Experimental Drugs Stop Brain Cancers.HOUSTON--(BW Health Wire)--August 2, 1999-- The July issue of the medical journal Clinical Drug Investigation reports that an experimental cancer treatment Experimental cancer treatments are medical therapies intended or claimed to treat cancer (see also tumor) by improving on, supplementing or replacing conventional methods (surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and immunotherapy). has reversed several types of brain tumors thought to be incurable. The article, co-authored by Stanislaw Burzynski, MD, PhD, describes the results in brain tumor patients treated with antineoplastons, experimental drugs he has been developing for 30 years. Twenty-five percent of patients have had their tumors disappear completely, and an additional 20% have had them reduced by more than half. Also, the median survival time of patients with highly malignant glioblastoma multiforme glioblastoma mul·ti·for·me n. A virulent brain cancer that is usually fatal. is three times longer on antineoplaston therapy compared with standard treatments. "This is very exciting because until now such patients have been written off as being `untreatable Un`treat´a`ble a. 1. Incapable of being treated; not practicable. ,'" said Dr. Burzynski. "Standard therapies such as radiation therapy and chemotherapy have proved virtually useless against such brain tumors." According to Dr. Burzynski, the new treatment also is significant for having much less toxicity and many fewer side effects than standard cancer treatments. "In one case, we treated a 15-week-old infant diagnosed with a brain tumor and given weeks to live," said Burzynski. "It would be unthinkable to treat such a tiny infant with conventional, toxic cancer treatments such as radiation therapy." The baby girl, Tori Moreno, daughter of Los Angeles police officers Roman and Kim Moreno, celebrated her first birthday last month. Doctors say Tori is developing normally, and MRI 1. (application) MRI - Magnetic Resonance Imaging. 2. MRI - Measurement Requirements and Interface. scans show the tumor has decreased in size by more than half. Dr. Burzynski says the new treatment targets two genes, the "bad" oncogene oncogene Gene that can cause cancer. It is a sequence of DNA that has been altered or mutated from its original form, the proto-oncogene (see mutation). Proto-oncogenes promote the specialization and division of normal cells. that causes cancer, and the "good" tumor suppressor gene tumor suppressor gene n. A gene that suppresses cellular proliferation. When inherited in a mutated state, it is associated with the development of various cancers, including most familial cancers. Also called antioncogene. that stops it. "For cancer to develop, oncogenes oncogenes 1. genes carried by tumor viruses that are directly and solely responsible for the neoplastic transformation of host cells. Many oncogenes function after integration into the DNA of the host cell and some up-regulate normal downstream host cell genes to cause neoplasia. must be accidentally turned on and tumor suppressor genes must be accidentally turned off," he explained. "Antineoplastons appear to reverse the cancer-causing process, returning the gene `switches' to where they belong. Healthy cells are not affected." Patients on theses experimental drugs have not experienced the hair loss and immune suppression common with chemotherapy and irradiation. The most common side effects are elevated sodium levels in the blood, followed by nausea, skin rash, and fatigue. |
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