"We now want to test other types of cancer drugs for their effects on the single steps of metastasis formation. Thanks to these insights, it may be possible to discover new substances that allow us to treat existing metastases effectively, or even prevent them from developing at all". --- "Dr Frank Winkler, LMU Munich
So you were diagnosed with cancer, but you caught it in time--- it's been stopped cold, killed by aggressive chemo and a series of radiation treatments.
Congratulations! You beat it. The tumor is gone, the cancer is gone. Open the champagne.
So you think. So you hope. But think again.
Here is the number one thing you need to know about your primary cancer--- it's a mother ship, for even more deadly cancer shuttle craft, which travel throughout your body in search of new territory to invade and conquer.
That's right. It's not the primary cancer that usually kills you. What more often kills are its outgrowths, its outposts, its traveling offspring, its deadly children, called metastases.
About one-fourth of all cancer patients develop invading secondary cancer growths--- metastases--- in the brain.
This brain invasion usually occurs long after successful treatment of the primary tumor. And by now it's the 11th hour--- the metastases prognosis is almost always very poor.
Metastaces, secondary tumors, often grow, invading patients who have, or have had, lung, breast or skin cancers.
Brain metastases invade the brain and torment many patients, with headaches and nausea, and much worse--- neurological symptoms such as paralysis, and aphasia (loss of the ability to speak).
And we don't know why, really. Growth of brain metastases baffle medical science researchers.
Metastaces are very difficult to treat. Up to now, therapies only slowed, not cured, them.
Is there no hope?
Let's look at what we DO know--- okay, we said that the primary tumor is like a mother ship, birthing and sending forth many more invasive tumors (metastases) to come.
We know that, if you don't act to stop the metastases from appearing and traveling throughout the body, you die.
So how do we stop the metastases from establishing new deadlier cancers wherever they land?
There is new hope, hope based on an anti-cancer drug called Avastin.
Neurologist Dr. Frank Winkler (of LMU Munich), and his team of researchers have discovered a startling new approach to metastases containment.
Winkler's team found a sequence of stages that lead some tumor cells to establish metastases, while others fail to form new tumors.
By testing the effects of Avastin, the Munich team found more--- by blocking formation of new blood vessels, the anti-cancer drug can slow down or stop the emergence of metastases.
"Unfortunately, brain metastases are now being seen more often than in the past", says Dr. Frank Winkler, who leads the Neurooncology Research Group at the LMU's Neurological Clinic in Munich. "Improvements in the treatment of malignancy have enhanced survival times. But this also means that more patients are at risk of developing brain metastases."
"In contrast to previous reports, intravascular growth is not sufficient to induce a metastasis", reports Winkler. "We observed that such cells must then escape into the surrounding tissue by passing through tiny gaps between the cells of the vessel wall. In the third step, they have to stick to the outer surface of the vessel, where micrometastases, consisting of four to fifty cells, can develop. "
The secondary tumor needs a constant supply of nutrients in order to grow unchecked. Winkler's imaging experiments revealed the hurdles that cancer cells must overcome in order to form metastases.
Winkler said, "Each one of the steps can go awry. Cells may not get out of the circulation, may fail to adhere to the outer vessel wall or be unable to induce angiogenesis". In the absence of angiogenesis, even cells that had attached to the outer vessel wall and proliferated strongly at first eventually died."
As Winkler and his colleagues confirmed, many cancer cells can remain in a resting state for long periods, and then suddenly begin to grow again. "This is why metastases often appear years after successful therapy of the original tumor", he says. It turns out that direct contact with a blood vessel is also essential for the survival of resting tumor cells.
These new findings should soon help metastases victims worldwide.
Winkler's team's discovery that the anti-cancer drug Avastin blocks the angiogenesis step, is a huge breakthrough.
"We now want to test other types of cancer drugs for their effects on the single steps of metastasis formation", says Winkler. "Thanks to these insights, it may be possible to discover new substances that allow us to treat existing metastases effectively, or even prevent them from developing at all".
Source: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
CHINA--- Future of World Health Care?
While the USA agonizes over a Health Care plan--- with its politicians steadily deconstructing a universal plan, stripping away more and more potential health security for its citizens--- China's health frontier keeps pushing ever forward.
World health watchers are not surprised. Early on, China DOUBLED the typical lifespan of its citizens, in only 30 years! By improving primary care, and emphasizing proventive medicine, China radically reduced deadly diseases like malaria and schistosomiasis.
You read that right. Impoverished as it was following the revolution after WW2, China improved the life expectancy of its people from 35 years (in 1952) to 68 years (by 1982).
Now China is expanding coverage for hundreds of millions of farmers, migrant workers and city residents.
They are going away from market reform, going back to what worked best for them in the past--- a more socialist health care system. The kind of system that doubled their life spans in a mere three decades.
Yes, the "S" word. Socialism. In the USA, for many, socialism is a dirty word. And yet the beloved medicare system is a form of socialism, along with the other entitlements of unemployment, education--- and all the human resource programs which compose a tiny 4% fraction of the US budget (compared to a whopping 57% spent on the US military every year!)
The World Bank says that, from 1981 to 2004, 500 million Chinese rose from poverty. But just as in the USA, medical costs often devastate many low-income rural residents.
Beijing's answer? No muddling there. They are attacking the problem head-on without hesitation. How?
$125 billion over the next three years---- thousands of new clinics and hospitals will bring quality health care to 90% of the Chinese population.
Sarah Barber, a China-based World Health Organization expert, says, "This commitment to improve equitable access to essential health care for all in China is quite important. There remains the challenge to improve access to high quality care. Once patients have access to health services, it is essential to ensure that the quality of health care is high and qualified staff are available."
People worldwide, in nations without national health plans, are hit hard by the economic crisis worldwide--- increasing their need for help with health care costs.
In China, citizens have been forced for decades to save as much as they can, to cover catastrophic medical treatment costs. The Chinese believe that a strong national health care system (with many more clinics and hospitals) will free vast sums of citizen savings.
Such spending by its consumers will turbocharge China's own economic recovery, and more than pay for the national health plan costs.
However, China believes that one key to controlling medical expenses is managing the price of drugs. The Chinese state-run Xinhua news service reported that the government will set price controls on medicines deemed to be essential, (likely based on a list of 300 to 400 drugs recommended by the World Health Organization.)
"Health care reform is a long-term process," China's deputy finance minister Wang Jun told a news conference. "It is impossible to invest the money today and make tangible process tomorrow."
By 2020, China expects full health care to all it's citizens.
Will the USA continue to fall farther and farther behind, as China advances?
World health watchers are not surprised. Early on, China DOUBLED the typical lifespan of its citizens, in only 30 years! By improving primary care, and emphasizing proventive medicine, China radically reduced deadly diseases like malaria and schistosomiasis.
You read that right. Impoverished as it was following the revolution after WW2, China improved the life expectancy of its people from 35 years (in 1952) to 68 years (by 1982).
Now China is expanding coverage for hundreds of millions of farmers, migrant workers and city residents.
They are going away from market reform, going back to what worked best for them in the past--- a more socialist health care system. The kind of system that doubled their life spans in a mere three decades.
Yes, the "S" word. Socialism. In the USA, for many, socialism is a dirty word. And yet the beloved medicare system is a form of socialism, along with the other entitlements of unemployment, education--- and all the human resource programs which compose a tiny 4% fraction of the US budget (compared to a whopping 57% spent on the US military every year!)
The World Bank says that, from 1981 to 2004, 500 million Chinese rose from poverty. But just as in the USA, medical costs often devastate many low-income rural residents.
Beijing's answer? No muddling there. They are attacking the problem head-on without hesitation. How?
$125 billion over the next three years---- thousands of new clinics and hospitals will bring quality health care to 90% of the Chinese population.
Sarah Barber, a China-based World Health Organization expert, says, "This commitment to improve equitable access to essential health care for all in China is quite important. There remains the challenge to improve access to high quality care. Once patients have access to health services, it is essential to ensure that the quality of health care is high and qualified staff are available."
People worldwide, in nations without national health plans, are hit hard by the economic crisis worldwide--- increasing their need for help with health care costs.
In China, citizens have been forced for decades to save as much as they can, to cover catastrophic medical treatment costs. The Chinese believe that a strong national health care system (with many more clinics and hospitals) will free vast sums of citizen savings.
Such spending by its consumers will turbocharge China's own economic recovery, and more than pay for the national health plan costs.
However, China believes that one key to controlling medical expenses is managing the price of drugs. The Chinese state-run Xinhua news service reported that the government will set price controls on medicines deemed to be essential, (likely based on a list of 300 to 400 drugs recommended by the World Health Organization.)
"Health care reform is a long-term process," China's deputy finance minister Wang Jun told a news conference. "It is impossible to invest the money today and make tangible process tomorrow."
By 2020, China expects full health care to all it's citizens.
Will the USA continue to fall farther and farther behind, as China advances?
Friday, December 11, 2009
Trapped in Your Body, and VDH
In Belgium recently, a man emerged from a coma lasting 23 years. And he remembered everything.
His doctors believed he was a vegetable, with no awareness. The man endured what others perceived as a vegetative state, fully conscious for all those years. He was trapped in his paralyzed body, unable to communicate or respond in any way.
Rom Houben, 46, had a car crash in 1983. His doctors thought he had sunk into a coma.
His mother, however, (and even the rest of his family), continued to believe that Rom Houben was conscious. His loved ones never gave up seeking new medical advice.
Finally, Rom's family found Professor Steven Laureys, of Belgium's Coma Science Group (CSG). The CSG team realized that the coma diagnosis was wrong.
Dr. Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse, a special therapist on Laureys' team, described how they were able to teach Houben how to communicate through a special keyboard.
Rom used the CSG device to tell a reporter for the German magazine Der Spiegel that: "I screamed but there was nothing to hear."
(Coma is defined as a state of unconsciousness in which the eyes are closed and the patient can't be roused, as if simply asleep. A vegetative state is defined as a condition in which the eyes are open and can move, and the patient has periods of sleep and periods of wakefulness, but remains unconscious and unaware of him or herself or others--- the patient can't think, reason, respond, do anything on purpose, chew or swallow.)
But Rom's parents would not accept that he was comatose or vegetative.
So, even a person in a coma can perhaps listen, think, reason, and remember?
But what about the rest of us? Will we listen? Will we hear?
We are all trapped in our bodies, like Rom. Many of us are overweight, or addicted to unhealthy foods, drugs like nicotine and alcohol or sugar. Yes, sugar is a drug.
And in the USA, the proposed health plan should address these VDH--- these Volunteer Disease Habits.
If Rom can do it, so can the rest of us.
Our bodies scream but we don't hear. We need to lose weight, we need to unaddict ourselves.
Anyone who is on a health plan should be helped to become healthier. More, they should be required to work hard for better health, and to give up their VDH.
And the Democrats, the politicians fighting for their health plan, should face these VDH issues now, before its too late to include them.
Even some key Republicans agree, like Sen Judd Gregg, R-N.H. He says, "There is significant savings and significant positives to encouraging people to live healthy lifestyles and reward people monetarily for doing it. That's just common sense and we should do it."
It's time for a healthier way of life, and maybe it will take President Obama's new health plan--- to make us all face the bad things we do to ourselves!
VDH. "Volunteer Disease Habits."
Nicotine addiction, food gluttony, alcohol abuse, and all the horrors of self-medication. Self-destructive behavior should never be ignored or even incentivized.
If Rom can do escape the trap of his damaged body, why can't the rest of us?
Belgian doctors (who had treated Rom early on) later claimed that Rom had gone from a coma into a vegetative condition. True or not, so many of us have lapsed into our own vegetative state of VDH, self-enabling our slide into cancer, heart disease, morbid obesity.
The new health plan in the USA, if it passes, would be a historic opportunity to confront VDH in all plan participants.
The USA can't afford millions of participants who live day to day indulging in health-damaging habits, with no seeming sense of responsibility either to their own bodies, or to the viability of their nation.
Like Senator Gregg said, "If you create a healthier work force by incentivizing healthy lifestyles, you reduce the overall cost of health care for everyone."
His doctors believed he was a vegetable, with no awareness. The man endured what others perceived as a vegetative state, fully conscious for all those years. He was trapped in his paralyzed body, unable to communicate or respond in any way.
Rom Houben, 46, had a car crash in 1983. His doctors thought he had sunk into a coma.
His mother, however, (and even the rest of his family), continued to believe that Rom Houben was conscious. His loved ones never gave up seeking new medical advice.
Finally, Rom's family found Professor Steven Laureys, of Belgium's Coma Science Group (CSG). The CSG team realized that the coma diagnosis was wrong.
Dr. Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse, a special therapist on Laureys' team, described how they were able to teach Houben how to communicate through a special keyboard.
Rom used the CSG device to tell a reporter for the German magazine Der Spiegel that: "I screamed but there was nothing to hear."
(Coma is defined as a state of unconsciousness in which the eyes are closed and the patient can't be roused, as if simply asleep. A vegetative state is defined as a condition in which the eyes are open and can move, and the patient has periods of sleep and periods of wakefulness, but remains unconscious and unaware of him or herself or others--- the patient can't think, reason, respond, do anything on purpose, chew or swallow.)
But Rom's parents would not accept that he was comatose or vegetative.
So, even a person in a coma can perhaps listen, think, reason, and remember?
But what about the rest of us? Will we listen? Will we hear?
We are all trapped in our bodies, like Rom. Many of us are overweight, or addicted to unhealthy foods, drugs like nicotine and alcohol or sugar. Yes, sugar is a drug.
And in the USA, the proposed health plan should address these VDH--- these Volunteer Disease Habits.
If Rom can do it, so can the rest of us.
Our bodies scream but we don't hear. We need to lose weight, we need to unaddict ourselves.
Anyone who is on a health plan should be helped to become healthier. More, they should be required to work hard for better health, and to give up their VDH.
And the Democrats, the politicians fighting for their health plan, should face these VDH issues now, before its too late to include them.
Even some key Republicans agree, like Sen Judd Gregg, R-N.H. He says, "There is significant savings and significant positives to encouraging people to live healthy lifestyles and reward people monetarily for doing it. That's just common sense and we should do it."
It's time for a healthier way of life, and maybe it will take President Obama's new health plan--- to make us all face the bad things we do to ourselves!
VDH. "Volunteer Disease Habits."
Nicotine addiction, food gluttony, alcohol abuse, and all the horrors of self-medication. Self-destructive behavior should never be ignored or even incentivized.
If Rom can do escape the trap of his damaged body, why can't the rest of us?
Belgian doctors (who had treated Rom early on) later claimed that Rom had gone from a coma into a vegetative condition. True or not, so many of us have lapsed into our own vegetative state of VDH, self-enabling our slide into cancer, heart disease, morbid obesity.
The new health plan in the USA, if it passes, would be a historic opportunity to confront VDH in all plan participants.
The USA can't afford millions of participants who live day to day indulging in health-damaging habits, with no seeming sense of responsibility either to their own bodies, or to the viability of their nation.
Like Senator Gregg said, "If you create a healthier work force by incentivizing healthy lifestyles, you reduce the overall cost of health care for everyone."
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