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Cancer ‘vaccine’ eliminates tumors in mice

med.stanford.edu

131–140 of 188 posts

Re: Cancer ‘vaccine’ eliminates tumors in mice

#131
post #77
post #55

Writing this from a squeaky recliner set beside my wife’s bed in the oncology department of a local research hospital. Three weeks ago she had a radical hysterectomy and partial lymphadenectomy to treat stage IIIc ovarian cancer, and we’re back to try to aid her in her recovery to prepare for chemotherapy. Chemo should start next week, but we are hoping to also participate in a clinical trial for atezolizumab. This i…

Squeeze her hand for a stranger. Every person who has lost someone to cancer, and everyone who has survived it, and all of the people who watched that fight- all of us have her back and stand with her. She's fighting one of the hardest battles put to a person, and she has our respect and awe. I saw my friend at his weakest, and also when he was stronger than anyone I've ever known. It's been years but still, I'm cryi…

Thanks for this. My beloved aunt was diagnosed with cancer years ago, and has been fighting an awe inspiring battle against it the whole time. She was given bad news last week -- a short and definite time scale. It was hard news for me and more so for her husband, children and grandchildren, but everyone is keeping close in support of her through the hardest part of the fight so far. These battles are so hard to watch, but at the same time just as inspiring. Anyhow, that's the back story, I really just wanted to thank you for posting these words. +1, Fuck cancer.

Re: Cancer ‘vaccine’ eliminates tumors in mice

#133
post #55

Writing this from a squeaky recliner set beside my wife’s bed in the oncology department of a local research hospital. Three weeks ago she had a radical hysterectomy and partial lymphadenectomy to treat stage IIIc ovarian cancer, and we’re back to try to aid her in her recovery to prepare for chemotherapy. Chemo should start next week, but we are hoping to also participate in a clinical trial for atezolizumab. This i…

Apologies to hear about your wife's cancer. Hope the best of luck fighting to fight.

For adjuvant therapies for cancer, I highly recommend looking into sulforaphane.

Dr. Rhonda Patrick has a tremendous corpus of scientific research and plenty of anecdata on the internet about how it is helpful and has helped others with cancer.

Re: Cancer ‘vaccine’ eliminates tumors in mice

#134
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks so much for this heartfelt comment. The personification of cancer as an enemy didn't really click with me until my family was directly threatened by it. Reading through the drugs in her chemo cocktail, I come across bevacizumab. A little bit of googling and: A cancer needs a good blood supply to provide itself with food and oxygen and to remove waste products. When it has reached 1 to 2mm across, a tumour need…

This cancer is being evolutionarily selected for proliferation and resistance to regulation. It is being constantly engineered to destroy. See also epithelial to mesenchymal (ETM) transition, in which cells lose their anchors and become an entirely different kind of cell so that it can better infiltrate other parts of the body. It's pernicious and highly specialized because that's why it survives. And that's why ever…

Are you saying that cancers that are particularly good at their job are more likely to be passed on to the next generation in other people? By what mechanism does a cancer or a cancer mutation spread to the next person?

EDIT: OK I've done some reading about cancer and evolution. Clearly there is an evolutionary process happening inside each person's body that "selects" for cancers that are good at their "job". However even the most successful of those have no hope of passing beyond their host unless they also mutate a transmission mechanism for themselves, which happens much less often (but the Internet tells me it has been known to happen in dogs).

Re: Cancer ‘vaccine’ eliminates tumors in mice

#135
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A different monoclonal antibody treatment successfully treated my grandfather’s lymphoma 10 years ago. It had spread to occupy large portions of his lungs and this treatment was nothing short of miraculous. We watched in awe as the tumors shrunk away. I hope it works as well for her.

I don't like to pry, but since my father had rare inoperable non-metastatic brain lymphoma and I have genetic concerns, is he still alive? What is his prognosis? How did he tolerate the treatment? (My apologies if it's too personal to discuss.)

He passed away a few years ago from congestive heart failure at 97. But he enjoyed a good last 10 years cancer free. He tolerated the treatment very well.

Re: Cancer ‘vaccine’ eliminates tumors in mice

#136
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Or use the data from trying this treatment on the patient to further their own research? What would be the problem with it, provided that the treatment is given for free and the patient has no other options?

My gut tells me that if the treatment is given for free (my original comment mentioned I was concerned if the company was charging for said treatments) then there's far less of a problem. However, there's still this incentive for a company to take advantage of this situation. Giving the treatment for free could technically be cheaper than providing the drug in a trial while also paying a participant.

So? Earlier human trials means faster to market drugs means competitive advantage.

Re: Cancer ‘vaccine’ eliminates tumors in mice

#137
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conflating public domain with public knowledge risks a meaningful error. To patent something requires that you make it publicly knowable , but this knowledge would not be usable by other companies. well... you can write a patent that is so obfuscated that the public cannot learn from it...

> well... you can write a patent that is so obfuscated that the public cannot learn from it... While this does happen, and sometimes things obvious to a practitioner get patented, obfuscated patents are contrary to the purpose of patenting.

its true. systems have failure

Re: Cancer ‘vaccine’ eliminates tumors in mice

#138
post #121
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Squeeze her hand for a stranger. Every person who has lost someone to cancer, and everyone who has survived it, and all of the people who watched that fight- all of us have her back and stand with her. She's fighting one of the hardest battles put to a person, and she has our respect and awe. I saw my friend at his weakest, and also when he was stronger than anyone I've ever known. It's been years but still, I'm cryi…

Thanks so much for this heartfelt comment. The personification of cancer as an enemy didn't really click with me until my family was directly threatened by it. Reading through the drugs in her chemo cocktail, I come across bevacizumab. A little bit of googling and: A cancer needs a good blood supply to provide itself with food and oxygen and to remove waste products. When it has reached 1 to 2mm across, a tumour need…

To be fair, most of that strategy is inherited from healthy cell function. As your body grows and cells become further removed from blood supply, they have to send out a demand signal to encourage vascularization of the under supplied region.

Cancer cells simply lack the trigger to stop growing.

Re: Cancer ‘vaccine’ eliminates tumors in mice

#139
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> well... you can write a patent that is so obfuscated that the public cannot learn from it... While this does happen, and sometimes things obvious to a practitioner get patented, obfuscated patents are contrary to the purpose of patenting.

its true. systems have failure

Indeed

Re: Cancer ‘vaccine’ eliminates tumors in mice

#140
post #121
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Squeeze her hand for a stranger. Every person who has lost someone to cancer, and everyone who has survived it, and all of the people who watched that fight- all of us have her back and stand with her. She's fighting one of the hardest battles put to a person, and she has our respect and awe. I saw my friend at his weakest, and also when he was stronger than anyone I've ever known. It's been years but still, I'm cryi…

Thanks so much for this heartfelt comment. The personification of cancer as an enemy didn't really click with me until my family was directly threatened by it. Reading through the drugs in her chemo cocktail, I come across bevacizumab. A little bit of googling and: A cancer needs a good blood supply to provide itself with food and oxygen and to remove waste products. When it has reached 1 to 2mm across, a tumour need…

If you like reading, I highly recommend Siddhartha Mukherjee's The Emperor of Maladies. It's a catholic overview of the history of cancer research and the modern understanding of cancer as of around 2010. I read it when my Mum was struggling with cancer.
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