This article was about the how humans are working towards a cure for cancer. In recent years we have gotten closer and are still making a lot of progress. As quoted by George Demetri, “Cancer drug development now is where antibiotics developments was in the fifties.” T-cells are white blood cells that help the immune response. Now that we have made advances in blood bank technology, T-cell transfusions can finally be done. The T-cells are engineered using lentiviral vectors. The T-cells in patients are fixed so that they can fight the viral HIV and this has made a big step towards curing people. Antibodies are also used in Cancer Therapy. According to Donald Drakeman antibodies are the eyes and ears of the immune system, offering constant surveillance for viruses, bacteria, and other disease causing agents formed in the human body. Antibodies are Y-shaped proteins that use a ‘lock and key’ mechanism to attach to the antigens. The rest of an antibody can now be used to recruit other parts of the immune system to fight disease. The amount of monoclonal antibodies sales has gone up from zero to five billion dollars in a few years. The patients who also get MAbs are surviving longer and see less toxicity effects than previous treatments. Vaccines are being used for cancer therapy as well. The GVAX cancer vaccines are made from tumor cells that have been changed genetically to secrete granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), an immune system stimulating hormone. Cell Genesys is developing a pharmaceutical that can be injected into someone. This will put active immune cells in the body after injection. GVAX has also shown a median survival of 26 months compared to 18-19 months with chemotherapy.
I believe that the findings in this article are valid. Just about everything that the author said was backed up with scientific evidence and/or results from surveys. An example of the quality of the evidence was when the author was talking about MDX-010. MDX-010 is currently in the third phase of clinical trials and on a study of 29 patients, two appear to have no cancer remaining while several more have had the cancer shrink. This just goes to show that when the author was stating facts, they were actually facts.
I think that cancer research will have some positive and negative effects, but more positive effects. Some positive effects would be that we could possibly find a true cure to cancer so no one will suffer from cancer anymore. If these cures could be found then we would have made a huge step towards the future of the world. The only negative effects that I can see coming out of this research is some bad side effects. There also might be problems in the research. I think that humans will be affected by cancer therapy greatly, especially if we can actually find a cure for cancer.
My reactions to this new research were great. I’m glad that there are newer and better ways to treat cancer and that people in the future won’t have to suffer from cancer if we find this cure. I think that we will be able to cure cancer eventually. Research has shown good results in recent years and I think that the good results will keep coming in, eventually leading to a cure.
This new finding will definitely affect society for the better. Since people are leading more constructive lives, those people will be able to live longer and give more to the well being of the society. I think that the best way to inform people of new cancer research is by the internet. Cancer foundation commercials could also be used to inform people about cancer as well. I am sure hoping that this cure to cancer will be found so that people will stop suffering from cancer and can live a longer healthier life!