Saturday, February 3, 2007

B.C. researchers find cancer-killing 'decoy'

Researchers from the British Columbia Cancer Agency have announced a major breakthrough in the treatment of prostate cancer.

If prostate cancer is caught early enough current treatments are very effective however, if caught too late typically only the tumor growth and disease progression can be slowed down but the disease is still terminal.

What is key about Dr. Sadar's treatment is the ability to introduce 'decoy' molecules which increase androgen receptors which in turn effectively block the growth of prostate cancer cells and not only do they stop growing they actually begin to shrink.

Now the pharmas need to jump on the approach and create a human drug and hopefully it won't take too many years to get it out!

Before this approach people with advanced prostate cancer typically just had a few years to live.

Hats off to Dr. Sadar who made a career decision 12 years ago to go after cancer - her greatest hope was to make a breakthrough in the treatment of cancer and now she has!

Can't wait to see what she does next - hope I don't have to wait 12 years for her next breakthrough.

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