Many volunteers world-wide commit themselves to raising funds for cancer research and cancer charities. Many hundreds of thousands more work in the industry as carers, or researching, prescribing, identifying and manufacturing drugs. Huge companies spend fortunes on cancer research. After so long and so many billions spent what exactly has cancer research revealed?
There happen to be regular breakthroughs in our knowledge of cancer, but little progress in its treatment. Modern research into cancer began in the 1940's and 50's when scientists isolated substances that killed cancer cells growing in a petri dish, or leukaemia cells in laboratory mice. Early successes in chemotherapy set the pace and received much media exposure, even though they only applied to 5% of cancer treatments at most.
Serving humanity by solving its major diseases has a celebrity status, there is a lot of kudos and an air of Hollywood involved with such things. Cancer research is high profile activity and every now and then a scientific treatment solutions are discovered that gains wide recognition, for example the HPV-16 trial, but it only applies itself to the management of a small number of cancers. Mass-media hype is a part of the problem of how we see cancer. Early discoveries setup an expectation that there was a cure-all treatment, a 'magic bullet' that could make its discoverer famous by curing cancer around the globe. The idea stems in part from aspirin, the original bullet that magically finds its way to the pain and diminishes it.
In the 1950's and 60's huge and expensive research projects were set up to test every known substance to view if it effected cancer cells. You might remember the discovery of the Madagascar Periwinkle (Catharansus Roseus), which revealed alkaloids (vinblastine and vincristine) that are still used in chemotherapy today. Taxol, a remedy for ovarian and breast cancer originally came from the Pacific Yew tree. A remedy for testicular cancer and small-cell lung cancer called 'Etoposide' was derived from the May apple. In 'Plants Used Against Cancer' by Jonathan Hartwell over three thousand plants are identified from medical and folklore sources for the treatment of cancer, around half of which have been shown to have some effect upon cancer cells in a test tube.
When these plants are made into synthetic drugs, single chemicals are isolated and also the rest of the plant will likely be thrown away. The medicinally active molecules are extracted from the plant and modified until they may be chemically unique. Then the compound is patented, given a brand name and tested.
In the first phase it will generally be tested on animals, the other phase will decide dosage levels and in phase 3 it really is tested on people. Through the time it's approved by the Federal Drugs Authority (in U.S.A.) or even simply click the following webpage Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulation Agency (M.H.R.A.) in Britain, the development costs for a new drug can reach five hundred million dollars, which eventually must be recouped from the consumer.
There happen to be regular breakthroughs in our knowledge of cancer, but little progress in its treatment. Modern research into cancer began in the 1940's and 50's when scientists isolated substances that killed cancer cells growing in a petri dish, or leukaemia cells in laboratory mice. Early successes in chemotherapy set the pace and received much media exposure, even though they only applied to 5% of cancer treatments at most.Serving humanity by solving its major diseases has a celebrity status, there is a lot of kudos and an air of Hollywood involved with such things. Cancer research is high profile activity and every now and then a scientific treatment solutions are discovered that gains wide recognition, for example the HPV-16 trial, but it only applies itself to the management of a small number of cancers. Mass-media hype is a part of the problem of how we see cancer. Early discoveries setup an expectation that there was a cure-all treatment, a 'magic bullet' that could make its discoverer famous by curing cancer around the globe. The idea stems in part from aspirin, the original bullet that magically finds its way to the pain and diminishes it.
In the 1950's and 60's huge and expensive research projects were set up to test every known substance to view if it effected cancer cells. You might remember the discovery of the Madagascar Periwinkle (Catharansus Roseus), which revealed alkaloids (vinblastine and vincristine) that are still used in chemotherapy today. Taxol, a remedy for ovarian and breast cancer originally came from the Pacific Yew tree. A remedy for testicular cancer and small-cell lung cancer called 'Etoposide' was derived from the May apple. In 'Plants Used Against Cancer' by Jonathan Hartwell over three thousand plants are identified from medical and folklore sources for the treatment of cancer, around half of which have been shown to have some effect upon cancer cells in a test tube.
When these plants are made into synthetic drugs, single chemicals are isolated and also the rest of the plant will likely be thrown away. The medicinally active molecules are extracted from the plant and modified until they may be chemically unique. Then the compound is patented, given a brand name and tested.
In the first phase it will generally be tested on animals, the other phase will decide dosage levels and in phase 3 it really is tested on people. Through the time it's approved by the Federal Drugs Authority (in U.S.A.) or even simply click the following webpage Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulation Agency (M.H.R.A.) in Britain, the development costs for a new drug can reach five hundred million dollars, which eventually must be recouped from the consumer.