trials starting for lymfactin--how will it work?

Hello, Kriserts,

Thanks for this update--really interesting!

Also scary, and a little sad. The reason the trial is in Finland and not in the U.S. (even though much of the initial research into the use of VEG-F for lymphatic regeneration was done here, spearheaded by Stanley Rockson at Stanford) is that our governmental oversight has deemed it too early to attempt its use in humans.

The main problem is that the preliminary tests of the drug were on animals (mice, rabbits) and what was clear was that the proliferation of lymphatic vessels that it created was not controlled, or even controllable. In other words, it DOES create mazes of new lymphatics, but there's no way to stop them. And since cancer tumors require the proliferation of not only blood vessels but of lymph vessels in order to grow and thrive, there's the danger that any stray remaining cancer cells could find this drug just what they need to boost their growth.

Which of course leaves us to wonder why this trial would focus on people with post-cancer LE instead of on, say, primary LE which has no relationship to cancer. Even that runs the risk of encouraging cancer growth, but at least those people would not be predisposed to developing new cancer growth.

As some of our gals here from Finland will attest, that country's healthcare system is not a leader in providing LE care. And their standards for safety in human research are quite a lot lower than ours in the States. That has, of course, some advantages, but in this case it's a serious safety consideration. I trust that the women recruited for this research will be fully informed about the risks they face, and that they are offered excellent alternative LE care if they decline, so that they're not pressured to participate based on desperation.

And on the other hand…well, desperation is what we all feel about LE, no? Sigh!

Be well!
Binney