2 is a master regulator of a signaling network that drives epithelial cell prolification identifies this protein as a target for cancer therapy. (Klapper LN; Kirschbaum MH; Sela M; Yarden Y)Cancer is still the second leading cause of death in the world. All though the outlook on where research is going is optimistic, I still feel that the faith of the patient is large factor. I have had many talks with Ken Culver about patients he has had in the past. One in particular stands out. The patient had a malignant tumor in her lung. She went through every treatment the doctors thought might work and nothing did. The doctors said it was only a matter of time and told her to enjoy the weeks she had left. To their surprise a month later she was improving and after two months the tumor was gone. When they asked her what she had done in the past two months she talked about positive mental imagery. She said she pictured the tumor as a large block of cheese and her immune system as a pack of mice. She envisioned the mice gnawing away on the cheese and she just started feeling better and better. The doctors had no explanation as to how the woman was sitting in the office telling them all this. Cancer is a horrible disease that effects millions of people every year. Further improvements are being made in past treatment techniques, and new theories are being formulated as we speak. There are so many different types of cancer that there will never be one pill that can be taken as a cure. Hopefully the rapid new findings in gene therapy will be what the world needs to beat the plague of the twentieth century....
