Guest guest Posted February 25, 2010 Report Share Posted February 25, 2010 FYI. I learned this in 2007 while researching my then diagnosed cancer. Biopsies, radiation and surgery are also bad ideas. I went alternative and was cured in 13 weeks. The cancer recurred due to my stopping a cancer killing diet. I didn't die as MDs predicted. Bruce Chesley Truth is a terrible cross to bear. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered. - Paine The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws - Tacitus Treason for $$$$. ALL " pro 2A " orgs. http://www.lef.org/news/LefDailyNews.htm?NewsID=9360 & Section=Disease & sour ce=DHB_010225 & key=Body+ContinueReading Cancer expert tells how treatment can be problem Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 02-24-10 Feb. 24--Max Wicha is coming to Pittsburgh today to deliver a startling message. Standard cancer treatments not only often fail to eradicate cancer, but can make it worse. That argument isn't coming from a fringe proponent of alternative medicine, but from the founder of the University of Michigan's Comprehensive Cancer Center and a pioneer in research on why cancers recur and spread to other parts of the body. The reason breast cancer and other malignancies often return aggressively after treatment is that when tumor cells die under assault from chemotherapy and radiation, they give off substances that can reactivate a special set of master cells known as cancer stem cells, Dr. Wicha said in an interview Tuesday. Dr. Wicha's lab has found that inflammatory molecules secreted by dying tumor cells can hook up with the stem cells and cause them in effect to come out of hibernation. He is scheduled to deliver the 2010 Bernard Fisher Lecture at 3:30 p.m. today in Auditorium 6 of Scaife Hall on the University of Pittsburgh campus. The talk, which is free and open to the public, honors Dr. Fisher, a Pitt researcher who pioneered the idea that lumpectomies are just as effective in treating breast cancer as mastectomies. The existence of cancer stem cells is still controversial in some quarters, Dr. Wicha acknowledged, but is gaining traction. In the last two months alone, researchers around the nation have published studies on cancer stem cells in breast, ovarian, prostate and brain cancer. Adult stem cells exist in most tissues, and go into action to repair damage from wounds or infections. In cancer, they can mutate and no longer obey normal bodily signals to stop growing, Dr. Wicha said. He and other researchers say that even when chemotherapy and radiation cause tumors to shrink dramatically, these stem cells can stay alive, living under the radar until they are once again spurred into action. They also believe stem cells are probably the ones that break away from an original tumor and cause cancer to spread elsewhere in the body. Chemo and radiation kill off the fastest-growing cells in the body, which applies to most cancer cells, but the cancer stem cells that create those rapidly dividing tumor cells actually grow much more slowly themselves, and are less susceptible to those therapies, he said. One tactic to address this problem is to kill off both types of cancer cells at once, Dr. Wicha said. A recent experimental trial with advanced breast cancer patients at the University of Michigan, Baylor University in Texas and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard University used standard chemotherapy along with a substance designed to block one of the biochemical pathways of stem cells. The approach killed off more than 90 percent of the cancer stem cells, Dr. Wicha said, and researchers now hope to expand the treatment to a much larger group of patients. Ultimately, he hopes cancer treatments can avoid general chemo altogether, with its debilitating side effects, and just use targeted therapies against the stem cells. There is still a long road ahead, he said, and " my feeling is, to really knock these stem cells out, we're probably going to have to use multiple inhibitors. " Mark Roth: mroth@... or . ----- To see more of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.post-gazette.com. Copyright © 2010, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@..., call or , send a fax to , or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. Articles featured in Life Extension Daily News are derived from a variety of news sources and are provided as a service by Life Extension. These articles, while of potential interest to readers of Life Extension Daily News, do not necessarily represent the opinions nor constitute the advice of Life Extension. ____________________________________________________________ Small Business Tools Compete with the big boys. Click here to find products to benefit your business. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=UHIPruJ4redLqXBSJSkNXQAAJ1DIyk3Ela\ L5nS9SI9EfWI19AAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARMQAAAAA= Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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