TAB ’ s July 2021 update
TAB wrote his update as a comment to the post I wrote about him back in 2012, but I decided that this update should be turned into a post, as follows…
TAB’s Update 7/9/2021
Smoldering 20 years, progression 2 years, Velcade for 4 months = complete remission.
My journey with IgA Lambda Multiple Myeloma has been a long one. At age 80 I am finally in complete remission. During the first 20 years I took only over the counter supplements which in my opinion kept the beast at bay. I plotted the results of my blood tests using Excel and relied on the trend lines to keep track of how I was doing. After a few years of supple...
Source: Margaret's Corner - July 19, 2021 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll Source Type: blogs
Quercetin has anti-myeloma activity
This study shows that quercetin works well both alone AND in combination with dexamethasone. Let’s not forget that it’s a proteasome inhibitor (like curcumin and, in the conventional world, Velcade).
Here’s the direct link to the study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5216736/?fbclid=IwAR2Nk3FwZ3b8MfAqKUNOz1YXfQ6PU2lcQzAN-eGSMWvVBO7dTD9waNpxXn4
I have to admit that I haven’t taken any quercetin in years, but it looks as though I’ll be putting it back on my “menu” now. For many reasons, not just because of its anti-myeloma activity…
Quercetin is good for a bunch...
Source: Margaret's Corner - June 5, 2020 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll dexamethasone myeloma quercetin Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, December 16th 2019
This study shows that CA are released from periventricular and subpial regions to the cerebrospinal fluid and are present in the cervical lymph nodes, into which cerebrospinal fluid drains through the meningeal lymphatic system. We also show that CA can be phagocytosed by macrophages. We conclude that CA can act as containers that remove waste products from the brain and may be involved in a mechanism that cleans the brain. Moreover, we postulate that CA may contribute in some autoimmune brain diseases, exporting brain substances that interact with the immune system, and hypothesize that CA may contain brain markers that m...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 15, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Ways in Which the Failing Lymphatic System Contributes to Age-Related Disease
The lymphatic system is a parallel circulatory system responsible for moving fluid, immune cells, and a range of vital molecules around the body. It is of particular importance to immune function, allowing components of the immune system to carry messages from place to place in the body, and communicate and coordinate the immune response at the hubs known as lymph nodes. Like all tissues in the body, the lymphatic system is negatively impacted by aging, and this has widespread detrimental effects throughout the body and brain.
For example, lymph nodes become disrupted in structure and function by the presence of sen...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 11, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, November 25th 2019
This study demonstrates for the first time that senescent cells secrete functional LTs, significantly contributing to the LTs pool known to cause or exacerbate idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Against Senolytics
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2019/11/against-senolytics/
There is no consensus in science that is so strong as to have no heretics. So here we have an interview with a naysayer on the matter of senolytic treatments, who argues that the loss of senescent cells in aged tissues will cause more harm to long-term health than the damage they will do by remaining. To be clear, I think this to be a...
Source: Fight Aging! - November 24, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Heat Shock Proteins as a Basis for Tackling Protein Aggregation in Neurodegenerative Diseases
Neurodegenerative conditions are largely characterized by the aggregation of a few altered proteins that are prone to forming solid deposits in and around neurons. Tissues, such as the brain, made up of long-lived cells, such as neurons, are particularly vulnerable to this sort of dysfunction, as they cannot dilute harmful protein aggregates by cell division, and dysfunctional cells are not readily destroyed and replaced. Cells must rely upon internal quality control mechanisms such as the presence of chaperone proteins responsible for chasing down misfolded or otherwise problematic proteins, and ensuring they are refolded...
Source: Fight Aging! - November 19, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Forskolin: another natural compound goes on my list of myeloma killers
Yesterday I came across a 2015 study that really caught my attention. A group of Norwegian researchers has discovered that the combination of dexamethasone with a natural compound called forskolin kills multiple myeloma cells.
They tested forskolin with other conventional myeloma drugs, too: bortezomib (Velcade), cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and melphalan.
And by itself.
Results in a nutshell: dead myeloma cells.
Excerpt from the abstract: “Our findings support a potential role of forskolin in combination with current conventional agents in the treatment of MM.”
The researchers believe that forskolin mi...
Source: Margaret's Corner - August 1, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll forskolin myeloma Source Type: blogs
Andrographolide and parthenolide kill myeloma stem cells
This study shows that parthenolide AND andrographolide do just that: they go after the ruffians. The abstract calls them two “potent anti-MM-CSC agents.”
Potent…I like that!
Okay, I’m going to see if I can extract some gems from the full study.
As we’ve seen, it’s not enough to target the circulating plasma cells. If we want to get rid of the myeloma weed, we must go after the stem cells, the “clone troopers” (Star Wars, anyone? No, I’m not really a fan, but I do remember that expression…). The only way to prevent relapses is to kill the cloners!
Parthenolide is the first extract t...
Source: Margaret's Corner - February 14, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll andrographolide CSC myeloma parthenolide Source Type: blogs
“The bone-marrow niche in MDS and MGUS: implications for AML and MM.” Part 3.
Final post on the Dana-Farber study.
–Another thing mentioned in my 2013 post (see my Jan 31 2018 post for the link) is mentioned in this Dana-Farber study, too: PD-1, which stands for programmed cell death protein 1. Blocking the activity of this protein, which is highly expressed by MM cells, helps our immune system react against the cancerous cells. The Dana-Farber study informs us, however, that the conventional agents used to block PD-1 have been found to be toxic and not very effective, so the patient studies are currently on hold.
But guess what? Curcumin blocks PD-1, without any toxic side effects. Of course,...
Source: Margaret's Corner - February 7, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll The bone-marrow niche in MDS and MGUS: implications for AML and MM. Source Type: blogs
“The bone-marrow niche in MDS and MGUS: implications for AML and MM.” Part 2.
Back to the Dana-Farber study that I wrote about a couple of days ago.
The section titled “Therapeutic opportunities” is interesting. How to prevent progression, that is. As you can imagine, the chef’s daily special consists only of conventional treatments. For example, the authors make a reference to the Spanish study (Mateos et al) that I have repeatedly condemned here on the blog. The Spanish researchers–some with strong ties to the big pharmaceutical companies (hello???)–tested lenalidomide and dexamethasone on a group of SMM patients. The study claims to have prolonged progression-free survival and e...
Source: Margaret's Corner - January 31, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll The bone-marrow niche in MDS and MGUS: implications for AML and MM. Dana Farber high risk myeloma SMM Source Type: blogs
EBV and myeloma stem cells. Chapter 3
This study tells us there are two ways in which a virus, nothing more than a “parasite,” can infect its host cell: 1. actively, by causing “a lytic infection characterized by the release of new progeny virus particles, often upon the lysis of the host cell,” (lysis refers to the destruction of a cell, the host cell in this case), or 2. inactively, which occurs when the virus just sleeps, without reproducing itself.
“Reactivation” occurs when a sleeping virus wakes up and reproduces, stimulated by internal or external factors…but that gets into too much detail, so let’s skip that part.
Here’s anot...
Source: Margaret's Corner - January 23, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll EBV Epstein-Barr myeloma Source Type: blogs
My blog … mentioned in a BBC radio programme!
Even though my blog reader D. had told me some time ago that my blog might be mentioned in the BBC radio station that had interviewed her for the programme they were doing on turmeric, I was happy about that, of course, but I hadn’t really gotten too carried away…until today, when I found and actually listened to the programme, which is available online, right here: goo.gl/Gmda8N
Dieneke’s case study is mentioned toward the end of the programme, so please be patient. It’s a very interesting programme, anyway. With a nice turmeric-based recipe or two, which never hurts!
I have to admit that I go...
Source: Margaret's Corner - May 30, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll BBC Radio 4 curcumin Food Programme myeloma Sheila Dillon turmeric Source Type: blogs
More on cardamonin and myeloma
After months of being too busy with other stuff, such as…life!, to do much research, I have been going through PubMed again, yaaaay, and this is one of the studies, published in 2015, that really caught my attention: goo.gl/YgMY8O
You can actually read the full study online for free, at this link: goo.gl/muftiW
As my blog title suggests, it’s about cardamonin, about which I actually wrote a brief post
in February of 2011 (see http://margaret.healthblogs.org/other-alternative-treatments/cardamonin/). That post was based on a 2010 study, showing, and I quote, that “Cardamonin affects both the STAT3 and NF...
Source: Margaret's Corner - March 17, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll Alpinia katsumadai cardamonin myeloma Source Type: blogs
A new Italian study on the role of inflammation in myeloma progression
Well, since I have a gazillion things to do before leaving, I was going to forget about blogging until next year , but this morning a mostly Tuscan-made study caught my eye, and I just had to write about it: goo.gl/77intB
In a nutshell, the study proves that inflammation and the evolution of myeloma are closely connected. This is not entirely a surprise. I mean, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen the word “myeloma” mentioned in the same sentence as “inflammation.”
But I found this study amazingly interesting and worth much more than a cursory look. So I’ll do my best to report on it, considering I’...
Source: Margaret's Corner - December 21, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll Source Type: blogs
