Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Biotech / Medical : BSD Medical (Long Term Investment Oriented) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pleonastic who wrote (111)	2/12/2013 3:54:09 PM
From: pleonastic	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 178

I do not know if the following link will work – the journal is provided to AAAS members. Anyway, a few quotes should suffice to address some important issues. The “bottom line” -- actually a sub-heading to the “Perspective” about the main article – poses a major problem: "Intratumor heterogeneity is a major obstacle in successfully eradicating tumors." In other words, tumors are (typically? -- all?) aggregates of differing cells. So, a drug -- or even a combination of drugs -- may only achieve a changing of the population types/percentages. Some linages may be fully stopped, but others may continue to grow. Very important to BSD Medical investors: tumor killing by high temperatures does not have this issue! – or, at least, has it to a far lesser degree. That is, a VERY wide spectrum of cells (ALL, I believe) are susceptible to death by high temperatures! The above consideration augers VERY well for both hyperthermia and heat-ablation! http://www.sciencemag.org/content/339/6119/528.full (two clips) “Intratumor heterogeneity refers to biological differences between malignant cells originated within the same tumor. Possible explanations for this include genetic heterogeneity (resulting from the inherent genetic instability of cancer combined with evolutionary dynamics) and cell differentiation hierarchies in tumor cell populations (1–3). However, the results of Kreso et al. (4) on page 543 of this issue strongly suggest that biological differences between tumor cells can be due to additional mechanisms.” “However, phenotypic heterogeneity in the majority of human cancers is likely to be more complex, as it represents the integration of both genetic and nongenetic inputs. Therefore, adequate understanding and eradication of cancers requires a comprehensive picture that accounts for all major inputs that dictate tumor cell behaviors, including their response to current and future therapies. Technological advances that enable the complete molecular and functional profiling of individual cancer cells, as well as improved mathematical models built on actual clinical and experimental observations, will likely allow us to construct these pictures in the not-so-distant future.” OR!! – don’t rely on chemotherapy! Kill the complex mass of many differing cells with precision heating! While the various differing cells probably differ somewhat in temperature resistance, I think it unlikely any would survive temperatures approaching 100 C. And, in the unlikely event of, say, one or two highly heat-resistant cell linages, specific drugs targeting them could perhaps be developed (presumably an easier development than achieving a wide-spectrum-effective drug).