Scientists make cancer cells vanish
--Helen Puttick, Health Correspondent, The Herald Scotland
April 21, 2010


Scottish scientists have made cancer tumours vanish within 10 days by sending DNA to seek and destroy the cells.

The system, developed at Strathclyde and Glasgow universities, is being hailed as a breakthrough because it appears to eradicate tumours without causing harmful side-effects. A leading medical journal has described the results so far as remarkable, while Cancer Research UK said they were encouraging.

Dr Christine Dufes, a lecturer at the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences and leader of the research, said: "The tumours were completely gone within 10 days. It is fantastic. When you talk about 10 days that is the time frame for curing a cold. Imagine if within 10 days you could completely make a tumour disappear."

Researchers around the world are trying to find ways to use genes as a cancer treatment, but one problem is ensuring they attack the tumour without destroying healthy tissue.

In laboratory experiments the Strathclyde research team used a plasma protein called transferrin, which carries iron through the blood, to deliver the therapeutic DNA to the right spot. Once in situ the DNA produced a protein that attacked the tumour cells.

The findings have been published in the Journal of Controlled Release, with an accompanying comment from editor Professor Kinam Park, of Purdue University, Indiana, saying other attempts to target genes at cancer cells have "seldom shown complete disappearance of tumours."

The research was initially supported with a grant from charity Tenovus Scotland, which supports the work of young scientists to help their ideas get off the ground.

This at least is a step in the right direction. Gene therapy is far more promising than anything embryonic stem cell research has to offer. But something even more promising than gene therapy (with a caveat or two) is the silly notion that diet can cure all that ails us... well, most of what ails us. Which brings me to the caveat.

Your body can heal itself of just about any malady, condition, or disease... provided you're feeding your body all the things it needs to do the job. Do you have brain or pancreatic cancer? Your body can heal itself without chemo or radiation or any number of drugs whose list of side-effects are worse than the disease itself. But imagine if your cancer could be cured in as little as ten days.

Utilizing natural means, ten days could... could... be enough to turn the tide, but the sooner you attack the cancer via natural means the greater chance of succeeding. Given six months to live I'd personally take the natural approach. Six weeks? I'm not so sure. Ten days? If it's the tumor that's killing you, and the tumor can be entirely eradicated in ten days? Five days might be enough to 'turn the tide' using Gene Therapy. And since it's your own DNA doing the work, that makes it as natural as you can get short of six months of juicing and oxygen therapies.

This is good news. Good news that is, until pharmaceutical companies manage to patent the process and make the cure beyond the financial reach of what Americans will be able to access through Obamacare.