One Drug to Shrink All Tumors

[n2doc]

by Sarah C. P. Williams on 26 March 2012, 3:05 PM

A single drug can shrink or cure human breast, ovary, colon, bladder, brain, liver, and prostate tumors that have been transplanted into mice, researchers have found. The treatment, an antibody that blocks a "do not eat" signal normally displayed on tumor cells, coaxes the immune system to destroy the cancer cells.

A decade ago, biologist Irving Weissman of the Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California, discovered that leukemia cells produce higher levels of a protein called CD47 than do healthy cells. CD47, he and other scientists found, is also displayed on healthy blood cells; it's a marker that blocks the immune system from destroying them as they circulate. Cancers take advantage of this flag to trick the immune system into ignoring them. In the past few years, Weissman's lab showed that blocking CD47 with an antibody cured some cases of lymphomas and leukemias in mice by stimulating the immune system to recognize the cancer cells as invaders. Now, he and colleagues have shown that the CD47-blocking antibody may have a far wider impact than just blood cancers.

"What we've shown is that CD47 isn't just important on leukemias and lymphomas," says Weissman. "It's on every single human primary tumor that we tested." Moreover, Weissman's lab found that cancer cells always had higher levels of CD47 than did healthy cells. How much CD47 a tumor made could predict the survival odds of a patient.

To determine whether blocking CD47 was beneficial, the scientists exposed tumor cells to macrophages, a type of immune cell, and anti-CD47 molecules in petri dishes. Without the drug, the macrophages ignored the cancerous cells. But when the CD47 was present, the macrophages engulfed and destroyed cancer cells from all tumor types.

more
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/03/one-drug-to-shrink-all-tumors.html?ref=hp

It would be incredible if this holds up in humans!

[xchrom]

1. Du rec. Nt

[saras]

2. And then we'll find out what happens when our immune system attacks ALL our cells...

They're just not going to let go of this model, are they?

Cancer just happens, industrial pollutants have no effect on it.
All cancer is fundamentally the same, so there must be a single magic anti-cancer drug.
If we find this drug, then
A. we can stop worrying about carcinogens, and industry and business can be much more profitable
B. we can stop the wealthy from dying of cancer, while increasing the amount of carcinogenic exposure, and let the poor fend for themselves.

Yep, we need that "magic bullet" single cancer drug. And it's best if it's really expensive, too, and can't be made cheaper.

[The Doctor.]

9. "blocking CD47 with an antibody cured some cases of lymphomas and leukemias in mice"

I understand your point, but there must have been a reason the immune systems of the mice differentiated.

[freshwest]

10. +1

[jeff47]

14. Cancer does, indeed, just happen.

Cancer does, indeed, just happen. Pollutants can increase the rate at which cancer happens. But you will die from cancer if nothing else kills you first. Even if you lived your life in a perfectly pollution-free bubble.

So treating it, via one 'magic bullet' or thousands of separate bullets, is kinda important....and also ultimately futile - the same linear DNA that inevitably leads to cancer will still kill us, just in different ways.

[MineralMan]

3. Another interesting area of research. I hope something good comes from it.

If they cured some mice, it may move on to other trials. As always, the problem is keeping the immune system from attacking normal cells.

[Boxerfan]

4. Pot has been shown to inhibit/reduce tumor growth

Just sayin maybe it's not something nature hasn't already provided for...

[dmr]

5. This would be incredible. I have a cancerous tumor the surgeon

says is too large to safely remove. I'm on a med to shrink it & to stop it from spreading even further.

Next week I find out if it's been working. Fingers are crossed.

[n2doc]

6. Good Luck- Hope it works n/t

[DiehardLiberal]

7. My fingers are crossed for you, too!! All the best... nt

[Hoyt]

8. Please keep us updated. Fingers and toes are crossed.

[freshwest]

11. Good luck, hope it works.

[gademocrat7]

12. Good luck!

Hope it is working.

[sorefeet]

13. think positive dmr

I know three people that those meds are shrinking the heck out of their tumors. They do work

[dmr]

15. Thank you, everyone. The anxiety of waiting is

killing me because I know that the results are in but I have to wait until Monday. I took a shot of vodka earlier hoping to calm down, but it didn't work. I'm not normally like this, so it's hard to take. (My oncologist is out of town <sigh&gt

Thank you again, everyone.

[mopinko]

16. have another shot.

one won't help. silly.

[dmr]

17. Sounds like a plan