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Measles Virus Puts Woman's Cancer Into Remission
clm1970 sends news that researchers from Mayo Clinic have successfully put a patient's cancer into remission using a modified measles virus. The researchers are quick to note that further trials are needed to determine whether these results are repeatable. Here are the two academic papers.
"Multiple myeloma in a 49-year-old woman seemed to disappear after she received an extremely high-dose injection of a measles virus engineered to kill the cancer cells. Multiple myeloma affects immune cells called plasma cells, which concentrate in the soft tissue, or marrow, inside bones. A second woman also with multiple myeloma began responding to the therapy, but her cancer eventually returned. Four other patients who received the high-dose therapy had no response. .. [Dr. Stephen Russell] and colleagues believe the two women who showed some response had few or no circulating measles antibodies, which might eliminate the engineered virus before it has a chance to kill the cancer cells. The therapy will now enter a mid-stage trial to see whether more patients with low circulating antibodies respond to high-doses of the virus, he said."
This has to stop before it gets out of control
How we are going to give adults autism too.
So now the MMR vaccine causes cancer, as well as autism?
We've know about this technology since the middle ages. Good to see it's still being researched.
I just can't help asking myself, What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
now we know how the government fine tuned cancer for the masses
Sure, but can corporations make money from the possible cancer treatments?
If the answer is 'no' or 'not enough money', time to shut down the cancer research funding.
I know what happens now ... Vampires, end of world, bad acting, dead dogs and lots of dodgy special effect monsters.
And Emma Thompson. So not all bad ...
(R)ule in Hell or (S)erve in Heaven [R]?
"Hi Im Will Smith! You might know me from such shows as Fresh Prince, Bad Boys and I am Legend ...."
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Apart from all the misinformation being spread by the first half dozen anti-immunization posters, you did notice that these patients probably had otherwise incurable cancers, so any reasonable chance of a cure is worth taking.
Multiple myeloma is forever.
My father's fighting multiple myeloma. He beat it into remission once with a marrow treatment, and after 5 years (which is about par for the course), it came back. Enough chemo pills to bankrupt a horse later, he's teetering on the brink of remission #2, but likely going to be taking a prophylactic/maintenance dose of chemo drugs until the next time it comes out of remission - which might be the cycle he's on for the rest of his life (which we now measure in +-5 year blocks).
There's a certain point in the process at which a painful year of chemo treatments or inpatient marrow treatments gambling for a 5-year remission in a 70-year old becomes a losing proposition, but knowing you can possibly press the snooze button on cancer through normal methods enough times that perhaps, perhaps, just get your Super Measles! shot someday for your next 5-years snooze is promising.
Here's hoping.
"...when wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death."
As a junior doctor in my first year of work, this fills me with such hope and joy. This isn't just cancer, its multiple myeloma. A cancer of the cells in your bone marrow which forces a single type of immune cell to go into overdrive, pouring out malformed antibodies. It ruins kidneys and breaks down bone, Google 'pepper pot skull'. A ferocious, fearsome disease. I'll always remember being a med student and seeing a patient with a particularly bad case talking to his too young kids about how the next bone marrow transplant was going to save his life for good and thinking to myself in abject sadness "No it won't." It was the first time I realised that disease doesn't discriminate, that disease is cruel, and that it kills good people and that there's nothing I can do about that.
Then people make things like this. When I look at the new monoclonal antibodies we're making, these virus therapies and miraculous molecules like imatinib I'm forced to wonder.. What death sentences today will be the inconveniences of tomorrow? I'm humbled by the genius of those who make these things for me to prescribe.
..Wasn't this how the new I am Legend started?
Why can't the headline start with "ENGINEERED Measles Virus [...]". Be accurate.
Why the fuck would you engineer a virus from a virus that everyone has been immunized for? Which genius thought that was a good idea? Why not use a virus that the immune system has difficulty fighting off and won't be purged? Herpes perhaps?
Those other four people's lives would have been saved if they only hadn't had antibodies against measles. Their MMR vaccination rendered this revolutionary, lifesaving therapy ineffective.
There's a moral here.
Coincidence?
It's interesting that the treatment is hypothesized to have failed for people who already had measles antibodies. Perhaps the "extinct" viruses the CDC keeps around might be good for engineering future treatments.
And here everyone thought the antivaxxers were crazy and dangerous and no good would come of their efforts!!!
Here's your Myeloma 101. It is incurable. Still. The Engineered, very high level Measles Vaccine is only good for those patients who have run out of all other options- have very,very little immune system and it still not proven as anything more than a treatment--She did develop another tumor more recently. But yes, it is better than being told, " Go Home and Put your things in order". That speech is the one the hard-working Myeloma doctors hate to give and they have to much too often.
The myeloma cell is a cancer of the plasma cell. Let me say this on how tough it is. If you chemo and irradiate your bones at high level for 7days, the only thing left is bone, plasma cells and.....the myeloma which doesn't know how to die (apoptosis) . It dissolves your bones throughout your body, flooding calcium killing your kidneys, and causes imaginable anemia. If you are lucky enough to survive that it will destroy your immune system. One friend's wife (a nurse) upon hearing that I was diagnosed with it in 2009, said " That is a most terrible way to die, you would wish to get Ebola instead". Not far off.
I have been through radiation treatments, two (2) stem cell treatments and the type of Novel Agents that the other post mentioned about his dad.
I wish him all the best. I gotta be a realist, but optimism springs eternal every week I go to my experimental infusion of a new antibody. The amazing hard work of the researchers and doctors coupled with an positive-thinking myeloma community keeps me going. And my wife, who has put up with more than anyone should endure.
Be Positive!
Mike
This type of research, involving infectious disease and tumor remission is probably at least sixty years old. And this isn't the latest, best iteration, either.
I will let you do the research, although you didn't apparently/.
But Autism cures Cancer.
It's the Rubella that screws up the balance. Need to contract Rabies to fix that. The Cancer will kill off the Rabies.
There was another step, but the guy demonstrating it died before he told me what it was.
Autopsy showed he died of natural causes.
WTF is with the 'publish via news report' for useless preliminary results!?!
RTFA: *1* person responded well to the treatment (out of *6*); *1* person 'began responding but ... the cancer returned'; and, *4* people had no response to the treatment.
*6* whole people of which *4* showed no response at all and *1* had a recurrence; and the headline is "Measles Virus Puts Woman's Cancer Into Remission" as if this is a miracle cure.
5/6 is piss poor results; we'll keep the Nobel Prize on standby ;(
My non-existing god, she must feel horrible. Normal cancer treatment isn't nice to begin with and then this virus on top of that. I wish her strength.
-- Cheers!
So getting the measles vaccination can stop you getting a cancer cure in the future... Although I suppose recovering from actually getting measles would give you the same antibodies.
I beat you to the punch DAYS ago on this http://developers.slashdot.org...
* :)
Still - "Great minds, think alike..."
APK
P.S.=> The reason I noted it there in that link was since I use a direct quote of Emma Thompson (playing Dr. Alice Krippen) during my posts on hosts files @ their termination QUITE regularly of:
"The premise is, quite simple: Take something designed by nature & reprogram it to make it work FOR the body, rather than against it..." - Dr. Alice Krippen "I AM LEGEND" ...
... apk
"Eat For Health - The Anti-Cancer Diet" https://www.drfuhrman.com/libr...
Especially mushrooms as discussed there...
Also look into iodine, vitamin D, and exercise (including to keep the lymph moving so it can do its job). And good sleep and various ways to relax (friends, music, laughter, nature walks, pets,etc.-- see Andrew Weil and also Blue Zones) and put the nervous system in a health-promoting state of mind as far as controlling the immune system.
And also avoiding toxins/radiation in food and the environment (including consumer products).
We need to learn about the role of some compounds or organisms found in moldy fruit and pond water (and mushrooms, as above, and also various herbs) that may also help the body deal with cancer. Our too clean environments may have their costs, since our bodies are adapted to live in a certain context of threats and opportunities.
Fasting can also sometimes help prevent cancer, since the body can selectively get rid of problematical cells first. Fasting also makes chemotherapy less bad because normal cells go into a sort of resting phase during fasting whereas the cancer cells keep growing and are more exposed to the chemotherapy toxins (not that the benefits of most chemotherapy seem worth the costs from what I read -- although some treatments may be worth it).
People are always getting cancerous cells, and most times their immune systems get rid of them. We nee do do what we can to boost the immune system (nutrition etc.) and also reduce the frequency of cells going rogue (toxins).
That said, sure it would be good to have better treatments for when people's immune systems fail to regulate their cancer cells. As you said, it is heart breaking to watch such a progression. And as Dr. Fuhrman says, once cancer is detected as a macro scale, it is iffy to get rid of if by means known today in most cases. So yes, better magic bullets would be great. But what we can do right now is try to minimize the need for magic bullets.
My guess as to why this measles treatment works is that cancer cells have shifted so much of their cellular pathways to replication that they are unable to defend at all against the measles virus, compared to other cells. This probably either causes them to self-destruct or tags them in some way that triggers the immune system. This effect is probably not specific to the measles virus but may well apply to any of many broad classes of virus.
Good luck with your career. Maybe someday something like this will take off (my proposal for better software for medical sensemaking):
https://www.newschallenge.org/...
http://www.changemakers.com/di...
http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
http://soylentnews.org/comment...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...
http://www.damninteresting.com...
"Furthermore, both radiotherapy and chemotherapy have an immune-suppressing side-effect. Since both treatments kill the rapidly dividing cells of the immune system along with the rapidly dividing cancer cells, both can be used together if care is taken. But immune-stimulating Coley's Toxins work entirely differently, and their effect would be cancelled out if used at the same time as high-dose immunosuppressant chemo- or radiotherapy. It became an either/or situation-- and in the end, the fashionable new treatments won out over Coleyâ(TM)s fiddly reworking of an ancient 'natural' remedy. "
Some other suggestions by me here (primarily nutritional, but also on fasting helping with chemotherapy):
http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
More on mushrooms and preventing cancer as also mentioned:
http://articles.mercola.com/si...
It is hard to know who to trust in the cancer industry to find, as you suggest, the best individualized treatment. It's certainly true that people selling alternative products and books (including Furhman, mentioned in my other post) have a conflict of interest. In general, the entire field of oncology is also sadly full of conflict of interest because oncologists make so much money by doing treatments.
https://www.burtongoldberg.com...
"Here is a shocking fact you most likely did not know: Unlike other kinds of doctors, cancer doctors (oncologists) are allowed to profit from the sale of chemotherapy drugs. In fact, most of the annual income oncologists earn comes from the profit that they make from selling these highly toxic drugs to their patients."
And: ... Many oncologists vehemently deny being influenced by this financial conflict of interest. But such denials defy both logic and data. Oncologists would have to be superhuman not to be influenced, at least unconsciously, by such strong incentives. After all, there is often no single "best" way to treat any given tumor, and there's often good reason to believe that expensive new therapies might be better than older, cheaper treatments. In the face of such uncertainty, how could oncologists avoid being influenced by the knowledge that those promising expensive new treatments also help generate so much income?"
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/20...
"And that is where oncologic decision making gets really messy. Because in the United States, at least, many oncologists make a good deal of their income selling drugs to their patients.
Integrative alternatives:
http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/PA...
Regardless of the future, I wish you the best in making the most of each day like this celebrity with cancer:
http://www.reuters.com/article...
http://www.people.com/people/a...
"Resolved to face her last days with courage and humor, "I don't think of dying," says the actress, 73, who previously battled lung cancer in 2009. "I think of being here now.""
Good luck!
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
The CDC reported a measles outbreak in a 100% documented vaccinated population. Studies show that children who received vaccinations were 14 times more likely to become learning disabled and develop asthma. There is virtually no asthma in unvaccinated children. Unvaccinated people are healthier, have higher disease resistance, and recover more rapidly from illness. There have never been any saftey studies done on vaccines that would meet the appropriate criteria. Donald Meserlian P.E. VOSI Chairman
“In 1978 a childhood immunisation initiative was begun. Individual states passed legislation requiring proof of immunisation for school entry at 5 and 6 years of age. They mandated vaccination and it resulted in a three fold increase in the reported incidents of whooping cough and indeed children developed whooping cough from the vaccines.” Dr. Vera Schiebner
“And it was clearly demonstrated that the only people who got smallpox twice were the vaccinated, and that there are far more cases of smallpox among the vaccinated than the unvaccinated, and these statistics are available.” Dr. Archie Kalokerinos, M.D. PhD
“In 1954 the Americans pushed forward a polio campaign. What happened within the first year was that to their horror they found that particularily one type of the polio vaccine was causing polio. Because the vaccine is not a killed virus, your giving polio in a partly killed form. They got rid of that particular type of the vaccine. Then they realized that all the forms of the polio vaccine caused polio. So what they did is redefine it. They only called it polio if you still had paralysis after 60 days. Now in most cases polio paralysis resolves after a few days. So that's how the statistics of polio went down. By changing the definitions.” Dr. David Ritchie
“Polio has not been eradicated by vaccination, it is lurking behind a redefinition and new diagnostic names like viral or aseptic meningitis...According to one of the 1997 issues of the MMWR there are some 30,000 to 50,000 cases of viral meningitis in the United States alone. That's where all those 30,000 - 50,000 cases of polio disappeared after the introduction of mass vaccination” Dr. Vera Schiebner
From a new campaign I just saw yesterday on the immune boosting theme: http://www.standup2cancer.org/...
---
The battle against cancer is hard fought and hard won, and often treatments are as debilitating as the disease itself. But inside each of us is the power to fight cancer: our immune system.
Stand Up To Cancer and the Cancer Research Institute have joined forces in one of the most promising new research areas, using the science of immunology to get our bodies' own natural defenses to fight the disease. Immunotherapy has the potential to significantly change the treatment of cancer as we know it. Stand Up with us. Together, we can impact millions of lives.
Immunotherapy is a new class of cancer treatment that works to harness the innate powers of the immune system to fight cancer.
From the preventive vaccine for cervical cancer to the first therapy ever proven to extend the lives of patients with metastatic melanoma, immunology has already led to major treatment breakthroughs for a number of cancers.
Because of the immune system's unique properties, these therapies may hold greater potential than current treatment approaches to fight cancer more powerfully, to offer longer-term protection against the disease, to come with fewer side effects, and to benefit more patients with more cancer types.
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Cancer seems to be a divide-to-conquer set of disorders. like so many things it is many diseases lumped together by common symptoms, but with radically different causes. Think of "consumption", "old age" and "wasting" once being legitimate causes of death. This is one more step toward understanding (and curing) cancers! Plus,retrospective (rather than prophylactic) treatment by vaccines is an exciting and relatively new approach to combating disease. Trailoring a virus to target specific types of cancer cell is exquisite. It is more personalised than a mass-produced drug. A drug is made to attack things that cancers are likely to have in common, whereas with modified virus there is potential to sample a particular cancer, then make a virus that specifically attacks those cells. So cool