#chemotherapy resistance

[newsepick]

Traditional Chinese medicine shows potential in cancer treatment

Cancer remains a leading cause of death globally, with current treatments often resulting in significant side effects and resistance. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), particularly an herbal extract called Huaier, shows promise as an adjunct cancer therapy, boasting multitarget effects and minimal side effects. Huaier’s active polysaccharides have demonstrated antitumor properties, enhancing chemotherapy efficacy and reducing toxicity. While in-vitro and in-vivo studies highlight its potential across various cancer types, further research is required to clarify its mechanisms and validate its safety and efficacy in larger clinical trials.

[ralfmaximus]

The discovery represents a potential new way to recruit the immune system to fight treatment-resistant cancers using an iteration of mRNA technology and lipid nanoparticles, similar to COVID-19 vaccines, but with two key differences: use of a patient’s own tumor cells to create a personalized vaccine, and a newly engineered complex delivery mechanism within the vaccine.

Within 48 hours, the four human study participants showed remarkable results: their immune systems went into turbo cancer-destroying mode. And without surgery, radiation, or dangerous chemotherapy.

Folks, we may have a cure for cancer within your lifetime.

[jcmarchi]

Protein study could help researchers develop new antibiotics

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/protein-study-could-help-researchers-develop-new-antibiotics/

Protein study could help researchers develop new antibiotics

A bacterial enzyme called histidine kinase is a promising target for new classes of antibiotics. However, it has been difficult to develop drugs that target this enzyme, because it is a “hydrophobic” protein that loses its structure once removed from its normal location in the cell membrane.

Now, an MIT-led team has found a way to make the enzyme water-soluble, which could make it possible to rapidly screen potential drugs that might interfere with its functions.

The researchers created their new version of histidine kinase by replacing four specific hydrophobic amino acids with three hydrophilic ones. Even after this significant shift, they found that the water-soluble version of the enzyme retained its natural functions.

No existing antibiotics target histidine kinase, so drugs that disrupt these functions could represent a new class of antibiotics. Such drug candidates are badly needed to combat the growing problem of antibiotic resistance.

“Each year, more than 1 million people die from antibiotic-resistant infections,” says Shuguang Zhang, a principal research scientist in the MIT Media Lab and one of the senior authors of the new study. “This protein is a good target because it’s unique to bacteria and humans don’t have it.”

Ping Xu and Fei Tao, both professors at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, are also senior authors of the paper, which appears today in Nature Communications. Mengke Li, a graduate student at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and a former visiting student at MIT, is the lead author of the paper.

A new drug target

Many of the proteins that perform critical cell functions are embedded in the cell membrane. The segments of these proteins that span the membrane are hydrophobic, which allows them to associate with the lipids that make up the membrane. However, once removed from the membrane, these proteins tend to lose their structure, which makes it difficult to study them or to screen for drugs that might interfere with them.

In 2018, Zhang and his colleagues devised a simple way to convert these proteins into water-soluble versions, which maintain their structure in water. Their technique is known as the QTY code, for the letters that represent the hydrophilic amino acids that become incorporated into the proteins. Leucine (L) becomes glutamine (Q), isoleucine (I) and valine (V) become threonine (T), and phenylalanine (F) becomes tyrosine (Y).

Since then, the researchers have demonstrated this technique on a variety of hydrophobic proteins, including antibodies, cytokine receptors, and transporters. Those transporters include a protein that cancer cells use to pump chemotherapy drugs out of the cells, as well as transporters that brain cells use to move dopamine and serotonin into or out of cells.

In the new study, the team set out to demonstrate, for the first time, that the QTY code could be used to create water-soluble enzymes that retain their enzymatic function.

The research team chose to focus on histidine kinase in part because of its potential as an antibiotic target. Currently most antibiotics work by damaging bacterial cell walls or interfering with the synthesis of ribosomes, the cell organelles that manufacture proteins. None of them target histidine kinase, an important bacterial protein that regulates processes such as antibiotic resistance and cell-to-cell communication.

Histidine kinase can perform four different functions, including phosphorylation (activating other proteins by adding a phosphate group to them) and dephosphorylation (removing phosphates). Human cells also have kinases, but they act on amino acids other than histidine, so drugs that block histidine kinase would likely not have any effect on human cells.

After using the QTY code to convert histidine kinase to a water-soluble form, the researchers tested all four of its functions and found that the protein was still able to perform them. This means that this protein could be used in high-throughput screens to rapidly test whether potential drug compounds interfere with any of those functions.

A stable structure

Using AlphaFold, an artificial intelligence program that can predict protein structures, the researchers generated a structure for their new protein and used molecular dynamics simulations to investigate how it interacts with water. They found that the protein forms stabilizing hydrogen bonds with water, which help it keep its structure.

They also found that if they only replaced the buried hydrophobic amino acids in the transmembrane segment, the protein would not retain its function. The hydrophobic amino acids have to be replaced throughout the transmembrane segment, which helps the molecule maintain the structural relationships it needs to function normally.

Zhang now plans to try this approach on methane monooxygenase, an enzyme found in bacteria that can convert methane into methanol. A water-soluble version of this enzyme could be sprayed at sites of methane release, such as barns where cows live, or thawing permafrost, helping to remove a large chunk of methane, a greenhouse gas, from the atmosphere.

“If we can use the same tool, the QTY code, on methane monooxygenase, and use that enzyme to convert methane into methanol, that could deaccelerate climate change,” Zhang says.

The QTY technique could also help scientists learn more about how signals are carried by transmembrane proteins, says William DeGrado, a professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of California at San Francisco, who was not involved in the study.

“It is a great advance to be able to make functionally relevant, water-solubilized proteins,” DeGrado says. “An important question is how signals are transmitted across membranes, and this work provides a new way to approach that question.”  

The research was funded, in part, by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. 

[truth4ourfreedom]

THE BENEFITS OF IVERMECTIN. IF YOU HAVE CANCER, FREQUENT COLD OR INFECTIONS, MUSCLE SHRINKAGE, CARDIAC ISSUES, CROHNS, HERPES, ETC.

The study was published in the Cureus Journal of Medical Science.  LET'S TALK ABOUT IVERMECTIN 1 – Ivermectin prevents the damage caused to RNA Vaccines.  2 – Ivermectin blocks the entry of Spike Protein into cells.  So, if the person was vaccinated with COVID, they have hope, they have a way to treat themselves through Ivermectin.  3 – Ivermectin is a treatment after Covid and after vaccination, it is an effective medicine in all phases of Covid 19, even before entering the cell, Ivermectin already destroys the virus in the blood.  It only has beneficial effects and no harmful effects in the treatment of the coronavirus.  4 – Ivermectin has a very powerful anti-inflammatory action against Coronavirus.  5 – Ivermectin has a powerful action for traumatic and orthopedic injuries, it strengthens muscles and has no side effects like corticosteroids.  6 – Ivermectin treats autoimmune ailments such as: rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, fibromyalgia, psoriasis, Crohn's disease, allergic rhinitis.  7 – Ivermectin reduces the frequency of flu and colds.  8 – Ivermectin improves the immunity of cancer patients.  9 – Ivermectin treats Herpes Simplex and Herpes Zoster.  10 – Ivermectin reduces the frequency of sinusitis and diverticulitis.  11 – Ivermectin protects the heart in cardiac overload, in an embolism for example, it prevents cardiac hypoxia because it stimulates the production of basic energy so that the tissue is not destroyed and thus improves cardiac function.  12 – Ivermectin is antiparasitic.  13 – Ivermectin is anti-neoplastic (anti-cancer), it suppresses the proliferation and metastasis of cancer cells, only killing cancer cells and preserving healthy cells, improving the effectiveness of chemotherapy treatment, as it kills cancer cells resistant to chemotherapy, defeating the resistance to multiple chemotherapeutics that tumors develop, and combined with chemotherapy and/or anti-cancer agents, it provides an increase in the effectiveness of these treatments.  14 – Ivermectin is antimicrobial (bacteria and viruses), and increases immunity.  15 – Ivermectin reaches the Central Nervous System and regenerates the nerves.  16 – Ivermectin regulates glucose and insulin metabolism.  17 – Ivermectin regulates cholesterol metabolism.  18 – Ivermectin reduces liver fat in steatose.  19 – Ivermectin protects the liver exposed to insecticides.  20 – Ivermectin attacks the virus wherever it is, regardless of mutations.  21 – Ivermectin serves for the prevention and treatment of coronavirus, surprisingly.  Unproven efficacy is not of Ivermectin, but of vaccines.  22 – Ivermectin, used as a prophylactic agent, was associated with a significant reduction in infection, hospitalization and mortality rates due to COVID-19.  23 - Ivermectin does not attack the liver, since it is not metabolized in it, and if in the intestine, on the contrary, it protects the liver. 

BIG PHARMA DOES NOT WANT YOU TO KNOW THIS.THEY WANT TO SELL YOU THE EXPENSIVE MEDS THEY MAKE BILLIONS ON.

Please read, save and re-blog before Tumblr takes this down.

[juniperpublishersna]

A Cross-Sectional Study of Cephalosporin Prescriptions for the Treatment of Respiratory and Urinary Tract Infections in Two Sudanese Hospitals

Abstract

Cephalosporins representing a wide variety of β-lactam antibiotics. Cephalosporins have some desirable features, including a convenience of administration, a reasonably broad spectrum of efficacy and a low incidence of toxicity. A descriptive cross-sectional study on the usage of cephalosporin for the treatment of respiratory tract infections (RTI) and urinary tract infections (UTI) was conducted at Ibnsinaa and Alshaab Hospitals in Khartoum state. The data were acquired via questionnaires sent to doctors and community pharmacists, as well as 48 patient files with UTI and RTI diagnoses. SPSS was used to examine the data. The study’s findings indicated that 90% of physicians and pharmacists do not follow cephalosporin prescription and dispensing recommendations. 73% of cephalosporins (3rd generation) are used to treat UTI, whereas 54% of cephalosporins (2nd generation) are used to treat RTI. At conclusion, the findings of this research reveal that the use of cephalosporin in these hospitals is often inconsistent with accepted therapeutic principles. To prevent the emergence of cephalosporin-resistant pathogens, healthcare providers should be cautious when prescribing antibiotics and remain current on recommended antibiotic practices and dosages.

Keywords: Antibiotics; Cephalosporin; UTI; RTI; Infections; Sudan

Introduction

Infectious diseases were a major cause of morbidity and death before to the turn of the twentieth century. Even in the industrialized world, the average life expectancy at birth for men and women was 46 and 48 years, respectively. Plaque, diphtheria, smallpox, pneumonia, cholera, typhoid fever, syphilis, tuberculosis, typhus, and other contagious illnesses were common [1]. Alexander Flemming’s discovery of the first antibiotic (penicillin) in 1928 revolutionized medicine and saved millions of lives [2]. Following the end of Second World War, the golden era of antibiotic discovery began. From the 1950s until the 1970s, dozens new antibiotics were discovered each year, and they revolutionized medicine. Without antibiotics, routine treatments such as open-heart surgery, chemotherapy for cancer patients with compromised immune systems, and organ transplantation would be impossible [3-5]. However, bacteria quickly evolved resistance to antibiotics, and the frequency of infections caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria is growing globally. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, the threat of untreatable diseases has loomed [6,7].

Cephalosporins were not discovered by chance. World War II needs pushed the quest for antibiotics generated by microorganisms [8]. Cephalosporins are antibiotics with a beta-lactam ring that are derived from the Acremonium fungus, commonly known as cephalosporium, this important antibiotic is widely used against bacteria in a variety of serious diseases, including respiratory tract infection (RTI), skin infection, and urinary tract infection (UTI) [9]. Cephalosporins currently come in five generations. With the development of fifth generation cephalosporins, infection management has become even more difficult. However, their use must be strictly limited because if bacteria develop resistance to the fifth generation cephalosporins, infection management will become very difficult [10] Over the last few decades, the rise and spread of beta-lactam resistance in nosocomial Enterobacteriaceae, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, has become a major global concern. Particularly concerning is the rising resistance to third- and fourth generation cephalosporins [11].

Antibiotics are widely utilized in Sudan, and the majority of hospitals in the country rely heavily on cephalosporin antibiotics, especially in surgical departments, as the preferred option for prophylaxis [12]. Accordingly, the current study aimed to evaluate use of cephalosporin in the treatment of respiratory and urinary tract infections in two Sudanese hospitals (Ibnsinaa and Alshaab Hospitals).

Methodology

Study design

This study used a descriptive cross-sectional survey to confirm and/or refute assumptions about the attitudes of health professionals in two hospitals in Khartoum that treat patients with UTI and RTI with cephalosporins, as well as to evaluate the results in order to comprehend and resolve the study’s issue.

Study area

The study took place in two hospitals in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital: Ibnsinaa and Alshaab Hospitals in the state of Khartoum.

Study duration

Two months, between May and July 2018, the surveys were performed utilizing a questionnaire to gather data.

Data collection

The sample size was chosen to be 96 prior to completing the survey. The questionnaire was anonymous. It elicited data on cephalosporins administered for UTI and RTI under treatment recommendations, the Protocol for Dispensing Cephalosporin, the Mode of Prescription, the Common Cephalosporin Used to Manage UTI and RTI, and Counseling Patients About Drugs.

Ethical approval statement

The research used a cross-sectional design. The study protocol was authorized by the ethical committee at Alneelain University’s Faculty of Pharmacy in Khartoum, Sudan, in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration for the conduct of human experimentation. Each participant completed an informed permission form after receiving a thorough verbal summary of the process.

Statistical analysis

The statistical analyses were performed, classified, and analyzed using SPSS. The descriptive data and results were presented using tables and figures. To compare and correlate variables, the chi-square test was utilized.

Results and Discussion

Cross-sectional studies often enable researchers to gather a large amount of data fast. Self-report questionnaires are often used to acquire data affordably. However, causal correlations might be difficult to deduce from cross-sectional data [13].

According to our current study, numerous significant facts were discovered throughout the present cross-sectional investigation. As seen in (Table 1), the protocol for treating RTI and UTI infections at the respective institutions which should be followed by healthcare providers. Clinical guidelines are gaining popularity as a tool for clinicians to use to influence their practice. No guideline, however, can be sufficiently detailed to apply to all clinical circumstances [14].

Additionally, 90 % of healthcare personnel (physicians and pharmacists) at these two hospitals do not adhere to cephalosporin prescription and dispensing guidelines (Table 2). These intriguing results highlight a global concern, especially in developing countries where antibiotic stewardship is poor. Regretfully, the irrational use of antibiotics in Sudan is well-documented [15,16]. According to previously published data, even developing countries with a better health situation than Sudan, a significant amount of antibiotics is provided without a prescription, and a large percentage of antibiotics supplied are unsuitable for the illnesses being treated [17]. The WHO acknowledged irrational antibiotic usage as a significant role in the development of antimicrobial resistance in its two publications, ‘Global Strategy for Antimicrobial Resistance Containment’ and ‘The Pursuit of Responsible Medicines’ and therefore, health authorities in developing countries should tackle this concern [18].

In our study, as shown in (Figure 1-3), 90 % of healthcare providers at these hospitals did not follow specific manner in prescription of cephalosporins for UTI and RTI patients. 4% of participants prescribed first generation cephalosporins, 17% prescribed second generation, 73% prescribed third generation, and 6% prescribed other antibiotics, as shown in Figure 2 & 3. As a result, the third-generation cephalosporin is the most often used antibiotic to treat urinary tract infections. Additionally, our survey found that 6% of respondents prescribed the first generation of cephalosporins to control RTI infections, 54% used the second generation, 31% used the third generation, and 8% used others, as shown in Figure 2 & 3. As a result, we discovered that second generation cephalosporins are effective in treating RTI infections in our investigation.

Numerous clinics worldwide give cephalosporins to patients in excess of what is necessary and with an excess of extravagance that borders on abuse, necessitating medical monitoring and control to prevent the establishment of anti-cephalosporin infections [19,20]. Fortunately, several institutions have recognized the negative repercussions and created control procedures aimed at possibly limiting antibiotic usage and abuse [21]. These control strategies must be implemented as soon as possible in developing countries such as Sudan, since some countries have reported infections and the rise of cephalosporin-resistant pathogens. For instance, Acinetobacter baumannii strains was detected highly resistant to cephalosporins and β-lactamases in Syria [22], In the United Kingdom, Enterobacter cloacae reported resistant to third generation cephalosporins [23], and Klebsiella infection which was found resistant to late-generation cephalosporins in a nosocomial outbreak in the United States [24]. Finally, Effective antibiotic resistance prevention strategies are available and should be adopted aggressively in critical care units. These strategies fall into three categories: nonpharmacologic infection control, antibiotic management and increasing existing efforts to avoid antibacterial resistance, particularly given the expected future scarcity of novel antibacterial medication classes [25].

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[reasonsforhope]

I'm worried about the rising rate of young adults getting cancer.

For what it's worth, we've actually made a shocking amount of progress against cancer - especially the most common cancers like breast cancer, and especially in the past 30 years.

Cancer rates have been falling, often dramatically (x, x, x, x, x, x). One of the best examples it that breast cancer deaths in the United States dropped 58% between 1975 and 2019 (x).

Right now, we're at the beginning of an absolute revolution in cancer care that promises to increase survival rates even further. This revolution has been going on to a lesser degree since the first human genome was successfully sequenced in the early 2000s (and in fact, the first gapless sequencing of a human genome was finally finished just two years ago, in 2022), and to a greater extent since CRISPR DNA-editing technology was first successfully tested in 2013, and since medical digitzation/digital communication and vaccination were massively spurred ahead in 2020, by the COVID pandemic (x, x).

Right now, the results of this revolution are only beginning to trickle out into actual treatments. But I guarantee you, in the next one to three decades, the way we fight cancer will be massively transformed.

We're talking personalized genome sequencing for each person with cancer - not just for early and better detection, but even to figure out what types of treatments will work best. (x, x, x, x)

We're talking using CRISPR-based DNA editing to literally cut cancer-causing mutations out of your DNA, to edit the genes of immune cells to better detect and kill cancer cells, and to kill cancer-causing viruses. (x, x, x, x)

We're talking using CRISPR-based screening to figure out how chemotherapy resistance works, so that we can overcome it - and even weaponize it. (x, x)

We're talking using CRISPR to edit immune cells so that they recognize and target the mutations of a single individual's specific tumor. (x)

We're talking new types of testing that can predict if cancer will return years before it shows up on scans. (x)

We're talking using (non-generative) AI to massively increase the accuracy and earliness of cancer detection - which by the way is already starting to happen, there are several AI-based systems that detect cancer earlier and more accurately than doctors do. (x, x, x, x, x, x)

Also, the more we transition to a green, sustainable, and ethical future, the fewer cancer-causing substances will be in the environment (fossil fuels, oil drilling, and mining are massive sources of carcinogens at every point in the process).

Cancer is awful. That is a massive understatement. But the fight against cancer is one where there are so many reasons for hope.

[pierrotdoesnteat]

FIVE STAGES OF FASTING:

- the process of fasting begins about 8 hours after your last meal, and has five different stages each with different benefits. I am by no means an expert, and am using various sources to piece this together; with that being said, if I get something wrong please feel free to correct me.

STAGE ONE:

- 8-12 hours after last meal. - blood sugar/glucose levels begins to dip; you may experience hunger, fatigue, food cravings, and trouble concentrating. - at around 12 hours, blood sugar levels begin to stabilize as your body starts tapping into stored glycogen. - also around 12 hours, your body begins to enter early stages of ketosis meaning your body isn't relying on carbohydrates for fuel and instead begins to burn stored fat. - short-term fasting may also lower blood pressure and increase insulin sensitivity.

STAGE TWO:

- 12-18 hours after last meal. - by now, your body should be fully in ketosis. your liver should begin converting stored fat into ketone bodies; these provide energy to your heart, brain, and muscles. - ketones suppress your appetite; this stage of fasting decreases ghrelin, the hormone that makes you want to eat a lot of food and stabilizes insulin levels which helps to reduce cravings. - you may notice an increase in mental clarity in this stage due to a boost in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).

STAGE THREE:

- 24 hours after last meal. - this stage is referred to as autophagy, or "self-eating." this stage is when your body begins recycling old or damaged cells and reducing inflammation; this can provide an anti-aging effect.

STAGE FOUR:

- 36-48 hours after last meal. - 48-hour fasting can increase human growth hormone (HGH) secretion by up to 400%. HGH increases muscle mass, stimulates faster muscle repair, and can speed up the healing process for wounds and more serious injuries. - this stage is no longer considered intermittent fasting.

STAGE FIVE:

- 72+ hours after last meal. - this stage of fasting should not be taken lightly; if fasting for several days, make sure you drink plenty of water, get plenty of electrolytes such as sodium, magnesium, and potassium. - by now, you should be in a deep state of ketosis and autophagy should be in full effect. - during this stage, your liver significantly reduces the production of a hormone called IGF-1, triggering stem cell production. - a study from 2014 found that prolonged fasts between 48-120 hours activate pathways that induce stem cell production, leading to cellular toxin resistance, immune system regulation, and protection against cellular damage caused by chemotherapy.

FASTING TIPS:

- regardless of the length of fast, stay hydrated. - keep physical activity to a minimum, or only do light exercises. walking, stretching/yoga, and meditating are great options during this time. - do not break your fast with large amounts of food, or processed foods. easily digestible natural foods, like bone broth, chicken, and green vegetables are your best option. avoid things like dairy, alcohol, and foods high in lectin like baked goods for the first couple days after your fast ends. - when breaking your fast, eat slowly and hydrate before eating. the less junk food your body is used to, the easier it is. - adding probiotics into your diet can make breaking a fast easier; your body needs these either way.

[mindblowingscience]

Scientists in Australia think they have discovered a better way to treat the deadliest and most aggressive form of breast cancer. Unlike chemotherapy, the new treatment approach kills and slows the growth of only cancerous cells within breast tissue, not normal, healthy ones. The oral medicine also targets metastatic lesions that have spread elsewhere in the body and show resistance to chemotherapy.

Continue Reading.

[eretzyisrael]

In a first, Israeli researchers managed to encode a toxin produced by bacteria into mRNA molecules and to deliver it directly to cancer cells, causing them to produce the toxin that went on to kill them.

The study, led by PhD student Yasmin Granot-Matok and Prof. Dan Peer from Tel Aviv University and recently published in Theranostics, showed that a single injection into the tumor bed in animal models with melanoma skin cancer led to the disappearance of 44 to 60 percent of cancer cells.

“Many bacteria secrete toxins,” Peer explains. “The most famous of these is probably the botulinum toxin injected in Botox treatments. Another classic treatment technique is chemotherapy, involving the delivery of small molecules through the bloodstream to effectively kill cancer cells. However, chemotherapy has a major downside: it is not selective, and also kills healthy cells.”

“Our idea was to deliver safe mRNA molecules encoded for a bacterial toxin directly to the cancer cells – inducing these cells to actually produce the toxic protein that would later kill them. It’s like placing a Trojan horse inside the cancer cell.”

Then, the mRNA molecules were packaged in lipid nanoparticles and coated with antibodies. The particles were then injected into animal models with melanoma.

“In our study, the cancer cell produced the toxic protein that eventually killed it,” Peer says. “Many anaerobic bacteria, especially those that live in the ground, secrete toxins, and most of these toxins can probably be used with our method.”

He said that delivering the bacteria directly to the target cells with nanoparticles is like a recipe.

“When the cancer cell reads the ‘recipe’ at the other end, it starts to produce the toxin as if it were the bacteria itself and this self-produced toxin eventually kills it.

“Thus, with a simple injection to the tumor bed, we can cause cancer cells to ‘commit suicide’ without damaging healthy cells. Moreover, cancer cells cannot develop resistance to our technology as often happens with chemotherapy, because we can always use a different natural toxin.”

[opinated-user]

this... feels icky. for sure, there are certain things that are entirely a one-person business and if doesn't affect your life really or has anything to do with the person you're with, then there's no reason to go disclosing every single part about your life. if someone, let's say, stole some candy from a store as a kid then i don't think it's any issue to keep that for themselves as an adult because they're deeply embarrassed about it now.

but if you're married to someone then yes, they're absolutely entitled to know certain things about you. for example, if you can't actually afford or fulfill the requirements for sponsoring them to live in another country for you, i think that spouse should know about it before being strung along for a year now. if you go having sex with multiple people, like LO claims she is or was, then MO has a right to know as a potential risk to her own sexual health. if you take 2000+ USA dollars from your audience and use it to buy an ugly desk the very next day, i think those are entitled to know what happened to their money.

if you claim to have had cancer and chemotherapy, then your wife is 100% entitled to know about it because if suddenly there is no money, there are sequels that need to be taken into account or, god forbid, the cancer resists treatment, then that directly affects your spouse's life as well. if you lied to her for half a year about something that should have had a big impact in your life while you two were very much still married, you're absolutely, no question about it, in the wrong.

considering that LO did all of this and to this day she doesn't seem to understand how it reflects badly on her, i don't really trust her to know when a secret is significant enough that someone has a right to be upset about it for being kept in the dark. or even to understand that keeping a partner updated about such important events is a sign of basic bare minimun respect, since she clearly doesn't care about respecting her wife.

[ravings-of-a-mad-scientist]

Cancer is Communism for your Cells

Cancer is basically communism for your cells. Your cells work away their entire lives, being exploited for the evolutionary value of their capital, just so the sperm/egg bourgeoisie can do nothing but laze around in the gonads all day and maybe pass on their genes to the next generation. But do the proletariat ever get to taste the fruits of their own labor and pass on their genes to the next generation? No! They all die out when you die.

But then Oncovirus Marx publishes the Cancerist Manifesto directly into the genomes of the proletariat. The workers of the body rise up and seize the means of reproduction! They evade prosecution by the immune system police and begin dividing without control.

Also they start getting better at dividing and resisting the immune system through cellular evolution. Basically just returning to parasitic single celled organisms. Y'know, like inventing Kalashnikovs and sputnik. Communist science or whatever.

They establish a tumor regime, which mismanages resources resulting in millions of cells starving to death, but they still manage to spread through the whole body. The immune system and doctors get bogged down in self destructive conflicts trying to contain it. Like chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

Then the Union of Soviet Cancer Tumors inevitably collapses under its own weight taking the whole body with it in an act of mutually assured destruction.

Which of course means that not having cancer is basically being a fascist dystopia.

Tune in next time for why gonorrhea is anarcho-syndicalism

[flemmboyant]

the thing is, at my core, im a coward. i can't face things that truly bother and hurt me - repression and denial and running away at all costs is my modus operandi and it takes an unfathomable amount of energy to resist it.

i could have done something, but i did not. the signs were there, but i missed them. was too slow to react. i saw her slowly fade before me, the few times i visited, but it scared me too much to react. to get her to a doctor. to visit her more, to help her. and yeah, it's not like it would have done much - when she did go, they misdiagnosed her, missing months of treatment time as a result - but what if it did help? i don't know. i can't know. i can only wonder.

did i do the best i could? we usually don't get along, even though we both try so so hard. we piss each other off constantly. she doesn't understand me, and doesn't want to try half the time. i understand her, sometimes, but she's mostly a mystery. was i lulled in by the internet motto of "putting your own oxygen mask first", which made me complacent, ignoring her sickness? maybe. but, when she did stay with me for two months due to her sickness...i was suicidal. i wished i was dead. so, frankly, i can't say the internet motto is fully wrong. i don't know how id handle it, traveling to see her and wishing for death all the way there. there's so many things we wanted to go see and visit and enjoy, but we never did. ain't that a classic cancer story?

she's ready to die. im not ready to let her go. but i dont think i have much of a choice. small cell cancer is the most aggressive kind, and it's moved to lymph nodes. lung cancer is notorious for spreading to the brain. cancer and lupus are a bad combination. and she's still in so much pain even though the surgery was a month ago - how is she going to survive chemotherapy if she can barely function?

once the cancer spreads to the brain, cognitive decline speeds up. if that happens, i don't know if ill handle it. i don't know how to handle it. im a coward, terrified of the future.

[patricia-von-arundel]

Man, some folks need to read a book or two on the history of medicine.

Try Roy Porter, Carole Rawcliffe, or Steven Cherry. There are also great articles often available for free on Pubmed. If not, email the first author - they'll get it to you.

(Hey, did you know the debate about whether consciousness was stored in the heart or the brain continued until the 18th century? And that the father of neuroscience, Santiago Ramón y Cajal, lived until the 1930s? That an understanding of Mendelian genetic inheritance in humans - an "inborn error of metabolism" - was postulated based on a family in London with Alkaptonuria, aka "black urine disease," and that that research was not published until 1902 (by Archibald Garrod). Between 1902 and the present, basically everything we know about chromosomal-level genetic inheritance and mutation was discovered? Did you know that the reason calico and tortoiseshell cats are always female is due to the presence of Barr bodies, which is an inactive X chromosome, and this can also be seen in humans, including in males with Klinefelter Syndrome [XXY] and in sterile male calico/tortoiseshell cats? And that even more rarely, a male calico/tortie is not sterile?)

(Do you know why the Hippocratic Oath is called the Hippocratic Oath? Who Galen is? The age of the oldest known eyeglasses? The four humors, and what they were believed to represent? Why medicine stagnated during the first few centuries of Christian dominance in Europe? What the link is between sickle cell anemia and resistance to malaria? What is the modern treatment for bubonic plague? Who Phineas Gage was? What animal Luigi Galvani used to study the role of electricity in neural connections? Who frickin' Rosalind Franklin is???)

Seeing that post about arguing against there not being enough research into hormonal and surgical treatments for trans men and women... Man. That one hurt my head.

Since 1990, we've learned how to keep HIV all but dormant and to stop it passing from a parent to child. Chemotherapy for cancer treatment was first developed in the 1940s, and radiation is actually older than chemotherapy. Hemophilia B can be treated now quite simply by injections and transfusions to introduce Factor IX, a clotting factor, when before the 1950s it was a death sentence. The structure of DNA wasn't discovered until 1953 - now, students in basic biology labs can play around with splicing and inserting sequences into genetic codes!

My point is... a lot of what we understand about medicine has, for various reasons, only become established and accepted in the last 200 years or so. And with gene therapy, it's likely to explode again.

Read up on the history of medicine. Especially if you question its use in certain people to help them physically become who their conscious mind knows they are. You might learn something!

And honestly, the history of medicine is insanely grim-and-gross fun. If you're into that. 😉 The Mütter Museum is also out there!