Ray of hope for cancer patients

Times News Network(estd. 1838) ^ | 14 Oct. 2004 | Hemali Chhapia

[MrConfettiMan]

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.

[Bellflower]

iDeveloped jointly by two Bangalore-based institutions – Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM) and Centre for Advanced Research Development (CARD)...

How do we get stock?

[Bellflower]

Good questions and why cannot someone with multiple tumors have them all treated?

[Bellflower]

Good questions and why cannot someone with multiple tumors have them all treated?

[Bellflower]

Sorry about the double post. When I hit the post button it went to the thread but the post was not there so I hit the refresh button to see if it would come in and it did not so I went back and hit the post button again and it went to the thread but posted the comment twice. Does this happen to anyone else?

[Bellflower]

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.

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.

[Bellflower]

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.

Can someone explain this better?

[TheLion]

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.

[norraad]

...never happened to me?

[norraad]

...never happened to me?

[tsomer]

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. Can someone explain this better?

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

[Dasaji]

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.

[Bellflower]

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.

Thanks for the clarification. Will not healthy cell get damaged then? They say that this treatment doesn't damage healthy cells.

[tsomer]

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....