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PAGE 14, OCTOBER 20, 2008, THE ISLANDER
(News to Q-CeCv
The Best is Yet to Be
By Clark Gillespie M.D.,
Professor Emeritus, the University of Arkansas
Breast Cancer Management
plasmid.
When given as a vaccine, there is
produced a sudden flood of HERS2 by
the recipient that calls forth a massive
body immune response and destruc
tive antagonists to this substance.
Thus the body itself is called upon and
succeeds in destroying the HERS2
cancer cells.
Trust me - that’s how I think it
works. Anyway, even the previous
treatment-resistant cancer cells are
also vaccine destroyed.
A lump in your throat:
Could it be more than emotion?
Southeast Georgia Health System
will present “A Lump In Your Throat:
Could It Be More Than Emotion?” as
part of the Health System’s ongoing
series of free community lectures. This
presentation is scheduled for Thurs
day, October 23, at 7 p.m., in the
Linda S. Pinson Conference Center on
the Brunswick Campus, 2415 Park-
wood Drive.
The speaker for the event is
otalaryngologist K Chuck Fletcher,
MD, who will talk about a number
of common throat disorders that can
cause discomfort, pain, or irritation
Study: Even occasional smoking can impair arteries
Although this vaccine was given to
animals already invaded by HERS2-
driven cancer cells, the investigators,
in time, plan to use the vaccine not
only to treat this form of breast cancer
when it exists, but to totally prevent it
from ever happening.
Let us pray for their success and for
the extension of this idea into further
curative and preventive breast cancer
fields.
Our ladies have suffered enough.
□
of the throat. Following his lecture,
Fletcher will answer questions from
the audience. Light refreshments will
also be served.
To reserve a seat for this health
education seminar or any other semi
nars in the series, call 912-466-5160 or
register online at www.sghs.org and
click on the Calendar of Events.
The next lecture scheduled is “Eat
ing Healthy Through the Holidays”
scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 4, at 7
p.m., at the Camden County Rec
reation Center, 1050 Wildcat Drive,
Kingsland. “I
It is fundamentally and fortunately
clear that this particular month - Octo
ber - has been dedicated to Breast
Cancer Awareness. Deeply involved
here are those women amongst us who
have been assaulted by the disorder
along with a legion of their supporters
- supporters who are working towards
the absolute mastery of this assaulter.
One facet of their goal is to spread
the enormous store of available infor
mation about the causes, risks, con
trol, prevention, diagnosis, and treat
ments that this cancer has generated.
Further, their gracious work gener
ates more funds to support continuing
research leading to the control of, or
potentially, the elimination of breast
cancer from our world.
And so, this October counter-attack,
led courageously by our ladies, is most
manifestly applauded and supported
by us all - even in the face of disturb
ing national and international disrup
tions.
Although breast cancer involves
more women than any other malig
nancy, its mortality has been regularly
and significantly declining in recent
years so that there are now at least
2,500,000 million living survivors of
this treachery.
And the survivor list only grows
as breast cancer no longer remains
number one in female cancer mor
tality. One key to this success is, of
course, early diagnosis, a major goal
of the wonderful ladies in pink. Mam
mograms are available and trumpeted
everywhere, and can be secured to fit
any purse - even an empty one.
Work continues to further increase
the use of, and the reliability of this
procedure and those like it. Mammog
raphy remains an imperfect jewel in
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our protective collection but well worth
its weight in gold.
Further significant advances
in breast cancer salvation now also
involves the increasing use of individu
alized therapy. One surgery, radiation,
or chemotherapy shoe does no longer
fit everyone as more and more often an
individual course of therapy is estab
lished. This approach has come about
as our knowledge about the variable
and individual characteristics of breast
cancer cells continues to increase.
Thus, certain surgical procedures
such as radical mastectomies are
almost gone whilst chemotherapy
becomes more specific and directed
towards individual cancer cell types.
Today’s column just looks at one par
ticular malignancy which involves
HERS2 positive breast cancer cells, in
order to give us some insight to what
is developing in this directed therapy
field. Hold on!
To begin with, HERS2 is the eponym
for “human epidermal growth factor
receptor 2“, which is normally present
in cells in small amounts in order to
sustain regular cell growth.
In about 30% of all breast can
cer cells, this HERS2 factor has gone
wild and is present in overwhelming
intra-cellular amounts. This change
promotes very rapid malignant cell
growth. Such malignant cells have
responded to newly-developed drugs
prominent amongst which has been
Herceptin - an agent that is specifi
cally directed to destroy these HERS2
loaded cells.
Other so-directed drugs have come
into play and various combinations
have been tried in order to increase the
cancer cell toll. Sadly, cancer cell resis
tance to these agents has developed as
time elapsed, and so the need to con
tinue research and testing goes on.
One fascinating development in this
particular area has just been published
in the September 15th issue of Cancer
Research. This article with Wei-Zen
Wei, Ph.D., Professor of Immunology
and Biology, as the lead investigator
and author, comes from Wayne State
University in Detroit.
She and her colleagues have been
working on, of all things, a protective
vaccine against HERS2 positive can
cer cells - a novel but now laboratory-
proven approach to their control! This
unusual vaccine is in developmental
stages, has been used only in a labo
ratory setting with animals, and has
a way to go before human study and
potential use may come to be.
Even so, one pharmaceutical com
pany has already been working with
an early version of this new approach.
The vaccine consists of single DNA
genes that produce the HERS2 recep
tor along with an immune stimulant
- both of which are housed in an inert
Athens, Ga. — Even occasional cig
arette smoking can impair the func
tioning of your arteries, according to
a new University of Georgia study
that used ultrasound to measure how
the arteries of young, healthy adults
respond to changes in blood flow.
“Most people know that if they
have a cigarette or two over the
weekend that it’s not good for their
arteries,” said study co-author Kevin
McCully, a professor of kinesiology in
the UGA College of Education, “but
what they may not be aware of—and
what our study shows—is that the
decrease in function persists into the
next week, if not longer.”
Previous studies have shown
reductions in the arterial health of
people who smoke regularly, McCul
ly said, but what’s surprising about
his finding is that the study subjects
were occasional smokers (less than a
pack a week) who had not smoked for
at least two days before their ultra
sound. The study, which appears in
the early online edition of the journal
Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology,
found that the arteries of occasional
smokers were 36 percent less respon
sive to changes in blood flow than
non-smokers.
McCully explained that the health
ier an artery is, the more responsive
it is to changes in blood flow. A
reduction in responsiveness, known
as impaired flow-mediated dilation,
is an early sign of arterial damage
that often foreshadows cardiovascu
lar disease.
The researchers recruited 18 col
lege students for their study, half of
whom were non-smokers. The other
half smoked less than a pack a week
and had not smoked for at least two
days before undergoing testing. The
researchers measured the respon
siveness of the participants’ arteries
by inflating a blood pressure cuff
around their non-dominant arm to
reduce blood flow to the forearm for
various durations up to 10 minutes.
The researchers then rapidly
deflated the cuff and measured how
well the main artery in the forearm
responded to the sudden increase in
blood flow.
“We wanted to determine whether
occasional smoking can impair flow-
mediated dilation and found that
repeated bouts of cigarette smok
ing—even if classified as occasion
al—appear to increase the risk for
developing cardiovascular disease in
otherwise healthy, young people,”
said lead author Lee Stoner, a former
UGA doctoral student and now a
researcher at Christchurch Hospital
in New Zealand.
After the occasional smokers
underwent their initial test, they
smoked two cigarettes and had their
arteries re-examined. The research
ers found that smoking dropped their
arterial responsiveness by another
24 percent compared to before they
smoked.
McCully acknowledged that the
study used a relatively small sample
size and said that further research is
needed to determine if the impaired
arterial function is a relatively short
term phenomenon or causes long
term damage. But he said that in
light of his findings, people shouldn’t
assume that smoking occasionally
allows them to avoid the harmful
effects of tobacco.
“We saw a definite effect of ciga
rettes on the arteries, even in young
people who you would expect to be
healthy,” he said. □