Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Asking For Gifts For A Birthday

Clinic ICC: Antonio Bru and cancer therapy

Jesus launches a thorny question:
Hi, I usually read your page, and you have made me regain some sense of wonder I had as a child thanks ...
But that was not my question, I read research out there on a cancer therapy that is investigating a physical (not a doctor, and there will come many cakes, so they say ...), Dr. Antonio Bru (www. therapy-cancer.org) and wanted to ask you your opinion.
A greeting.

Well, Jesus. Here we are faced with a complicated issue. Complicated, especially because it talks about the health of people with cancer. Much of the mess that has raised this issue is because many patients with cancer support Bru and doctors continued their therapy, which is not far enough studied. Appeal to our readers physicians (Shora! We need you!) To correct the ewes that can utter.

Bru began proposing a new hypothesis: what is really important in the growth of a solid tumor is outer edge of the tumor. Thus, the tumor growth is influenced more by healthy cells to "eat" on its border that the blood supply which receives its core. If you manage to block the border, so that the tumor is isolated from healthy cells, the tumor will drown and cancer will be cured. This is the hypothesis. To saturate cell border, an aide to stimulate the creation Bru proposed massive neutrophil a type of leukocytes that adhere to the outer wall of the tumor, isolating the healthy tissue. Currently there are medications to achieve this, but have never been used long enough to produce a steep increase of neutrophils as required by Bru.

In the right photo you can see Bru with a blackboard on which is part of the mathematical development of his hypothesis, which has all the earmarks of a partial differential equation of fourth grade, I guess by relating the growth rate the radio in the border area, and some extra factor which adds to the end of the second term. As an idea is not bad, but since you have the idea until proven in humans must be many things (tests with cells in vitro in several series and various types, tests on mice, many mice to ensure the reliability Stats, and only then human trials). The problem is that Bru has had two hits, one with other cells in vitro and in mice, but with small samples (a tumor cell line and sixteen mice. Of the mice were cured two eight reduced the size of tumors , say). Then, big mistake, jumped into human trials. There was a healing of a man with liver cancer, in which the tumor, they say, reduced in size. A single case ever mean anything in medicine. It could be that the cancer was misdiagnosed (these things happen, but rarely happen). Could it be that the tumor they had miscalculated and had not decreased in size (measured from the outside, unopened). Could be a case of spontaneous remission. If a thousand are cured, there is no doubt: your therapy is working. If one is cured, or so it seems, still have not proven anything. His aides, solvent and prestigious people, they left after seeing that did not comply with medical protocols, not seeing that their hypothesis was crazy.

All information we have collected can be summed up perfectly in the following paragraphs from another article (Excellent) newspaper El Mundo (with the exception that confuse theory and hypothesis, again): [...]
Antonio Bru's story is the story of a passion that began, according to him It counts 12 years ago following a personal experience of her grandmother's death because of cancer. The physicist, who was then working at the Center for Scientific Research (CSIC), began to formulate a theory on how the tumor grows and invades the healthy tissue. Over time he developed the hypothesis of the universal dynamics of tumor development. Basically says that the growth of cancerous mass is mediated by the pressure it receives from the surrounding environment (healthy tissue and immune system). If you do not see obstacles, growing to expand across the surface from the edges, as would seashells or snowflakes, according to a dynamics governed by the laws of the fractal geometry.

That is, he says, the tumor pushes the healthy tissue and eventually choke. This theory is contrary to the prevailing thought that argues that the malignant mass was developed from its core by creating new blood vessels that invade the 'ground' and eat healthy.

To test his idea, went to the lab and, after an initial test, it five years came into contact with José Luis Subiza, an immunologist at the Hospital of Madrid. "He had studied his theory in a cell line and wanted to see if he could show it in different ones. I provided the means for trials with human tumor cell lines and murine [mouse], "explains Subiza.

"His idea was interesting from a physical point of view and modeling. Basically, what we did was to grow a group of cells in a lab dish and see if it evolves as planned. The theory was found, but the tumor cell model used is validated in humans " noted the expert. In other words, it is shown that cells of a patient to behave the same as those used in cultures for these experiments.

was in this relationship that arose "in the course of informal conversations," the idea of \u200b\u200bcolony-stimulating factor of granulocytes, G-CSF. "If, according to the theory, the tumors should be releasing the surrounding space to grow, Bru asked how I could build a barrier against the advance, which could be able to fill the virtual void. I said that some candidates could be neutrophils, immune system cells, "explains Subiza.

"However", he hastens to clarify, "the role of neutrophils was not a consequence of the experimental results on which it bases its assumptions and in which I participated, but the result of a highly speculative possibility that arose during the discussion of possible theoretical implications of the model. To my knowledge there has been no subsequent studies that demonstrate their role. " The same is said that he saw no plausible to use a drug product to stimulate the proliferation of neutrophils, including G-CSF, may have an antitumor effect, "had already been investigated in the laboratory and there was no result in this regard" .

The expert, who acknowledges being "very surprised" by the announcement this week by Bru, is clear: "I do not agree on how it proceeded. The logic is that it had tried to demonstrate in sicker and I had used the channels of scientific communication, rather than launching encouraging messages to patients. It's a leap. " At this time, he gets far away from Subiza Bru.

same thing happens to your next partner, José López García-Asenjo, a member of the Pathology Service of Hospital Clínico of Madrid, with whom he sought to confirm his theory, this time studying human tumor samples. The Bru first experienced the G-CSF in 16 mice were inoculated with an experimental model of cancer (not a human tumor). Some of them were also studied by García-Asenjo. The result of this collaboration is the article published in the journal Physical Review Letters, which ensures that the disease completely remitted in two rodents and other eight were reduced in size. García-Asenjo

decided not to continue after next Bru their intentions to experiment with patients, a fact to which no secret of his displeasure. "These works were very preliminary, with few treated mice. The thing should have kept on increasing these investigations, find much more evidence to a larger study population and test the reproducibility of findings by other groups. My disagreement shown with these results emerged when Bru says the possibility of human trafficking, "he says. [...]

Javier Armentia also discussed the issue in two articles ( I ), ( II ).

My opinion, personal, nontransferable and belonging to a non-medical therapy is worth Bru tested. But conditions did not like him, trying to one guy and then publishing it. His aides, immunologists and oncologists say that, yes, in rare cases where they tested worked, but that there can not be inferred that it will work in humans. As well, it was a good start. Will be tested. It is my opinion and comosiempre, I can be putting the shrimp. What we can not do is give encouragement to cancer patients by saying that there is no cure, as did the media following publication of the first article of Bru.

Categories: CPI Clinic

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