Tuesday, June 27, 2006
This Cancer Researcher Gave Me a Shower Curtain...
From Law.com: Employment Case Puts Johns Hopkins Under the Microscope
Despite the political infighting at Johns Hopkins and the red tape, Dr. Ko has a grant from the Susan G. Komen Foundation and is going to be studying the effects of the drug 3-bromopyruvate (3-BrPA) on breast cancer and metastatic cancers.
She and one of my best friends (and bridesmaid) Wendy sent me a sequinned shower curtain as a wedding present, and I am so tardy on my thank you notes that I have yet to thank them.
Thank you, Dr. Ko. Thank you very much for the shower curtain and for the work that you are doing which has actual applications instead of being theoretical. Thank you for working on a way of combating tumors that seems to be non-toxic. Chemotherapy is a crap-shoot and is extremely unpleasant. I'd love to be involved in human trials--I'm sure there are many who would be. I hope the politics of your situation do not get you down and that you are able to progress with your work. You have my heartfelt admiration and gratitude.
"Dr. Young Ko believes that she has found a cure for cancer.
Using an inexpensive drug named 3-bromopyruvate, the Johns Hopkins University researcher was able to eliminate advanced liver cancer in lab animals. Earlier this year, after her work was profiled by the Baltimore Sun, dozens of cancer patients and their families contacted the medical school to ask when human trials would begin.
Not any time soon, it would seem. Ko's research is now at the center of a bitter employment dispute between the researcher and the university. " ...read more
Despite the political infighting at Johns Hopkins and the red tape, Dr. Ko has a grant from the Susan G. Komen Foundation and is going to be studying the effects of the drug 3-bromopyruvate (3-BrPA) on breast cancer and metastatic cancers.
She and one of my best friends (and bridesmaid) Wendy sent me a sequinned shower curtain as a wedding present, and I am so tardy on my thank you notes that I have yet to thank them.
Thank you, Dr. Ko. Thank you very much for the shower curtain and for the work that you are doing which has actual applications instead of being theoretical. Thank you for working on a way of combating tumors that seems to be non-toxic. Chemotherapy is a crap-shoot and is extremely unpleasant. I'd love to be involved in human trials--I'm sure there are many who would be. I hope the politics of your situation do not get you down and that you are able to progress with your work. You have my heartfelt admiration and gratitude.
- More on this:
- 3-Bromopyruvate Completely Eradicates Advanced Cancers in Come[sic] Rats
- Posts from The Cancer Forums - includes a post from a former colleague of Dr. Ko's explaining how the development of new treatments is stymied by a completely broken pharmaceutical system
Labels: 3-bromopyruvate, chemo, Dr. Young Ko, Johns Hopkins, pharmaceutical companies, shower curtain, Susan G. Komen, trials, Wendy
Comments:
I have read a number of reports regarding Dr. Ko's work, Johns Hopkins, and the blame placed on Pharm companies to delay drug research and production. Most applaud her ethics and disposition as a researcher.
I am also a former colleague of Dr. Ko's. I would not at all be surprised if all the allegations that the administration is saying about Dr. Ko is true. I know that most if not all people that interacted with her had some significant problems with her, and many left her mentor's laboratory to move away from her (and both of them...a very long story...). Many times that I am aware of at Hopkins that other researches questioned a number of aspects of both her science and ethics. Furthermore for her to say she is being discriminated because of being female and asian is remarkable for a place like Hopkins. I believe at least half of the research faculty, staff, and students must be 1st or 2nd generation's from the far east.
What concerns me per se is not the facts re Dr. Ko, but how individuals can believe that important research that has been peer reviewed to be valid will stop going forward because of politics. This is just not so. We all want to find a cure as quick as we can for whatever disease we are working on. I am also a professor at a major medical school in the US, have consulted for major companies, including big pharma. If the public does not have confidence in our system, then we as researchers have responsibility to educate. So far, our system is much better than anything else out there.
I am also a former colleague of Dr. Ko's. I would not at all be surprised if all the allegations that the administration is saying about Dr. Ko is true. I know that most if not all people that interacted with her had some significant problems with her, and many left her mentor's laboratory to move away from her (and both of them...a very long story...). Many times that I am aware of at Hopkins that other researches questioned a number of aspects of both her science and ethics. Furthermore for her to say she is being discriminated because of being female and asian is remarkable for a place like Hopkins. I believe at least half of the research faculty, staff, and students must be 1st or 2nd generation's from the far east.
What concerns me per se is not the facts re Dr. Ko, but how individuals can believe that important research that has been peer reviewed to be valid will stop going forward because of politics. This is just not so. We all want to find a cure as quick as we can for whatever disease we are working on. I am also a professor at a major medical school in the US, have consulted for major companies, including big pharma. If the public does not have confidence in our system, then we as researchers have responsibility to educate. So far, our system is much better than anything else out there.
# posted by 
: 5:02 PM
: 5:02 PM
I know this is old news but I couldn't care less about politics or if people are thought abrasive. This "breakthrough" is now at least 6 years old. My friend Liz, who has fought breast cancer for over 20 years now and whose life had been on hold most of those 20 years is now in the final stage where the expensive pharma drugs that seemed to work at first, shrinking tumours, now seem to have merely metastasized the tumours throughout her body and these tumours do not seem to respond at all to the same drug.
I could not believe that this was true and yet from searches of medical reports it is accepted that some breast cancer drugs upregulate inflammatory proteins (such as NF-KB) which drive cancer growth and spread.
Her only given option, increase the dosages of chemo that are painful, make her ill and are apparently useless. She looks so fragile and walks like a woman of 90 and it is heartbreaking.
I don't know if 3-BrPA works in people but I know what isn't working and is killing her. If the system is that restrictive that it will neither fund promising research or actively prevents proper investigation even in cases where death is almost certain, then the system has failed.
I think what hurts most of all is knowing something like this is out there but being unable to do a damn thing about it. Ultimately I don't want to know this works as well in humans as it did 6 years ago in mice and rabbits when Liz is dead.
All it needs:
Dr. Ko's buffer formula (since patented)
The protocols on administering the drug based on Dr. Gerswind's patent on 3-BrPa based on extensive animal trials.
A chemist to prepare the buffer and 3-BrPa in the amounts thought to be effective and least harmful to the patient as per the above patents.
A doctor to administer the drug to the patient at infusion rates effective and least harmful in animal models.
A medical team to stand by just in case 3-BrPA proves toxic in humans.
Sorry to rant. I just hate that nothing has progressed on this and I needed it a year ago before it spread to her lymphs and lungs.
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I could not believe that this was true and yet from searches of medical reports it is accepted that some breast cancer drugs upregulate inflammatory proteins (such as NF-KB) which drive cancer growth and spread.
Her only given option, increase the dosages of chemo that are painful, make her ill and are apparently useless. She looks so fragile and walks like a woman of 90 and it is heartbreaking.
I don't know if 3-BrPA works in people but I know what isn't working and is killing her. If the system is that restrictive that it will neither fund promising research or actively prevents proper investigation even in cases where death is almost certain, then the system has failed.
I think what hurts most of all is knowing something like this is out there but being unable to do a damn thing about it. Ultimately I don't want to know this works as well in humans as it did 6 years ago in mice and rabbits when Liz is dead.
All it needs:
Dr. Ko's buffer formula (since patented)
The protocols on administering the drug based on Dr. Gerswind's patent on 3-BrPa based on extensive animal trials.
A chemist to prepare the buffer and 3-BrPa in the amounts thought to be effective and least harmful to the patient as per the above patents.
A doctor to administer the drug to the patient at infusion rates effective and least harmful in animal models.
A medical team to stand by just in case 3-BrPA proves toxic in humans.
Sorry to rant. I just hate that nothing has progressed on this and I needed it a year ago before it spread to her lymphs and lungs.
# posted by : 7:41 PM
: 7:41 PM 
