New attack on cancer

[John Picard]

New attack on cancer forces cells to grow old and die

(Reuters) - Instead of killing off cancer cells with toxic drugs, scientists have discovered a molecular pathway that forces them to grow old and die, they said on Wednesday.
Health
Cancer cells spread and grow because they can divide indefinitely.
But a study in mice showed that blocking a cancer-causing gene called Skp2 forced cancer cells to go through an aging process known as senescence -- the same process involved in ridding the body of cells damaged by sunlight.
If you block Skp2 in cancer cells, this process is triggered, Pier Paolo Pandolfi of Harvard Medical School in Boston and colleagues reported in the journal Nature.
And Takeda Pharmaceutical Co's experimental cancer drug MLN4924 -- already in early-stage clinical trials in people -- appears to have the power to do just that, Pandolfi said in a telephone interview.
The finding may offer a new strategy for fighting cancer.


*SNIP*

The article details the rest. This is great news as I can only imagine what someone enduring chemos has to tolerate. I've already seen, from a distance, two of my Internet friends deal with cancer -- one of whom died on Christmas Day 2009.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Cancer is indeed awful. I've lost a coworker, great aunt, and grandmother to it, and it tried to take my wife, too.

If this can be leveraged into an actual treatment, I'm all for it.

 

[John Picard]

Especially when it comes to such cancers as prostate, testicular, ovarian, and even brain cancer. It's much better to kill the cancer via intelligent means rather than a surgeon hacking away, removing body parts, and following up treatment with poison.

 

[CuttingEdge100]

Sounds good to hear, though the cynic in me wonders how long it will be before someone decides to develop this to figure out a way to cause people they don't like to age prematurely and die...

 

[TheMurph]

This is good news. I hope it succeeds trials and one day rolls out for treatments! Too many have gone way to young to cancer.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Sounds good to hear, though the cynic in me wonders how long it will be before someone decides to develop this to figure out a way to cause people they don't like to age prematurely and die...

And when's the last time one state used biological warfare against another?

 

[CuttingEdge100]

Robert Maxwell,

It was largely just a cynical comment, but I honestly do not know when the last time a nation employed biological warfare against another.