Cancer - cured?

[Morbid Angel]

http://media.www.studentprintz.com/m...-2667600.shtml

any thoughts?

[percydaman]

well first Ive heard of it. Though just because drug companies wouldn't profit from it, is no excuse for the lack of media coverage.

[sea2stars]

I guess it all depends on the clinical trials; if and when they happen. From what I've read elsewhere DCA is fairly toxic, so who knows how much of it would be required; I've read part of one study, concerning treatment of metabolic disorders, that was stopped early due to toxicity concerns.

[mdi]

i know it says that drug companies wouldn't profit from it, but countries with a national health service (like the UK) would save billions every year.

1 in 3 people will get cancer at some point in ther lives, I think also that 1 in 3 of those people will die because of it (im not 100% sure about that last one), but my point is, with that many people effected, im sure somone will make alot of money from it.

[studioDIM]

i know it says that drug companies wouldn't profit from it, but countries with a national health service (like the UK) would save billions every year.

Afaik, every national health service buys drugs from farmaceutical companies.
The pressures on which one to choose-sponsor can be fairly enormous.
And so the gains for the one(s) that make the decision.
Over or not, they're there (from the general practitioner upward).

As far as toxicity goes, a chemotherapy isn't kid's play either.
It's un-targeted in that it kills healthy cells as well, and bears an enormous pressure on the liver and other vital organs.
The people i knew which happened to die of cancer were ALWAYS feeling a heck of a lot better away from the Chemotherapy, and would require further examination to discover a cancer was spreading more, rather than that it stopped.

It would surely deserve some media coverage (newscientist.com HAS got an article on it, check the bibliography at the bottom of the linked article), but also a LOT more experimentation.
Hope, however, is priceless in itself, and i would rather resort to exotic means (or none at all), myself, than to follow the all too well known path of chemo...

Lele
Lele

[percydaman]

I also read somewheres while perusing the article, that they are tempering their excitement. Things that work on mice, most of the time, dont transfer to humans, with regards to medicine. Alot of high profile failures in that respect. We can only hope. I'm real lucky that afaik, NOBODY in my near or extended family has ever even had cancer, let alone die from it. Now heart disease......

[Sawyer]

My wife works at Genetech and my father in law is a cancer research scientist. I know very little but I could show this article to them what I have seen is that many applications have promise but it is a huge amount of testing that these treatments go through and what seems promising may end up not working as a treatment. My f-i-l worked on a gastro/colin cancer drug that wouldn't cure but provide a better quality of life for the few months you would have to live. It worked but it was a shot and very painful making it hard to walk for a while. And the amount of money these companies go through is amazing millions a week at a small scale. With the drug my f-i-l worked on basically they ran out of money right at the last stage of the trial, a company that made the sterile water solution accidentally made non-sterile water for a test and the process was so long and invloved that that one mistake meant that the money was gone. The company went under and that was it. Part of it was a new CEO that was horrible and left with a huge amount of money for himself.

Personally I would be more concerned about media covering a treatment that hasn't been tested, isn't avaiable and the side-effects are unknown.

[Adam H. Stewart]

Stomach Ulcers

From somebody who is dealing with medical system here in the states - nothing too serious, Thank God I was lucky enough to be hit by a car on my bicycle and walk away, well limp away - I have to say that it is all a bloody rotten money making racket, insurance companies, drug companies hospitals, they are taking money from one pocket and putting it in the other. They are getting fat, paying lobbists in Washington to go on golf trips to Scotland meanwhile 80% of the bankrupcies in America are from Medical Emergencies.

I watched a documentary a number of years ago about an Australian doctor ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Marshall ) who discovered bacteria in the stomach lining of a patient who had Ulcers. He did trials and travelled around the World trying to get people to believe his findings but nobody would to it - why? Because the drug he was using to kill had been discovered years before, the patent had expired and - i.e. Nobody could make wads of $$$ from it.

Frustarted he drank a a petri dish of the Bacteria, infected himself and then cured himself. This needless to say got peoples attention and he was published in the Medical Journal of Australia and eventually in 2005 won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work.

I would not be surprised if they have found the cure to cancer.
I would also not be surprise if they developed a me too drug (basically the same thing with one molecule changed and put in a different bottle) which they sold for $$$$$$ and we never heard of this research again.

There is just too much money involved in Health and were there are bags of cash there is corruption. After that rant I think I've given myself an Ulcer

[sea2stars]

Are the drug commercials that we're subjected to in the States as prevalent in other countries? It's something like a $5 billion dollar US market, which the consumers are probably paying for anyways, which could be put to better use. At least it's being talked about in Congress, though I doubt much will come of it.

[mdi]

Are the drug commercials that we're subjected to in the States as prevalent in other countries? It's something like a $5 billion dollar US market, which the consumers are probably paying for anyways, which could be put to better use. At least it's being talked about in Congress, though I doubt much will come of it.

the UK has nothing like the adverts that the US, as far as I can tell, the US only realy advertise 2 things, Drugs and Cars. The UK has a national health service (though its in a bit of a state) so the only drugs that get advertised are simple pain killers and cold medicine.

[Neilg]

I just got one of those moments where you realise just how different the rest of the world is, haha, I cant belive the drug industry advertises over there. Explains a lot of things ive heard though.

[percydaman]

every third bloody commercial on tv in america is for some drug. it gets really old.

[jacksc02]

every second commercial here is for beer!

mmmmmmm i like beer......

[percydaman]

every second commercial here is for beer!

mmmmmmm i like beer......

well every third is beer here as well. which leaves the last third of commercials being 'car' related. lol

[rpc212]

Yep, going from a Canadian station to a US station is pretty obvious.
"Go see your doctor and ask about Paxil!"

then they always spiel off the side effects at the end which is hillarious,

"May cause hairy tongue, penal mucous discharge, ear puss, swollen butt, . . . and on and on!"

Of course the announcer says it so fast they are hoping it goes by to quickly for people to hear.

As far as curing cancer goes the money thing is a massive hurdle as the greedy always find some way to win, unfortunately. Just look at the auto industry with internal combustion engines. 750 parts to break in the internal combustion engine; in the electric engine 1 part. I guess the EV-1 didn't have enough money in the parts business so they scrapped them all to some desert; pathetic! 0-60 mph in 9 seconds too. Now Chevron owns the patents to the best battery technology for electric cars. I can't imagine them giving that out. Although if they were smart they would start their company transformation and use that technology to start the electric car revolution and slowly move their company away from the "sunset" industry they are in now.

Anyway way off topic, but I think the auto industry mirrors the health industry in that the greedy want what makes the most money not what the best solution is hence they won't be to enthusiastic about a cure for cancer.