11 replies to this topic

[doug123]

What might this do for healthy folks? Nothing? Possibly some damage?

Link to source

Lung cancer drug 'extends life'

An experimental lung cancer drug has extended patients' life expectancy by more than 50% in preliminary trials.

Patients given the drug AS1404 on top of standard chemotherapy lived an average of 14 months compared with 8.8 months if given chemotherapy alone.

The phase two study, by UK biotech company Antisoma, looked at 70 patients with non-small cell lung cancer, the most common form of the disease.

It kills more than 26,000 people in Britain each year.

Survival is the gold standard by which cancer drugs are judged, and this news is therefore very exciting

The drug belongs to a new class of compounds called vascular disrupting agents, which work by cutting off the blood supply to tumours.

Solid tumours rely on a network of blood vessels to survive and grow.

AS1404 is able to distinguish between blood vessels feeding the tumour and those serving healthy organs.

The tumour vessels are more permeable and less well organised than those of healthy tissue.

Dr Mark McKeage, from the University of Auckland in New Zealand, who co-led the trial, said: "It is great to see this large survival benefit with AS1404 in lung cancer patients.

"This makes me feel very optimistic as we proceed into phase three testing."

Glyn Edwards, chief executive officer of Antisoma, said: "Survival is the gold standard by which cancer drugs are judged, and this news is therefore very exciting."

AS1404 was developed by scientists in New Zealand but the pharmaceutical company it was initially licensed to did not have the resources to develop it further.

The charity Cancer Research UK stepped in to take the drug into early-stage clinical trials.

Phase two trials are carried out to see whether the drug or treatment is effective for treating cancer.

A phase three trial directly compares the new treatment with standard treatments to see if the new treatment is better.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.u...lth/5385726.stm

Published: 2006/09/27 14:06:09 GMT

© BBC MMVI

[Matt]

Am I the only one who is confused about this post?

What might this do for healthy folks?

Nothing good [wis]

[xanadu]

Obviously the statement "extends life" only applies to lung cancer patients and possibly other types of cancer. Most chemo drugs extend the life of cancer patients but they are toxic substances that healthy people would not want to ingest.

[Athanasios]

Agreed xanadu, but it is an interesting idea; future cancer treatments may be possible to use as a preventative.

[Pablo M]

Agreed xanadu, but it is an interesting idea; future cancer treatments may be possible to use as a preventative.

This is already the case for some things. Green tea, selenium, IP6, vitamin C, vitamin K, lipoic acid, vitamin D, curcumin-- all can be taken as supplements. At one time or another I've taken them all.

[Athanasios]

Those things have been around, then were researched for anticancer properties. They also could not handle cancer on their own with great pharmological success. I am thinking more of something engineered to specifically hunt and kill cancer cells effectively, such as a front line treatment, meanwhile having no side effects for healthy cells. Then, it is possible to take as a preventative without possible adverse affects of megadosing weak anti-cancer supplements.

[Mind]

Looks like a great leap forward for cancer treatment. Seems doubtful it would have any other uses.

[brutale]

Exciting stuff. Might potentially be useful as a chemopreventive agent in those at high risk for lung ca, e.g. individuals who have had successful resections (not that common, but it does happen) or perhaps ex-smokers in the first few years.

I don't know what the "state of the knowledge" on chemoprevention is. It's a important question since, at this stage, more cases of lung cancer are getting diagnosed in ex-smokers than in smokers. Getting people to stop smoking is important, but one would hope to be able to offer the ex-smoker ways to decrease risk (besides CT scans every year.)

Some of the other promising chemopreventive agents are: anti-inflammatories, like celecoxib and tumeric, and possibly retinoids (synthetic). The retinoids pose all sorts of problems of their own though.

Other substances have been tried as blockers of angiogenesis. So far as I know, the results in oncology have been mixed. I wonder what they do in healthy individuals.

[Pablo M]

Those things have been around, then were researched for anticancer properties. They also could not handle cancer on their own with great pharmological success.

I would beg to differ. The Vale of Leven and Fukuoka Torikia studies strongly demonstrate that, at the very least, terminal cancer patients should have a go at ascorbate IV treatment. They have nothing to lose and possibly a lot to gain. In patients with cancers of the ovary, rectum, bronchus, stomach, colon, bladder, kidney, and breast, survival rates were significantly higher in the ascorbate-treated groups. Of course, opponents will say that Cameron, particularly, did not have proper controls. The controls for the ascorbate group came from patients treated with conventional methods (by other doctors) at the same hospital. Cameron, being convinced of the efficacy of vitamin C in the treatment of cancer, was ethically unable to supervise a control group of patients not receiving ascorbate. That is strong praise, coming from an experienced clinician in charge of surgery. Unfortunately, other human studies have not been conducted, although in vitro research by Mark Levine elucidates ascorbate's anti-cancer mechanism.

Here are some PubMed abstracts of studies by Cameron, Pauling and Morishige. Here are studies related to Levine's work. Set the number of items shown to 500 (!). Many of them are related to ascorbate's anti-cancer properties.

The problem is that we do not yet know the optimum dose of ascorbate, or any other supplements. Witness online cancer treatments like the "Kurosawa Cocktail" which is created by two pharmacologists basing almost all of their recommendations on in vitro research and theoretical reasoning.

Green tea, selenium, IP6, vitamin C, vitamin K, lipoic acid, vitamin D, curcumin

Ascorbate and green tea/IP6 are antagonistic. Ascorbate may be synergistic with selenium. Vitamin K and lipoic acid are synergistic with ascorbate, reportedly increasing its anticancer effects by as much as 50x. I'm not sure about the others, although I do know that too much green tea could theoretically encourage cancer.

[Pablo M]

note on above: should be Fukuoka Torikai. Board software will not allow an edit
also note: I meant to say too much vitamin D could encourage cancer

[bgwowk]

I meant to say too much vitamin D could encourage cancer

Is there a reference for that?

[syr_]

Too much vitamin D could cause calcifications. Post reference of your affirmation, pablo.