Posted on 05/17/2018 7:28:18 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
THE MAGIC MICROSCOPIC particles that might change the world — and in the process, permanently burnish Seattle’s spot on the big, ascent-of-man scientific map — are, at this very moment, being carted about on a medical campus one short traffic jam away from the shores of Lake Union. Their mode of transport: a thermo-molded plastic lunch cooler, of the sort one might nab at Walmart to carry a baloney sandwich and some freshly cured herring out for a day of salmon fishing on Puget Sound.
The little coolers are ubiquitous at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, which four decades ago pioneered a groundbreaking treatment for blood cancers — the bone-marrow transplant, now an older science that still saves lives, but not without harrowing side effects.
What has changed in cancer research since then? Almost everything. But the research growing from those transplants is blossoming today into what could be, at last, actual cures for common cancers that have long stood as irrevocable death sentences for millions of people.
Some of the new treatments — collectively, “immunotherapies” that unleash the body’s own immune system to seek out and destroy cancer cells — have shown mind-blowing results in early testing on blood cancers.
In one ongoing trial, patients with a leukemia that had resisted previously known treatments achieved a remission rate of 93 percent — a result that even seasoned researchers at The Hutch called “astounding,” particularly given the treatment’s relative lack of the destructive side effects of traditional radiation and chemotherapy. The weapon of choice — re-engineered human “CAR-T” cells — did its work more efficiently and completely than even its creators had dared dream.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.com ...
Dr. William Coley found a bone cancer cure in 1891. Immunothearaphy. He injected terminal patients with a bacteria cocktail designed to create a massive infection in their bodies. The body attacked the infection and the cancer.
Coley’ s Toxins...
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Seattle Cancer Care Alliance is one of the top cancer centers in the Country.
M.D. Anderson is ranked #1 and Memorial Slaon-Kettering is #2.
SCCA is not too far behind those two.
Seattle and the Hutch lead the world in this.
Can they wait just a little bit, until we “lose” John McCain?
And this is the last you'll ever hear of it.
The medical-industrial complex is never going to allow anyone to destroy their trillion dollar bread basket.
Yeah, aside from the drug companies, you can’t risk putting oncologists out of business, who profit from making people just sick enough not to die and string them along.
The latest anecdote I heard was an oncologist who promised someone I know with pancreatic cancer that for every chemo round he gets, he’ll live another month. (More like, every chemo round is another lake house payment.)
If we cured cancer it would destroy the lives of everyone working for those wonderful cancer charities.
We can’t let that happen! ;-)
the vast, vast majority were upstanding caring people....
would you rather the doctor NOT offer any hope to that patient...??
would you rather they just not go thru the trouble of trying SOMETHING for the pt?...
do you want people to die quicker so the doctor won't get paid nor the hospital?
My wife was just diagnosed with late stage 4 bone mets. She had a lumpectomy five years ago.
We went for a consultation at City of Hope. They said this is very treatable, just two pills. They didn’t tell us one of them is $11,500 per month. Who can pay that?
City of Hope is out for us, as our HMO won’t pay for them. And they won’t pay for the pills, unless I take the catastrophic route.
It’s been almost a month and still no treatment or biopsy or PET scan. Every procedure must be approved.
So, I have us both on a ketogenic diet, trying to keep her cancer cells quiet until we start treatment.
Praying for both of you.
“one of them is $11,500 per month”
You’re paying for the City of Hope’s research efforts behind the treatment. The cost to produce the actual pill is irrelevant. I hope it works.
One more anecdote on the high costs of medical care: An injured person in North Carolina was helicoptered to the hospital. The bill for that ride was $38,000.
Now, that's cold.... but....
Thanks for posting ! I will look that up “Coley’s toxins”.
And no more 5K runs or pink ribbons.
It’s a Pfizer drug:
http://www.citypages.com/news/the-racket-behind-pfizers-new-9850-breast-cancer-drug-7891854
“Ibrance’s cost wasn’t determined by the research and development costs incurred to get it to market. The sticker price comes in so steep because its manufacturer decided that was the sweet spot, the perfect dollar amount to bring in maximum returns without scaring off insurance companies that must approve its customers’ use of the pharmaceutical.”
...
“Despite the high cost, the medical returns on Ibrance aren’t as impressive as the financial ones. When 165 postmenopausal women with breast cancer were administered Ibrance in conjunction with a second med, they lived an average of 10 months longer than woman given Letrozole, another approved cancer drug. Letrozole retails for slightly less than Ibrance: $56 for 30 pills.”
My friend was on Ibrance for about the 10-month period mentioned, and was doing well. Then it just stopped working. Then they put her on something else — maybe Letrozole — and it, too stopped working. Now — today, even as we speak — she’s in for her second dose of chemotherapy infusion. It isn’t looking good, but you never know.
Thank you very much.
Have her look into the ketogenic diet.
I’ve found several videos that give me some hope. I have the links set to start at the relevant point.
This one is from Dr. Dawn Lemmane:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RvByLXyoYk&spfreload=10&t=21m58s
This one is from Dr. Dominic D’agastino:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWRnma8Tet0&t=30m47s
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