Cancer Gift

[jubei33]

Here's a pic of the two compounds in question. Notice the key differences in red and their very close similarity. It was developed in the 40s for cancer treatment and is used even today. This drug was first developed by a little known Indian scientist named Yellapragada Subbarao, who did a lot of very important work in early biochemistry, but sadly went mostly unnoticed.

Rectify this injustice mofos! Tell others of this sorrowful tale.

[jubei33]

What exactly is a tyrosine kinases and what does it do?

Read more here....

[jspeedy]

I've avoided joining this thread because I feel it is way over my head, but as a Radiation Therapist I feel have more of a grasp on the subject than most people. This thread has mainly focused on chemo treatments but what does the OP think about radiation treatments for caner and other therapies? Often times chemo is used with radiation and surgery to treat cancer but I don't recall seeing it mentioned much here.

In addition diseases such as leukemia were once frequently treated with radiation but are now less commonly treated. Does the OP think other forms of radiation therapy will ultimately be replaced by chemo?

[jubei33]

Yes, I feel they will ultimately be replaced with more effective and target specific chemo therapies designed from knowledge gleaned from molecular biology. Perhaps in the future these will then be replaced with RNA-DNA based therapies that target the broken genes in question and then, rather than remission, we could be looking at a specific cure as its thought of in the common parlance. On that note, we should be on the lookout for micro RNA based diagnostics and, if we're so lucky, therapies very soon.

[jubei33]

As a radiation therapist, what do you feel are the major challenges of your profession in the next 10 years? How are the current best practices changing with the times and how are they improving the treatment of patients?

[jspeedy]

As a radiation therapist, what do you feel are the major challenges of your profession in the next 10 years? How are the current best practices changing with the times and how are they improving the treatment of patients?

Challenges for the next 10 years? I'm sure as newer treatments develop radiation therapy (xrt)will have to find more reasons/ways to stay competitive.

For now xrt improvements are being made in dose conformity and treatment localization via imaging (ultrasound, xray,pet/ct). For example, in the 90s a prostate was treated with 4 radiation fields AP/PA and 2 laterals (for laymen one from the front,one from the back and two from the sides. Now there are up to 18 imrt fields (intensity modulated radiation therapy) moving leaves in the path of the beam turn a straight open beam into beamlets to deliver precise dose to a specific area. Because the radiation dose if more confined more radiation can be given and there a fewer side effects. Image guidance is also used daily to ensure the treatment volume is perfectly alligned.

Cyber knife/gamma knife offers non invasive options for tumors where surgery isn't an option.

Proton therapy although very expensive to provide uses proton particles rather than x-rays. The bragg peak of the protons eliminates exit dose, this makes it possible to treat tumors near vital organs with reduced side effects.

I doubt xrt will be obsolete within my life time. It seems many cancer treatments involve a three pronged approach of surgery, chemo, and xrt used in combination. Certain cancers are less sensitive to radiation than others, I believe it's the same with chemo. Radiation therapy is a localized treatment option rather than a systemic one like chemo. I can get into more specifics if necessary but I don't want to bore everyone. I'd be interested to learn if there are any cancers that were previously treated with xrt that now don't. The only one I'm aware of off the top of my head is leukemia, TBI (total body irradiation) used be an option followed by bone marrow transplant. I believe chemo is now the mainstay for leukemia.

[ChenPengFi]

Thought this might be appropriate here:

Jack Andraka, the Teen Prodigy of Pancreatic Cancer
A high school sophomore won the youth achievement Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award for inventing a new method to detect a lethal cancer

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/scienc...179996151.html

Video here:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/multim...JATqCyyjiopO42