[Smithy]

Researchers might have found the Holy Grail in the war against cancer, a miracle drug that has killed every kind of cancer tumor it has come in contact with.

The drug works by blocking a protein called CD47 that is essentially a "do not eat" signal to the body's immune system, according to Science Magazine.

This protein is produced in healthy blood cells but researchers at Stanford University found that cancer cells produced an inordinate amount of the protein thus tricking the immune system into not destroying the harmful cells.

With this observation in mind, the researchers built an antibody that blocked cancer's CD47 so that the body's immune system attacked the dangerous cells.

So far, researchers have used the antibody in mice with human breast, ovary, colon, bladder, brain, liver and prostate tumors transplanted into them. In each of the cases the antibody forced the mice's immune system to kill the cancer cells.

"We showed that even after the tumor has taken hold, the antibody can either cure the tumor or slow its growth and prevent metastasis," said biologist Irving Weissman of the Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California.

One side effect of the treatment was that healthy cells were subjected to short-term attacks by the mice's immune system, but the effect was nothing in comparison to the damage done to the cancer cells.

Weissman's group recently received a $20 million dollar grant to move their research from mouse to human safety testing.

Amazing News

[Niamh.]

OMG that's amazing news

[Ramsay]

Excellent

[Kizzy]

Is there a link to that smithy please?

[Josy]

Fantastic news

[Smithy]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

Is there a link to that smithy please?

no, b/c I copied it from a different forum and they haven't posted a source

Im sure if you just google a line of the article they'll come up

[Kizzy]

I can't find anything to back this up

[Smithy]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

I can't find anything to back this up

http://bit.ly/10ziCH0

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/interna...9gCoS848cSzqbP

http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?p=9563721 (with various sources)

[King Gizzard]

why isn't this breaking news on twitter or anything

this day keeps getting better and better

[Nedusa]

This story will be downplayed and ultimately it will change from being a certain cure for all cancers to being a probable cure for some cancers.

Reason being that you cannot expect an Industry that receives billions of dollars worldwide to simply say that's it we've cured Cancer and then slowly slope off into the night.

No, I'm sorry the Cancer industry will continue to find improved treatments and increased survival rates for all types of cancer, but a miracle cure for all cancers ... No I think that's rather unlikely...!!! Call me cynical.....

[Z]

Originally Posted by Nedusa

This story will be downplayed and ultimately it will change from being a certain cure for all cancers to being a probable cure for some cancers.

Reason being that you cannot expect an Industry that receives billions of dollars worldwide to simply say that's it we've cured Cancer and then slowly slope off into the night.

No, I'm sorry the Cancer industry will continue to find improved treatments and increased survival rates for all types of cancer, but a miracle cure for all cancers ... No I think that's rather unlikely...!!! Call me cynical.....

This, sadly, is the truth.

This is good news though, I hope they start rolling it out to people soon but I don't think it's very likely, somehow...

[Locke.]

Hasn't been tested on humans yet

[Marc]

Christ @ what they do to mice

[Marc]

So it could potentially cause your body to attack parts that shouldn't be attacked, but will attack the cancer at the same time

[Z]

Originally Posted by Marc

So it could potentially cause your body to attack parts that shouldn't be attacked, but will attack the cancer at the same time

Which is pretty much what chemotherapy does anyway, I think? Hopefully this is the miracle breakthrough they've been hoping for anyway...

[Kizzy]

''WITHIN just eight days of starting a novel gene therapy, David Aponte's "incurable" leukaemia had vanished. For four other patients, the same happened within eight weeks, although one later died from a blood clot unrelated to the treatment, and another after relapsing.

The cured trio, who were all previously diagnosed with usually fatal relapses of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, have now been in remission for between 5 months and 2 years. Michel Sadelain of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, co-leader of the group that designed the trial, says that a second trial of 50 patients is being readied, and the team is looking into using the technique to treat other cancers.''

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...ight-days.html

[Jords]

Good news

[lostalex]

Originally Posted by Nathan

why isn't this breaking news on twitter or anything

this day keeps getting better and better

because no one has cured cancer yet. when they cure cancer it will be headline news.

These scientists are dealing with tiny cancer cells in petri dishes. They havn't cured anyone of cancer. We're talking about small rodents in labratory settings. It's a LONG way away from HUman Beings.


We also read about how they can make mice smarter, BRAIN PILLS WORK IN MICE!!! but we don't see anyone taking smart pills yet, do we?

As helpful as laboratory mice are to research, there's a HUGE leap between laboratory mice in a research setting and actual Human beings in the real world.