http://imaginis.com/breasthealth/herceptin.asp#work could this actually be a cure for cancer?
I know it mentions breast cancer specifically, but I heard on the news today that in the future the drug could be used on several other types of cancer!
dicuss
You can't cure cancer because cancer occurs at the genetic level.
Short of genetic manipluation, the best you can ever do will be to treat it.
well, that's more or less what I meant, but still, it's exciting news, it gives a potential respite for those suffering from cancer.
On another note, have you ever heard of genetic manipulation? One should think that a disease occuring at the genetic level could be cured at the same level
the HER2/Neu receptor is a growth factor receptor i believe. Blocking this wont stop cancer it might slow it down though, to get cancer you need 6 mutations that either abolish the function of tumor supressors or over express oncogenes. HER2/Neu is only found in breast cancer so, blocking that receptor would only stop breast cancer from growing further. A better option would be to go after cells with mutations in P53 that result in no P53 activity( P53 is a protein that senses DNA damage and corrects it and can cause apoptosis). P53 damage is found in almost all cancers, so that would be a better protein to work on.
Sounds very promising, but you'll still have the costs of imaging that you do now AND you'll have this new technology on top. I have a CT scan every year because of a high risk for hepatocellular carcinoma. It costs about a thousand dollars each time and examines one organ in the abdominal cavity. It might be cost effective for mammograms, MAYBE female reproductive organs as an alternative to pap smears if there is a safe and cheap imaging technology.
As a side-note, I'd like to mention that discoveries like these wouldn't be possible without the theory of evolution and Gregor Mendel's laws.
There must be evolution for advanced life forms as mammals as well as little developed life such as germs.
The difference between micro and macro evolution doesn't refer to the sise of the organism, but rather the scope of the evolution. Basically the observable phnomena of micro evolution is when a species evolves w/in the peramiters of the species. When bacteria develops resistances that falls into the category of microevolution.
This is different than the theory of macro evolution wich suggests that species can become new species.