Posted on 10/14/2004 7:55:24 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick
Life seems to ebb away slowly and painfully for those suffering from some life threatening disease. In this time of despair a new cure always brings a ray of hope in the life of such patients and their families
Uma Devi , Bangalore - Today a busy woman who will entertain guests at home this weekend. "It's going to be hectic. But then I enjoy cooking," she says. For the record, Uma has just been cured of glioblastoma (highly invasive), a form of brain tumour. Till about two months ago, she had a "perpetual headache." Today, she is free of the pain and according to her husband, smiles a lot more.
Prabhakar Yaadav , Meheboobnagar, Hyderabad - Fond of eating spicy Hyderabadi food, Yaadav was asked to eat on one side of the mouth after being diagnosed of tongue cancer. "Now I eat on both the sides. Slowly, I will be able to eat everything, including biryani, but not very spicy."
Dr Iqubal Kaur , CV Raman Nagar, Bangalore - The lady used to find it difficult to climb stairs till about six months ago. "The pain in my right knee was awful," she reminisces. Kaur was suffering from osteoarthritis. Things have taken a U turn now. So much so that she doesn't think twice before planning a trek.
Jayshree Sharma , Jaymahal, Bangalore: "I would keep standing all day long. My back would go for a toss by the time I reached bed." Sharma was a serious case of osteoarthritis. Both her knees' cartilages had degenerated. "People at home now say I become a kid when I play with my grandchild."
A turn of destiny's hand and over 20 people have been treated for cancer and 40 for osteoartritis after they were exposed to Rotational Field Quantum Magnetic Resonance (RFQMR). Developed jointly by two Bangalore-based institutions – Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM) and Centre for Advanced Research Development (CARD) – the machine that looks like a mini CT scanner works on the principle of tissue and cell engineering.
"Both regeneration and degeneration of cells is possible with 96 guns shots RFQMR beams. The beams reach the target area but unlike chemotherapy and radiotherapy, do not affect the normal cells," said Wing Commander V G Vasishta, principal investigator and head of radio diagnosis at IAM.
The normal cell membrane potential is -70, which increases to -20 in case of tumour cells. During the treatment, the potential is brought down to -90 thus programming the cell to commit suicide. "The treatment is painless, causes no discomfort and is non-invasive," added R Vijay Kumar, engineer and chief scientific officer at CARD.
The dead tumour cells form a shell and remain in the body as waste matter. "In case of the brain, we remove the shell which looks just like an egg. While for other areas, like the abdomen, we let the dead matter be and over the years, it is flushed out of the body," added Vasishta.
All this comes with a caution. "A patient needs to be terminal case, ie he/she should have exhausted all other forms of treatment like radiotherapy, chemotherapy, medication. Also the tumour has to be localised. A patient with multiple tumours cannot take this treatment," said Vasishta. The queue outside the centre is long. Appointments till 2005-end are checked out.
At present there is just one machine, but two more are on the anvil and should be in by October-end. The new machines will have three times the potential as they will have 288 guns that will shoot beams at a time.
What started as a dream a decade ago for these two scientists, became something tangible in 2004. "In case of our first patient - Ravi Kumar - we would go and check him every five minutes," said Vasishta. It's been a long journey and the two scientists have no regrets. "It is somewhat magical to save lives."
Thanks for the ping.
Though I very much tend to be an optimist, I'm somewhat skeptical of this procedure after my initial read. The issue that struck me hardest was their criteria that the tumor be localized. By their very nature, many of the deadliest form of brain tumors tend to have tentacle-like arms that reach deep into the brain. While the central part of the tumor shows up looking like a blob on an MRI scan and is easily resectable during surgery, the tentacles do not appear on a scan and can not be removed during surgery. However, after surgery any neuro-doctor will tell the brain tumor survivor "we" (meaning the survivor and their doctors) must assume some cancer cells remain and formulate a treatment plan based on that notion. I hope that woman truly is cured of her brain tumor but I remain dubious.
How do I know so much about The Hair Club for Men? Well, you see, I'm not just a member. I'm also the pres...D'oh! Never mind. Actually, I'm a 3+ year survivor of a brain tumor so I was living and breathing this stuff for the first 18 months or so after I was diagnosed.
How do we get stock?
They claim it doesn't affect the normal cells so maybe they can run it through the normal cells and get to the tentacles, killing the tentacles but not the normal cells.
Can someone explain this better?
If you do all the chemo, you might be dead before you get a chance at this thing. It needs to be an up-front option.
I agree with you....this does shine some hope.
...never happened to me?
...never happened to me?
Here's a layman's guess, in hopes that someone out there can correct or fine tune:
Cell membrane potential might refer to permeability of the the membrane, which would allow chemicals to enter the cell more or less easily. Perhaps 'potential' refers to the electrical discharge concurrent with this absorption by the cell, brought about some resulting chemical reaction. If the membrane is too "porous", so to speak, which I guess is indicated by the lowest number, an inundation of calcium or sodium would kill the cell. Evidently the cancer cells referred to have tough hides; banging then with this radiation weakens this protective layer, allowing them to die as normal cells do.
Freepers in the know, help me out; I think I'm in the park, but can't find home plate.
Thanks
Maybe I can get you to first....
This is a metabolic theory that the cell membrane becomes thicker around the cancer cells as they encapsulate and try to "protect" themselves so they can divide and grow. Think of weeds in your garden that grow bigger and tougher than the rest of your desirable plants. If there is a chemical "trigger" communicating that the membranes are thinning (in this case the radiation in this treatment), the cancer cells will die suicidally because their protective membrane isn't protective enough.
Thanks for the clarification. Will not healthy cell get damaged then? They say that this treatment doesn't damage healthy cells.
I'm not sure how that works, but see Dasaji's reply above. I wonder if it isn't resonance: larger c cells respond at a particular frequency and smaller normal cells respond at a different frequency. I'm grabbing at straws here. But another thing: cell death is not always bad, happens all the time. Cancer cells don't die, which is the problem.
Well I think....
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