Cancer Therapy with Radioactive Scorpion Venom

BostonBTS writes "Researchers from TransMolecular, Inc. have used chlorotoxin -- a component of giant yellow scorpion venom -- to target radioactive treatments for the deadly brain cancer glioma. From the article: 'In the study, 18 patients first had surgery to remove malignant gliomas, a lethal kind of brain tumor. Then doctors injected their brains with a solution of radioactive iodine and TM-601, the synthetic protein. The solution bound almost exclusively to leftover tumor cells, suggesting that it could be combined with chemotherapy to fight cancer. Furthermore, two study patients were still alive nearly three years after the treatment.' Their paper is slated for publication in the August issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology."

Comments

Waste of money

[fuchsite]

Why is the government funding research which only benefits a few people when we still lack a space program that will save the whole species if a massive asteroid hits us? Where are the priorities? This is worse than spending money on new drinking-water wells in India when children lack basic things like laptops!

So many terrible jokes here...

[patio11]

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Giant yellow Israeli scorpions live in the deserts of the Middle East and grow to about 4 inches long.
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Its a little known fact that giant yellow Israeli scorpions and giant yellow Arab scorpions can actually be told apart, using the following field science experiments:
1) Make jokes about it. If you're still living, it was Israeli.
2) Shoot a missile at it from an open field. Wait 20 minutes. If you're still living, it was Arab.
3) Induce the scorpion to sting someone. This isn't very hard for either variety. Take care, both are pretty lethal. Turn on the television. If Kofi Annan is condemning the scorpion, it is Israeli.
4) Leave the scorpion alone in a room with $1 billion of UN food aid, marked "Do not touch -- earmarked for poor scorpion orphans". If the room is empty when you return and the scorpion's swiss bank account registered a transaction, it was Arab.
5) I'll leave this to your imagination, but suffice it to say that Israeli scorpions have a distinctive use for their pinchers. Really, you're probably better off just asking him to sting you -- it will hurt less.