Cancer Cure?

Here is a link to last Sunday's CBS 60 Minutes

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/25/60minutes/main4752082.shtml

You can view it and/or read it.

Fountain Of Youth In A Wine Rx?

Of course, heavy emphasis on the fountain of youth aspect. However, I found it interesting that at one point in the program, there was a comment that this drug has potential as a cancer cure. There was also a comment toward the end that the owners of the firm researching this drug were recently bought out by a drug company for a huge amount.

"Initial test results on cancer patients are expected this September. Last summer, Dr. Sinclair and Dr. Westphal's little start-up company was bought by the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline for almost three quarters of a billion dollars."

I think this is a preview to the cancer cure. This stuff may not be the drug that cures but I assure you, there are numerous drugs being researched now. All the drug companies have to do to be able to patent a natural compound is make one insignificant minor alteration. And that is what the two doctors have done with this drug.

When they find the drug that cures cancer, it will not matter how much you or I have contributed to our favorite charities to find a cure, that will not save us from astronomical drug charges and treatment charges in the name of development costs. They aren't going to give this stuff away and cancer patients and their insurance companies will bear the brunt of the cost.

Maybe I should be grateful in the event a cure is found but it seems so unfair that we give so much and so much more will surely be demanded. I suppose fame is not as good without fortune.

5/11/2009 Test Results and El Pinto

If the previous several posts didn't deter you, thanks for hanging in there and stopping back by.

This month's m-spike was the lowest it has been yet at .19 mg/dl. I'm not overly excited about this because the test is subjective and this number is relatively close to the other six. Be that as it may, it represents close to a 60% reduction from .32 gm/dl recorded 12/1/2008. There has been a downward trend for the last six months which is encouraging.

Another encouraging item is an absolute neutrophil count of 4077. This is an exponential leap from past test results. I suppose I will have some idea of how accurate it is when I get the same test done at Emory clinic 6/2/2009. Of course, it varies over a two week period so it very well could take an exponential leap in the opposite direction. My white blood cell count was 5.9 (1000/mm3). The reference range is 3.5 to 11.8. Also, the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio is not inverted for the second month in a row which is good. My oncologist told me whatever I am doing, keep it up.

What I am doing is increasing the dose of decadron from 20 mg to 40 mg one week a month and taking GNC brand 95% curcumin. I implemented these changes a little over a month ago. I am up to 2 gm curcumin daily, 1 gm AM and 1 gm PM. I plan to eventually work up to a therapeutic dose. The decadron hits me so hard on crash days it is all I can do to make myself take the extra dose. I will try to keep it up as long as the test results continue to support the changes.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading through all the techno babel. If you like spicy hot Mexican cuisine, you will LOVE what I found in my local Kroger store. I don't know if other Kroger stores stock this or not.

Well, actually, I found two somethings but one is chips. If you haven't found the perfect corn chips, look for On The Border brand (same as the restaurant, On The Border - same chips as in the restaurant). Most Kroger stores stock these. Ours just started. You will notice the "Cafe Style" disappear first. That's because they are low in sodium, thin, crispy, not greasy, they are just about everything you look for in a corn chip all rolled up into one chip. They are just about perfect.

This El Pinto green chile sauce is about perfect too - http://elpinto.com/

I purchased the MEDIUM Green Chile Sauce. It is great with the chips mentioned above or as an ingredient in one of your recipes. As Emeril would say, BAM! I'm sure their other sauces are equally as BAM. I wouldn't try HOT though. Medium is about where it needs to be in my opinion. If you can't stand anything spicy hot, don't try this. Well, maybe try it just this once - you might actually like it. I mix it with Otiska salsa (which is only available from a restaurant in Artesia, NM 505-764-9411) and a little catchup. The Otiska salsa doesn't list green chiles in the ingredient list. It is more of a tomato/onion/jalapeno salsa but it is good too. You need to add something to thin out the El Pinto because it is very chunky. The little bit of catchup sweetens it up a bit. It's BAM!

Emory Researchers Discover Signaling Protein

Signaling Protein For Multiple Myeloma Identified, Findings May Result In New Therapeutic Target

Article Date: 12 Sep 2007 - 8:00 PST

http://whsc.emory.edu/press_releases2.cfm?announcement_id_seq=11503

Researchers at Emory University's Winship Cancer Institute are the first to discover a mechanism that plays a critical role in the multiple myeloma cell cycle and survival. Their research may result in identification of a new therapeutic target for treating multiple myeloma.

The results of the study appear in the September issue of Cancer Cell. Jing Chen, PhD, assistant professor of hematology and oncology at Emory Winship and a Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Cancer Scholar, is senior author on the paper. Sumin Kang, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at Emory Winship, is the paper's first author.

Multiple Myeloma is among the most common hematologic malignancies in patients over 65. About15 percent of multiple myeloma patients harbor a genetic abnormality called "t(4;14) chromosomal translocation" that causes over-expression of a tyrosine kinase called fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3).

Tyrosine kinases are molecules that act as biological switches inside cells, regulating processes including cell division and growth. Abnormal kinases have been identified as a driving force in many forms of cancer.

"We are interested in how FGFR3 mediates transforming signals," says Dr. Chen. "We wanted to know which protein factors in cells are activated by FGFR3 and then transform normal cells to highly malignant cells. We identified Ribosomal S6 kinase 2 (RSK2), which is a protein factor that mediates signaling in cells as critical in downstream signaling of FGFR3 in myeloma cells."

Dr. Chen and his colleagues are the first to discover a mechanism to "turn-on" RSK2 by FGFR3. FGFR3 impacts downstream proteins through phosphorylation at special "tyrosine" sites.

"We found that FGFR3 directly phosphorylates RSK2, which is a critical step in the process to activate (turn-on) RSK2," says Dr. Chen.

The researchers observed that elimination of RSK2 proteins or shutting down RSK2 activity blocks FGFR3 transformation signaling in myeloma cells. This means FGFR3 requires RSK2 to transform normal cells.

"This is a beautiful model," says Dr. Chen. "We are able to mark the connection between the oncogenic FGFR3 and its downstream protein kinase RSK2, which plays a critical role in regulation of cell cycle and survival. These findings extend our understanding of pathogenesis of multiple myeloma in a signaling basis."

Collaborators on the project include Roberto Polakiewicz, PhD, and Ting-Lei Gu, PhD, both of Cell Signaling Technologies (CST), developers of the "PhosphoScan" technology, which enables investigators to identify hundreds to thousands of phosphorylated sequences and observe the global state of protein tyrosine phosphorylation in cells and tissues.

"Using this technology," says Dr. Chen, "we identified RSK2 as a critical downstream signaling protein effector of FGFR3 in myeloma cells." Other authors include researchers from the University of California at San Francisco, Harvard Medical School, Mayo Clinic and Novartis Pharma AG.

Dr. Chen and his colleagues also tested a drug called fmk that was designed by co-author Jack Taunton, PhD, at UCSF to specifically target RSK2 in treatment of human malignant myeloma cells from laboratory culture or primary samples from multiple myeloma patients, and saw that fmk effectively kills t(4;14) myeloma cells with abnormal over-expression of FGFR3.

"This study shows the potential utility of drugs that block the downstream effectors of mutant tyrosine kinases, and that these drugs are opening more doors to treating hematologic malignancies and cancers," explains Dr. Chen. In addition to the t(4;14) in multiple myeloma that is caused by abnormal over-expression of FGFR3, abnormality of FGFR3 has also been identified in human bladder and cervical cancers. The findings suggest, the authors write, that targeting RSK2 with RSK inhibitors such as fmk may be effective in treating t(4;14) multiple myeloma, as well as other diseases and cancers where mutant FGFR3 is the culprit.

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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.

About Emory Winship Cancer Institute: As a leader in cancer patient care and research, Emory University's Winship Cancer Institute (EWCI) offers new therapies not usually available outside university-affiliated medical centers, including nearly 150 clinical trials for all types and stages of cancer. The EWCI serves as the coordinating center for a vast array of resources in medical, surgical and radiation oncology, diagnostic imaging, and the subspecialties of cancer care throughout Emory University -from blood and bone marrow stem cell transplants to internationally recognized breast reconstruction. For more information, visit: http://www.cancer.emory.edu/.

Source: Vincent Dollard Emory University
Article Date: 12 Sep 2007 - 8:00 PST