This sounds promising:a personalized approach to cancer treatment,

coloCan

though nonCRC cancers in response to erlotinib are discussed here,why can't the same be done with CRC?

eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-08/vumc-nmm081312.php

"New method may allow personalized clinical trial for cancer therapies."

pete43lost_at_sea

thanks Steve
Some more Hope, if Can keep dreaming and pushing we may get more effective treatments.
It reminds of a post I put up here months ago, that idea went like a lead balloon. Maybe now is the time.

Hugs,
Pete

ccfighter

And what of this? Does
And what of this? Does anyone have info on these sorts of research?

http://www1.whdh.com/features/articles/healthcast/BO148467/

pete43lost_at_sea

ccfighter said:

And what of this? Does
And what of this? Does anyone have info on these sorts of research?

http://www1.whdh.com/features/articles/healthcast/BO148467/

not specifically on that story
an nice little story, thanks, one of so many.

but in general i have read heaps about the immune system and its ability to fight cancer.
i am a big believer.

it just takes so long for these therapies to get into mainstream medicine.

hugs,
pete

gdpawel

Genotype does not equal phenotype
Yep! The missing piece, how cells respond to these drugs: genotype does not equal phenotype; genes do not operate alone within the cell but in an intricate network of interactions. There are other things besides genetics that have to be taken into account. The particular sequence of DNA that an organism possesses (genotype) does not determine what bodily or behavioral form (phenotype) the organism will finally display.

Among other things, environmental influences can cause the suppression of some gene functions and the activation of others. The knowledge of genomic complexity tells us that genes and parts of genes interact with other genes, as do their protein products, and the whole system is constantly being affected by internal and external environmental factors.

The gene may not be central to the phenotype at all, or at least it shares the spotlight with other influences. Environmental tissue and cytoplasmic factors clearly dominate the phenotypic expression processes, which may in turn, be affected by a variety of unpredictable protein-interaction events.

However, this view is not shared by molecular biologists, who disagree about the precise roles of genes and other factors, but it signals many scientists discomfort with a strictly deterministic view of the role of genes in an organism’s functioning.

A few private labs have for years been utilizing functional cytometric profiling for this, because cancer dynamics are not linear. Cancer biology does not conform to the dictates of molecular biology.