PET Imaging May Improve Lung Cancer Diagnosis
November 28th, 2007
Tumor imaging with positron emission tomography (PET) may improve the diagnosis and subsequent treatment of lung cancer patients, according to a recent review.
ALMOST 80% OF NEW LC DIAGNOSES
ARE IN NEVERSMOKERS OR
PEOPLE WHO QUIT LONG AGO
At 11:25 pm on February 24th, 2008 Gregory D. Pawelski said:
Positive Responses To Chemotherapy Improved By Assays
The outcome for metabolic responders and non-responders in PET imaging is basically what is going on with “functional” profiling in a cell culture assay, showing what patients are benefiting from what drug agents.
The biggest difference is that with PET imaging, you give the patient potentially toxic and ineffective drugs and wait six to eight weeks and then make tumor measurements. And then give more potentially toxic and ineffective drugs and wait another six to eight weeks and repeat measurements.
You still have the patient getting potentially toxic and ineffective treatment and then you still have to wait weeks until you could try Plan B. You measure the drug effects on tumors “in” the patient, one treatment at a time.
Cancer drugs are given based on how large populations are likely to respond to a treatment. However, doctors don’t treat populations, they treat individual patients. Because of this, doctors give treatments knowing full well that only a certain percentage of patients will receive a benefit from any given medicine.
A chemo-induced gene mutation can happen when the original chemo received does not work. The cancer comes back. When it does this, the cancer comes back more aggressively. The mutagenic effects (changes in form) of chemotherapy on a genetically-unstable tumor, drives the tumor into a state of more aggressive behavior.
Cancers that are a product of these genetic mutations release cells from the usual controls of proliferation and survival, making them so much harder to fight it. Following this mutation, the cancer cells acquire the ability to proliferate without the normal restraints.
As the cancer grows, it may infiltrate and destroy the surrounding tissue, and metastasize by penetrating into blood vessels, lymph nodes, and body cavities. Distant metastasis via the bloodstream may affect virtually any organ (the lungs, bones, liver, adrenals, and even the brain).
In “functional” profiling with cell culture assays, as many as twenty treatments can be done to see which one works best, “before” they are put in the patient.
“Functional” profiling in a cell culture assay is a lab test performed on a biopsy specimen containing fresh “living” cancer cells. It’s used to determine the sensitivity or resistance of malignant cells to individual chemotherapy agents. Depending on how well the tumor cells respond to each chemotherapy agent, they are rated as sensitive, resistant or intermediate to chemotherapy.
The concept is that you are better off using a chemotherapy drug that your tumor reacts to strongly than one your tumor resists.
Upgrading clinical therapy by using cell culture assays measuring “cell death” of three dimensional microclusters of live “fresh” tumor cells, can improve the situation by allowing more drugs to be considered. The more drug types there are in the selective arsenal, the more likely the system is to prove beneficial.
http://www.rational-t.com/
http://weisenthalcancer.com/index.htm
At 11:26 pm on February 24th, 2008 Gregory D. Pawelski said:
The outcome for metabolic responders and non-responders in PET imaging is basically what is going on with “functional” profiling in a cell culture assay, showing what patients are benefiting from what drug agents.
The biggest difference is that with PET imaging, you give the patient potentially toxic and ineffective drugs and wait six to eight weeks and then make tumor measurements. And then give more potentially toxic and ineffective drugs and wait another six to eight weeks and repeat measurements.
You still have the patient getting potentially toxic and ineffective treatment and then you still have to wait weeks until you could try Plan B. You measure the drug effects on tumors “in” the patient, one treatment at a time.
Cancer drugs are given based on how large populations are likely to respond to a treatment. However, doctors don’t treat populations, they treat individual patients. Because of this, doctors give treatments knowing full well that only a certain percentage of patients will receive a benefit from any given medicine.
A chemo-induced gene mutation can happen when the original chemo received does not work. The cancer comes back. When it does this, the cancer comes back more aggressively. The mutagenic effects (changes in form) of chemotherapy on a genetically-unstable tumor, drives the tumor into a state of more aggressive behavior.
Cancers that are a product of these genetic mutations release cells from the usual controls of proliferation and survival, making them so much harder to fight it. Following this mutation, the cancer cells acquire the ability to proliferate without the normal restraints.
As the cancer grows, it may infiltrate and destroy the surrounding tissue, and metastasize by penetrating into blood vessels, lymph nodes, and body cavities. Distant metastasis via the bloodstream may affect virtually any organ (the lungs, bones, liver, adrenals, and even the brain).
In “functional” profiling with cell culture assays, as many as twenty treatments can be done to see which one works best, “before” they are put in the patient.
“Functional” profiling in a cell culture assay is a lab test performed on a biopsy specimen containing fresh “living” cancer cells. It’s used to determine the sensitivity or resistance of malignant cells to individual chemotherapy agents. Depending on how well the tumor cells respond to each chemotherapy agent, they are rated as sensitive, resistant or intermediate to chemotherapy.
The concept is that you are better off using a chemotherapy drug that your tumor reacts to strongly than one your tumor resists.
Upgrading clinical therapy by using cell culture assays measuring “cell death” of three dimensional microclusters of live “fresh” tumor cells, can improve the situation by allowing more drugs to be considered. The more drug types there are in the selective arsenal, the more likely the system is to prove beneficial.
http://www.rational-t.com/
http://weisenthalcancer.com/index.htm
At 11:27 pm on February 24th, 2008 Gregory D. Pawelski said:
The outcome for metabolic responders and non-responders in PET imaging is basically what is going on with Functional Profiling in cell culture assays, showing what patients are benefiting from what drug agents.
The biggest difference is that with PET imaging, you give the patient potentially toxic and ineffective drugs and wait six to eight weeks and then make tumor measurements. And then give more potentially toxic and ineffective drugs and wait another six to eight weeks and repeat measurements.
You still have the patient getting potentially toxic and ineffective treatment and then you still have to wait weeks until you could try Plan B. You measure the drug effects on tumors “in” the patient, one treatment at a time.
These drugs are given based on how large populations are likely to respond to a treatment. However, doctors don’t treat populations, they treat individual patients. Because of this, doctors give treatments knowing full well that only a certain percentage of patients will receive a benefit from any given medicine.
A chemo-induced gene mutation can happen when the original chemo received does not work. The cancer comes back. When it does this, the cancer comes back more aggressively. The mutagenic effects (changes in form) of chemotherapy on a genetically-unstable tumor, drives the tumor into a state of more aggressive behavior.
Cancers that are a product of these genetic mutations release cells from the usual controls of proliferation and survival, making them so much harder to fight it. Following this mutation, the cancer cells acquire the ability to proliferate without the normal restraints.
As the cancer grows, it may infiltrate and destroy the surrounding tissue, and metastasize by penetrating into blood vessels, lymph nodes, and body cavities. Distant metastasis via the bloodstream may affect virtually any organ (the lungs, bones, liver, adrenals, and even the brain).
In Functional Profiling with cell culture assays, as many as twenty treatments can be done to see which one works best, “before” they are put in the patient.
A cell culture assay is a lab test performed on a biopsy specimen containing living cancer cells. It’s used to determine the sensitivity or resistance of malignant cells to individual chemotherapy agents. Depending on how well the tumor cells respond to each chemotherapy agent, they are rated as sensitive, resistant or intermediate to chemotherapy.
The concept is that you are better off using a chemotherapy drug that your tumor reacts to strongly than one your tumor resists.
Upgrading clinical therapy by using cell culture assays measuring “cell death” of three dimensional microclusters of live “fresh” tumor cells, can improve the situation by allowing more drugs to be considered. The more drug types there are in the selective arsenal, the more likely the system is to prove beneficial.