The Colon Club

I wanted to let everyone know that a new 2-part “The Currently Incurable Scientist” column has been posted on the Fight Colorectal Cancer Website titled: “Turning a Cold CRC Tumor Hot”.

Part 1 discusses the issue that recent immunotherapies breakthroughs have encountered in treating most (particularly MSS) CRC cases.
http://fightcolorectalcancer.org/resear ... ot-part-1/

Part 2 describes some experimental drug strategies currently in clinical trials attempting to solve this problem!
http://fightcolorectalcancer.org/resear ... ot-part-2/

I hope you find these interesting! I was very word-count limited in how much I could write, so if you have follow-up questions, PM me or put the questions in the comments below for everyone's benefit!

-DK

Very, very interesting. Looking forward to your next column. Thanks again for doing this!

You do such a good job of explaining complex medical information. Wish some of the trial sites were closer to Michigan!

Thank you so much for all the info. My Dad is MSS so I'm on the lookout for any therapy that may help him!
Thank you again
Katy

I think I may be a cold tumor person so this is very interesting I hope to get more insight on where I stand to know what may be coming down the pipe line. As always I appreciate you......you are a gift.

jillbugs4110 wrote:you are a gift

Could not agree more. Thank you for sharing your smarts with us!

Celine

Thanks DK, you are awesome

This is awesome, thanks DK!

Great post. I'm a IT guy by trade, but went to school for nuclear engineering. Love Science!!! Any thoughts on the value of Stanford's Folding@home project?

Vol

I too enjoyed the blog posts. Although I work in the clinical trial field, I'm a finance guy so more than a bit of the technical medical jargon and almost all of the biostatistical jargon are over my head. I really appreciated the plain English explanations, and the off0-handed Star Trek reference in Part 1 didn't hurt!

How far out until those of us with cold tumors can be offered clinical trials unfortunately I think I may fall under this category

DK37 wrote:... so if you have follow-up questions, PM me or put the questions in the comments below for everyone's benefit! -DK

Thank you for sharing your knowledge here. I noticed in your most recent post that there was a reference to "CEA-binders" and "CEA-expressing tumors". I have a couple of questions in this regard.

Frequently here we see members stating something like, "CEA is not a good marker for me", but statements like this are rarely followed by any scientific explanation.

My questions are: Why is CEA expressed in the case of some colon cancer patients, but not in the case of others? Is there a scientific explanation for this, and if so, can patients be tested at an early stage to see if they fall into the "CEA expressed" category instead of the "CEA not-expressed" category.

Do you have any thoughts on this issue?

Thank you.

Jacques wrote:
My questions are: Why is CEA expressed in the case of some colon cancer patients, but not in the case of others? Is there a scientific explanation for this, and if so, can patients be tested at an early stage to see if they fall into the "CEA expressed" category instead of the "CEA not-expressed" category.

Do you have any thoughts on this issue?

Thank you.

Hi Jacques - To the best of my knowledge, there isn't a clear explanation why some some CRC tumors express CEA and some don't (perhaps GrouseMan knows?). In terms of testing early - I strongly advise people to get tested prior to their primary tumor resection surgery. This will give a "baseline value" and help you and your medical team know whether it is likely that CEA will be a useful blood test marker to look for recurrence. I know for the particular trials I mentioned, they require tumor tissue biopsy - which may imply that in their experience CEA expression on a tumor may not correspond to how much is seen in the blood.

Hope that partial knowledge helps a little-

-DK

Thank you so much for writing something that's so easy to understand. Even after two years, I still don't understand half the stuff folks talk about on this board. Your examples are appreciated. I look forward to reading and learning from your future blogs..

Thank you