A compound found in cannabis may prevent breast cancer spreading to other parts of the body, scientists believe.
Experts hope that cannabidiol, also known as CBD, could be a realistic alternative to chemotherapy.
However, the study carried out by the California Pacific Medical Centre Research Institute does not advocate marijuana use among cancer patients.
(via Nerdshit).
“John Kanzius, sorely weakened by leukemia treatments, drew on his lifetime of working with radio waves to devise a machine that targets cancer cells. The miracle: It works.
Kanzius did not have a medical background, not even a bachelor’s degree, but he knew radios. He had built and fixed them since he was a child, collecting transmitters, transceivers, antennas and amplifiers, earning an amateur radio operator license. Kanzius knew how to send radio wave signals around the world. If he could transmit them into cancer cells, he wondered, could he then direct the radio waves to destroy tumors, while leaving healthy cells intact?”
via LA Times
U.S. researchers say they’ve successfully reprogrammed adult stem cells from the testes of male mice into a wide variety of cell types, including functional blood vessels, contractile cardiac tissue, and brain cells.
If the same can be done with adult testes stem cells from humans, they may offer a source of new therapies to treat men with health problems such as heart disease, vascular diseases, diabetes, stroke, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and even cancer, the researchers said.
(via Hit and Run).
The next step is to run clinical trials of DCA in people with cancer. These may have to be funded by charities, universities and governments: pharmaceutical companies are unlikely to pay because they can’t make money on unpatented medicines. The pay-off is that if DCA does work, it will be easy to manufacture and dirt cheap.
Click through to find out more, and find out how to you can donate to the cause. Let’s pass this one around.
(via Lupa).
The Scotsman reports:
A WOMAN is pregnant with the UK’s first baby designed not to inherit a hereditary form of cancer.
The woman carrying the child decided to use genetic screening to ensure that she does not pass on the eye cancer.
[…]
The mother, who suffers from the disease, chose to conceive her child by IVF, even though she and her partner did not have fertility problems, to allow doctors to remove a cell from embryos and test them for the cancer gene. Only embryos not carrying the defective gene were then transferred to her womb.
Full Story: Scotsman: Woman pregnant with baby ‘designed’ to defeat cancer
I remember reading about a study in Madrid around 1999 or 2000 in which THC was found to kill brain tumors in mice. It was on Yahoo! News and the story was removed after a week or two, and I’ve never been able to find anything else about it… until now:
Dr Melamede said whereas nicotine activated carcinogenic compounds, THC – one of 60 cannabinoids derived from the cannabis plant – had been shown to inhibit them in mice cells.
“Compounds found in cannabis have been shown to kill numerous cancer types including lung, breast, prostate, leukaemia, lymphoma and skin cancer.”
But he said the effects of cannabis were complex as evidence also suggested low doses of THC could stimulate growth of lung cancer cells.
ABC News online:
Singaporean doctors have used an injectable radioactive “BrachySil” chip to destroy malignant cells and prolong the lives of inoperable liver cancer patients.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Injectable chip destroys cancer cells
(via KurzweilAI.net)
Business 2.0 has a well written article examining eight near-future technologies that they believe will change the world:
They’ve got a pretty good list, but where are the anti-cancer nano-bots? Cheap solar power? Particle transmitters/teleporters?
Also on Slashdot today is this story about the discovery of a gene that kills cells. It could be used to kill cancer or potentially keep patients alive forever.
Wired News reports that the National Foundation for Cancer Research is hoping to have PC users download a program that searchs for cancer cures while your computer is idle – sort of like SETI@home for do gooders.
Update: The Wired News story is still up, but the program is no longer available for download. According to Wikipedia, the project ended in April of 2007. But if you’re still interested in donating CPU cycles to do good, the IBM-sponsored World Community Grid has projects dedicated to finding cures for cancer, AIDS as well as projects dedicated to solving other problems.
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