Comments on: Towards a cure for cancer

By: american cancer research

american cancer research — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:42:51 +0000

american cancer research…

In 2006 I started……

By: dd

dd — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:26:28 +0000

When acquiring DNA, you actually do it from many cells. So, in effect, we did sequence many different normal cells, but do not differentiate between each different type of cell within the normal tissue. Background mutation rates are know for well-behaved cells, so from that you can get some indication of how much variability there is among normal cells.

In a related matter, there typically are normal cells in the tumor tissue and there can be tumor cells in the normal tissue (this is especially true for liquid tumors in the blood). If you sequence each tissue deeply enough, you can get a fairly exact measure of the contamination by seeing how many of the sequences you obtain having a know variant in one or the other type of cell.

By: Al Musella

Al Musella — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 01:31:48 +0000

Did you try to sequence multiple “normal” cell samples from a person – to see how much normal variation is within a human? I know all of the cells should have the same dna – but was that proven yet?

Excellent work by the way!
Thanks!

By: dd

dd — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 21:10:27 +0000

I tend to agree with Chris on this. The main problem is that cancer is so complex that doing research on it will not provide the rapid return on investment that pharmaceutical companies (read: Wall Street) demand. That is why these government-funded research projects are so important. They will lay the groundwork for more targeted drug research. Indeed, this has already been the case with tyrosine kinase inhibitor drugs like gefitinib (Iressa).

By: Chris Miller

Chris Miller — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:00:22 +0000

Cancer management is the real agenda of Big Pharma

I’m sorry to hear about your daughter’s condition, but I think you’re being blinded to the truth by your search for answers.

If you think that researchers are sitting on a cure for cancer, or not actively pursuing this direction, you’re dead wrong. I wish there was a magic bullet, but sometimes the best we can do is prolong the life and alleviate the suffering of individuals with cancer.

We are making progress, as science does, in slow, steady steps. Check out this post for more information on how survival rates have increased dramatically since the middle of the twentieth century.
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/06/support_cancer_research_now.php

By: jeanruss

jeanruss — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:28:06 +0000

After my daughter was diagnosed with cancer, the research I did to help her, made it plain that the last thing researcheres were working toward was a CURE for cancer. Cancer management is the real agenda of Big Pharma. I became aware of a clinical trial that resulted in a cure for my daughter’s type of cancer in 1972. Of course nothing came of it because the cancer industry would not tolerate a cheap, nontoxic solution to this problem. If anyone interested in this matter in the medical profession wants to contact me, feel free. God knows none of my daughter’s oncologists or surgeons were interested.