Why scans are good.

Brain surgeon buried his proposal ring in the sand...  Then he lost it...
After hours of searching (with volunteer help), he called a ring detector service.   Metal detector shows up and find the ring in no time:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/marriage-proposal-goes-awry-brain-surgeon-loses-ring-164800976.html

This is why we need scans, and CT/US assisted surgeries.   And the girl said yes.

Massive Parallel Gene Study on ER+ tumors

I live in interesting times.    Massive Parallel Gene Study on ER+ tumors:

http://abstract.asco.org/AbstView_114_95183.html


NK immune cells genetic profiling predicting early/late relapse on early breast cancer
http://abstract.asco.org/AbstView_114_99068.html

Cabozantinib

Cabozantinib (cabo) is an oral, potent inhibitor of MET and VEGFR2.

 

results:

abstract.asco.org/AbstView_114...

recruiting phase II trials

clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results...

From Wiki:

Positive data from clinical trials indicate cabozantinib is particularly beneficial in metastatic advanced prostate cancer. 97% of patients either had stabilization or improvement in bone malignancies. The median time to disease progression was 29 weeks. 

 

Wow.   Breast cancer trials have not gotten as good a result, but not far behind.

 

Autoimmune culprit, anti-cancer ally?

Th17 cells, implicated in autoimmune disease, also our potential ally in fighting cancer

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18075-autoimmune-disease-cells-harnessed-to-fight-cancer.html

Note how recently Th17 was discovered (2005)!    Note also how the very learned scientist from MD Anderson got a result that surprised them.  This paper is 2009.  There are also a lot of literature that seem to implicate Th17 in cancer.

It will take at least 10 years for any drugs to come out of this.   But I'm awed by how much we don't know and remain to be learned about human body.   My eldest (5) claims he already knows everything.   I want to be there to pop his bubble when he's 13 and still thinks he knows everything!

More recent article reviewing the role of Th17:
http://carcin.oxfordjournals.org/content/32/5/643.full

It's like a murder mystery with a cast of 1000 and hidden characters dropping in all the time.

Snortle, the best medicine

A clinical trial anyone?

http://nomorefriends.net/

http://www.inspire.com/groups/advanced-breast-cancer/discussion/laughter-the-best-medicine-1/

Survey for Long term survivors

5+ years with mets.   Especially people with liver/brain/lung mets and triple negative.   Newly diagnosed patients really need inspiration and information.   Thank you!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGw2MVJsN0FPM3BYNkYtWUtkZFRNUWc6MQ

Self-regulation

A long term survivor on bcmets.org pointed me to this German paper which goes into Iscador in detail.   I am not convinced that Iscador is effective in prolonging life.   But there is a surprise hidden in table 4.  Their data suggests that patients with certain psychosomatic traits (self-regulation) enjoys prolonged survival (several years vs 1 year for control group).
http://www.iscador.com/Content/ContentTrakker/Articles/1cf0ade6-8722-4693-ac81-20306f0baa35/3_32.pdf

So I went to look up the 16-question questionaire they used to determine "self-regulation" score.   Stephanie pointed me to this 106 questionaire instead:
https://secure.localweb.com/attitudefactor/SRItest.html

I tried taking the test but the software has some kind of error that won't take my submitted form.   The questionaire seems to be measuring independence, assertiveness, life-purpose, resourcefulness in taking care of self.   I'm almost certain that Kathy Rich and Carol Silverander (the 2 long term survivers) probably got "self-regulation" in spades...

Their stories are reviewed here:
http://killerboob.blogspot.com/2012/05/carol-silverander-long-term-survivors.html


So congratulations to all the patients who exercise 45 minutes/day through bone pain/nausea, minimize their stresses, and control their urges to reach for cookie/cheese/red meat jars.  You may well live longer because of your persistence and forbearance.


However, I'm going to not be so positive in the following paragraph.   So if you wants to be positive all the time, you need not keep reading here:






several years are better than several months.  But not enough.    The goal is the cure, that MBC patients live decades to the normal life span, not years, not months, not days.   It is beyond cruel to condemn a young mom with metastatic breast cancer to several months, or years for that matter, just because she has sweet tooth, has nicotine habit, has no time to exercise or a stressful life.

Till there is a cure, every breast cancer patient is a stage IV.