SNAKE OIL

Somewhere in Northern Wales

In geology and, I suspect, most sciences there exists something often referred to as “gray literature”.  This consists of scientific papers that have not undergone proper peer review before publication.  Often these papers are published in journals nobody has ever heard of, or even journals known to value cash over truth.  Some “gray” papers contain valuable information and/or innovative insights – but most don’t.  Bottom line:  Don’t rely on the gray stuff if you’re fighting for tenure.

Well, Google Alerts has just led me to a bit of gray stuff in the cancer field.  An article printed in “FoodConsumer” (not exactly a well-regarded source for medical research) seems to be telling us that a protein called GcMaf, if used as an immunotherapy agent  may be a “universal cancer cure”.   I don’t know what the Gc part indicates, but Maf stands for ‘Macrophage activating factor”.  As you certainly know, a macrophage is a part of the natural immune system.  They are big, ugly white blood cells that engulf bacteria, etc., and eat them for lunch.  Some people at the “Socrates Institute for Therapeutic Immunology” have been experimenting with this GcMaf stuff and claim to have cured small groups of metastatic prostate and breast cancers, with no failures and no side effects.  There is speculation that GcMaf may also be effective against other cancers, as well as autism and viral infections.

Well, I looked into it.  There really is a Socrates institute; it consists of five guys in Philadelphia.  They have published at least one paper in a reputable journal (Translational Oncology), but withdrew another under peculiar circumstances.  You can obtain GcMaf from a number of sources, and treat yourself at home.   The FDA wants nothing do with it, of course.  One “source”, aptly named Health Nut News, implies that several “Holistic Doctors” pushing this universal cure have turned up dead, under suspicious circumstances.  And so on, and on.

Folks:  You are too smart to fall for this claptrap.  GcMaf may have potential, but that has yet to be demonstrated.  At the moment the only thing it is likely to cure is the relative poverty of a few snake-oil salesmen.

Yes, we do need the FDA, much as I like to vilify it.

http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Non-food/Drug/Gcmaf_a_universal_cancer_cure_1210161151.html

OF CANCER AND CODFISH

Hurricane Ridge, early on

This is a weird one.  The research summarized below was done at Cold Springs Laboratory,  Long Island.  More about that below.  The study is very far from complete – in fact, it might be characterized as a “Gee whiz!  Look at this!” sort of report.  To summarize:

There are these things called “neutrophils” that are part of the immune system.  They are white blood cells that help protect the body from harmful invaders; microbes of various sorts, principally.  They do so by extruding a thing called a “neutrophil extracellular trap (NET)”.  The NET is composed of DNA and enzymes of various (presumably lethal) sorts.  A diagram accompanying the article shows  what looks very much like a fisherman in a little round boat tossing out a net to catch a codfish.

So NETs are good, right?  Well, maybe not always.  The Cold Springs people find that some kinds of metastatic cancer come richly ornamented with NETs.  They speculate that the cancer cells somehow use the NETs to hide from the rest of the immune system.  More seems not to be known.  Much head-scratching is evident.  This is intriguing.  Stay tuned.

Cold Springs is an interesting place, at least to me.  In some of the reading I have done it comes across as a kind of summer camp for molecular biologists.  You know: work hard in the morning, go swimming or play volleyball in the afternoon, have a seminar after dinner, then sit on the porch and knock down a few as the sun sets over New Jersey.  Until recently it was supervised by Jim Watson (yes, that Watson) – until age and a lose tongue conspired against him.

But don’t get me wrong – Cold Springs is an important lab that does important work.  I wish I had played volley ball there.

https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2016/nets-metastasis?cid=eb_govdel

COLLATERAL DAMAGE

The Joyce sisters: Heron Island, 2008

Boy, is this a good one!

Sometimes I almost believe that the NYTimes deserves its reputation as the best new source in America; even better than the Breitbart News, the Bellingham Herald, and my personal favorite, The Onion.  The scouting team of Joanne & Dick Ingwall has just sent me a link to this very useful and informative article, which I hereby pass on to you:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/03/health/immunotherapy-cancer.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share&_r=0.

The gist of this little gem is this:  immunotherapy is close to being a real breakthrough in cancer treatment, but has some very serious – in fact, potentially fatal – side issues that require urgent address.  This is illustrated by two cringe-generating case studies, accompanied by some simple science that we all can assimilate.  And as an added treat, there is a diagram illustrating how immunotherapy works. I must have read about immunotherapy six dozen times, but now I think I understand it, thanks to this illustration.

(Confession: As a geologist, I thrived on diagrams – maps, etc.  I might have trouble with the printed word, but I got off on pictures.  Toward the end of my career I began to simply scan new publications for useful pictures.  Then I would check to see if I was cited, and – if so – I would read the thing.  That worked because I had graduate students to explain new scientific wrinkles to me.)

So, why should we be surprised that immunotherapy comes with the potential for collateral damage?  The body has ways of protecting itself from its own immune system.  Immunotherapy subverts that protection, with any luck only with regard to the targeted cancer cells.  However, do it imperfectly and your implacable T-cells will also devour your liver, your pancreas, your kidneys, and a whole lot more besides – not that more would be needed.  A significant number of people have died as a result of the side effects of immunotherapy.  Much effort is being expended to find ways to deal with this problem, but the end is not yet in sight.

Some of you know that I am an Egyptophile – I am fascinated by everything about ancient Egypt.  This blog brings into focus the myth of Sekhmet the lion-headed goddess of destruction (and other stuff).  Once Re, her father, told her to kill off a bunch of humans he didn’t like.  As her work progressed she found it so entertaining that she set out to kill all of mankind – and Re couldn’t turn her off!  In desperation he mixed human blood with beer, causing Sekhmet to get drunk and pass out.  Presumably her subsequent hangover was so bad that she gave up on her cat-and-man game, and we all were spared.

We need Re to show us how to shut off our T-cells.

IMMUNOTHERAPY

Linda and friend, off to Europe

Probably 1965

I guess this is worth posting.  It originates with the NCI and is a general description of immunotherapy - what it is, what it does, how you get it, what its side effects are, and so forth – aimed at people who know less about it than you do.  It is boring, but useful, and I can’t think of anything clever to say about it.  Stow it away, & hope you never need it.

https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/types/immunotherapy?cid=eb_govdel