Life in the Atomic Age

Starting to come of age.

The drug, made by Genentech, does not help everyone, though. For one thing, it is only for the estimated 20 percent of patients whose breast tumors churn out too much of a protein known as HER2.

It’s exciting to see molecular targets begin to be exploited in the clinic, especially since cytotoxic therapies (like chemotherapy and radiation) are reaching a point of diminishing returns. Sure we can kill cancer cells with aggressive chemotherapy regimens - but at what cost to the patient?

My basic introductory lecture to cancer biology is here (Powerpoint format). A PDF version is here, sans fancy animation.

What kind of cancer cell is this?

I think President Bush’s stand on stem cell research is misguided and wrong. Yes, you can argue that only federal funds are excluded from the embryonic stem cell arena - but the potential of this research is almost limitless. I remain unmoved by moral and ethical arguments that don’t deal with the real concerns of how the embryos are created and handled. I certainly don’t accept the religious implications of using embryonic stem cells in regenerative research. However, I also recognize that there are people who are concerned about these issues. Concerned enough to block any and all advances in the field, no matter what the potential benefits to mankind might be.

That’s why it’s incredibly fortuitous that we have scientists who still look at obstacles as challenges - challenges to be overcome as you progress logically from point A to point B. Scientists like these.

My current research is with adult canine bone marrow stem cells. I chose to work with adult stem cells purely because any therapies we developed for treating dogs with cancer would have no application to people if we used embryonic stem cells as our delivery vector. It was an interesting lab meeting - where we sat down and charted our research plan for the next 2 years based on the political climate in the US rather than on the course that we thought held the most promise. But I know that hundreds of other labs did exactly the same thing - and not just small veterinary molecular oncology labs like mine - but larger labs dependent on federal funds for their operating budgets. And that’s where the real danger of the embryonic stem cell research blockade lies - in the fact that it will prevent some very talented people from pursuing very promising avenues because they can’t chance losing (or not receiving) federal funding. But, at the end of the day, scientists are problem solvers. And this is just one more problem that is one step closer to being erased.

So, what’s happening here?

So, what’s this, and why am I interested in it from an oncologic research standpoint?