Ultimate Antibody Cures Every Type Of Cancer In Clinical Tests

[n2doc]

By James A. Foley Mar 29, 2013 08:01 AM EDT


Cancer researchers made a groundbreaking discovery by developing a sort-of "Ultimate antibody" -- a single treatment that has been shown to kill every type of cancer it was tested on.

The latest developments are based on research that began a decade ago at Stanford School of Medicine, where researchers discovered a link between cancer cells and high levels of a protein called CD47 while studying leukemia. Irving Weissman, the biologist behind the breakthrough, continued to study CD47 and found at a CD47-blocking antibody that could cure some cases of leukemia by stimulating the immune system to recognize cancer cells as invaders.

Now, Weissman has established a link between CD47 and most of primary caners that affect humans, finding that cancer cells always had higher levels of CD47 than healthy cells. The inordinate amounts of CD47 produced by the cancer cells effectively trick the immune system into not destroying the cancer cells.

"What we've shown is that CD47 isn't just important on leukemias and lymphomas," says Weissman, according to Science magazine. "It's on every single human primary tumor that we tested."

Weissman and his team used that observation to develop an antibody that blocks cancer cells' CD47, causing the body's immune system to attack the cancerous cells.

more

http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/1091/20130329/ultimate-antibody-cures-type-cancer-clinical-tests-video.htm

[MotherPetrie]

1. Incredible news... fingers crossed...

[GeoWilliam750]

2. Absolutely fascinating

[Kurovski]

3. I wish this wasn't here on april 1st.

I cantstakeitnomore!

[n2doc]

4. This isn't a joke

Look at the article date

[Kurovski]

5. I know n& I did check it, i was the one making a joke. this is GREAT news.

I mean if we're going to have a world awash in cancer-causing agents, and we can't stop corps from doing it, it's nice that we can at least get some chance to survive it all!

[Happyhippychick]

6. Best thread of the day, month, year.

[dhill926]

7. thanks....

this bears watching....

[ProfessionalLeftist]

8. Sounds like CD47 is a Republican protien

"The inordinate amounts of CD47 produced by the cancer cells effectively trick the immune system into not destroying the cancer cells"

Insidious, disingenuous, dishonest, you know - Republican.



Seriously though this is great news. I suspect big pharma will fight this like hell since they make so much profit from cancer treatments.

There was a guy on NPR this past weekend who had a type of cancer - I think it may have been some kind of leukemia and he talked about a protein that had been discovered as the culprit. He found a drug that was meant for a completely different purpose which destroyed this particular kind of protein. Evidently the drug saved his life. They talked about the research behind this - I wonder if this is the same protein and research?

[Vincardog]

9. Best news evah

[mountain grammy]

10. Encouraging! Here's hoping.

[darkangel218]

11. Every time there has been a ground breaking discovery like this

Big Pharma managed to silence them pretty quickly. They will do it this time too.

[Deep13]

14. Prove it. nt

[darkangel218]

16. Time will prove it.

Sadly.

[Deep13]

18. So, no real basis for that claim, then. nt

[darkangel218]

20. Goodbye. nt

[Deep13]

23. That's what I thought. nt

[SunSeeker]

12. Such a shock that big pharma did not come up with this one.

What WILL they do if $2,000/shot chemo treatments become obsolete? If it is a targeted antibody, it'll work way better, without the side effects of chemo or surgery. If a simple vaccine can set you up with this antibody, this could change the world.

[Deep13]

13. Again? nt

[drm604]

15. I was a little skeptical of something called "Nature World News"

so I read the original Science magazine article, which is a little more measured and talks about shrinking tumors for some cancers rather than completely eliminating them, although it does say that it eliminated all signs of breast cancer cells.

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/03/one-drug-to-shrink-all-tumors.html?ref=hp

It does sound like this could be an important breakthrough but it does remain to be seen how well it works in humans, and whether or not it's toxic.

[MannyGoldstein]

17. Incredible. Hope!

Although I'm mindful of angiostatin - killed all tumors in mice, in humans, not so much.

But here's my question: why not stop screwing around and just give CD47 to some folks who are terminal? If I *knew* I was going to die soon anyway, I'd gladly try it. After checking the data myself, to make sure there's no shenanigans, of course.

If a few people got cured out of a group that was certainly going to die, I'd think you'd have statistical significance.

[goldent]

21. "why not stop screwing around and just give CD47 to some folks who are terminal?"

The FDA does have rules to allow , but even in that case there are standards. See Availability of Investigational Drugs for Compassionate Use for some background.

FDA may not allow treatment uses because of safety concerns. Generally, however, if a physician makes a request for treatment use of an experimental drug, in a patient for whom no effective therapy exists, and there is an ongoing study of the drug and a sponsor agrees to provide the product, FDA does not object to the treatment use.

There have been cases in which treatment use has been considered appropriate, despite relatively little evidence supporting the usefulness of the drug for the particular indication. Generally, when there was no effective alternative drug or treatment for the particular condition and there was sufficient information about safety, treatment use be justified. Physicians may always contact FDA to propose such a use for a specific patient when they believe circumstances warrant this use.

[MannyGoldstein]

22. I know. I'm actually a member of the medico-industrial complex

who deals with FDA stuff. And in general, the FDA regs are pretty good.

But it seems to me that the rules break down when a Hail Mary pass is the only possible way to win the game.

Of course it's subject to abuse. But there ought to be a way to speed this up, in practice.

[liberalla]

24. K&R

bookmarking for later reading

Thks!