check out BTIM SEC filing dated 4/16---seems as though BTIM is doubling their outstanding shares for an acquisition---also
note they make point repeatedly that most of their board once worked for CMSI---i talked to btim when they left cmsi (bought
10,000 shares at 50 cent to $2 range-sold at $17, pre split,and bought100k of cmsi--looking for $10 in the near future)and btim
stated that they were friendly with cmsi and that cmsi had a good solution. looks like they are the joint venture in biolife--deal
should mean 200-400 million cash to cmsi so they can expand production of their accuprobe---HFCA approval must be around the
corner. see article from NCI:
Freezing Liver Tumors to Death: Helping Conventional Therapy Work Better
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SANTA MONICA, CA. -- September 9, 1997 -- Two new preliminary studies from John Wayne Cancer Institute suggest that when conventional therapies fail, attacking lethal liver tumors by freezing them to death can prolong the lives of terminal cancer patients and possibly offer a cure. It can also provide dramatic relief of debilitating pain and other symptoms that are caused by a specific type of cancer.
The first study examined 19 patients who had failed conventional treatments such as chemotherapy and received cryosurgery for advanced neuroendocrine cancers that had spread to the liver. These cancers begin in the small bowel or pancreas and when they reach the liver, the patient can suffer severe abdominal pain, nausea and diarrhea.
"These cancers produce hormones that can cause people to become horribly ill," said John Wayne Cancer Institute surgeon Anton Bilchik, M.D., Ph.D., author of both studies. "Typically with advanced disease, patients that do not respond to chemotherapy rarely survive more than a year and die a miserable death."
After cryosurgery patients were free of debilitating abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea and other significant symptoms for a median of 10 months, as opposed to being homebound or bed-ridden which is a common condition for people with metastatic neuroendocrine tumors.
"Relieving these people of these terrible symptoms is a tremendous benefit that we've never been able to offer before to people who don't respond to conventional therapy," Bilchik said.
Cryosurgery is performed on these patients by inserting hollow steel probes into liver tumors and filling them with liquid nitrogen at 319 below zero degree Farenheit. The super cold liquid turns the tumors into solid balls of ice within several minutes, causing the cancer cells to freeze to death and explode. The harmless dead cell fragments are then absorbed by the body over the next several weeks.
Bilchik said it is likely that reducing the tumor mass is responsible for the reduction of symptoms in these patients. There was an 80 to 90 percent reduction in tumor marker levels after cryosurgery.
"Tumor marker levels often indicate the amount of tumor mass in the body. Lower levels mean less tumor tissue," Bilchik explained. "Interestingly, patients who were resistant to chemotherapy before cryosurgery, afterwards began to respond to chemotherapy after freezing reduced the size of the tumors.
"We have been using cryosurgery to treat livers that have been invaded by cancers that started in the colon and where conventional surgery could not be performed. Now, we are discovering that cryosurgery is a useful tool in treating other cancers that have spread to the liver, such as melanoma."
The second report looked at 20 patients with primary liver, breast, melanoma, ovarian and thyroid cancers with the spread confined to the liver. Seventeen had a significant decrease in tumor marker levels following cryosurgery.
It appears survival was also prolonged, since the median duration of survival was 32 months following cryosurgery. Typically these patients survive less than six months. A new cancer vaccine has been developed at John Wayne Cancer Institute for these patients with promising results.
"The findings of both studies are exciting because we now have a new tool to help many patients live longer and feel better. And in some cases, we may be able to offer a cure," Bilchik said. |
