Why there is no cure for cancer on the market, Part II – written in collaboration with oncologist
After surprisingly successful Part I, where we covered the period from 1.700.000 years ago until the WWII, now it's time to see the logic behind the cancer treatment in the modern era.
Each claim I made in this post is based on the proven sources, with the hyperlink to the original research paper.
Basically, this could be published as the Review article in a scientific journal.
Quick recap
In Part I, we have seen that the cancer is as old as the mankind, and that was described in medical books written at the dawn of the literacy.
We also know that the doctors of the time have tried to treat the patients but with no success.
Theoretical basis about the origin of cancer was established in the first half of the XX century.
And the combination of surgery and radiation treatment brought us the first wins against the disease.
Molecular biology brings the advantage
1941, Charles Huggins, Hormonal Therapy
In 1941, we got the base for the hormonal therapy of the prostate cancer. Source
How huge discovery it was? Well, he won the Nobel Prize for that
Link to this ppt presentation.
1944, DNA contains genetic information
You might be surprised but before WWII, it was common to think that the proteins are caring the genes!
1947, Sidney Farber, Antimetabolites
Only a few years after the discovery of the role of DNA, Sidney Farber showed that the antimetabolite drug aminopterin induces temporary remissions in children with acute leukemia.
The logic of this era was to find the chemicals that were capable to kill the cancer cells.
But... We want to save good cells and to kill cancer cells
Fortunately, in that time, there was a huge advancement in the field of cell cultures, thanks to virology, mainly.
What does it mean in practice?
We are capable to test any substance you can imagine: plant extract, chemical, oil, whatever... And see if that substance is able to kill the cancer cells at least in the dish.
Of course, it's much more difficult to achieve the same in the whole organism.
Today such lest looks like this:
1949: Nitrogen Mustard, approved by the FDA
Nitrogen mustard is the representative of the class of drugs called alkylating agents, which kill the cells by modifying their DNA.
If you are wondering how it's achieved chemically, check the image and the presentation
V for the Victory!
1953, Roy Hertz and Min Chiu Li, The First Complete Cure of a Human Solid Tumor
Roy Hertz and Min Chiu Li used the drug methotrexate to treat a patient with choriocarcinoma, cancer of the reproductive tissue that mainly affects women.
If you are wondering what is the mechanism of action of this drug, check this source
If you think that we know nothing and that we earn our salary by doing nothing or something for the Illuminati - well think again
1958, 6-mercaptopurine and methotrexate fight leukemia
Emil Frei, Emil Freireich, and James Holland from the NCI showed that combination chemotherapy with the 6-mercaptopurine and methotrexate can induce partial and complete remissions in children and adults with acute leukemia. Their life expectancy becomes longer.
Thank you in the name of humanity!
Again, if you want to know the chemistry behind the process, the reference is here
And, as always, I'm giving you the links to the original research papers.
What we achieved?
In the brief period of time covered in this post, from 1940 to 1960, science made incredible discoveries and shifted the paradigm of thinking how to fight cancer.
We learned that the cells can be cultivated and that provided us the testing grounds
We learned that we should concentrate our efforts towards the DNA if we want to kill the cancer
We developed the effective drugs: aminopterin, nitrogen mustard, methotrexate and 6-mercaptopurine.
In brief 20 years, science progressed more than for the previous 2.000 years.
The next decade was quiet,
because the science is not a linear process.
The pathway of scientific progress is in the form of the leaps.
We are all standing on the shoulders of the giants, our older colleagues who accumulated the knowledge for us.
The paradigm shifted again in the 90's
but that is the story for the Part III.
Stay tuned, follow me (if you like this content), vote (if you like it)
Chech Part I if you didn't
And check the debunking of the worst scientific paper ever written.
resteeming this too..
Great series on the history of cancer... there has been so much going on for so long, yet we still fail to find a decent cure, I wonder why that is.....
Spoiler Alert, we didn't have methods to see where should we look at... I've been studying molecular biology from 2005 to 2010. Since 2010, progress became so fast that we got completely new fields of science, new methods and the most important new approaches to the problems.
For example, when I was a student, genome sequencing was incredibly expensive.
Today you can buy the device for about 1.000 $ and chemicals for 2.000 $ and do it in your garage.
Or you could order the analysis for about 1.000 $
RNA expression (levels of RNA that lead to the synthesis of the proteins) was basically unmeasurable on the wide scale, and today we have this. My girlfriend started doing this in context of cancer this year. The method that was impossible 10 years ago, very expensive 5 years ago and routine today.
I think that our generation of will more likely die from the falling pidgeon than from cancer.
Amazing progress indeed in the field of science. Before I became a digital nomad I worked as a plant biologist/scientist at the University of Ghent, Belgium. I studied cell cycle of plants... Sadly enough not many resources are being put in analyzing the effects of our diet and natural substances such as turmeric and RSO or CBD oil when it comes to treating cancer. Though there has been some breakthrough in the field of epigenetics which found that our diet is an important factor in whether genes given to us over generations will be expressed or not! Interesting stuff.
health science cancer great post
Great work! I'm looking forward to Part III (and beyond). I think you have written about this very difficult topic in a simple and concise manner and this shows that you truly understand it.
Thank you :) It will be ready tomorrow (Monday). This weekend I wrote about the air defense, but it was incredibly unpopular. Weekend is not good time for posting, according to last 3 - 4 weeks I spent here
@originalwork
upvoting day . keep it up
15 from your page, just now :)