Cancer Research Progress Spotlights Cruel Irony

To hear the words "cancer" and "cure" in the same sentence from experienced cancer researchers is both breathtaking and unexpected. Researchers and top oncologists are usually cautious to a fault. To hear that Congress is again trying to squeeze cancer research budgets is breathtaking but predictable. They've become frugal, also to a fault. Such is the cruel irony facing cancer patients and researchers today. Building on over 50 years of scientific progress, research leaders from cancer centers across the country are achieving stunning results that have led even the most guarded of them to use such formerly forbidden words as "breakthrough," "miracle," and "cure" in describing patient reactions and the potential outcomes of their virology and immunology cancer work. Much of this work has been supported by federal grants (National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute). Along the way, the continuance of many promising ventures has been jeopardized by Congressional refusal to sustain funding, even for breakthrough projects whose outcomes are already exceeding clinical expectations. Virology and immunology research sounds mysterious but can be described in simple terms. Most cancers have mechanisms that make them invisible to the body's immune system. In other words, the immune system can't recognize them as dangerous and so doesn't attack them. Researchers are now genetically modifying viruses that -- if left unchanged -- would have had the power to paralyze or...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news