William Li presents a new way to think about treating cancer and other diseases: anti-angiogenesis, preventing the growth of blood vessels that feed a tumor. The crucial first (and best) step: Eating cancer-fighting foods that cut off the supply lines and beat cancer at its own game.
Woo? Or the real thing?
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Woo, AND the old thing. The field was pioneered by Judah Folkman, and there are dozens of anti-angiogenesis drugs in clinical trials. Among other things they have found out: it turns out that tumors implanted on a rat are much more vulnerable to angiogenesis drugs than are tumors left to develop on their own, but are great for getting drugs into clinical trials.
whoo-boy, this looks real. It seems to have studies and regulated(?) trials and respected universities behind it.
I liked his answer to the question - if you have cancer, talk to your doctor about approved drugs and clinical trials. This is not the answer of a quack.
There is a website:
http://www.angio.org
Heh.
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,1101940425,00.html?internalid=AC
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,1101980518,00.html?internalid=AC
Both about antiangiogenesis drugs.
This was a very hot topic years ago... lots of predictions and promises made which didn't pan out. Still a good idea, but difficult to get it to actually work well.
Anyways, because something turns out to be trickier than expected doesn't make it worthless, much less woo.
For lots more on this subject, head over to Respectful Insolence -- Orac is, after all, a cancer researcher and Judah Folkman is his personal hero.
It ain't nearly that simple.
Dr. Francis Markland at USC did some work with anti-angiogenics several years ago. It involved a venom protein from Agkistrodon contortrix. It was given the name "contortrostatin" and it's quite interesting in being 13 kilodaltons. It also stops metastasis. It also prevents clotting...
It's not woo, but it is a huge exaggeration of what can be done with antiangiogenic therapy.
I've forwarded it over to my SIL who has colorectal cancer, and is on her third go-around of chemo. They won't give her any more radiation, and the tumor is currently in her right groin, about the size of 2 tennis balls. It's pressing on the artery in the groin, and has begun to pierce the bone. If there is a doctor in the Las Vegas area, I hope she can find out more on this. It certainly can't hurt too much--she's only got a certain diagnosis of more growth and greater pain otherwise.
My own cancer, of the head-and-neck variety, was treated by using radiotherapy to create scar tissue around the tumors. The blood vessels feeding the tumors could not penetrate the scar tissue, so they withered on the vine, as it were, six and half years ago.
What is 'new' about starving a tumor? Or is this about the method of doing so?
Isn't this how Avastin (Bevacizumab), Erbitux (Cituximab), and Nexavar (Sorafenib) work? They've already been approved for treating metastatic cancer, but give only about 4-6 weeks in additional survival.
I think most of the commenters are correct in thinking this area of research has not panned out as being as effective as hoped.
Some commentators seem to miss his point. The results may be disappointing because it is treatment of well developed cancer.
His suggestion is you need to apply dietary changes well before you have cancer. Obviously studies are needed and if successful, diet may may cut back on cancer cases, but it will not prevent them all. A 50% cut in cancer rate would be terrific, but the other 50% still get it.