Thursday, April 25, 2013

A Cure for Cancer?



A new study, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, took five patients with cancer and injected genetic material into the patient's white cells to turn them into cancer fighters.  One of the patients was David Aponte, and the doctors took millions of his white blood cells, and used a retrovirus to change them into targeted cancer fighters.  The treatment can cause a "cytokine storm," in which the T-cells release all kinds of proteins that can make the patient ill.  Aponte had a drop in blood pressure, a fever that spiked to 105 degrees and a coma that lasted eight days, but after he woke form the coma his cancer was gone.  Five patients have attempted the treatment, but unfortunately one of them died.  This treatment may have a risk, but it is a great leap forward for the cure of cancer.
NOS Theme(s):
1.      Importance of repeatability
2.      Role of motivation and curosity

2 comments:

  1. Oliver, this is so cool! You may not know this everyone, but I think Oliver is actually one of the scientists who is working on this cure! Seriously, Mrs. Ga bel, ask him about his science work. It is so cool!

    And Oliver, how does the new genetic material "overcome" the old white blood cell's genetic material?
    NOS themes: Collaboration. Several teams of scientists, including this one in Germany and the one Oliver works with in Minneapolis have worked on this treatment.

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  2. I'm working on HIV/AIDS cure not cancer

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