Free Republic

People may celebrate a 2-week improvement in survival without acknowledging costsTom Somerville's decision to stop medical treatment for his end-stage cancer was a personal one. Somerville, 62, was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2021 that later spread to his liver. He had six months of chemotherapy to slow down the cancer, which he said also left him exhausted with nausea. The Kingston, Ont., resident decided to take a break from treatment to enjoy a trip with his wife to Victoria. "Things that you cherish change, right?" Somerville said. "I used to love being out in the bush, but now it...

New research suggests that patients who have insufficient levels of vitamin D before starting paclitaxel treatment are more likely to experience peripheral neuropathy. According to an analysis of 1,191 patients with early-stage breast cancer—using data collected in the SWOG S0221 study—20.7% of patients with vitamin D deficiency experienced at least a grade 3 level of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), compared to 14.2% of those with sufficient vitamin D levels. The researchers also found that inducing vitamin D deficiency in an accompanying mice model study caused neurotoxicity-like symptoms. "These results suggest that vitamin D supplementation in patients with lower levels of...

Cancer patients appeared to benefit from natural killer cells obtained from donors in an experimental method of treating cancer that involved an aggressive army endowed with the ability to home in on malignant cells and destroy them. The natural killer cells were pre-treated with nicotinamide, a compound widely known to most people as niacin, or vitamin B3. It's a substance with a special affinity for natural killer cells. The innovative approach boosted the impact of natural killer cells and brought about remissions in patients with otherwise recalcitrant cancers. "We conducted a first-in-human phase 1 clinical trial testing adoptive transfer of...

Ivermectin has powerful antitumor effects, including the inhibition of proliferation, metastasis, and angiogenic activity, in a variety of cancer cells. This may be related to the regulation of multiple signaling pathways by ivermectin through PAK1 kinase. On the other hand, ivermectin promotes programmed cancer cell death, including apoptosis, autophagy and pyroptosis. Ivermectin induces apoptosis and autophagy is mutually regulated. Interestingly, ivermectin can also inhibit tumor stem cells and reverse multidrug resistance and exerts the optimal effect when used in combination with other chemotherapy drugs. [Article discusses the role of IVM in various organ and system cancers.]

A team of scientists has found that an existing cancer drug could be repurposed to target a subset of cancers that currently lack targeted treatment options and are often associated with poor outcomes. This subset of cancers makes up 15% of all cancers and is especially prevalent in aggressive tumors such as osteosarcoma (bone tumor) and glioblastoma (brain tumor). These cancerous cells stay "immortal" using a mechanism called the alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT), but the team has demonstrated that ponatinib, a cancer drug approved by the US FDA, blocks key steps in the ALT mechanism that leads it to...

A new drug combination for men with advanced prostate cancer has shown sustained increase in survival rates. The results from the clinical trial of ENZAMET, co-chaired by Professor Christopher Sweeney, have been published. For people with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer, the addition of an androgen receptor blocker with enzalutamide to standard therapy—suppression of testosterone, with or without chemotherapy—led to a 67 percent survival rate after five years. This compares to 57 percent of people who were alive after five years after receiving the standard best practice treatment. "The longer-term analysis showed that the benefit of adding enzalutamide was evident in...

Cancer treatment routinely involves taking out lymph nodes near the tumor in case they contain metastatic cancer cells. But new findings from a clinical trial show that immunotherapy can activate tumor-fighting T cells in nearby lymph nodes. "Immunotherapy is designed to jump start the immune response, but when we take out nearby lymph nodes before treatment, we're essentially removing the key locations where T cells live and can be activated," Spitzer said. Rather than the immunotherapy pumping up the T cells in the tumor, he said, T cells in the lymph nodes are likely the source for T cells circulating...

Immunotherapy has been shown to greatly improve survival rates for certain types of cancer. However, in some cases, it can lead to an over-activation of the immune system, which can be dangerous. In a recent review by researchers, potential therapies have been identified, which might make it possible to continue with immunotherapy even when facing severe side effects. For certain types of cancer, immunotherapy has greatly improved survival rates. However, in some patients, it can lead to a dangerous over-activation of the immune system. This rare side effect was only clinically recognized during regular clinical use rather than in clinical...

A new device, developed by UTS researchers, can detect cancer cells without invasive and expensive surgery. The mould of a new device to detect cancer. The Static Droplet Microfluidic device is able to rapidly detect circulating tumour cells that have broken away from a primary tumour and entered the bloodstream. Photo by Dr Majid Warkiani. Researchers from the University of Technology Sydney have developed a new device that can detect and analyse cancer cells from blood samples, enabling doctors to avoid invasive biopsy surgeries, and to monitor treatment progress. Cancer is a leading cause of illness and death in Australia,...

Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital have found a way to use cancer cells to fight cancer. In a study published in Science Translational Medicine, the team led by Khalid Shah demonstrated that their cell therapy could eliminate established tumors and create long-term immunity in an advanced mouse model of glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer. The vaccine works by training the immune system to prevent cancer from returning. These results are encouraging and suggest that this approach may be effective in treating cancer in humans. Dual-action cell therapy engineered to eliminate established tumors and train the immune system to...

Fellow FReepers, I'm asking you if you have taken or know someone who has taken Shark Cartilage as part of Cancer therapy, and if so, what sort of cancer, which brand, and what the results were. I'm digging into this for a friend whose mother is currently Stage 4, but has been fighting metastatic ovarian cancer for a couple of years now. Please share your knowledge whether your findings were good or bad. Thanks!

When you tell someone a medicine for dogs cured your cancer, you better be ready for some skeptics, but Joe Tippens says it saved his life, and the lives of others. Now, even cancer researchers are open to the possibility it might be true. "My stomach, my neck, my liver, my pancreas, my bladder, my bones -- it was everywhere," Tippens said. Tippens said he was told to go home, call hospice and say his goodbyes two years ago. The doctors were unanimous, he was going to die of small cell lung cancer. "Once that kind of cancer goes that...

Continued treatment for patients with cancer near end-of-life escalates costs and may adversely affect the quality of care patients receive. Accordingly, over the last decade, major professional societies have recommended that clinicians decrease the use of systemic anti-cancer therapies at the end-of-life stage. Researchers revealed that despite these recommendations, aggressive cancer care at the end-of-life persists and there has been a substantial transition from the use of chemotherapy to immunotherapy. "Systemic anti-cancer therapy has changed dramatically following the approvals of multiple new targeted therapies," said Kerin Adelson, MD. Researchers used the nationwide Flatiron Health electronic health record (EHR)-derived database to...

Researchers identified and synthesized a small molecule that could be a more accessible and effective alternative to an antibody that is successfully used to treat a range of cancers. A small molecule that could be a more accessible and effective alternative to an antibody that is successfully used to treat a range of cancers has been identified and synthesized by scientists at Tel Aviv University and the University of Lisbon. The results of the study were published in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer. Behind the groundbreaking development is an international team of researchers. They were led by Prof. Ronit...

Ivermectin was initially developed in 1975 and was introduced in 1981 to Ivermectin is an Anti-Parasitic Anti-Bacterial Anti-Inflammatory Anti-Viral Anti-Cancer medication. However, it is only approved for its original submission to the FDA, which is as an anti-parasitic. This is why it is frequently critiqued as only a horse dewormer by the establishment media even though it has been approved for human use since 1987.

A protein that destroys hard to treat cancers has been discovered by scientists - offering hope of effective new treatments. Experiments on mice and human tissue found it is effective against the most aggressive tumors. They include those of the breast, pancreas, ovaries and brain. The compound, known as ERX-41, leaves healthy tissue unscathed. It is one of the most promising breakthroughs to date - offering hope of a "one size fits all"' pill that was once thought impossible. Results were so encouraging clinical trials are expected to begin in the next few months. Lead author Professor Ratna Vadlamudi, of...

Researchers at TUS have developed an edible plant-based nanoparticle that could be the next potent anticancer therapeutic. Credit: Makiya Nishikawa from Tokyo University of Science ================================================================== Nanomaterials have revolutionized the world of cancer therapy, and plant-derived nanoparticles have the added advantage of being cost-effective and easy to mass produce. Researchers from Tokyo University of Science have recently developed novel corn-derived bionanoparticles for targeting cancer cells directly, via an immune mechanism. The results are encouraging, and the technique has demonstrated efficacy in treating tumor-bearing laboratory mice. Moreover, no serious adverse effects have been reported in mice so far. Nanoparticles, or particles...

AMBRIDGE, Mass. — A revolutionary cancer treatment is combining several therapies to successfully destroy tumors, scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say. Their breakthrough treatment “jump starts” a patient’s natural defenses by merging chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and tumor-fighting techniques. Using this novel approach, researchers say diseased cells are removed from the body, treated with drugs, and then placed back in the tumor. They are delivered with a payload of medications that activate the immune system’s T cells. The injured cancer cells appear to act as a distress signal that spurs them into action. “When you create cells that have DNA...

Cancer Without Chemotherapy: ‘A Totally Different World’ A growing number of cancer patients, especially those with breast and lung cancers, are being spared the dreaded treatment in favor of other options. Dr. Seema Doshi, a dermatologist near Boston, thought it was a foregone conclusion that she would have to undergo chemotherapy when a cancerous lump was found in her breast in 2019.Credit...Lauren Justice for The New York Times Dr. Seema Doshi was shocked and terrified when she found a lump in her breast that was eventually confirmed to be cancerous. “That rocked my world,” said Dr. Doshi, a dermatologist in...