|
REPLY TO THREAD
|
|
Subject
|
Cancer code cracked..scientists finally find out the immune system kills cancer
|
|
User Name
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Font color:
Font:
|
|
|
|
|
|
Original Message
|
Sunday March 7,2010
By Lucy Johnston
Have your say(5)
SCIENTISTS believe they have made a major breakthrough in cancer treatment after cracking the “code” behind the disease.
They have discovered the body’s immune system can kill cancer cells within a window occurring every 12 to 14 days.
By giving low-dose treatment at exactly the right time, researchers believe they have, against the odds, succeeded in halting the spread of advanced cancer.
Professor Michael Quinn has led the trial in patients with advanced ovarian cancer and suggests it could signal the most exciting development since the introduction of chemotherapy in the Fifties.
While he points out that it is still a theory, he said: “This is astonishing and could infl uence the treatment of all solid tumours in the future. We hope it will revolutionise the treatment of cancer.” Professor Quinn and his team reviewed 63 papers involving more than 1,200 patients since 2000.
They discovered that sufferers had about a 1-in-12 chance of responding to chemotherapy. During further studies they found the body has a fortnightly immune cycle during which it “switches on and off”.
When the immune system turns off, it releases “inhibitory cells” which prevent it fighting disease, including cancer.
Professor Quinn and his team in Melbourne, Australia, target chemotherapy when the immune system is not working to knock out “inhibitory cells”, dramatically improving patients’ chances of recovery.
The treatment is in pill form and patients avoid almost all the debilitating chemotherapy side effects.
|
|
Pictures (click to insert)
|
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | | | Next Page >> |
|
