| Joined: Mar 2008 Posts: 3,082 Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts) | OP Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts) Joined: Mar 2008 Posts: 3,082 | Once again the OCF News had an article that helps me understand my own battle with cancer. Today's story on the Evolution of Cancer explained in more detail what my RO, MO, and ENT had told me about my cancer coming back: your tumor had a high percentage of cells resistant to radiation and targeted chemo. As the article explains [quote]The authors point out that for most patients with advanced cancers � even when there is a well-known target and a highly specific drug � response to therapy is fleeting owing to the evolution and proliferation of a resistant population of cancer cells.
While targeted therapies have been among the most recent approaches to treating cancer, the authors suggest that the vast changes in the genetics of tumors via mutations reduce the effectiveness of targeted therapies and are a reason why targeted therapies cease to work.
�The emergence of resistance is predictable and inevitable as a fundamental property of carcinogenesis,� Gatenby said. �However, this fundamental fact is commonly ignored in the design of treatment strategies. The emergence of drug resistance is rarely, if ever, dealt with until it occurs.�[/quote] Like the Washington Post says about subscribing to it : [quote]If you don't get OCF News, you don't get it. [/quote] Thank you Brian & Sheldon for OCF News Charm
Last edited by Charm2017; 06-22-2012 01:16 PM. Reason: typos
65 yr Old Frack Stage IV BOT T3N2M0 HPV 16+ 2007:72GY IMRT(40) 8 ERBITUX No PEG 2008:CANCER BACK Salvage Surgery 25GY-CyberKnife(5) 3 Carboplatin Apaghia /G button 2012: CANCER BACK -left tonsilar fossa 40GY-CyberKnife(5) 3 Carboplatin Passed away 4-29-13
| | | | Joined: Jul 2011 Posts: 945 "Above & Beyond" Member (500+ posts) | "Above & Beyond" Member (500+ posts) Joined: Jul 2011 Posts: 945 | I was especially interested in the Gardisil / Adverse effects story from Forbes - I read Science Daily ... um, daily but never would have picked uo the Forbes article. Great job, Brian and Sheldon!
CG to husband - SCC Tonsil T1N2M0 HPV+ Never Smoker First symptoms 7/2010, DX 12/2010 TX 40 IRMT (1.8 gy) + 10 Cetuximab PET Scans 6/2011 + 3/2012 clear, 5 year physical exam clear; chest CT's clear of cancer. On thyroid pills. Life is good.
| | | | Joined: Mar 2002 Posts: 4,912 Likes: 52 OCF Founder Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts) | OCF Founder Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts) Joined: Mar 2002 Posts: 4,912 Likes: 52 | While I read Forbes occasionally ( can't ditch my old business background), I have been communicating with Matt Herper for some time. He is the one science writer that comes to things in an unbiased, and very easy to understand manner. My favorite article of his had to do with Bill Gates and how his "outlier ideas" about the health problems in Africa, are completely changing our understanding of childhood deaths there, and what he is doing about it for not so much $ per life saved. http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2011/11/02/the-second-coming-of-bill-gates/
Brian, stage 4 oral cancer survivor. OCF Founder and Director. The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant. | | | | Joined: Nov 2006 Posts: 2,671 Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts) | Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts) Joined: Nov 2006 Posts: 2,671 | What a great article about Bill Gates and his ability to shift course in his thinking in order to solve problems! I wish more of our politicians had the same insight and ability.
Anne-Marie CG to son, Paul (age 33, non-smoker) SCC Stage 2, Surgery 9/21/06, 1/6 tongue Rt.side removed, +48 lymph nodes neck. IMRTx28 completed 12/19/06. CT scan 7/8/10 Cancer-free! ("spot" on lung from scar tissue related to Pneumonia.)
| | | | Joined: May 2010 Posts: 638 "OCF Down Under" "Above & Beyond" Member (500+ posts) | "OCF Down Under" "Above & Beyond" Member (500+ posts) Joined: May 2010 Posts: 638 | [quote]�The emergence of resistance is predictable and inevitable as a fundamental property of carcinogenesis,� Gatenby said. �However, this fundamental fact is commonly ignored in the design of treatment strategies. The emergence of drug resistance is rarely, if ever, dealt with until it occurs.�[/quote]
I think our doctors DO recognise resistance as inevitable without aggressive therapy. For this reason chemotherapy is often a combination of 3 drugs that work in different ways. It is important to hit from multiple angles so the cancer is annihilated before it "learns" the escape route.
Karen
Karen Love of Life to Alex T4N2M0 SCC Tonsil, BOT, R lymph nodes Dx March 2010 51yrs. Unresectable. HPV+ve Tx Chemo x 3+1 cycles(cisplatin,docetaxel,5FU)- complete May 31 Chemoradiation (IMRTx35 + weekly cisplatin) Finish Aug 27 Return to work 2 years on 3 years out Aug 27 2013 NED Still underweight
| | | | Joined: Jul 2009 Posts: 1,406 Patient Advocate (1000+ posts) | Patient Advocate (1000+ posts) Joined: Jul 2009 Posts: 1,406 | Excellent article, Brian. Thanks for posting it - I never would have known about it otherwise.
David 2 SCC of occult origin 1/09 (age 55)| Stage III TXN1M0 | HPV 16+, non-smoker, moderate drinker | Modified radical neck dissection 3/09 | 31 days IMRT finished 6/09 | Hit 14 years all clear in 6/23 | Radiation Fibrosis Syndrome kicked in a few years after treatment and has been progressing since | Prostate cancer diagnosis 10/18
| | | | Joined: Jul 2011 Posts: 945 "Above & Beyond" Member (500+ posts) | "Above & Beyond" Member (500+ posts) Joined: Jul 2011 Posts: 945 | Trial design is much more straightforward if you are looking at one factor at a time - the addition (or not) of a single chemo agent, or the radiotherapy fractionation protocol. If you design a trial that has multiple factors, it's harder to tell definatively which tweek gave better results, or if it was the combination that did it. Science Daily had another article that explains a combination. It is way pre-clinical (unless you are a fruit fly) but very interesting and less depressing that the cancer and the Darwinian cancer evolution one: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120615141716.htmMaria
CG to husband - SCC Tonsil T1N2M0 HPV+ Never Smoker First symptoms 7/2010, DX 12/2010 TX 40 IRMT (1.8 gy) + 10 Cetuximab PET Scans 6/2011 + 3/2012 clear, 5 year physical exam clear; chest CT's clear of cancer. On thyroid pills. Life is good.
| | | | Joined: Mar 2008 Posts: 3,082 Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts) | OP Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts) Joined: Mar 2008 Posts: 3,082 | Here is another piece of the "evolution" puzzle from a news release from John Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center when its "Kimmel wire" email news service sent me this excerpt yesterday: [quote]Targeted cancer cell therapies using man-made proteins dramatically shrink many tumors in the first few months of treatment, but new research from Johns Hopkins scientists finds why the cells all too often become resistant, the treatment stops working, and the disease returns. [/quote] As you can see from the full news release, it is about colon cancer and there is no proof that it would apply to oral cancer- I want to make that clear - although I do believe it does raise a hypothesis worth exploring for oral cancer patients. Hopkins news release As noted in this thread, right now using a combination of therapies looks promising. charm
Last edited by Charm2017; 06-29-2012 06:13 AM. Reason: typos
65 yr Old Frack Stage IV BOT T3N2M0 HPV 16+ 2007:72GY IMRT(40) 8 ERBITUX No PEG 2008:CANCER BACK Salvage Surgery 25GY-CyberKnife(5) 3 Carboplatin Apaghia /G button 2012: CANCER BACK -left tonsilar fossa 40GY-CyberKnife(5) 3 Carboplatin Passed away 4-29-13
| | | | Joined: Jul 2011 Posts: 945 "Above & Beyond" Member (500+ posts) | "Above & Beyond" Member (500+ posts) Joined: Jul 2011 Posts: 945 | Resistance to drugs is a huge issue. There is a whole journal devoted to drug resistance - http://www.drupjournal.com/homeIt includes recent work on EFGR targeted resistance in HNSCC - I can only get at the abstracts on my login. I stumbled on the journal trying to find references to recent work by Posner and Bonner. Will try to post the best links for these this weekend.
CG to husband - SCC Tonsil T1N2M0 HPV+ Never Smoker First symptoms 7/2010, DX 12/2010 TX 40 IRMT (1.8 gy) + 10 Cetuximab PET Scans 6/2011 + 3/2012 clear, 5 year physical exam clear; chest CT's clear of cancer. On thyroid pills. Life is good.
| | |
Forums23 Topics18,168 Posts196,924 Members13,103 | Most Online458 Jan 16th, 2020 | | | |