Hello again, just to give you some insight into how a cancer patient transforms minor bodily discomfort into a full-blown symptom of tumor recurrance: I have a hedache, And of course, as a consequence I am observing my left body half full of suspicion (my tumor was right, so the affected part of the body is left). And I feel dizzy. Is this it? Am I going to die? (well, some day certainly). Is there any twiching? am I loosing conciousness, do I have coordination difficulties? I wish there was a walk-in MRI to check on the status of my brain. Nonsense of course. I should work but this headache keeps me tied to the desk and I find myself writing this thing here. How ridiculous trying to be a scientist after a braintumor diagnosis. after having a golfball-size piece of tumor mass removed from my "most precious organ", or, as one could also say:MYSELF
As usual I am full of doubts.
But what can I do but to live/work on? stopping means let the tumor win. Unacceptable!!!
OK gotta do some work now.
CU
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Hi Thomass,
ReplyDeleteI came across your blog. I am praying for the best for you and your fight against astrocytoma. My husband was just diagnosed with stage 3 astrocytoma in November. It's been one hell of a ride. I am thankful that your tumor was resectable, at least. In your role as a cancer researcher, I am curious to know what you think are the most promising drugs out there for astrocytomas in the future. It seems that everyone is now taking Avastin/CPT-11. Is antiangiogenesis really the way to go, do you think? I hope by the time you get there we will know more to help you. I feel like the tide is turning a little too late for my husband.
Thank you for your kind words, I am really surprised how fas somebody answered.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure about studies with decent statistics with angiogenesis inhibitors, but I heard a talk at the "Mechanisms and Models of Cancer"-meeting at the Salk Institute in La Jolla the other week which sounded pretty promsing about the approach to use a combination therapy of several kinase inhibitors for Gliomas. Gleevec (Imatinib) for instance, usually it is given for CML, but it may also have some effect for gliomas, when given together with treatments such as hydroxyurea,
http://jco.ascopubs.org/cgi/content/
abstract/23/36/9359
or even Chloroquine (normally Malaria treatment)
http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/
abstract/144/5/337
Generally, many think a multitarget-approach might be the most promising one.
But then, all these things can usually only be done in course of a clinical trial.
Anyway, remember: I am not an MD, so I am "fast" at suggesting stuff from the lab which hasn't been tested in animals or humans, so careful. But according to the speaker, one common theme in many glioma cells seems to be that several kinase pathways seem to be superactivated.