Graphical progression of the cancer cells
Dr Glenn Begley gave an interesting talk In Medical TED Talk in 2011. The topic of his talk is “The complex Biology of cancer (or why We haven’t cured it yet). Although some of the details are slightly dated now, the gist of what he explained remains relevant. Yes there has been marked progresses in immunotherapies, tergeted therapies, vacines and nuclear medicines.
Dr Begley’s salient points are:
Cancer is not one diesease.
Cancer cells begins with one single cell.
Tumorigenesis is a multi-step process originating from a single cell.
Cancer develops fairly slowly over many years.
Detection of cancer is more often detected at the very late stage of its development.
Primary cancers seldom kills. Metastases kill.
Adjuvant therapies are the most significant advance in cancer treatments.
The graph above shows that cancer growth rate is higher in the initial development. The exponential phase is at 10 base 3 (20 doubling times) and the remission/relapse milestone is defined at the 10 base 6 when the tumour is detectable. (30 doubling times)
Visit the utube video below for his full talk:
Dr C. Glenn Begley is Chief Scientific Officer at TetraLogic Pharmaceuticals, Malvern, PA. He serves on the Board of Directors of the UK-based Oxford BioTherapeutics, and is on the Scientific Advisory Boards for several biotech companies. From 2002-2012, he was Vice-President and Global Head of Hematology/Oncology Research at Amgen, responsible for building, directing and integrating the research program at Amgen’s 5 research sites. He has over 20 years of clinical experience in medical oncology and hematology. His research has focused on transnational clinical trials and regulation of hematopoietic cells. He has published over 200 scientific papers is Board Certified in Australia as a Medical Oncologist and Hematologist and has a PhD in cellular and molecular biology. He has numerous awards and honors including election to the Association of American Physicians.
Take care all
Allen Lai
No comments:
Post a Comment