...../

On Tue, 4 Mar 2008 19:47:48 -0800 (PST), Alan Meyer
<ameyer2@yahoo.com> wrote:/lots of snips

Hi all,

In dear old blighty we have a saying. 'After the Lord Mayor's
show...." (Explanation for our straw-chewing Colonial friends. The
Show includes lots of horses, all well fed...)
And hot on the heels of Nestin we have Stat5.
It's a classic case of 'what do we want first, the good news or the
bad'? This is how I sort it out - and welcome corrections.
    As always the bad news first. (And I agree, even that is based
only on early research.)
Hormone treatment opens up eventually two dangerous pathways for
metastasis - due to its encouragement of the Nestin and Stat5
proteins.  

Nestin is a "novel" pathway, just identified as found in cells only on
androgen withdrawal.  Knocking out Nestin in cells "diminished
Metastases 5-fold compared with controls".

Stat5 is a protein vital for the Pca cell to flourish. It is now found
to be turned on in nearly all recurrent prostate cancers that are
resistant to hormone therapy. "....convergence of Stat5 and androgen
receptor could be responsible for making such prostate cancers
especially dangerous."  (I note the use of the word, in a
scientifically controlled context, "especially").

    And now for....    The Good News   :
The detective work started, the scientists are calling out the hounds
on the trail of two very bad guys that nobody knew were even in the
neighbourhood!
The Stat2 study detectives, led by Marja Nevalainen, M.D., Ph.D.,
associate professor of Cancer Biology at Jefferson Medical College of
Thomas Jefferson University,
http://www.jefferson.edu/news/index.cfm?artid=2007/article15811.html
end with: "....proof of principle that Stat5 is a therapeutic target
protein for prostate cancer, and may be specifically useful for
advanced prostate cancer, where there are no effective therapies,.."
Next step in the work, Dr. Nevalainen says, "is to find
pharmacological agents that inhibit the protein."

And for Nestin, now its function is recognised in metastasis, the
scientists believe " it may lead to strategies to prevent and
neutralize metastatic spread."

Two new avenues for remedies!!

AND as I'm writing I've just spotted Ron's new post (Thanks Ron:
Blocking Protein Kills cancer cells) about a new molecule just created
to activate the p53 protein which can kill tumor cells. Other drugs
seeking to do the same job also cause normal cell damage. The new
protein, Ml-219 ..."...can be developed as a pill that patients could
take orally, rather than the traditional chemotherapy drugs that must
be given intravenously at a hospital or cancer center."

THREE more avenues for remedies!

So, yes, I'll certainly pause for a little more thought about hormone
treatment.

    And I can't work out the non-sequitur in all this. ADT creates
more deadly avenues for metastasis. But as Alan points out, ADT delays
mortality.  Answer? Have I none.

But my predominant reaction to all this stuff, is that the battle cry
should be more than ever - just hang on a bit lads - be in no doubt at
all -  the Pca cure is speeding towards us at exponential lightspeed!!

Still think that's not possible? Here's proof!:

There was a young lady of Wight,
Who travelled much faster than light,
She departed one day,
In a relative way,
And arrived on the previous night

(Thanks to Professor S.W. Hawking
http://www.hawking.org.uk/pdf/warp.pdf )

MikeHi
"Exponential lightspeed". Def: The discovery of the cure for Pca at a
speed which defies Einstein.