Customized Cancer Treatment

gpawelski

Ralph W. Moss, PhD, is the former science writer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. For over thirty years, he has independently investigated new and promising cancer treatments around the world. He is the recipient of many awards and the author of twelve books and three films, including the PBS documentary, The Cancer War.

Dr. Robert Nagourney, one of the pioneers along with Dr. Larry Weisenthal of functional profiling analysis, says the new book talks about the functional profile platform. Moss discusses laboratory tests that can help save cancer patients' lives. He previously penned Cancer Therapy, Herbs Against Cancer, Questioning Chemotherapy and The Cancer Industry, which took another look at what's working and what isn't with today's treatments. Before deciding what treatment is best for you, know your options.

Ralph Moss' new book makes a very good case for drug sensitivity tests to see which drugs will work best. He does a tremendous job turning over every single stone why The Test (as he calls it in the book) has struggled to gain acceptance in the billion dollar cancer medicine industry.

Also intriguing is Moss' association of cell culture assays and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in the final conclusions of the book. He feels that there are many treatments of natural origin that have been proposed as candidates for cancer therapy. Some of these may have great value. He reminds us that about one-quarter of all chemotherpeutic agents had a natural origin.

Ralph Moss has done an eloquent job of putting together in one book just about all of the research I've ever read over the last decade about cell function analysis. It was a shame he wasn't able to write more about the major differences between functional profiling and molecular profiling in light of the recent findings about the limitations of genetic testing, gene-guided chemotherapy research being questioned, and gene-expression signatures not ready for prime-time.

What research scientists in universities and cancer centers have been doing for the past ten years is trying to figure out a way to use molecular testing technology to look for patterns of gene expression which correlate with and predict for the activity of anticancer drugs. Examining a patient's DNA can give physicians a lot of information, but as the NCI has concluded, it cannot determine treatment plans for patients (1).

In addition, one of the published papers that reported this technology has now come under scrutiny. The Lancet Oncology has issued an "expression of concern" over a paper published in the journal in 2007, which described the validation of gene signatures to predict the response of breast cancer to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (2).

1. J Natl Cancer Inst. Published online March 16, 2010
2. Lancet Oncol. 2007;8:1071-1078

http://www.amazon.com/Customized-Cancer-Treatment-Powerful-You/dp/1881025012