Natural Products for Cancer Prevention/Management (13)

Berberine

Berberine (Huang Lian Su), is found in a number of plants such as Chinese goldthread or goldenseal, and Amur cork tree.  Berberine is an important ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine and has been used in a number of indications, including bacterial & viral infections, diabetes, inflammation, liver injury, elevated blood cholesterol, congestive heart failure, and more notably, cancer.

Does berberine have any effects in cancer?  Cell and animal studies have indicated that it could have certain activities against a number of tumors including liver cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, prostate cancer, and melanoma.

© Jiajiu Shaw, 2016

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All contents posted are extracted from the book I am writing, "IS CANCER IN US", to be published in about two months.

Natural Products for Cancer Prevention/Management (12)

Resveratrol

Resveratrol is found in grapes and several different berries.  Due to its high demand, most commercial products of resveratrol have been extracted from a Chinese plant, HuQi. 

It has been reported that resveratrol has several positive effects in health, including anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and anti-aging effects.  Although there have been some supportive data for the health benefits of resveratrol from in vitro and animal studies, there has not been a clear conclusion in human clinical studies. 

© Jiajiu Shaw, 2016

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All contents posted are extracted from the book I am writing, "IS CANCER IN US", to be published in about two months.

Natural Products for Cancer Prevention/Management (11)

Lycopene

Lycopene belongs to the carotenoid family.  It is a red pigment and photochemical that blocks free radicals; it is found in tomato, papaya, watermelon, and some other fruits/vegetables.

It was reported that lycopene is a promising agent for prostate cancer chemoprevention based on the studies from animal and human clinical trials. Preclinical studies show that lycopene has potent in vitro and in vivo antitumor effects, suggesting potential preventive and therapeutic roles for the compound.  Some studies showed that dietary intake of lycopene is inversely associated with the risk of many cancers.  However, clinical trials with lycopene have only recently been started, and available clinical data have not shown a firm conclusion with regard to its use in cancer prevention and treatment.

© Jiajiu Shaw, 2016

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All contents posted are extracted from the book I wrote, "IS CANCER IN US", to be published in about two months.

Natural Products for Cancer Prevention/Management (10)

Carotenoids

Carotenoids are organic pigments found in many plants and they are also found in some fungi and bacteria.  There are more than 600 known carotenoids.  Carotenoids play two key roles in plants and algae: (1) they absorb light energy for use in photosynthesis, and (2) they protect chlorophyll from light damage.

Some carotenoids (α-carotene, β-carotene, and β-cryptoxanthin) in the human body can be converted to retinal (one form of vitamin A) and some carotenoids can function as antioxidants. Some carotenoids in the eye (lutein, astaxanthin, and zeaxanthin) can absorb blue and near UV light and protect the retina. 

A number of carotenoids were proven to have anti-carcinogenic activity and may be useful in cancer prevention.  These include α-carotene, β-carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin, lycopene, beta-cryptoxanthin, fucoxanthin, astaxanthin, capsanthin, crocetin and phytoene.

It was reported that women with higher circulating levels of α-carotene, β-carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin, lycopene, and total carotenoids may be at lower risk of breast cancer.  Some studies suggest that α-carotene, β-carotene, and zeaxanthin may inhibit the growth of prostate, breast and head and neck cancers.

© Jiajiu Shaw, 2016

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All contents posted are extracted from the book I am writing, "IS CANCER IN US", to be published in about two months.

Natural Products for Cancer Prevention/Management (9)

Quercetin

Quercetin is a representative flavonoid found in many plants including citrus fruit, tea, onion, and apples. Quercetin has been made in capsule form as a dietary supplement for quite some time. It has been shown to have several beneficial biological/pharmaceutical effects, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer.

Most of the research on quercetin and cancer has been done in cell culture (in vitro studies) or animal studies (in vivo studies). One must be cautious that these studies are not equivalent to human clinical trials. In vitro studies indicate that quercetin can slow the growth of some cancer cells. Clinical studies indicate its involvement in tyrosine kinase inhibition but there is no solid clinical evidence indicating that quercetin can prevent or treat cancer.

Some studies suggested potential protective value for quercetin in prostatitis (inflamed prostate), heart disease, and cancer. However, it is not clear what role quercetin played in their findings. All these sound exciting; however, further clinical studies are needed before any scientific conclusions can be made. Nevertheless, it is not a bad idea to include foods that contain quercetin as part of a balanced diet with an emphasis on fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains.

© Jiajiu Shaw, 2016

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All contents posted are extracted from the book I am writing, "IS CANCER IN US", to be published in about two months.

Status of this blog as of November 13, 2016

As of November 12, 2016, this blog has been viewed for 4,283 times by people around the world. The top three countries are United States (1,680), Israel (1,298), and Germany (528). People in many other areas are also visiting. These include Brazil, Russia, Taiwan, France, Italy, Philippine, Thailand, United Kingdom, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, Chile, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Kenya, Brunel, and more. Thank for viewing my blog and I sincerely hope that you can learn something from my blog.

As to the browsers used, 51% used Chrome, 22% used Firefox, 15% used Explorer, 6% used Safari, 2% used Qt, and the rest by all other browsers. Again, Chrome is still the primary browser.

As to the operating systems used, 65% used Windows, 18% used Macintosh, 5% used Linux, and the rest by other systems. It is clear that Windows is the most popular operating system used.

By the way, my 2^nd book, Side Effects of Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy, was published in October 2016. If you are interested, the book is available at shawcreativeinc.com and at amazon.com.

Please continue to read my blog and recommend it to your loved ones and friends. Thank you for your visiting.

  

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Some of the contents posted are extracted from the two books I published, IS CANCER IN US and SIDE EFFECTS OF CHEMOTHERAPY AND RADIOTHERAPY.

Natural Products for Cancer Prevention/Management (8)

Flavonoids

Flavonoids are a group of polyphenolic compounds found ubiquitously in plants and in the human diet.  High levels of flavonoids are found in onions, parsley, tea, citrus fruits, berries, dark chocolate, red wine, and gingko biloba.

Flavonoids have been shown to have a wide range of biological and pharmacological activities, including immune-medicated diseases and cancer.

Some clinical trials found that people with diets high in flavonoids may have lower risk of breast, lung, pancreatic, and other types of cancer. 

© Jiajiu Shaw, 2016

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All contents posted are extracted from the book I am writing, "IS CANCER IN US", to be published in about two months. 

Natural Products for Cancer Prevention/Management (7)

Avocados

Avocados are native to Mexico and have been cultivated in tropical and Mediterranean climates throughout the world.  They are available in almost all grocery stores.

Avocado is a high fat food, but the majority of the fat comes from oleic acid; this is one of the reasons that avocados can lower blood levels of bad cholesterol and triglyceride. In addition to fat, vitamins, minerals, and fiber, avocados are rich in phytochemicals, which may reduce the risk of some chronic diseases, such as arthritis.  Some people believe eating avocados may have some cancer prevention effect.

© Jiajiu Shaw, 2016

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All contents posted are extracted from the book I am writing, "IS CANCER IN US", to be published in about two months.

Natural Products for Cancer Prevention/Management (6)

Eggplant

Eggplant is loaded with vitamins and minerals, but its additional health benefits may be surprising to most people.  Eggplant contains an interesting antioxidant, chlorogenic acid, which has a number of biological activities including blood-pressure lowering, antiviral, and antibacterial effects.  In addition, it also protects DNA from mutations and may have anti-cancer properties.

In addition, there is another antioxidant found in the peels of eggplant, nasunin.  Studies indicate that nasunin is anti-angiogenic, meaning that it could cuts off the new blood supply that cancer cells need in order to multiply. 

© Jiajiu Shaw, 2016

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All contents posted are extracted from the book I am writing, "IS CANCER IN US", to be published in about two months.

Natural Products for Cancer Prevention/Management (5)

Cruciferous Vegetables

I think everyone knows that regular consumption of vegetables is beneficial to the general health; cruciferous vegetables are especially known to have certain cancer prevention effects.  Cruciferous vegetables include broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, horseradish, and Bok Choy.  A great number of studies have been conducted to investigate the relationship between cruciferous vegetables and cancer.  Results of these studies clearly show a positive correlation between cancer prevention and consumption of cruciferous vegetable.  Specifically, high intake of cruciferous vegetables might be related to lower risk of breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer, and lung cancer.

© Jiajiu Shaw, 2016

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All contents posted are extracted from the book I am writing, "IS CANCER IN US", to be published in about two months.

Natural Products for Cancer Prevention/Management (4)

Berries

Berries are available most of the time in the U.S.  They are known to contain different kinds of antioxidants in addition to different vitamins, minerals, etc.  Popular berries include blue berries, black berries, elder berries, goji berries, raspberries, red berries, and strawberries.  There are plenty of potential beneficial health effects of berries.  Some examples are shown below.   

Blueberries

Blueberries are becoming popular in recent years because they contain a lot of antioxidants and phytochemicals.  Both in vitro studies and animal studies indicate that blueberries may be effective against cancer.  Potential mechanisms of action include inhibition of pro-inflammation, oxidative stress, and cancer cell proliferation.

Elderberries

Similar to other berries, elder berries contain flavonoids, carotenoids, vitamins, etc.  Elder berries have been used as a folk medicine for cold, flu, and allergy.  Some studies indicate that elder berries may have certain anticancer effect.

Goji Berries (Wolfberries)

Goji berries have been commonly used in Chinese food and medicine for thousands of years.  Because it has a lot of antioxidants, Goji berries are becoming a hot item in the trendy health food industry.  Goji berries also contain many other ingredients with potential health benefits, including retina protection, anti-aging effect, etc.  Some studies indicate that the polysaccharides in goji berries may inhibit the growth of several different cancer cells in animal studies, including prostate cancer.

© Jiajiu Shaw, 2016

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All contents posted are extracted from the book I am writing, "IS CANCER IN US", to be published in about two months.

Natural Products for Cancer Prevention/Management (3)

Vitamins

Vitamins play a very important role in maintaining our health.  For example, vitamins A, C, and E are powerful antioxidants and have shown many beneficial health effects.

Vitamin A

Vitamin A plays an important role in a number of biological functions, including vision, immune system, bone growth, and reproduction.  Sources of vitamin A include carrots, sweet potatoes, cantaloupes, and fish.  It has been reported that vitamin A might reduce the risk of lung cancer, but the results were not conclusive.  Because vitamin A is not water soluble, it is not as easy to be removed from the body.  If one takes too much vitamin A, it could accumulate to a level that causes undesirable side effects, including carotenosis (yellow color shown in palms of hands and soles of feet), sensitivity to sun light, dry skin, headache, dizziness, etc.

Vitamin C

In addition to its antioxidant effect, vitamin C has a number of other beneficial effects including immune enhancement, anti-virus, anti-bacterial, skin protection, cardiovascular protection, etc.  Some people, including the famous Nobel laureate, Dr. Linus Pauling, believe that vitamin C has anti-cancer effect if given in very high doses regularly.  Indeed, it has been reported that some vitamins may be associated with lower risks of certain cancers.

Vitamin E

As to vitamin E, many studies have been conducted on its potential effects on cancer.  However, there are no definite conclusions on whether it is really effective in cancer prevention or treatment.

A book entitled "SIDE EFFECTS OF CHEMOTHERAPY AND RADIOTHERAPY" written by me and two of my colleagues will be published and available at AMAZON.com soon. 

© Jiajiu Shaw, 2016

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All contents posted are extracted from the book I am writing, "IS CANCER IN US", to be published in about two months.

Natural Products for Cancer Prevention/Management (2)

Glutathione

Glutathione is an important small-molecule antioxidant produced in all living beings, including human being.  Glutathione is found in almost all cells but most glutathione is found in the liver and plays an important role in liver detoxification.  It is directly involved in the neutralization of free radicals, reactive oxygen species, and heavy metals.  Some people consider it the most important antioxidant in the body.

As we mentioned before, antioxidants are important in protecting our cells and may slow down the aging process.  However, the protective effect of glutathione on normal cells might also work on cancer cells.  It has been reported that high levels of glutathione may help cancer cells become resistant to chemotherapy

© Jiajiu Shaw, 2016

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All contents posted are extracted from the book I am writing, "IS CANCER IN US", to be published in about two months.

Natural Products for Cancer Prevention/Management (1)

Many natural products have been used in preventing or treating different diseases.  However, is it possible to prevent or even treat cancer by natural products?  The short answer may be “Yes” but the more practical answer is “Depending on many factors, certain natural products might be helpful in cancer treatment.”  Nevertheless, please keep in mind that before any natural product can be called a drug, it must first be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

As a background of this section, let’s clarify some important points.  First, there is not a single approved drug that works on all types of cancer, not to mention a natural product.  The best one can say is that some natural products might be effective in the prevention or treatment of some cancer under certain conditions.  Furthermore, there is no guarantee that the same drug will work on the same cancer for all patients.  This is because human being is a complex organism and the same cancer in different patients could be somewhat different and the treatment may have to be modified accordingly.

Secondly, every natural product contains multiple ingredients; some are active and most are inactive.  Depending on the manufactures of the natural products, the ingredients could be significantly different.  This is different from the drugs approved by the FDA in that the active ingredient(s) are exactly the same, no matter which companies make the drug products.  Therefore, it is important to distinguish the differences between FDA approved drugs and natural products.  Keep in mind, an active ingredient in certain natural product, as a pure pharmaceutical active ingredient (API), can be developed to become a new drug.  At that time, it will be called a “new drug” and not referred to as a natural product.

Although some natural products may show anti-cancer effects in vitro, there are two important points to keep in mind:

·         Just because something shows positive anti-cancer effect in vitro (i.e., outside a living organism), it does not mean that the compound will be effective in vivo (i.e., within a living organism).

·         Even if some natural compound in certain natural product is effective against the growth of cancer cell in vivo, it may take a lot of the natural product to really show the anticancer effect in real life.

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All contents posted are extracted from the book I am writing, "IS CANCER IN US", to be published in about two months.

Methods of Cancer Treatment, Summary

Methods of Cancer Treatment - Summary

So far, we have discussed a number of cancer treatment methods, conventional and novel methods.  Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages.  Although significant progresses have been made in some of them in recent years, it seems like there is no perfect way to treat cancer at the present time.  Why? 

Remember that most cancer cells are mutated and transformed from normal/stem cells through problematic mutations; the problematic mutations could be only one out of many thousands of mutations.  Thus cancer cells are just like brothers/sisters of normal cells and similar in many ways.  This is what makes it so difficult to treat cancer.  In addition, any treatment that contravenes the growth of cancer cells might also affect normal cells, thus resulting in side effects.  Fortunately, modern technologies in surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy have made significant progresses in reducing the side effects (i.e., injuries of normal cells).  

If there is a perfect way and it’s easy to deal with, we wouldn’t have many thousands of scientists in the world working day and night on finding better answers.  The way the world is created by nature, we are going to have a difficult time to find a perfect way to treat cancer.  However, researchers are making progress inch by inch; newer and better methods have been developed in the last 50 years or so and there will be more and more improvements discovered in the coming years to fight against cancer.

In my opinion, stem cell related therapies have the best chance to be among the best methods for treating cancer.  Among them, two strategies are most appealing to me; they are (1) potential treatment by exosomes, and (2) reversing cancer cells back to normal cells.  However, a lot of technical hurdles must be overcome before either can become practical.  In any case, I believe this is an exciting period of time for the research and development of cancer treatment. We are also putting some of our efforts in this general area and hope to make some contributions. 

Although there may not be a perfect therapy for cancer treatment at the present time, there are a few good ways to reduce the risk of getting cancer and/or to slow down cancer growth.  Other than the methods described previously, there are other aspects to consider in order to reduce the chances of getting cancer.  We will talk about these later. 

© Jiajiu Shaw, 2016

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Although some commercial products, publications, and services are mentioned in this blog, the author does not endorse any specific products, publications, or services.  None of the contents in this blog represents or warrants that any of the products, publications, or services is appropriate or effective for their intended purposes. Readers shall always seek the advice of their physicians or other medical practitioners with any questions regarding personal health or medical conditions and shall be solely responsible for their own decisions and/or actions.

Novel/Unconventional Methods for Cancer Treatment (7)

Converting cancer cells back to normal cells (7)

Yet another general strategy in cancer treatment is to convert cancer cells back to normal cells or stem cells.  At first, this may sound strange or even ridiculous.  However, it does make sense if we think it over carefully. 

As we mentioned before, most cancer cells are derived from normal cells and they are like brothers/sisters.  In an analogy, this is similar to the human society in that most criminals were good people before they commit some crimes.  Many times, it is because something bad happens to a person to create a situation for the person to commit a crime.  For example, continued attraction by money or sexual reason can create a situation for someone to commit a crime (i.e., normal cells to become cancerous cells).  However, if the person has been well trained and/or disciplined, many of these people could be re-educated and gradually become normal good people (i.e., cancer cells to become normal cells).  One of the new strategies to treat cancer is based on this principle.  However, this is not an easy task. For example, a number of genes in the nuclei of cancer cells may have to be modulated so that the cells can be “re-educated and/or guided” back to become normal cells.  

Furthermore, if certain drugs can reverse the process and “normalize” cancer cells, why can’t we use the same strategy to prevent normal cells to become cancer cells?  In other words, if one can avoid the cancer causing factors, the chance of getting cancer (risk factor) will be significantly reduced.  This is an important strategy of cancer prevention.

If this strategy, reversing cancer cells back to normal cells, can be successfully developed and used, I think it could become one of the best ways to deal with cancer.  This is just like what the ancient Chinese war strategist, Sun Tze, said, conquering your enemy without a war is the best strategy.  Unfortunately, researchers are still working hard in this area and it could take a while for this strategy to become practical.

Scientists are making real progress in the area of cell-to-cell transition between different types of cells.  For example, a process called epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) converts epithelial cells (differentiated cells) back to mesenchymal stem cells.  EMT occurs in wound healing and other some biological processes.  For another example, Dr. Panos Anastasiadis and colleagues at Mayo Clinic discovered a potential mechanism of reprogramming cancers cells.

© Jiajiu Shaw, 2016

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Although some commercial products, publications, and services are mentioned in this blog, the author does not endorse any specific products, publications, or services.  None of the contents in this blog represents or warrants that any of the products, publications, or services is appropriate or effective for their intended purposes. Readers shall always seek the advice of their physicians or other medical practitioners with any questions regarding personal health or medical conditions and shall be solely responsible for their own decisions and/or actions.

Novel/Unconventional Methods for Cancer Treatment (6)

(6) Stem Cells and Related Treatments

Remember we talked about stem cells in the beginning of this book?  The stem cells are very powerful ancestors of all cells; normal cells that show specific functions are all essentially derived (differentiated) from stem cells.  Therefore, it makes sense to attempt to utilize the natural power of stem cells to treat different diseases including cancer.  Generally, there are several ways to utilize stem cells for cancer treatment.  They are briefly described as follows:

Using Stem Cells Directly

On type of stem-cell therapy is to inject stem cells directly into the blood stream for them to fight against cancer and other diseases.  Stem cell based strategy has been shown to be very promising.  A well know example is to use stem cell transplantation for leukemia.  

Briefly, stem cells can be collected from the bone marrow, circulating (peripheral) blood, and umbilical cord blood.  In a stem cell transplant, healthy stem cells are infused into the body.  Basically, there are two types of stem cell transplants.  Autologous stem cell transplant is when stem cells are collected from the patients themselves.  When stem cells are taken from a matching donor, the transplant is called allogenic stem cell transplant.  In order to find the right match, a human leukocyte antigens test needs to be conducted on the patient and the potential donor. 

Although stem cell therapy has been used successfully in many cases, there are also many cases of failures.  Research and studies in this area are continuing.

Converting Cancer Cells Back into Stem Cells or Normal Cells

A number of studies are focusing on converting cancer cells into stem cells.  The origin of this type of research started from a Japanese scientist, Shinya Yamanaka, who won Nobel Prize in 2012 year for his discovery showing that mature cell (differentiated) can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent (similar to stem cells).   He successfully identified a few critical genes in mice; when these genes were activated, mice skin cells were re-programmed and became stem cells (now referred to as iPS cells or induced pluripotent stem cells) by using several key ingredients and a delicate process.  Theoretically, these iPS cells can be differentiated into all types of cells.   

Since then, many studies indicated that, if the condition is right, it is indeed possible to artificially convert normal cells back into stem cells.  At the present time, a lot of research activities are ongoing to hopefully convert cancer cells back into stem cells or normal cells.

Use of Exosomes

Stem cells, normal cells, and cancer cells all produce a variety of biological molecules and one type of very important vesicles, exosomes, for inter-cellular communication and other functions.  Exosomes are cell-derived vesicles; exosomes from different types of cells contain a common group of molecules, as well as cell type-specific components.  Once released from the cells, exosomes act as messengers to carry and transfer their biomolecules to proximal and also distant cells.  Indeed, this general description is correct.  However, there is a very important point not being well characterized: some contents of exosomes can also be cellular environment-dependent. 

Exosomes are present in all biological fluids (blood, urine, and even cell culture medium).  Their diameters are from 0.04 to 0.1 µM, much smaller than RBC (diameter 6-8 µM) and WBC (diameter 12-15 µM).  Fig. 6.1 shows a schematic size comparison of a WBC, a RBC, and exosomes. 

Exosomes have been shown to have specialized functions.  For example, exosomes play a key role in intercellular signaling and waste management. Among other functions, exosomes work like messengers to carry a variety of RNA, proteins, sugar etc.  As mentioned before, stem cells have the amazing power to grow and differentiate.  It is therefore reasonable to assume that stem cells utilize exosomes to carry important biomolecules to normal cells and cancer cells to deal with many different cellular issues. 

 Exosomes are like micro-packages of important biomolecules to be shipped from one cell to another.  Let’s use an analogy in our daily lives to explain the roles of exosomes as follows.  

In our daily lives, we all use the post office to mail letters and, sometimes, we use FedEx or UPS to ship packages.  The letters or packages all contain useful information or materials that may be useful to the receiving parties.  If you still remember, inter-cellular communication is very important and normal cells communicate better than cancer cells.  However, cancer cells do release specific exosomes to be conveyed to other cancer or normal cells.  Therefore, it will be very important to figure out what are in the exosomes that are released by cancer cells.  If we know the answers, it will be very useful in finding a better way to deal with cancer.   In short, exosomes are becoming a very important area for cancer research. 

In recent years, uses of exosomes for diagnostics and for treatment of diseases have become a hot area of research.  Because individual exosomes contain different RNAs and proteins and the fact that exosomes can stay in the circulation for a long time, it is possible to trace back to the tissues that produce them.  As a result, it is possible to develop certain diagnostics to detect cancers at early stages.  On the other hand, there are some real hurdles making the diagnostics at the present time.  For example, because of its small size as compared to RBC and WBC, it is not easy to fish out exosomes out of blood or urine.  In addition, there are a great number of exosome exist in plasma.  All these make it a real challenge to develop new diagnostic employing exosomes.  As to the use of exosomes in therapeutics, intense research activities are ongoing in many labs. 

In short, let’s use another analogy to make it easier to understand exosomes.  Exosomes released from normal cells are similar to missionaries in real life; exosomes carries a lot of important ingredients to deal with cancer cells whereas missionaries carry a lot of information to carry out missions such as religion, education, and health care.

© Jiajiu Shaw, 2016

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Although some commercial products, publications, and services are mentioned in this blog, the author does not endorse any specific products, publications, or services.  None of the contents in this blog represents or warrants that any of the products, publications, or services is appropriate or effective for their intended purposes. Readers shall always seek the advice of their physicians or other medical practitioners with any questions regarding personal health or medical conditions and shall be solely responsible for their own decisions and/or actions.

Novel/Unconventional Methods for Cancer Treatment (5)

(5) Modulation of the Immune System

      Supposedly, our immune system is well equipped and able to fight against all invaders.  However, cancer cells are very similar to normal cells as we mentioned many times.  As a result, they are camouflaged in many ways so that they can evade T cells to confuse and avoid the immune response.  If we can “remove” some of their camouflage and expose them to the immune system, they may be subject to the defense power of the immune system.  Several drugs in this class are already on the market, including Yervoy by Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Keytruda by Merck & Co both approved for melanoma.  

Based on the current research activities, it seems likely that there will be more cancer drugs in this class coming out in the future.  One important factor to be emphasized for this type of cancer drugs is that patients must have healthy immune system and response so that T cells can “see” cancer cells and destroy them.  This is one of the reasons why it is important for everyone to maintain a healthy immune system. 

The other way to modulate the immune system is to remove some T cells from a patient, genetically modify them (so that they can look for and track cancer cells); these modified T cells are then multiplied in vitro before being returned back to the patient.  On such therapy is called CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T-cell immunotherapy suitable for blood cancers. 

© Jiajiu Shaw, 2016

All contents posted in this blog are extracted from the book "IS CANCER IN US", available at Amazon.

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Although some commercial products, publications, and services are mentioned in this blog, the author does not endorse any specific products, publications, or services.  None of the contents in this blog represents or warrants that any of the products, publications, or services is appropriate or effective for their intended purposes. Readers shall always seek the advice of their physicians or other medical practitioners with any questions regarding personal health or medical conditions and shall be solely responsible for their own decisions and/or actions.

Novel/Unconventional Methods for Cancer Treatment (4)

(4) Gene Therapy

Because most cancer cells are mutated from normal cells and stem cells, if we are able to “fix” the problematic gene(s), we may be able to take care of the cancer.  This is exactly the general idea of gene therapy.  In principle, gene therapy is to deliver a specific gene (a normal functional gene) to replace the problematic (mutated) gene, but it is not an easy task at all. 

Generally, in gene therapy, a polymer (referred to as a “vector”) is used to carry a functional gene into the cell to replace a mutated gene.  This special gene delivery can be done directly in patient’s body (in vivo) by direct introducing the desired gene into blood stream.  To deliver a specific gene indirectly, an ex vivo gene therapy is performed by taking bone marrow or blood from a patient, introduce the desired copy of the gene, and then inject back into the patient. 

In a broader sense, gene therapy also includes removing a certain gene that is not desirable and inserting a specific gene to perform a desirable function to treat a specific disease.

Although the concept of gene therapy originated many years ago, it is beginning to become reality only recently.  The first and only such drug is Glybera, approved first in Europe in 2012.  Glybera was approved for lipoprotein lipase deficiency, an inherited rare disease that could cause severe pancreatitis.  Further research of gene therapy is being conducted for different diseases including HIV and cancer.

© Jiajiu Shaw, 2016

All contents posted in this blog are extracted from the book "IS CANCER IN US", available at Amazon.

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Although some commercial products, publications, and services are mentioned in this blog, the author does not endorse any specific products, publications, or services.  None of the contents in this blog represents or warrants that any of the products, publications, or services is appropriate or effective for their intended purposes. Readers shall always seek the advice of their physicians or other medical practitioners with any questions regarding personal health or medical conditions and shall be solely responsible for their own decisions and/or actions.  

Interested in children's books? Helping more children read books?

If you have little ones, there is good news for you. "Mr. Red's Balloon" is now on YouTube.
Even as an adult, you may enjoy it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol0nn16AeCg

If you like this book, the 2nd Mr. Red book is coming and you can also make a contribution to help more children read more books. Yes, buy one book and someone else will get one book. Please visit indigogo.com to find out more info.

Thank you for your attention.

Novel/Unconventional Methods for Cancer Treatment (3)

(3) Ozone Treatment: Using Oxygen to Kill Cancer Cells

How does the ozone treatment work?  First of all, we need to explain the difference between ozone and oxygen.  Ozone is a pale-blue triatomic gas (molecular formula O₃), that converts into oxygen (molecular formula O₂) under normal condition.  Ozone is a very strong oxidizing agent and maybe that is why it is being used instead of oxygen.  Secondly, it is believed that cancer cells are anaerobic and they will die under a higher oxygen condition.

One example of ozone therapy involves removing part of the blood from the body, saturating the blood with ozone, and then putting the ozone-rich blood back into the body.  Another example is to simply inject by I.V. a fluid saturated with ozone or oxygen into the body.  In both methods, ozone is gradually converted into oxygen in the body.  Both methods are based on the same theory that high oxygen concentration in the blood will kill cancer cells.

I may not disagree with the theory but I am not sure if this technology is good enough in practice.  In my opinion, there are potential issues to be answered: Will the method be able to deliver high enough concentration of oxygen to the tumor to kill cancer cells?  How about the potential side effects to normal cells?  It is known that too much reactive oxygen species (ROS) can be increased by chemotherapy, radiation, and many other factors.  In this case, the high oxygen concentration in blood could increase ROS in different organs and could be potentially harmful to some normal cells.

Some people believe that under higher oxygen concentration, cancer cells will die.  Theoretically, if cancer cells are placed under any conditions that are not suitable for them to grow, they will die.  The same thing happens to normal cells.  As I mentioned in the early sections, most cancer cells are derived from normal cells, thus, they are similar to normal cells in many ways.  Macroscopically speaking, for any conditions that normal cells can grow, cancer cells will grow.  However, cancer cells can grow under certain conditions that normal cells cannot grow. 

With that understanding, it is reasonably to conclude that a simple oxygen treatment might not work satisfactorily for cancer treatment and significant improvement may be necessary.  

© Jiajiu Shaw, 2016

All contents posted in this blog are extracted from the book "IS CANCER IN US", available at Amazon.

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Although some commercial products, publications, and services are mentioned in this blog, the author does not endorse any specific products, publications, or services.  None of the contents in this blog represents or warrants that any of the products, publications, or services is appropriate or effective for their intended purposes. Readers shall always seek the advice of their physicians or other medical practitioners with any questions regarding personal health or medical conditions and shall be solely responsible for their own decisions and/or actions.  

Something light for you

Hope you are not bored yet with the technical information provided in this blog. In case you are, here is some info on the lighter side:

1. As of today (7/25/2016), this blog has been viewed a total of 3,706 times. Interestingly, Israel is catching up (1,298 views) compared to the U.S. (1,410 views) although Israel is still in second place. Viewers in the U.S., please refer your friends and acquaintances to my blog. Otherwise, the U.S. may fall to 2nd place in the near future.

2. If you have children or are related to young kids, you may want to check these children's books out:

(a) Mr. Red’s Balloon

Mr. Red is a cheerful blob man who goes through town trying to encourage his friends. They think he is happy because of his balloon, but he teaches them otherwise. The book trailer is on YouTube.  

(b) King Cat’s Crown
The second book in the colorful children's book series, #MrRedBooks. In this story, Mr. Red helps his good friend King Cat search for his missing crown.
This book was just published and is now available at Amazon.com and ShawCreativeInc.com.

Enjoy and talk to you next time.

Novel/Unconventional Methods for Cancer Treatment (2)

(2) Using Heat therapy (Hyperthermia) to Kill Cancer Cells

Heat therapy is a method to use heat to treat diseases. There are a number of methods to generate/deliver heat for therapeutic purpose. For example, ultrasound has been used as a tool to generate the required heat to kill cancer cells. Heat can also be transferred by a thin needle inserted into a tumor.

If you remember, we talked about the potential of heat to damage DNA. Given sufficient heat, DNA replication can be hampered and the cells will stop the replication or die. This is one of the reasons how heat therapy can be used in cancer treatment.

Heat therapy in cancer can be divided into two general classes, local and regional hyperthermia. In local hyperthermia, very high temperature is used to destroy a small area of tumor cells by coagulating the proteins and destroying the nearby blood vessels. If the treatment time is long enough, DNA/cell replication could also be affected. In regional hyperthermia, the temperature of a portion of the body is raised a few degrees higher than normal.

Most of the time, hyperthermia is used in combination with other treatments, such as radiotherapy or chemotherapy. Simply put, all cells grow better at certain range of temperature. If the temperature becomes too high, the cells may not survive. Logically, when cancer cells die of heat, some surrounding normal cells may be damaged or die, too. Theoretically, this method should work well. However, similar to most anticancer treatments, the technical hurdle of heat therapy is how to kill cancer cells while minimizing the damage to normal cells. 

All contents posted in this blog are extracted from the book "IS CANCER IN US", available at Amazon.

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Although some commercial products, publications, and services are mentioned in this blog, the author does not endorse any specific products, publications, or services.  None of the contents in this blog represents or warrants that any of the products, publications, or services is appropriate or effective for their intended purposes. Readers shall always seek the advice of their physicians or other medical practitioners with any questions regarding personal health or medical conditions and shall be solely responsible for their own decisions and/or actions.  

Novel/Unconventional Methods for Cancer Treatment (1)

In addition to the three classic/conventional methods of cancer treatment mentioned before, there are some novel and/or unconventional methods for cancer treatment that are worth mentioning. Some of these methods are being used, although not widely available, and some are still under clinical development and not yet available. Examples of these novel and/or unconventional methods as well as some novel strategies of cancer drugs are briefly described below.

1. Using Electromagnetic Waves to Treat Cancer

Electronic devices that emit some form of electromagnetic waves have been investigated for cancer treatment for a few years. Although there are a number of electronic devices under development as potential devices for cancer treatment, there is only one device recently approved by the FDA for brain tumor treatment. The device is called Optune (by Novacure), which includes a portable electric field generator, transducer arrays, and rechargeable batteries. The device works by creating alternating wave-like electric fields which interact with the dividing cancer cells, therefore, slow down the multiplication of cancer cells.

Clinical studies showed that, when used in combination with temozolomide (the most prescribed brain cancer drug), Optune was effective in treating glioblastoma (brain cancer) and significantly extended patients’ lives. 

All contents posted in this blog are extracted from the book "IS CANCER IN US", available at Amazon.

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Although some commercial products, publications, and services are mentioned in this blog, the author does not endorse any specific products, publications, or services.  None of the contents in this blog represents or warrants that any of the products, publications, or services is appropriate or effective for their intended purposes. Readers shall always seek the advice of their physicians or other medical practitioners with any questions regarding personal health or medical conditions and shall be solely responsible for their own decisions and/or actions.  

Status and Update of this Blog (July 2, 2016)

As of July 3, 2016, this blog has been viewed for 2,764 times by people around the world. These include United States (1,372), Israel (492), Germany (345), Brazil (143), Taiwan (99), Russia (68), and many other countries including Philippine, Italy, Thailand, United Kingdom, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, Chile, France, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Kenya, and Brunel. Germany is catching up and getting close to Israel, but United States of America is still the first. Thank for viewing my blog. Please keep your eyes open, my second book, Side Effects of Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy, is coming soon.

As to the browsers, 52% used Chrome, 21% used Firefox, 14% used Explorer, 5% used Safari, 3% used Qt, and the rest by all others. Again, Chrome is still the primary browser.

As to the operating systems, 66% used Windows, 15% used Macintosh, 6% used Linux, and the rest by other systems. It is clear that Windows is the most popular operating system used.

By the way, if you’d like to read more than just my blog, you can order my book (IS CANCER IN US) from amazon.com or from ShawCreativeInc.com. Meanwhile, please continue to read my blog and recommend it to your loved ones and friends.

Wanna take a break and enjoy something relaxing for now? You can visit ShawCreativeInc.com for some great paintings and interviews with a few creative artists. You could also find a children’s book, Mr. Red’s Balloon, which by itself is a fantastic artwork. Enjoy it.

  

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All contents posted are extracted from the book I am writing, "IS CANCER IN US", to be published in about two months.

Anecdotal Stories about Cancer (4)

Anecdotal story four

A cancer patient was treated by many different methods but was not successful.  However the patient has a strong will and decided to use mental power to overcome the disease.  In addition to taking prescribed anticancer drugs, the patient started a rugged routine to meditate, pray, doing regular physical activities, and maintain a positive altitude.  Sometime later, the patient became healthy and was free of cancer.

© Jiajiu Shaw, 2016

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All contents posted are extracted from the book I am writing, "IS CANCER IN US", to be published in about two months.

Anecdotal Stories about Cancer (3)

Anecdotal story three

A cancer patient had been treated by surgery and then many different chemotherapeutic agents.  However, none of the methods seemed to work.  Everyone gave up on the patient and the patient also decided not to take any more treatment.  The patient just took it easy and lived a normal live.  Sometime later, it was found that the patient become healthier and showed little or no symptoms of cancer.  

© Jiajiu Shaw, 2016

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All contents posted are extracted from the book I am writing, "IS CANCER IN US", to be published in about two months.

Anecdotal Stories about Caner (2)

Anecdotal story two

Someone got cancer and was declared hopeless.  The patient then set out to ask all acquaintances to inquire all possible treatments.  Incidentally, the person found a special formulation containing several natural products, took these natural products faithfully, and eventually got cured.  This story was told many times in a similar manner except the natural products may be different in different stories. 

© Jiajiu Shaw, 2016

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All contents posted are extracted from the book I am writing, "IS CANCER IN US", to be published in about two months.