Ottawa Doctors make a Breakthrough in Fighting Leukemia

Doctors David Conrad and John Bell have developed a tiny nano-particle that causes human blood cancer cells to kill themselves.

This is very interesting, and though like any "breakthrough" it is early days and there is much more testing and research trials to be done. However, at this point, it sounds very promising. Please watch and listen to the short clip on the link below. Dr. David Conrad is being interviewed by CTV.

This is a video link published Aug. 13, 2013 at this CTV News web site:

Dr. David Conrad: ".. We've developed a 'particle-based therapeutic', and we can introduce it intravenously to mice that have leukemia. We've observed that not only is the leukemia eradicated but it sets up an immune response so that relapse does not occur... we set up an 'immune memory' with this treatment."

Wow, this sounds revolutionary - a treatment to kill the cancer, and then even prevent a relapse. Let's hope that this study's finding will be repeated in more trials, so that there will one day be human trials, and similar successful results. Researchers are keeping the hope alive with this study, and the "serial T-Cell" treatment from two years ago in Pennsylvania, and New York labs.

Old Drug Shows New Promise

This story made international headlines yesterday, and it is worth following. A drug called Ribavirin, which has been on the market for 10 years to treat other disease like hepatitis C, could be used to treat 30% of cancers. A small sample study was conducted last year and the results are promising.

Doctors in Montreal tested the antiviral drug ribavirin on 11 patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), who had undergone several other treatments that had previously failed.

Nine of the patients saw their conditions improve within a matter of months, with one achieving complete remission and two achieving partial remission, all with few side effects. The results are published online in the journal, Blood.

This particular cancer news story is exciting doctors because it is already an established drug, and it has few side effects. It may indeed help many more people. It's good to know what options are out there, and to discuss it with your physician. More studies will likely occur as a result of this finding, so let's hope future outcomes are positive to help establish Ribavirin as a cancer fighting drug.