From the first moment my wife discovered
she had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from the men I know. Even
ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have
received a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than
mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started
this blog…
Every month, I’ll be highlighting breast
cancer research that is going on RIGHT NOW! Harvested from different websites,
journals, and maybe even podcasts, I’ll translate them into understandable
English and share them with you. Today: https://vimeo.com/155722401 (video); http://houstonmethodist.org/1285_houstonmethodist/1315_newsroom/1316_newsroom_newsandevents/newsdetail/?key=%7b03d8d7ae27034b5cb632a6f3fb2c700b%7d
(article); http://cdmrp.army.mil/bcrp/default.shtml
(site where I discovered this)
The thing most
associated with those who suffer from the plethora of cancers that attack
humans, is a person with a bald head – women and children in particular.
Nothing stirs us
like an image of a child who has no hair, because we know perfectly well that
they are sick. Nothing so makes the heart of a man quail as a bald woman.
Nothing drives home the truth of our mortality as the sight of a woman we love
who has lost all of her hair...
Those who have
gone through radiation treatment or chemotherapy know that the death of hair
follicles is one the side effects of the treatment. It happens because doctors
and researchers are unable to precisely target treatments that ONLY destroy
cancer cells: “Due to the body’s own defense mechanisms, most cancer drugs are
absorbed into healthy tissue causing negative side effects, and only a fraction
of the administered drug actually reaches the tumor, making it less effective,
said Mauro Ferrari, PhD, president and CEO of the Houston Methodist Research
Institute.”
Research Right
Now! has been pushing for methods of introducing anti-cancer agents directly to
the cancer cells.
Nanoparticles
are one way researchers are doing this.
What’s a
nanoparticle? Literally, it’s a particle that is one billionth the size of a
meter.
In this line of
research, scientists literally encase a cancer drug like tamoxifen (I’ve
written about it here: http://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/2015/03/encore-8-take-tamoxifen-for-ten-years.html)
in FAT. The particle can then be covered with a substance that will only attach
to a cell that has a particular “cancer taste” on it. Then it delivers its
death package and gets absorbed into the body.
Sounds simple,
right?
It ain’t!
“The Houston
Methodist team used doxorubicin [which] has adverse side effects to the heart
and is not an effective treatment against metastatic disease…each component has
a specific and essential role in the drug delivery process… [a] nanoporous
silicon material…[plus] a polymer made up of multiple strands that contain
doxorubicin [are taken] inside the tumor, the silicon material degrades,
releasing the strands…these strands curl-up to form nanoparticles that are
taken up by the cancer cells…the acidic pH close to the nucleus causes the drug
to be released from the nanoparticles. Inside the nucleus…”
There is plenty
of room for problems here, but the research grant they have has led to the
point where “Houston Methodist…plans to fast-track the research to obtain
FDA-approval and begin safety and efficacy studies in humans in 2017.”
We haven’t
reached the point of delivering an anti-cancer vaccine (which GUY’S GOTTA TALK
will focus on next time – though I’ll leave you with a teaser: “I Am Legend –
the Movie”) – but we are moving toward a day where maybe my daughter and surely
my granddaughter, will no longer have to dread
a cancer diagnosis.
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