'Man and mouse' not 'man or mouse'? That is the latest thought process to speed up the development of cancer drugs. Apparently there are 850 cancer drugs in the pipeline but not enough patients in clinical trials so there is a backlog. The thought is to use man and mouse simultaneously to speed up the process.
Hmmm.... I'm thinking. Do I want a drug that was 'rushed' through testing? Or do I trust the FDA and other authorities to make sure that drugs are completely safe before they are dispensed? In recent years there have been several drugs, which had successfully tested and received approval and then found to have health risks and were pulled from the market - think of Vioxx for one. New medications are often very strong and can have long term side effects that may not be discovered until they are prescribed for some time. But on the other hand if there are 850 promising medications in the pipeline, something must be done to speed up the process.
I was offered a couple of clinical trials and then was always told I did not fit the protocol. I found that the requirements were often very strict - by necessity to test a drug correctly. I also have been surprised at how few of some of my friends with cancer have been offered clinical trials. I think that it depends on where you go for treatment and if your doctor is involved in any. I am not sure where the gap is but, as the article mentions, the system is broken and needs to be rethought. All I can say 'is hurry up, will you?'
Today is Monday (duh! You knew that!) and I start my new part time job today. But first I am going for a walk with a friend. But before that I have to do my back exercises, my ankle exercises, my arm exercises. I probably should eat breakfast too.
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More than 70 clinical, epidemiological and basic studies, accessible in databases, confirm the remarkable anticancer properties of antidepressants.
Julian Lieb, M.D
127 Cumberland Road
Burlington
Vermont 05408
CANCER DEFEATED
Prostaglandins are infinitesimal, ephemeral and powerful molecules regulating the chemistry of every cell in the body, including cells regulating mood, and those regulating immune function. When produced within normal limits, prostaglandins regulate the chemistry of every cell; when produced excessively, physiology becomes pathology. When brain cells produce excessive concentrations of prostaglandins, they depress mood and immunity. In 1973, David Horrobin showed that antidepressants inhibit prostaglandins, and in 1977 that prostaglandins regulate nucleic acids (DNA and RNA).1,2 Others subsequently showed that prostaglandins regulate the synthesis, inhibition, and expression of genes, and the growth, differentiation, and replication of cells, with cancer the accelerated replication of abnormal cells.1,2 Excessive synthesis of prostaglandins induces cancer, with genes determining the variations. In 1998, Brenda Penninx showed that at age 70, chronically depressed people have an increased risk of 88% of developing cancer, and 50% of dying of it.
More than seventy clinical, laboratory, and epidemiological studies have shown that antidepressants kill cancer cells, inhibit their proliferation, convert multidrug resistant cells to chemotherapy sensitive, augment chemotherapy, protect nonmalignant cells from damage by radiation and chemotherapy toxicity, and target the mitochondria of cancer cells while sparing those of healthy ones.1,2 Antidepressants have therapeutic potential in many cancers that are often treatment resistant, such as gliomas, cancers of the lung, kidney, liver, and uterus, inflammatory breast cancer, and multiple myelomas.2 Antidepressants are capable of arresting lung cancer in advanced stages, and even reversing it. That antidepressants are effective for a multitude of malignancies, decries the myth that cancer is a hundred diseases, when it is one disease with a hundred variations.
Antidepressants alleviate cancer pain, alone or combined with narcotics, remit nausea and vomiting, promote sleep, relieve anxiety and depression, and combat fatigue. Other inhibitors of prostaglandins, such as COX-1 and COX-2 inhibitors, also have potential value in defeating cancer. The components are in place for a revolution in cancer prevention and treatment, as may be confirmed by accessing “Medline” or “Pubmed,” and entering “antidepressants” and “cancer.”
The history of medicine is littered with the suppression of innovation. Today many cancer organizations rely on the opinions of medical advisors, some of whom are political operatives of vested interests disguised as healers. It is not for a lack of innovation that we are in our predicament, but the suppression of it. In “Against Method” Paul Feyerabend wrote that suppressing a paradigm in preference to one politically favored could permanently damage society, and that resistance to progress could be so intractable that political intervention might be needed.
1. Lieb, J.”The multifaceted value of antidepressants in cancer therapeutics.” Eur J Cancer. Editorial Comment. (2008) 172-174
2 Lieb,J.”Defeating cancer with antidepressants.”ecancermedicalscience”DOI. 10.3332/eCMS.2008.88
3. Lieb, J “Killing Cancer.” (1010) Amazon (in press).
I am a semi-retired, former Yale medical school professor, and author of 48 articles and 11 books. You may Google me if you wish.
For educational purposes only. Treatment decisions must be made with a physician.
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