Sorry, I gotta vent

[mrsl]

I should have put this on the Whiny thread but that's in a really sad place right now and I didn't want to upset the cart.

Here's the thing: About two weeks ago on the CBS evening news I saw a short item about a pill that has been discovered that literally melts cancer cells. They have done tests on humans(breast, both men and women), and animals and this pill really works. . . I have not heard a thing about it since.

This is what burns my butt with the news nowadays. They devote hours to Michael Jackson but there apparently is nobody who can follow up on something that could change the lives of millions of people. I know the big pharmaceutical companies and physicians/surgeons/hospitals will fight such a discovery because they will lose millions if such a thing became a household item.

When I think of the months my husband and other family and friends suffered from this horrible disease, I can't help remember that over 40 years ago a full grown gorilla was infected with the cancer cell, and with some kind of experimental treatment, he was fully recovered in weeks, and that was another story that was buried by the above mentioned medical society, and most likely insurance companies. As I said, I had to vent because I was getting more and more angry with each new article about Michael (he died for pete's sake - RIP), yet something like this is tossed off like yesterdays garbage. I have e-mailed the stations but not yet received any response (hard to believe!!! right?)

Anne

[moira finnie]

Hi Anne,
I think you might be referring to the development of a procedure called ALK Inhibitor. The CBS report is below and if you go here, you can see worldwide material on this possible future treatment from Google. I hope it works too.

June 5, 2009 2:21 pm US/Eastern
Colorado Lung Cancer Researchers Make Big Advances
CBS News
AURORA, Colo. (CBS) ―

Researchers in Colorado are involved in a worldwide effort that's making big breakthroughs in the fight against lung cancer.

The doctors involved are at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and they say they may have uncovered a treatment for the deadly form of cancer that kills 20,000 Americans every year.

Although not a cure for cancer, a procedure called an ALK inhibitor could well be a way to control it.

Medical oncologist Dr. Ross Camidge is among the researchers who stumbled onto the ALK inhibitor which, in a clinical study, makes cancer melt away.

Camidge and others call it a once-in-a-lifetime discovery. It takes what has long been a death sentence and turns it into a chronic disease.

"After only six weeks of treatment with the drug, this lung looks completely normal," Camidge told CBS station KCNC-TV . "There is no sign of the cancer."

The center is among a handful of centers in the world involved in the research.

Ila Hegland is part of the study. She was diagnosed with Stage 4 non-smoker's lung cancer 9 years ago and given 2 years to live.

She survived on radiation and chemotherapy, then early this year her doctors at the University of Colorado Cancer Center took a closer look at her cancer cells.

"By looking at the very genetics of the cancer, you can say 'This is what is driving the cancer in the first place,'" Camidge said.

For Hegland, it's a miracle.

"I have two small grandchildren. It's exciting to think that maybe I'll get to live to see them grow up," she said.

Among the 23 test patients worldwide, she is No. 14 and the first in Colorado to respond positively.

"Now we have a subset of patients that didn't have any hope with other medications and they are dramatically responding to this new drug," Dr. Marileila Varella Garcia said.

Right now the testing and treatment is free, so doctors say lung cancer patients should see if they qualify.

If the trials continue to be successful, Pfizer could develop a licensed drug in about 3 years.

This discovery could ultimately help the university and other cancer patients, too. If the study shows personalized treatments are effective, researchers are more likely to receive funding for similar studies.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

[mrsl]

Yes, Moira, that was it, but the newscaster I saw apparently added to her comments because I distinctly recall something about breast cancer being completely obliterated in some patients. The problem now is whether the Food and Drug Administration allows it to be an accepted drug in the USA.

Anne

[moira finnie]

Yes, Moira, that was it, but the newscaster I saw apparently added to her comments because I distinctly recall something about breast cancer being completely obliterated in some patients. The problem now is whether the Food and Drug Administration allows it to be an accepted drug in the USA.

Anne

It would be good if they could at least allow people whose prognosis is poor already to give it a go if they are willing to sign a release, Anne. If it helped people have some freedom from pain for awhile that too would be a boon for those who are dealing with the range of cancers this might assist. I'm crossing my fingers on this one too.

[Birdy]

Great story, Anne, and thanks for sharing the details, Moira.
This is exciting news.

Re: The treatment of real vs. celebrity news, I caught a glimpse of Orlando Blooms whose home was broken into last week. Reporters were following him around like geese and he just kept saying, 'This isn't news' and something to the effect that many people were suffering in the world and his robbery just didn't matter that much. It was good to see him look a little embarrassed at their antics; it would look ridiculous to throw a pity party over 500,000 jewelry that's insured while tent cities are growing in America.
B

[klondike]

It was good to see him look a little embarrassed at their antics; it would look ridiculous to throw a pity party over 500,000 jewelry that's insured while tent cities are growing in America.
B

Hear, hear, Birdy!
And good on our young Mr. Bloom!
He may have played a pirate on the screen, but he sounds like a gentleman at heart!

[mrsl]

Still to this day I have not heard a single report however small about that ALK Inhibitor but I'm not surprised, yet they're still working on Michael.

Right now however, I have something else I want to complain about. Toddlers and Tiaras. While channel surfing over the weekend, I landed on one of these disgusting Jon Benet wannabee beauty pageants. First off those mothers should be strung up by their toes. They claim the kids love the competition, but they don't seem to see the tears when someone else is called as the winner, and just what do they think those little tantrums are just before going on-stage about? All little girls love to play dress-up and play with make-up, but these idiotic mothers (and some fathers), actually spend in some cases up to $1,000 on dresses and other outfits and actually announce the family eats ramen noodles all week to pay for these clothes, not to mention the hair dressers, and make-up artists. These are nearly babies, and should never be exposed to inhaling clouds of hair spray or having stage makeup smeared on their faces and collecting in their pores. I thought that awful mess with Jon Benet would put a stop to this insanity, but it only seems to have grown bigger. Am I just a cranky old grandma, or does anyone else agree with me?
.

[movieman1957]

I think the whole thing is kind of creepy. I saw a few minutes of it and the idea of kids doing dance moves that are well beyond their years i kind of weird. The bigger problem is the parents. I wonder if an 8 year old said she didn't want to do it anymore how many parents would listen. It seems they are the ones who really push this.

I guess it is one more train wreck. Like "Real Housewives" (which I also find creepy) that for a few minutes you almost can't believe what you are watching. Cable has come to this. Lord, help us.

[MissGoddess]

I never would have known about "ALK Inhibitor" if I didn't happen to read this thread. That is encouraging
news---if the drug companies don't drag it out.

[JackFavell]

The fact that they make TV shows out of little kids whose lives are being twisted just feeds the mother's need for attention. Those reality tv show producers are the next ones who should be strung up by their toes.....

[jdb1]

I can't get over my morbid fascination with Toddlers and Tiaras, and I can't stop watching it. It's especially interesting to me, I suppose, because I am the parent of a daughter, and because I was a teacher of young children. So many of the little girls (and a few boys) show on T&T are already well on the road to complete, self-absorbed obnoxiousness, and the more they preen and have hissy fits, the more their parents ooh and ahh and feed their growing egos.

That's one terrible downside to this pageant thing, but to me the really criminal aspects are one, the self-delusional nature of so many of the mothers, who have to glam their kiddies up because the little ones are all too plain in real life, which obviously isn't good enough for their parents; and two, the really damaging psychology imposed on these kids by their mothers. If you win awards, I'll love you. If you are pretty, I'll love you. If you don't win, the judges are prejudiced and the contest is obviously fixed. So many of the mothers claim that the pageants are good for their children's self-esteem; somehow, I can't see it.

Have you seen the episode with the mother of twins? That ghastly, overly made up, snotty mother, who so obviously favored one twin over the other, and wasn't even embarrassed to say so on national TV. (And these little girls looked identical to me.) She was very surprised when the "not pretty" twin won the pageant.

I remember a dancing school friend of my daughter's whose mother put her in pageants. It seems to me that many of these pageant mothers have something to prove to the world -- and if they can't be beauty queens themselves, by gosh their girls are going to be. As one of the pageant fathers on T&T pointed out, most of these mothers are "somewhat overweight." In fact, most of them are pretty gruesome, appearance-wise, and we have to wonder just whose wish-fulfillment these pageants are staged for. The parents admittedly spend thousands of dollars on clothes, hair and makeup, talent lessons and such, and they are lucky if they win a couple of hundred dollars.

I remember shopping in a fancy children's store (they were having a sale) with my daughter when she was little. There was a mother of the type we in Brooklyn would call a "Pizza Queen," with her husband and their little girl. I lost track of how many times this woman announced to no one in particular "She's in a pageant." She went through racks of those silly miniature evening gowns, until she found the most bejeweled and bespangled one. She held it up to her husband, and he said "Magnificent!"

[movieman1957]

Fathers sometimes live through their sons and their sports. Luckily, I was not a victim nor a proponent of this problem. It even comes as young as Little League baseball. I have a friend who umpires games that, often enough, will hold up a game until a parent he has invited to leave does.
The things that comes out of parents mouths is quite amazing especially since the kids are right there.

I remember one instance when as a youngster myself saw a man spank his son going up the hill after the game because he missed a ground ball. I don't remember whether it allowed the other team to win but then it didn't really matter.

No fun for the kids.

[charliechaplinfan]

We had a programme on about pageants, someone had tried to start up a circuit over here. I agree with everything that has been said. The pagaents are really gruesome, I fail to see why a made up doll of a girl is more attractive than a little girl who looks like what she is. I also don't like ultra competitive parents in whatever field your child choses to compete. There's an active ballroom dancing circuit and that's pretty expensive to join with outfits, grooming, faketans etc. A similar program was made here about the dancing and the children who didn't win were gutted.

[ChiO]

Fathers sometimes live through their sons and their sports.

I plead guilty, though in a nonsexist way. There was a period where I lived vicariously through our daughter, Stacey, and her sports (she being far more talented than I ever was in basketball, hockey and soccer). Then there was the baseball game in a co-ed park league (Stacey being the only girl on her team) and the third baseman on her team made a lazy throw to first, whereupon his mother stood up and yelled, "Stop throwing like a girl!" Then, realizing what she said, she turned to Mrs. ChiO and me and said, "But Stacey doesn't throw like a girl." There's a moral in there...somewhere.

[klondike]

whereupon his mother stood up and yelled, "Stop throwing like a girl!" Then, realizing what she said, she turned to Mrs. ChiO and me and said, "But Stacey doesn't throw like a girl." There's a moral in there...somewhere.

Ha!
Great anecdote, ChiO!
It reminded me of this one:
One bright Spring afternoon about 3 years ago, I was dealing with a surly, vulgar, recently fired employee who I'd had to escort out of my office building, when he suddenly turned back around on me, grabbed the bib-front of my carhartts & popped me a fast right hook in the mouth. I responded with a simple, flat shove to his chest which propelled him backward about 5 feet, warned him to keep his hands off me or I'd stack his wood "good & proper", and then watched him scramble to his car, huffing all the way, and leave. Back upstairs, I related it to my daughter, who was dutifully daubing a spot of blood off my lip, and Mrs. K, who was absorbed in her filing. When Cait insisted that she was going to call the police over it, I declined to let her, saying dismissively: "Besides, he hits like a girl."
Daughter immediately turns to Mom and says: "Did you hear what my father just said?!!"
Mrs. K responds, "I sure did.", and turning square to my profile, calmly pokes her right thumb-knuckle with lightning precision into the tiny space between my earlobe & the hinge of my jawbone.
Watching me wince in pain & flinch back away from her, my wife of 30 years remarks drily: "Guess you're lucky Bob didn't hit you like a woman !"