied Molecular Biology for trying to create a technique to insert antiobiotic resistant genes into retroviral vectors to understand template switching.

Basically, the technique involved creating a primer with the antiobitic resistance gene attached to the primer and increasing the temperature of TAQ polymerase beyone TAQ polymerases normal physiological temperature which decreases the fidelity of hybridization of nucleotides to the target strand. The fidelity of hybridization of primers longer than 20 nucleotides also decreases the longer the primer gets. I was counting on the antiobiotic resistant gene being incorporated into the target strand based on reducing the fidelity of hybridization by increasing TAQ polymerases hybridization temperature beyond its physiological temperature and also just decreasing the fidelity of hybridization because a primer attached to the antiobiotic resistant gene is a really long primer.

waltky · Jan 15, 2016

Beyond five years there's a very significant risk of mortality...

Delayed deaths declining among pediatric cancer survivors
14 Jan.`16 | It's long been known that cancer survivors -- people alive five years after diagnosis -- face a higher risk of premature death, and doctors have made efforts over the decades to reduce those deaths. A new study of childhood cancer cases suggests that the effort has been successful, at least to some degree.

Most people "kind of assume that if you hit the five-year time point, you've beaten your cancer and the story's over," chief author Dr. Gregory Armstrong of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis told Reuters Health by phone. "I think the first thing this paper does is show on a national scale that beyond five years there's a very significant risk of mortality. That should be a big wakeup call for most of the primary physicians who are taking care of these patients." "At the same time," he said, "this paper comes along and shows the good news part of the story - modern survivors are doing better, even though they still have an elevated risk of mortality compared to the general population." The study was published online in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Manuel Andres Sequera, 2, looks out the window while receiving chemotherapy treatment at a paediatric hospital in Maracaibo, Venezuela

The analysis of 34,033 patients whose cancers were diagnosed before age 21 and who survived to the five-year mark found that the odds of death from any cause, including due to a recurrence or progression of a cancer, declined for children treated in the 1980s compared to those treated in the 1970s. When treatment was initiated in the 1990s, the death rates were lower still. For survivors diagnosed in the 1970s, the odds of death at the 15-year mark were 10.7%. With treatment in the 1980s, the rate declined to 7.9%. For the 1990s it was 5.8%. When the researchers looked exclusively at death from recurrence or progression of the cancer, the death rates at 15 years were 7.1% for treatment in 1970s, 4.9% for the 1980s and 3.4% for the 1990s.

Changes in the way radiation and chemotherapy are delivered, along with better follow-up care, are believed to be responsible. "What we had hoped was it would ultimately increase their lifespan and the risk for late mortality," said Dr. Armstrong. "In fact, it did." The improvement underscores the dramatic gains in pediatric cancer therapy seen since the 1960s, when fewer than half of children diagnosed with cancer survived for five years. The rate is now 83%. The new findings are based on data collected for the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study covering children treated at 31 institutions in the U.S. and Canada.

Half the patients in the study were tracked for at least 21 years. Overall, 3,958 cancer survivors had died; 2,002 had succumbed to a recurrence or progression of their initial cancer. Another 746 died from developing a different type of cancer. The researchers also measured the rate of death from all other health-related causes, a category that included deaths from heart and lung problems. Those death rates were 3.1% for people treated in the '70s, 2.4% in the '80s and 1.9% in the '90s. "The 2000s ought to bring even more marked improvements because we've seen new technologies and new deliveries of radiation therapy, and better and more appropriate use of chemotherapy, along with a reduction in certain chemotherapies that cause toxicity," Dr. Armstrong said. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1Q0IzJ6 The New England Journal of Medicine, online January 13, 2016.

http://news.yahoo.com/delayed-deaths-declining-among-pediatric-cancer-survivors-234826789.html
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Moi621 · Jan 15, 2016

speedingtime said: ↑

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/...700.html?1313011575&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008

I'm not going to set my hope too high, but this is great news so far.
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Set Your Hope!
Immuno Therapy has been retarded because the patient pool is reduced to those whose
immune systems have been poisoned with chemo or radiation and not responding so, Why Not!

Idea: YOU are always getting cancers and your immune system combs them out.
Immuno Surveillance.
Immune compromised persons do get more malignancies.
Immune Rx would be my Rx of First Choice.
Before you cut, chemo or radiate - teach my immune system to reject it.
Memory is durable through "poisoning" and may result in - not needing Cut, Chemo or Radiation.

Moi

r > g

View attachment 40411

waltky · May 27, 2016

Cancer rates rise among young...

Teen cancer death rate causes alarm
Fri, 27 May 2016 - Too many teenagers and young adults are dying of some types of cancer, a Europe-wide report warns.

Their survival rates for cancers such as leukaemia are much lower than in younger children, says a report in the Lancet Oncology. The researchers suggest differences in tumours, delays in diagnosis and treatment and a lack of clinical trials for that age group are to blame. Cancer Research UK said it was crucial to find out what was going wrong. The study analysed data from 27 countries on nearly 57,000 childhood cancers and 312,000 cancers in teenagers and young adults.

Overall, five-year survival rates were higher in teenagers and young adults at 82% compared with 79% in children. But those better prospects were largely driven by the older age-group getting cancers with a better prognosis. The overall rate concealed areas of concern where survival was "significantly worse" for eight cancers commonly found in both age groups.

The five-year survival rates for:

* acute lymphoid leukaemias were 56% in teenagers and young adults & 85.8% in children
* acute myeloid leukaemias 50% in teenagers and young adults & 61% in children
* Hodgkin's lymphoma 93% in teenagers and young adults & 95% in children
* non-Hodgkin's lymphoma 77% in teenagers and young adults & 83% in children
* astrocytomas (a brain cancer) 46% in teenagers and young adults & 62% in children
* Ewing's sarcoma of bone 49% in teenagers and young adults & 67% in children
* rhabdomyosarcoma (soft tissue tumours) 38% in teenagers and young adults & 67% in children
* osteosarcoma (bone cancer) 62% in teenagers and young adults & 67% in children

Teen with doctor

Dr Annalisa Trama, from The National Institute of Cancer in Milan, Italy said: "The good news is that the number of children, adolescents and young adults surviving for at least five years after diagnosis has risen steadily over time in Europe. "However, we found that adolescents and young adults still tend to die earlier than children for several cancers common to these age groups, particularly blood cancers."

Dr Alan Worsley, from Cancer Research UK, said: "While it's great news that the number of children, teenagers and young adults surviving cancer continues to improve, it's also clear that for some cancers, survival in different age groups is improving faster than in others. "We need to find out whether adolescents are faring worse because of how their cancer is managed in the clinic or whether it's because the underlying biology is fundamentally different at these ages. "Answering these questions is a big part of the reason why we've launched the Cancer Research UK Kids and Teens campaign."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-36388050
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waltky · Jan 28, 2017

Children had cancer cured with GM T-cells from another person...

Medical first,children had cancer cured with genetically engineered T-cells from another person
January 26, 2017 - Doctors in London say they have cured two babies of leukemia in the worlds first attempt to treat cancer with genetically engineered immune cells from a donor.

Experiments, which took place at Londons Great Ormond Street Hospital, raise the possibility of off-the-shelf cellular therapy using inexpensive supplies of universal cells that could be dripped into patients' veins on a moments notice. The ready-made approach could pose a challenge to companies including Juno Therapeutics and Novartis, each of which has spent tens of millions of dollars pioneering treatments that require collecting a patients own blood cells, engineering them, and then re-infusing them. Both methods rely on engineering T cellsthe hungry predator cells of the immune systemso they attack leukemic cells.

The British infants, ages 11 and 16 months, each had leukemia and had undergone previous treatments that failed, according to a description of their cases published Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine. Waseem Qasim, a physician and gene-therapy expert who led the tests, reported that both children remain in remission. Although the cases drew wide media attention in Britain, some researchers said that because the London team also gave the children standard chemotherapy, they failed to show the cell treatment actually cured the kids. There is a hint of efficacy but no proof, says Stephan Grupp, director of cancer immunotherapy at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, who collaborates with Novartis. It would be great if it works, but that just hasnt been shown yet.

Rights to the London treatment were sold to the biotech company Cellectis, and the treatment is now being further developed by the drug companies Servier and Pfizer. Treatments using engineered T-cells, commonly known as CAR-T, are new and not yet sold commercially. But they have shown stunning success against blood cancers. In studies so far by Novartis and Juno, about half of patients are permanently cured after receiving altered versions of their own blood cells.

MORE
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Moi621 · Jan 28, 2017

speedingtime said: ↑

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/...700.html?1313011575&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008

I'm not going to set my hope too high, but this is great news so far.
Click to expand...

Should I have cancer, No Chemo or Radiation for me.
Those therapies weaken immunity.
I would jump straight for the immunotherapy with an intact immune system.

Moi M.D. ret.
Old theory, Immunosurveillance combs through your tissues, search & destroy malignant like cells.
Problem: Why / How does a malignancy sneak through immunosurveillance?
Damaging the immune system. Radiation. First the leukemias/Lymphomas, then the solid organ cancers.
Check out Red Rock Canyon, Hollywood, John Wayne, Paulette Goddard, Pedro Armendariz <hint>

r > g
Esp. for Cancer Rx

View attachment 47184
Deus vult! Comprende?
Across an immense, unguarded, ethereal border, Canadians, cool and unsympathetic,
regard our America with envious eyes and slowly and surely draw their plans against us.

waltky · Apr 16, 2017

WHO says Cancer Incidence Increasing Among Children Worldwide...

Cancer Incidence Increases Among Children Worldwide
April 13, 2017 | WASHINGTON — The number of newly diagnosed childhood cancer cases worldwide rose by 13 percent during the past two decades, according to an agency of the World Health Organization.

In a study published in the journal The Lancet Oncology, researchers with the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, reported the incidence of childhood cancer was 140 per million per year from 2001-2010 among children up to age 14. The incidence was 124 per million cancers annually throughout the 1980’s, according to data from a previous IARC study. Eva Steliarova-Foucher works in the cancer surveillance section of the IARC, which is part of the WHO. She said cancers that strike adults, notably cancers of the breast, colon and prostate, are often caused by genetic mutations that accumulate over time.

In children, she said, the disease is likely due to a genetic predisposition, adding that children tend to get different cancers than adults. “The first most common cancer in children is leukemia, and this was seen in all the regions. And then it is followed by cancers of the central nervous system in mostly high-income countries, and it was lymphoma in the other world, in low-income countries.” The data were collected from 153 cancer registries in 62 countries, departments and territories covering about 10 percent of the world’s children.

A young cancer patient is seen at a pediatric oncology clinic in Miami, Florida, Dec. 8, 2014. The number of childhood cancer cases rose by 13 percent during past two decades, according to an agency of the World Health Organization.

The best records of childhood cancers were from Western countries, including the United States, which kept records on almost 100 percent of sick children. Five percent or less of the data came from Africa and Asia, according to the report. In those low resource settings, Steliarova-Foucher says many cancers may go undiagnosed because of a lack of awareness and the unavailability of diagnostic equipment.

But she stresses that collection of data is important because, “You need to know how many cases there will be in the next years so that you have enough amenities to take care of these children. You need to know how much their treatment will cost also. So, these data provide the first indicator of the burden (of cancer) in this population.”

For the first time, the IARC report also gathered cancer data on adolescents, between the ages of 15 and 19. The incidence there was 185 cancers in one million teens each year, with lymphoma and melanoma at the top of the list. By knowing the incidence of childhood cancer, Steliarova-Foucher says researchers can begin to identify some of the factors that may contribute to childhood cancer, including environmental pollutants and infections, which might be avoided.

http://www.voanews.com/a/childhood-cancer-on-rise/3808949.html
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Moi621 · Apr 16, 2017

speedingtime said: ↑

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/...700.html?1313011575&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008

I'm not going to set my hope too high, but this is great news so far.
Click to expand...

Sadly standard Chemo and Radiation therapy destroys the Immune System's
ability to recognize new challenges.

Should I get cancer requiring systemic treatment,
I would go straight for Immune Therapy.
Luckily I daily since 1967 and have never encountered a malignancy.

Moi, M.D. ret.
Also took immunology elective pursuing my BSc in Biology.

r > g

Moi621 · Apr 16, 2017

And consider the importance of house cats.
We have had a Leukemia immunization as well as an AIDS immunization
for them for decades.

I suspect the Childhood form is a virus that "normal" kids fight it off and
kids with compromised immune systems get the malignancy.

It is important to remember malignancy is a symptom, like high blood sugar
it may be cause by a variety of factors. Genetics. Chemicals. Radiation. Infection.
And there are several kinds of Leukemia too. Acute Lymphoblastic being the most
common childhood form.

Moi

r > g

Across an immense, unguarded, ethereal border, Canadians, cool and unsympathetic,
regard our America with envious eyes and slowly and surely draw their plans against us.

SuperSymmetry · Apr 16, 2017

Mushroom said: ↑

But I thought Fetal Stem Cells were the cure to all cancers?
Click to expand...

Embryonic cells are used as tissue culture, which is essentially the model system for performing experiments in human cells. They're not a cure as much as they are the tool necessary to develop treatments and recapitulate cancer-related phenotypes.

thinkitout · Apr 16, 2017

speedingtime said: ↑

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/...700.html?1313011575&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008

I'm not going to set my hope too high, but this is great news so far.
Click to expand...

Hopefully, these researchers can gain approval for the procedure despite the inevitable future attempts of the AMA, ACS, NCI, and Quackwatch to block it.

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