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#151127 06-22-2012 01:13 PM
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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
Charm2017 #151130 06-22-2012 03:54 PM
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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.
Charm2017 #151131 06-22-2012 05:09 PM
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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.
Charm2017 #151139 06-23-2012 03:56 AM
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Posts: 2,671
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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.)



Charm2017 #151141 06-23-2012 04:24 AM
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[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 smile
Still underweight
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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
Charm2017 #151158 06-23-2012 07:57 AM
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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.htm

Maria


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.
Maria #151436 06-29-2012 06:09 AM
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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
Charm2017 #151437 06-29-2012 08:16 AM
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 945
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Resistance to drugs is a huge issue. There is a whole journal devoted to drug resistance -

http://www.drupjournal.com/home

It 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.

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