The Biden Moonshot to End Cancer

I have not thought much about Joe Biden's moonshot to end cancer. But it is increasingly being covered by the media and I am learning more about it.

I have a few thoughts of on moonshots. Or long shots. Sometimes they do come through and create interesting and exciting results that might never have otherwise been discovered. But many of them just become another long shot that didn't work.

However I do appreciate the fact that a new effort is being made in this on going effort to try to find a cure for cancer.

I also do appreciate the fact that this new effort is working on new angles. one I heard of most recently is using the huge database at the Mormon church to research cancer cases. I hope they leave no stone unturned in their efforts.

What if there was no more chemo?

We have heard this one before where doctors do something to your T cells so they kill off the cancer cells. But we have always heard the infamous 'but more research is needed'. Well how about this?



The took a teenager's T cells and engineered them and put them back in his system and now he shows no signs of cancer. I'm all for this type of treatment. Getting rid of the poison part of the slash, poison, burn of traditional cancer treatment.

For more thoughts on medical advances that are blazing the way for the future read this.

Now from the professional cancer patient's take on this. I think it sounds great. But, and there is a big fat 'but' here, this was done on a young, relatively healthy teenager with leukemia. How would that impact me the thyroid/breast cancer with multiple other ailments? Probably not so much. I have not found a single clinical trial for which I would be eligible for any of my ailments. The reason for this is I have so many other ailments, no clinical trial wants me.However I do not think this would be any help to me if I was ever diagnosed with a similar cancer because my immune system is a disaster from rheumatoid and its treatment.

So I am pleased that this advancement has happened and may be blazing the way for 'cures' for some more cancers for some people. But I still don't have the warm fuzzies on what it could do for me.

That five year mark

So the question arises - why five years? Why was five years selected as the survival rate time frame used in cancer statistics? I mean why not 3, 7, 6 or 4? I have no idea. This year I will reach the five year mark with breast cancer and I am not jumping up and down with joy. I think it will be just another day. I don't divide life with cancer into five year increments. Life doesn't get broken down into five year increments. We celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays annually. But communist countries have five year plans. Is life with cancer broken down into five year plans as well?

In the past five years I have lost a few friends to cancer. One was lost to triple negative breast cancer which I have since learned if it is going to recur it usually does in the first 18-24 months. She only made it about 4 years from her diagnosis. So why five years for that? She and others like her just become part of the ones who didn't make it when you look at the statistics.

When I was diagnosed in 2007, a Boston area TV newscaster went public with her diagnosis and is now talking about her five years with cancer. She is also frustrated by the lack of a cure so far. It was nice to follow her treatment as she was a few months ahead of me. Its now nice to see that she is doing well too but acknowledges how her life has changed.

I am just not sure I understand why they selected five years as the increment for life with cancer as life goes on day by day.

The other side of this cure business

This reasonable article tries to explain how these little advances are really bigger than they appear. But from the voices of people living with cancer, I have just one thing to say 'HURRY UP ALREADY!!! We are sick of waiting.' Forty years since the war on cancer began, and 29 years since I started dealing with it, this waiting business is a bit tiresome.

Enough on this tiresome cure/treatment business. Today is a rainy yucky day. The kind you want to stay in bed and read trashy novels and watch movies. Unfortunately I can't. I need to go to work. I can't wait to drive on the interstate on a rainy day with a bunch of idiots. And he high temperature will be 58 - welcome to summer in New England.

Yesterday I worked from home and then did some gardening. I went to the library and got a cookbook a friend recommended. I got a pasta machine at a yard sale a few weeks ago and I want to make home made pasta this weekend. My new goal. I have no idea why I am inspired to try to make home made pasta but I do. There is no reason to hope that this will be gracing our dinner table frequently. After one try, the pasta machine (purchased for $2) may never be used again and will be unceremoniously stored in our basement collecting dust until my husband convinces me to get rid of my 'crap' as he so graciously calls things.

Anyway, I digress. I need to motivate. But I am feeling lazy.

We get cured mice!

Recently there has been lots of hoohah about a vaccine for breast cancer. Um, this has proven to work on mice. Not people, but mice as in the things my cat likes to find in the middle of the night and bring them up to show us. Yes it is significant. Yes it may constitute a breakthrough but it is only proven to work on specifically bred mice. And no it does not mean that it will be tested on humans anytime soon. And if it makes it through the testing, it does not mean that we can expect to see it available for another decade. So in the meantime, we get cured mice and we can feel happy that generations of mice being healthy.

An additional note to consider is who wrote the article and why. Are they a professional who can cut through the medicalese and translate it into something that cuts to the chase and concisely recaps what is being announced? Or are they just out of school without a lot of experience? Are they working for the publication and impartial or are they being paid by the drug developer to help put spin on their research? It doesn't really matter as long as you understand where they are coming from. Go read this article about bad medical writing by Otis Brawley to further my point.

I will keep my little inner optimistic side that some day when I go to the doctor they will tell me about a cure for all that ails me. In the meantime, I'll let the cat chase the cured mice.

Blah, blah, blah, what!?!

I found another article yesterday on the internet. You must think I spend all my time looking for articles. I don't. I spend about two minutes looking to see if there is that long awaited breakthrough in the search for a cure. I used to spend longer but now that pessimism has set in, I only look for a few minutes because, in addition to being a tiny bit pessimistic about this, I realize that if the cure for cancer was discovered it would be front page news world wide - sort of like what we can expect when BP finally caps the damn oil well. But my optimistic side always makes me check around in case somehow it missed the front page editor's sight. I look around and then scan them and only read the ones that I think pertain to me.

Anyway, this article is optimistically titled 'Progress against cancer reported on multiple fronts' so I had to read it. Maybe its a cure for me. So I scanned it - results from the annual ASCO conference which I am dying to find out about that will be fully released later this week - lung cancer, breast cancer, and melanoma. Breast cancer made me realize I need to fully read it. Then I wished I hadn't as buried in the article is the cheery sentence:

'According to the Dr. Christopher Twelves, lead author of the study, 50 percent of women with breast cancer will have their cancer come back or spread, and for them, there’s no good cure.'


WHAT! 50% will have their cancer return or spread? How reassuring! NOT! This is not something to read unless you can visit your oncologist and discuss this. And this new treatment they are talking about would extend your life by 2.5 months. Ahem, if I am ever stage IV and have no quality of life, I am not sure I want 2.5 months more.

I think I need to erase this article from my tiny brain. Shoo, scram. I don't want to remember this!

And now for a completely different topic. Yesterday I had some interesting comments on my blog.

One of them is from someone, who didn't leave their email, about an annual nomination of mom's who are exceptional. Too bad I don't have kids but go visit their website if you want to know more. www.pinkpowermom.com

Another one is from a medical student who is working on a project to build a large, public access database of unbiased, anecdotal data about Breast Cancer treatments. Visit www.rateadrug.com.

Okay, that's my public service for the day. I have to get moving so I can go to work, for a walk, and then to a meeting. I'll be home about 12 hours after I leave. Yuck. I'll also just pretend that my back doesn't hurt because I might possibly have done a tiny bit too much yesterday.

A breast cancer vaccine BUT...

Of course, there is a new medical announcement that has a big fat BUT at the end of it. Yesterday it was announced that a breast cancer vaccine has been developed that looks very promising BUT:

- it has only been tested on mice so they say 'if it works the same way on humans...' and that is a big IF
- it targets an antigen that is present while lactating so it would primarily be used in women over 40, so what about the women under 40?
- it will not cure breast cancer once you have it.

So, while it looks promising and is yet another significant breakthrough, it still has a long way to go. There is no way of knowing it will work as expected with people. And then would need to go through the FDA approval process and be manufactured for mass distribution. So while one can be cautiously optimistic, it is not a cure.

So anyway, back at the ranch of life in cancer land and bad backs, I survived a weekend of camping with my husband, brother, and his four children, and had fun but did spend a significant amount of time taking pain meds and even took a nap because I took my pain meds. (I am waiting for a cure for mosquito bites as well.) I was a very bad person (and don't tell my doctors) but I didn't do ANY of my exercises all weekends. I did take my pills but didn't do my exercises.

I did also develop an unexpected side effect of lymphedema. The lymphedema sleeve tan line. I am not kidding. I was told that I should use sun screen under my sleeve to prevent sun burns which would aggravate my lymphedema so I assumed that the sleeve provided zero sun protection. Well, apparently it does and now I have a little line around my wrist at the border of my sleeve. Gee, thanks. Another side effect. (And a side note to my brother and husband, yes I had to blog about this. They enjoyed themselves this weekend by picking on me about my mosquito bites and tan line.)

Today I have to do some work from home and then go to work and then meet a friend for a drink - in an attempt to have a social life. It will be a long day but fun in the end.

Lots of news

Every year the American Society of Clinical Oncology meets at their conference and lots of promising cancer news comes out as a result. I never used to care about this meeting but now I do read the announcements. I guess I'm waiting for the cure. This year is no different. There are a bunch of preliminary announcements out that look promising but none of them apply to me. I'll check back at the end of the week and see if there is anything more interesting.

I do think that this is progress in the cure for cancer but they have been looking for it for a really long time and still haven't found it. Will it be figured out some day? The research looks 'promising' they say... But it has looked 'promising' for a long time.

And the news just flashed a story that people who suffer from allergies are less likely to get cancer. The theory is that when you sneeze you get rid of the cancer cooties. No I'm not making this up. They didn't use the term 'cancer cooties' but something along the lines of 'cancer causing cells' but its early and I didn't catch the whole thing. I'll have to find the rest of the story online. I don't really have any allergies...

Yesterday I had a semi productive day. I mopped the kitchen floor which meant moving all the cat's food dishes around. Then I vacuumed the living room, while the cat hid in the dining room. He was traumatized by my attempt to be a domestic goddess. In an effort to redeem myself, I let him out later in the day so he could go after the other cat in his front yard. He immediately chased him down the block and across the busy street and stopped right in front of an oncoming car which thankfully stopped. But he has proved he has no traffic sense so he will be restricted in his outdoor forays in the future.

I also found a new quote I really like: "There's nothing wrong with you that a couple of prozac and a polo mallet can't cure." Woody Allen.

That's enough news for my tiny brain on this Monday morning. I need to get out of bed and get dressed and do all my (damn) exercises and get to work.

Hurry up already!

'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.

The magic wand for cancer

There isn't a magic wand. I was discussing this with a friend yesterday who also is living with cancer. She said people shouldn't consider themselves cured after treatment for early stage cancer. Once you have it, there is no cure. They can treat it until there is no sign of cancer to be found through surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and other therapies. They can run out of tests to find it. They can tell you that you are done with treatment. They can tell you that you have a good prognosis. But they can't tell you, you don't have any cancer cells left in your body.

Once you have a cancer diagnosis, early stage or not, you can't assume that you are safe once treatment is done. You have to be vigilant and get follow up tests and treatments. You can live a normal life but you can't escape the fact that it was in your body once and they didn't cured it - they removed any signs of it and can't find any more - but they have no way of knowing if they got it all.

Am I being grim and morbid? Or am I facing facts? My friend was telling me this because another friend of her's just died who was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer just three years ago. She was treated but it came back. There is no magic wand.

Seeking optimism in books

I admit I am a life long book worm. I have been since I was a child sneaking a flashlight into bed to read after lights out. Nothing new there. I also married a book worm which means we go to bookstores and the library with regularity. And pay overdue fines. And get rid of books to the local used bookstore as well.

A few weeks ago I got a deal on a new Amex card through my Costco membership which has no annual fee and pays me cash back on purchases. I immediately ditched my old card with the rewards points. But being cheap, I wanted to use those old points and converted them into gift cards. Of course I went with Barnes & Noble so I could get a free bookstore trip. This gift card has been burning a hole in my pocket ever since. Finally yesterday I got there.

As I did my normal little route through the first floor and then through the second floor I realized I always take a trip through the health section and look for new books on cancer. This is new. Three years ago, I never went to the health section. Well maybe when no one was around, I would look for books on thyroid cancer. There never were any. Now I go look through all the books on the cancer shelves. Maybe there's a cure in one of them. When I go to the library, I always look through the new fiction books and then zip over to the new non-fiction and look for new cancer books as well.

Never mind that now a days books are considered to be behind the times and all their information out of date as the latest news is on the internet. I am still looking for that cure. Maybe someday there will be a book for me with that in it. I'll buy a million copies. Yesterday I ended up with two trashy novels and a book for my husband.

We are what we eat

I did some reading again. I try to limit myself to trashy novels, the daily newspaper (especially the comics) and the closed captioning on the TV at the gym but sometimes I do expand to news sources and the internet...

So I learned a few new things. First of all if you have pain, there is a good chance that the new fancy drugs, aren't going to help you. Gee thanks. I do take one of those and thought it was helping. Well at this point I am going to keep taking it for now.

Then I read that people in pain such as fibromyalgia (which I have not been told I have but believe that some of my pains in my back are referred neurological pain because it is treated that way) should change their diets and avoid all sorts of different things and eat other things.

I learned that the majority of American's are closet eaters - and hide what we are eating from our families and friends. (I admit to the plate of triscuits with a little cheddar cheese on them in the microwave for 20 seconds until the cheese melts as a meal substitute when my husband isn't home.) But we skip the chocolates and ice cream for the most part.

And then the ever popular advice for healthy living after breast cancer. I am working on that. I do all the things that this article tells you to do but I don't feel too healthy these days.

Finally, bitter melon has been shown to kill breast cancer cells. But its not proven, only tested a lab so it doesn't mean squat at this point. And is bitter melon in one of the categories of foods to avoid??? What is bitter melon anyway? Now I am really confused. I think its time to stop reading and go back to the Sunday comics.

But things are different with cancer

So why did I list all my stupid medication side effects yesterday? Well, here's the difference. When you don't have cancer, if you have a headache, a little dizziness, aches and pains, feeling tired, you don't think anything of it. You were on your computer too long, maybe are dehydrated, overdid it at the gym, didn't get enough sleep, etc. Unless its a migraine, you fall over from being dizzy, are in excruciating pain, or fall asleep at the office, you don't think anything of it. You may take some OTC medication and just ignore things for a few days. No big deal.

But when you add a cancer diagnosis (or two) to the mix, its not a headache, its a brain tumor. Its not dizziness, its a new weird cancer infiltrating your ear drums or another incurable ailment that will deprive you of your right to drive a car and go to work. Its not aches and pains, its your cancer has spread to your bones. Its not just being tired, its leukemia and anemia causing fatigue. Your mind travels down that road to hell which is filled with all sorts of dire thoughts which usually start with, 'I'm gonna die' thoughts. Not to be morbid or anything but cancer changes everything.

Living with a cancer diagnosis means learning to balance all these evil thoughts with a 'normal' life. (If you can define normal, please feel free to let me know. We are all weird in our own way.) You wonder why cancer people are more prone to depression and go to all those support groups and talk to other cancer people to keep our sanity.

Doctors and medical professionals don't help. Well, I mean they do help because they treat you and make you better and kill off cancer cooties. But they don't help when they say 'its probably nothing but with your medical history, we need to be sure. Blah, blah, blah.' Sometimes I feel if one more doctor says that to me, I'll scream. Nothing like getting that nice little slip of paper from the doctor to head for blood tests and a chest x-ray after your annual physical (does everyone else get an annual chest x-ray?) which says 'history of thyroid carcinoma' across the bottom. Its also printed on lots of the test results I get. In case I forgot. Thank you for that reminder. I wonder why they haven't updated it to say 'history of thyroid carcinoma and breast cancer'. (Actually I think they upgraded their computer system and are removing these helpful little reminders from their print outs.)

Cancer changes everything. Well isn't that a trite little statement. I prefer to think of it as 'cancer, the gift that keeps on giving'. Anyway, I don't need any reminders on my medical history. The little voices in my head keep reminding me of it. It is dizziness as a side effect. It is a normal head ache. The aches and pains are just part of my back issues. And being tired is the result of not sleeping due to back pains.

The 'cure'

I've been mulling this one around for a while in my head. Several friends have said to me basically that aren't they cured of cancer once they are through treatment? Actually I don't think they are - that's the whole point. There is no cure for cancer. They treat it where it is found and then give systemic treatments as prevention. So I had surgery and then radiation to treat it where it was. Then systemically I had chemo and am on Tamoxifen. But am I cured? No. They got what they could of my cancer but do they know if it is gone for sure? No. Also, once you are in the lucky group to have cancer, you are considered to be more likely to get 'lucky' again and have another cancer or just a return or recurrence of your previous cancer.

So the goal of the elusive cancer cure still goes on. I personally am hoping for the Star Trek version of life where they talk about how they cured cancer back in the 21st century... But I'm still waiting.

Enough moaning and being maudlin for this morning. Its a beautiful spring morning but still a bit chilly. My tulips and crocuses are starting to come up. Perhaps I will see flowers outside sometime soon. That would be very nice. The snow drifts are melting dramatically and parking lots are returning to their summertime sizes. I went for a walk in some conservation land yesterday and it alternated between mud and ice with a little slush in the middle. But I am being optimistic and going to look for containers for my garden this morning.

Last night, we even went out for the evening and had fun. We went to dinner and then saw a Celtic music concert. It was a lot of fun. Fun is a word that has been absent from my vocabulary for a long time. I am going to attempt to return it to my life more frequently in the coming months.

I survived my overscheduled day yesterday and even ended up with a new pedicure of bright pink with green striped. Today I am less over scheduled but am still busy. I am meeting friends, doing a little shopping, going for a walk, writing a press release for American Cancer Society volunteer work (if I write this down I might remember to actually do it instead of just procrastinating), maybe even some work from home, and the highlight of it all will be doing laundry. Some how I need to fit that key ingredient of fun in here... That would be the meeting friends part I guess.