Thanks for the responses. I asked the doctors to cut out everything in my body that I don't need because I did not want anything coming back Allen, I understand this attitude very well and wish I'd thought of this some 8 years ago when my GI doctor suggested I consider a colectomy even before any pr...

My idyllic sabbatical in France has hit a rocky shoal. For those who don't remember my situation (likely everyone!), two adenomas were found in my last colonoscopy before heading to France about 10 months ago. The GI doctor I was consulting pooh-poohed (so to speak) their emergence after low grade d...

What is the structure of this molecule? Can't seem to find anything on it. I suspect it is this compound (ICG-001): http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC515116/ You can see the structure of it in the paper referenced above. We discussed this trial some time ago (warning - site referenced is ...

IIRC, there were some trials with Vectibix and/or Erbitux for KRAS mutants that included another drug to allow it to work. Cheese, were you thinking of this trial: "Efficacy and Safety Study of Imprime PGG With Cetuximab in Subjects With Stage IV KRAS-Mutated Colorectal Cancer": http://cl...

Luckduck, you can see any oncologist you want with a referral from your current onc or primary care physician, and in Toronto there are lots of choices. Have you looked into Princess Margaret or Mt Sinai hospitals? I think Princess Margaret has a large colorectal group with some very good people. Yo...

I think it is particularly hopeful for melanoma cases, since melanomas frequently have mutated BRAF. I guess the combination therapy (MEK plus BRAF) is done because of the finding in "BRAF mutation predicts sensitivity to MEK inhibition" (Nature 439, 358-362 (19 January 2006) ) http://www....

Below is an old post on some facts I dredged about the CEA. I didn't want to post a link to it as it is from a couple of years ago. I thought it might be useful for some of the new people here. I've actually been reading a bit about the CEA, and came across some interesting info which some may be in...

I suspect it is not a common therapy because it seems to me to be less likely to actually kill cancer cells, though it may slow their proliferation. My impression is that erbitux targets and blocks the receptor (EGFR) which lessens the impact of the epithelial growth factor. Usually, cancer cells ha...

Interesting article on the BRAF mutation in colon cancer that appears in about 10% of cases, and is a particularly nasty variant. The B-RAF kinase can be targeted, but it hasn't been very successful in colon cancer due to a feedback loop with epithelial growth factor activation. Unresponsiveness of ...

You can toast each other with barium smoothies!

Hoping for the best for both of you,
Jeremy

Exactly my point to Jeremy. THE patients in the study are exactly THE defining factor in determining the "effectiveness" of the treatment...AND not every detail is condensible into a simple stat CRguy, I didn't make it clear that I meant the relative effectiveness is the most useful measu...

Bev, I'm sorry you are still waiting for the pathology results. It sucks. It is good to hear your usual upbeat voice behind your posts though.

Thinking of you,
Jeremy

One of the signposts of hype is the use of relative percents or percents of percents, rather than absolute values. Actually, I think this is not hype but a sensible way to present the results. You don't want the effectiveness of the drug to be dependent on the patients in the sample. Obviously, the...

This subject comes up from time to time. For interesting reading on another forum, see
http://csn.cancer.org/node/177439

Best,
Jeremy

As a Vermonter, it pains me to say that it makes no sense that pure maple syrup would have a therapeutic effect in fighting cancer. In fact, it seems likely that it would hurt matters, since the sugar in maple syrup would likely lead to an insulin spike and therefore more free insulin growth factor ...