Article re The James (cancer hospital in Columbus Ohio) doing modified virus treatments …this one is a trial for aggressive brain cancer.

Can personally recommend The James. Most Cancer hospitals are above and beyond but we were extremely impressed with the level of care we got in January just weeks after their December 2014 opening (an extension to the hospital they were formerly crammed into)

@insider wrote “To get into clinical trials like all of the people in the VICE segment were in you have to be out of all the chemo/radiation options. The information in the VICE segment may be promising, maybe only part of it may be promising or it may end up being another dead end.”

@insider You’re right and I hope the new cancer treatments lead to better outcomes. My biggest complaint about Shane Smith and Vice is that in this case they misled the audience and like I said before, I’m appalled that Smith mentioned his own family to promote this piece.

I do follow the cancer fight to a degree. For instance, when I saw The Emperor of all Maladies last month I came to the sudden realization that this doc was essentially an update to the PBS doc from about 15 years ago called Cancer: A Race for a Cure. The former director of the National Cancer Institute is in both docs.

I’ll say this: Think about what it was like in the world 100 years ago, back in 1915. We barely had cars or planes and the life expectancy was probably in the 40’s and polio and the simple flu killed tens of millions of people. I believe by the end of this century we may wear portable medical devices that constantly upgrade our health and this device will immediately destroy any cancer cells in our body and we’ll be able to add/delete/modify our DNA to prevent any recurrence. In other words, cancer may very well be a thing of the past, just like polio and smallpox are today.

@schlermy I don’t know how much you know about these things first hand… but by the time you get around to trying newer/experimental treatments like viral therapy you have already exhausted the front line therapies. To get into clinical trials like all of the people in the VICE segment were in you have to be out of all the chemo/radiation options. The information in the VICE segment may be promising, maybe only part of it may be promising or it may end up being another dead end.

@insider I think all of those test subjects in the VICE episode have since had their cancer return, this time much more virulent.

@schlermy I saw The emperor of all maladies as well, 3 part series for pbs. And the words “possible cure” are a lot different than claiming a cure which is exactly what i said in my first sentence. And i think anyone that watches the vice.com story understands that they are pointing out that this treatment has shown promise and could hold some keys to finding a cure…. i happen to agree that viral therapy has as good a chance as anything else thats on the horizon right now… so… what for it… yep… when my Dr. tells me i’m out of chemo options Im going to try viral therapy.

Insider, Shane Smith positively said “possible cure”, and then they presented a one sided story which leads you to believe said cure is amongst us.

If you really want to know what’s the current state of cancer reasearch read the bestselling book The Emperor of All Maladies and/or the excellent documentary from this book, which came out this year. Unfortunately, the famous narrator of this documentary Edward Herrmann died a few months ago of…wait for it..yep..cancer.

36 years after my diagnosis the five year survival rate for my cancer is still dismal. Each Mother’s Day comes with a reminder of the daunting truth that a complete hysterectomy remains the first line of treatment is for the Cancer I survived. This year as I celebrate 30 years of clean pathology it’s a bittersweet experience because too many women won’t know the dream of motherhood my docs and treatment made a reality.

It really is and the way we can genetically engineer the virus to do what we want it to do is astounding to me.