http://www.physorg.com/news81080494.html

AT LAST! This is the first cancer drug that makes SENSE, (RATHER THAN JUST MONEY!)
E.L.Earnhardt

TROGDOR STRIKES AGAIN!


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/6088008.stm

Cells are the most basic structure of the body. Cells make up tissues, and tissues make up organs, such as the lungs, liver, kidneys. Normally, these cells grow and divide to form new cells as the body needs them. Sometimes this orderly process goes wrong. Sometimes new cells form when the body does not need them, and the old cells do not die when they should.

When this happens, these extra cells can form a mass of tissue called a tumor. Cells in a cancerous tumor are abnormal and divide without order. They can invade and damage nearby tissues and organs, and can break away from a malignant tumor and spread to other parts of the body (metastasis).

Normal chemotherapy kills both cancer cells and healthy normal cells (mainly rapidly-dividing cells). Oncologists try to minimize damage to normal cells and to enhance the cell-killing effect on cancer cells. Too often, this delicate balance is not achieved.

Targeted therapy drugs interfere with specific molecules (receptors and enzymes inside and outside a cancer cell). By focusing on these molecular and cellular changes, targeted cancer drugs go after the "target" in these cells, rather than just all cells. Because of this, "targeted" drugs may be more effective than current treatments, and may be less harmful to normal cells.

Whole cell profiling can discriminate between the activity of different "targeted" drugs and identify situations in which it is advantageous to combine the "targeted" drugs with other types of cancer drugs. Because these new "smart" drugs will work for "some" but not "all" cancer patients who receive them, whole cell profiling can accurately identify patients who would benefit from treatment with molecularly-targeted anti-cancer therapies.

Not only is this an important predictive test that is available, but it is also a unique tool that can help to identify newer and better drugs, evaluate promising drug combinations, and serve as a "gold standard" correlative model with which to develop new DNA, RNA, and protein-based tests that better predict for drug activity.

This kind of technique exists, and might be very valuable, especially when active chemoagents are limited in a particular disease; it makes more sense than ever to test the tumor first. Afterall, cutting-edge techniques can often provide superior results over tried-and-true methods that have been around for many years.