Tag: cancer

Interesting: using flu vaccine to target tumors.

Very interesting.

A number of years back, there was a great deal of excitement about using viruses to target cancer. A number of viruses explode the cells that they’ve infected in order to spread to new ones. Engineering those viruses so that they could only grow in cancer cells would seem to provide a way of selectively killing these cells. And some preliminary tests were promising, showing massive tumors nearly disappearing.

But the results were inconsistent, and there were complications. The immune system would respond to the virus, limiting our ability to use it more than once. And some of the tumor killing seemed to be the result of the immune system, rather than the virus.

Now, some researchers have focused on the immune response, inducing it at the site of the tumor. And they do so by remarkably simple method: injecting the tumor with the flu vaccine. As a bonus, the mice it was tested on were successfully immunized, too.

Continue reading Interesting: using flu vaccine to target tumors.

Rob Ford has died.

Cancer.

I didn’t precisely like him. But he was kind of fascinating, in his way. Helped that Rob Ford acted up in somebody else’s country. And, of course, I wouldn’t wish cancer on my worst enemy. My prayers and condolences for his family and loved ones.

Barack Obama ruins the night of kids with cancer.

Mind you, the Media is helping him here.

This is how a government official behaves when he knows, deep in his bones, that he will never have to answer for any sort of jackassery.

The U.S. Secret Service ordered hundreds of parents and their cancer-stricken children out of Lafayette Square on Saturday night, barricading the park for at least two hours and disrupting the group’s plans for a candlelight vigil to raise awareness of and research funding for childhood cancer, participants said.

[Quick note: they had a permit.]

Police officers and agents on the scene told some parents that the closure was necessary because President Obama had left the White House from an entrance near the square to address the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual gala.

Continue reading Barack Obama ruins the night of kids with cancer.

I wanted to post video of the giraffe/zookeeper thing…

…but all of the embeddable video had weird vocals, sorry. Here’s the story:

He got his dying wish: A chance to say goodbye to the animals he adored.

A mentally handicapped Dutch zookeeper in the final stages of cancer shared a heartwarming moment with a giraffe.

The majestic creature at the Rotterdam Zoo bent down to nuzzle the keeper, identified only as Mario, as he lay in a bed set up in its habitat.

…because giraffes are cool like that.

So, it’s December 1, 2013. They get healthcare.gov to work yet? #obamacare

This isn’t an academic question, by the way: there are kids with cancer who would like this administration to stop wrecking their health care.

Little Hunter Alford needs chemotherapy to treat the rare and deadly cancer he was born with but has lost his health insurance under an administrative blunder seemingly caused by Obamacare.

While the president’s signature policy promised that no one with a pre-existing condition would not be covered, the Affordable Care Act has seemingly caused the seven-year-old Gainesville, Texas, boy to face an agonizing wait for treatment as his parents battle to get him back on his insurance plan. Continue reading So, it’s December 1, 2013. They get healthcare.gov to work yet? #obamacare