Cancer breakthrough?

[Gate2501]

I heard of this on the radio this morning: http://www.wkyc.com/news/health/health_article.aspx?storyid=129290&catid=7

Gobs of people were calling in with the usual "big pharma will ruin this man, and suppress this *cure*" woo. I am no expert in these matters, but this little blurb does at least make this sound promising if the reporting is accurate.

Anyone more knowledgeable than myself on this topic(probably the majority of you ) care to weigh in on this?

 

[headscratcher4]

The key, like most cancer "breakthrough" stories is that it will be years, if ever, before utility is known. Keep in mind that there is a major cancer "breakthrough" about every five months.

As to big Pharma somehow supressing a breakthrough, I love these kinds of stories. First of all, NIH does basic reserach. That means that whatever is determined to be its potential, it would have to be spun out and commercialized. NIH does not manufacture medicines.

Second, big pharma is desperate to find cancer cures. There are literally tens of billions of dollars for companies that find successful cancer treatments...whoever produces a real "cure" will simply clean up. Not only that, but any new treatment likely to revolutionize cancer treatment will likely help revolutionize other treatments...in other words, whole new streams of patentable treatments.

 

[blutoski]

I heard of this on the radio this morning: http://www.wkyc.com/news/health/health_article.aspx?storyid=129290&catid=7

Gobs of people were calling in with the usual "big pharma will ruin this man, and suppress this *cure*" woo. I am no expert in these matters, but this little blurb does at least make this sound promising if the reporting is accurate.

Anyone more knowledgeable than myself on this topic(probably the majority of you ) care to weigh in on this?

I'm not exactly sure what your question is about.

Not much of a 'breakthrough' - Kalafatis is forwarding a protein kinase inhibitor. See Wikipedia: [Protein kinase inhibitor]. This class of chemotherapy is well known.

Regarding the reference:

Cleveland Clinic researchers also tested his drug and found the same results, as did the National Institutes of Health, when they tested it on nearly 60 different cancer lines.

My guess is that NIH has shown that protein kinase inhibition is effective in many situations (which is why it's a common chemotherapy) but I doubt they specifically tested his proposed protein kinase inhibitor approach.

Sounds like he discovered something that was quite well known by people in the relevant field. He's not actually a cancer researcher.

Didn't stop him from registering a patent: [20090054507]

The NIH wrote him a cheque for [$1,059,171] last year for his blood coagulation research. It doesn't make sense to portray him as an outsider.


The other thing that's confusing is that nobody 'accidentally' discovers an effect on cancer cells if they're not deliberately experimenting on cancer cells. This is probably just the way the media is portraying it. I can't imagine he made the claim himself.