| ||||
| ||||
Hi: I went through very aggressive chemo last winter. I still have residual side effects, even though my last treatment was in May. For the diarhhea, my doctor prescribed a medication much like Amodium AD; I think it's called something like Loporamide. For the severe nausea, my doctor gave me Zophran. It's very expensive, but I couldn't have survived without it, I don't think, because I couldn't keep anything down. I was on a clinical trial, so my doctor gave me pretty much whatever I needed to keep me as comfortable as possible, but I think most doctors will do the same for their patients. This isn't natural therapy, obviously, but it was certainly effective. I tried various natural remedies for the intestinal problems, but they didn't work for me. Hope this helps. Kathy in Boise
-----Original Message-----
From: Apala Chandola [SMTP:Apala.Chandola@Ebay.Sun.COM]
Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 1999 11:44 AM
To: mol-cancer@lists.meds.com
Subject: [MOL] U.S. Scientists Find Chemicals For Cancer Therapy
Hi All,
Season's Greetings and Happy New Year to All !
I am back. My mother is still struggling with the cancer metastassized in the
liver. The 5fu with lucoverin had failed on her. Now she's been treated with
Kamptosar. She's also taking some Floressence(the essiac tea combination).
Can you folks suggest anything else that she can take to help with the severe
side-effects(Diarrhoea, Vomiting, etc) and generating healthy cells in her body
? Any other therapy that can prolong her life ??? Just to remind you, she has
colon cancer with liver metastassis(Stage IV), undergone a colostomy.
Here is some good news to share ... ( This technology will take time in reaching
other countries around the world but is a light of hope for those in US )
FYI, I am not on the mol-cancer@lists.meds.com alias for the time being but will
be joining it soon with another email account.
In the meanwhile pls, do not forget me and keep in touch by sharing any info.
you feel may be helpful in saving my Mom's life.
Thanks and Good Wishes to All -
-Apala
------------- Begin Forwarded Message -------------
Monday January 4 5:11 PM ET
U.S. Scientists Find Chemicals For Cancer Therapy
By Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A team of U.S. scientists reported Monday a discovery
that
could lead to a cancer treatment more gentle on the human body than
traditional
chemotherapy.
In a report to be published Tuesday, the team based at the University of
California
at Los Angeles said it discovered a family of chemicals that could allow
doctors to
use ``boron neutron capture therapy'' on cancer patients.
The UCLA scientists said the new cancer therapy would be less harsh on the
body than
traditional chemotherapy because it targets only cancer cells and kills them
with nuclear
fission instead of chemicals that poison the body. The team's findings were
published in
the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
``It would be selective for cancer cells and therefore the therapy itself
would be
much less debilitating for the patient,'' Frederick Hawthorne, a UCLA chemist
who led the
research team, told Reuters in an interview.
``If (the therapy) lives up to expectations, it will be much more comfortable
for the
patient than chemotherapy or other types of radiation therapy,'' he said.
Hawthorne said it was too early to tell if the boron therapy, which faces
several
years of clinical trials before it could be made available to the public,
would be
more effective than current cancer treatments.
The concept of using boron-based compounds to fight cancer has been around
since
the 1930s, when scientists discovered that those compounds accumulate in
cancerous tumors.
But the newly discovered family of chemicals is the most effective so far at
delivering the boron into the nucleus of the cancer cells,
Hawthorne said. Once there, the boron is ''activated'' by exposing the cancer
cells to a beam of neutrons, producing nuclear fission
that destroys the cells' DNA.
``Boron can be considered something like a land mine, because it's just
sitting
there until something comes along and steps on it,''
Hawthorne said. ``In this case, that something is the neutron. And when it
goes off,
it destroys whatever happens to be around it.''
That capability could make it more attractive than chemotherapy, which damages
healthy cells as it kills cancer cells and often leaves the patient ill in
the process.
``What all these methods would love to do is cure cancer without disturbing
normal
tissue nearby,'' Hawthorne said. ''This particular method would allow one to
do just that.''
Currently, clinical trials are proceeding using boron therapy, but with less
efficient
chemicals, Hawthorne said.
``The difference is that our stuff goes to the nucleus of the cancer cell,''
he said.
``The whole idea is to destroy the cancer cell's
DNA. No one has had the chemical compounds that we discovered at UCLA.''
Hawthorne, 70, a pioneer in the field of boron chemistry, said that if the
therapy is
proven to be effective, it potentially could be used to fight a variety of
cancers.
------------- End Forwarded Message -------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is an automatically-generated notice. If you'd like to be removed
from the mailing list, please visit the Medicine-On-Line Discussion Forum
at <http://www.meds.com/con_faq.html>, or send an email message to:
majordomo@lists.meds.com
with the subject line blank and the body of the message containing the line:
unsubscribe mol-cancer your-email-address
where the phrase your-email-address is replaced with your actual email
address.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
