"An Angel With Good Timing"
Sorry
we're a little late this month. As you may know if you've read
"Sparky Fights Back," Josée survived lung cancer back in the
'80s, John survives prostate cancer, diagnosed about six years ago, and
Sparky is now in his sixth year of remission from lymphoma. All these
cases were diagnosed early--due to some unusually lucky
circumstances--and all had good outcomes.
Three weeks
ago, Josée was diagnosed with breast cancer--again, in the early
stages. It takes some time to get an appointment for a mammogram here in
New York City, in her case three months. Ironically, this may
have been a good thing. Had the test been done three months
earlier, the tumor might have been too small (or non-existent) and might
not have been detected! As it turned out, it was Stage I, the surgery
was successful, and she won't need chemotherapy or radiation. "The
patient is recovering nicely."
We're all three
very much back in business, convinced that somebody up there is looking
out for us. We suspect it's an angel. Our hope is that he (she? it?) is
looking out for you, too--and all the doggies of the world as well.
Wishing you
success in all your battles,
-- Josée and
John
Got ideas? Please continue to e-mail
news items to us at authors@sparkyfightsback.com
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Denying the Tumor Its Life's Blood
All
tumors need blood to feed them in order to survive and grow. Tumors
actually stimulate the body to create a blood supply for themselves--so
that our bodies can provide them with oxygen and nutrients. We remember
reading
about Judah Folkman's work several years ago. He tested drugs called angiostatin
and endostatin, which he demonstrated could eradicate cancers in
mice. These agents prevented tumors from growing the necessary blood
vessels ("angiogenisis inhibitors"), the result being that the
tumors "starved to death," so to speak, from lack of
life-support.
Tests on
humans, however, turned out not to be so sensationalized in the media.
In fact, while the original news of these anti-angiogenisis
("against creation of blood vessels") drugs swept the
country, the results of the human trials went by almost unnoticed.
That,
we feel, is too bad, since important work on anti-angiogenisis continues
to this day. The Angiogenisis
Foundation seems to be the leading research organization in this
field. Surprisingly, their Web site has a whole section devoted to canines!!
Anti-angiogenic
therapy, is now under development for the treatment of canine cancers.
According to the A. F., "Unlike chemotherapy, anti-angiogenic
treatments are well-tolerated, have few side-effects, and may control
disease over the course of the dog's lifetime."
We are not sure
how well-versed most veterinarians are in this important area in the
fight against cancer. If you want to know more about this developing
field, and cases where cancer-dogs were successfully treated using
angiogenisis inhibitors, visit the Foundation's Web site, where you
will find complete
information on angiogenisis for canines.
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