As there isn’t a thread for discussing healthcare treatments I thought it was worth creating one to share this.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-67870595 

I found it a bit of an emotional roller coaster to be honest.  On the one hand it’s inspiring that they found a new, very promising treatment for a very aggressive cancer) on the other it’s a really sad human story.

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As there isn’t a thread for discussing healthcare treatments I thought it was worth creating one to share this.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-67870595 

I found it a bit of an emotional roller coaster to be honest.  On the one hand it’s inspiring that they found a new, very promising treatment for a very aggressive cancer) on the other it’s a really sad human story.

Fascinating article and it would be amazing if the treatment does work. 

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Fascinating article and it would be amazing if the treatment does work. 

Yes, it would.  I think there’s been a trend towards ‘personalised treatments’ which are tailored to deal with the specific ailment using the body’s own defence mechanisms.  As I understand it the results are encouraging- but inevitably the cost of treatment is higher.

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The new element of this is its use for Brain cancer and melanoma. My next door neighbour has been receivibf immunotherapy for kidney cancer for a few years now - at (he says) about £1000 per month. He's still not well but he gets by.

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Fascinating article and it would be amazing if the treatment does work. 

Having lost my Mother to brest cancer last month, any hope that a treatment will/could work is a plus. Sadly it was to late for my mum when the cancer was diagnosed. 

Having lost my Mother to brest cancer last month, any hope that a treatment will/could work is a plus. Sadly it was to late for my mum when the cancer was diagnosed. 

Really sorry for your loss.  I lost my mother to breast cancer 18 years ago; she had it twice when she was younger and apparently it just lurked for about 25 years. Towards the end the chemo was horrific and didn’t work.

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The other sidelight on this is that I was listening to an abridged version of a book by Prof Tim Spector (could it have been 'The Science of Eating Well') in which he was reported as writing that by middle age all of us are harbouring hundreds of microtumours, kept in check by the immune system - and occasionally one gets away. If this has been a widely held viewpoint, it's surprising that we haven't seen more of immunotherapy earlier.

FWIW, it's no surprise to me. It's always seemed unlikely on statistical grounds that you just get cancer in one cell on one occasion, and then it's deadly. There was also the recent death of the wife of a friend with cancer in which the immune system, instead of attacking the cancer, turned into an auto-immune condition in which the brain cells were attacked with predictable and highly distressing results. But again, confirmation that the immune system has an important part to play everywhere at all times.

(Paraneoplastic Encephalomyelitis if you want to look it up)

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Having lost my Mother to brest cancer last month, any hope that a treatment will/could work is a plus. Sadly it was to late for my mum when the cancer was diagnosed. 

Sorry to hear that. I just lost a friend to pancreatic cancer last month, all happened far too quick. Such a nasty disease.

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The other sidelight on this is that I was listening to an abridged version of a book by Prof Tim Spector (could it have been 'The Science of Eating Well') in which he was reported as writing that by middle age all of us are harbouring hundreds of microtumours, kept in check by the immune system - and occasionally one gets away. If this has been a widely held viewpoint, it's surprising that we haven't seen more of immunotherapy earlier.

FWIW, it's no surprise to me. It's always seemed unlikely on statistical grounds that you just get cancer in one cell on one occasion, and then it's deadly. There was also the recent death of the wife of a friend with cancer in which the immune system, instead of attacking the cancer, turned into an auto-immune condition in which the brain cells were attacked with predictable and highly distressing results. But again, confirmation that the immune system has an important part to play everywhere at all times.

(Paraneoplastic Encephalomyelitis if you want to look it up)

Interesting that you have posted this, since it is exactly my view of cancer.  The immune system works 100% of the time until, for whatever reason, it doesn’t.

Also, when my mother’s cancer returned the first sign was a malfunctioning of her immune system, which started attacking her major muscles. She had to take strong steroids to counteract it, which then led to the cancer diagnosis: her GP had a hunch it was the cause.

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Sorry to hear that. I just lost a friend to pancreatic cancer last month, all happened far too quick. Such a nasty disease.

Yes, it’s said to be one of the worst. Like you I lost a friend to it. I saw him one Xmas and he was complaining about a persistently sore back.  Next thing was the bolt from the blue. From diagnosis to funeral in 3-4 months. Horrible. He was only in his 40s.

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Sorry to hear that. I just lost a friend to pancreatic cancer last month, all happened far too quick. Such a nasty disease.

Thank you, and Gandalf 
 
Was the same for my mum very quick and brutal. She had passed away a month after diagnosis. 

An interesting snippet from New Scientist.
"People with artery plaques containing microplastics were about four times as likely to have a heart attack or stroke as those with plastic-free plaques"
Microplastics linked to a greater risk of heart attack and stroke
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2420674-microplastics-linked-to-a-greater-risk-of-heart-attack-and-stroke/ 

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An interesting snippet from New Scientist.
"People with artery plaques containing microplastics were about four times as likely to have a heart attack or stroke as those with plastic-free plaques"
Microplastics linked to a greater risk of heart attack and stroke
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2420674-microplastics-linked-to-a-greater-risk-of-heart-attack-and-stroke/ 

There seems to be a lot of effort going into trying to explain the sudden increase in heart attacks and strokes without considering the real reason.

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There seems to be a lot of effort going into trying to explain the sudden increase in heart attacks and strokes without considering the real reason.

I often wonder what point you are making in your understated way, four. This is a current article on a topic of interest to many. Surely you can manage to discuss it? Would you explain or elaborate, please..

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The other sidelight on this is that I was listening to an abridged version of a book by Prof Tim Spector (could it have been 'The Science of Eating Well') in which he was reported as writing that by middle age all of us are harbouring hundreds of microtumours, kept in check by the immune system - and occasionally one gets away. If this has been a widely held viewpoint, it's surprising that we haven't seen more of immunotherapy earlier.

FWIW, it's no surprise to me. It's always seemed unlikely on statistical grounds that you just get cancer in one cell on one occasion, and then it's deadly. There was also the recent death of the wife of a friend with cancer in which the immune system, instead of attacking the cancer, turned into an auto-immune condition in which the brain cells were attacked with predictable and highly distressing results. But again, confirmation that the immune system has an important part to play everywhere at all times.

(Paraneoplastic Encephalomyelitis if you want to look it up)

I'm obviously no expert but I always assumed that a cell had to go through a number of changes before it became cancerous and each change was less likely than the previous. We have billions (?) of cells so statistically the chances of one cell become cancerous rise as we age.

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I'm obviously no expert but I always assumed that a cell had to go through a number of changes before it became cancerous and each change was less likely than the previous. We have billions (?) of cells so statistically the chances of one cell become cancerous rise as we age.

That's OK as a starting point, West - but the story is more complex and dynamic.  This short piece by the Institute of Cancer Research sets out the scene kindly for us non-medics on various topics. This one explains RAS oncogenes:
"Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research led the way in identifying some of the key genes that cause cancers – called oncogenes. Crucially, we discovered the important oncogene NRAS, and the mechanism by which members of the RAS family of oncogenes cause cells to become cancerous."

How cells become cancerous
https://www.icr.ac.uk/about-us/our-achievements/our-scientific-discoveries/how-cells-become-cancerous 

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There seems to be a lot of effort going into trying to explain the sudden increase in heart attacks and strokes without considering the real reason.

Rabbit hole alert. Please take your nonsense elsewhere rather than polluting yet another thread.

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That's OK as a starting point, West - but the story is more complex and dynamic.  This short piece by the Institute of Cancer Research sets out the scene kindly for us non-medics on various topics. This one explains RAS oncogenes:
"Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research led the way in identifying some of the key genes that cause cancers – called oncogenes. Crucially, we discovered the important oncogene NRAS, and the mechanism by which members of the RAS family of oncogenes cause cells to become cancerous."

How cells become cancerous
https://www.icr.ac.uk/about-us/our-achievements/our-scientific-discoveries/how-cells-become-cancerous 

Thanks for that link; very interesting.  Aren’t our body’s mechanisms extraordinarily complex?  Yet something apparently very minor malfunctioning can set in train huge consequences.  It reminds me in a way about the research into how viruses hijack our cells.

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Thanks for that link; very interesting.  Aren’t our body’s mechanisms extraordinarily complex?  Yet something apparently very minor malfunctioning can set in train huge consequences.  It reminds me in a way about the research into how viruses hijack our cells.

So true, When it works, it works like a well oiled machine. When it decides to throw a spat, it's a PITA.

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There seems to be a lot of effort going into trying to explain the sudden increase in heart attacks and strokes without considering the real reason.

Please bestow your great knowledge on us.

 

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