While checking my email in Yahoo! yesterday, I saw this very cool interactive banner for a program by the Centers for Disease Control called Screen for Life, an online intiative to create awareness of the need for colorectal cancer screening.
The banner was interactive and a mouse-over provided me with more information. Since I'm always scavaging the web for information on cancer, I decided to click-thru, something I rarely do on ad banners.
The website is equally as impressive and, while providing you with lots of information, really centers on getting you to do one thing, download a PDF factsheet about the disease.
If you're over the age of 50, and I'm almost there, let me encourage you to do what the CDC says, get screened!
1.
Peter Deck
Research Consultant
3 Mosely Ave.
Staten Island, NY 10312-4113
Email: pdeck@si.rr.com
Does Washington Really Want To Cure Cancer?
Cancer Cure Within The Next Five Years
According to the American Cancer Society there will be 570,280 deaths due to cancer in the year 2005 along with 1,372,910 new cases reported. Let me repeat it that’s 570,280 dead men, woman, and children that shouldn't have to die. Do you realize that over the last five years more Americans have died from cancer than in all the wars put together since the American Revolutionary War over, 1.5 million American soles have perished from cancer.
Why haven't we cured cancer?
The U.S. government throws billions of dollars at medical research, ever more if you include various charities and still no cures. The Goal at least I thought the government had one, was to find medical cures. With billions of dollars in spending since 1938 diseases like Cancer, MS, Hepatitis, Diabetes etc. are still with us.
Can we find cures?
The answer is yes and it doesn't have to take 60 years, with the technologies currently at hand and a group of highly focused & motivated researchers, cures could be rolling off the assembly line instead of tanks and bombs. Your wondering how I can possibility say that, well just look at our past, do you remember a top secret government project named "The Manhattan Project" & The Man On The Moon Program? When the government was really committed and focused it could do the impossible. (See the background data section)
Medical Cure Vs Treatment
A short time ago I noticed that I could not think of any modern day medical researcher since Dr. Jonas Salk & Albert Sabin (polio vaccine 1952) that has published a paper on any major cure. It is now 2005 over 50 years since the polio vaccine and were still saddled with the same diseases such as cancer, MS, hepatitis, diabetes etc. I could probably list a hundred more.
I thought this can't be, we have the best technology in the world! As I looked at the problem I first thought there had to be some government agency responsible for leading the fight for medical cures, perhaps The NIH (National Institute of Health) with it's 27 Billion dollar a year budget, but it acts more like a charity than an agency leading the fight for cures. I couldn't find one. I thought if the government wasn't focused on finding cures it had to be the drug companies. What soon became obvious was that the drug companies are looking for profits. If a drug company spends hundreds of millions of dollars on a drug, they need to recoup their investment. So if they produce a treatment medication that the medical patient must take for the rest of their life to suppress a disease a huge profit results for the drug company. On the other hand if the medical patient just takes one pill and their cured theirs not much of a profit. The awful truth there is no profit in cures only in treatment plans for the drug companies.
Just look at what you hear on the news every other day "stay tuned for the latest news on a new treatment for breast cancer etc.". The word cure seams to have been removed from our everyday life and replaced by the word treatment.
The big question is who or what group is the overseer for medical cures?
What's Wrong With Our Present System
The problem is that we don't have a system. That’s right there is no system in this great country.
There is no central medical authority mandating and overseeing medical cures. Instead it's more like a free-for-all, everybody going in different directions, with different agendas.
The Bottom Line
In order for change to take place something has to change. You have to do something, Women might still not have the right to vote if it wasn't for the efforts of Susan B Anthony.
The solution isn't just throwing money at the problem but rather how you go about solving the problem
Contact:
Peter Deck
Research Consultant
3 Mosely Ave.
Staten Island, NY 10312-4113
Email: pdeck@si.rr.com
Background data section
Background 1. The Manhattan Project
In 1939, the Nazis were rumored to be developing an atomic bomb. The United States initiated its own program under the Army Corps of Engineers in June 1942. America needed to build an atomic weapon before Germany or Japan did. The first atomic test blast named trinity succeeded in late July 1945.
When the U.S. was highly motivated and focused on doing what seamed impossible in 1939 had taken only 6 years to complete. PD
Background 2. Man On The Moon
Apollo 11 - "One Giant Leap". On July 20, 1969, the human race accomplished its single greatest technological achievement of all time when a man first set foot on another celestial body. We entered a new era, no longer bound by the circles of the earth that had held us so jealously so close to its surface for so long. On that day we evolved from lowly, apelike homo sapiens to homo universalis, Man of the Universe, through the power of our minds and the strength of our indomitable will.
The moon walkers left behind a plaque on the lunar surface that read:
"Here Men From Planet Earth First Set Foot Upon The Moon. July 1969 A.D. We Came In Peace For All Mankind."
Since 1969 over 10 million Americans have died from cancer! (Do we have our priority's in the right place.)
Background 3. The March of Dimes
Let's start with a look at the March of Dimes. I downloaded this paragraph from their web site.
When Franklin D. Roosevelt founded the March of Dimes in 1938 he chose research to be one of the cornerstones of the effort to defeat polio. Seventeen years and $25.5 million dollars in March of Dimes funded research later, the polio vaccine was declared safe and highly effective.
As the new century proceeds, our research investments continue to be one of the cornerstones of the March of Dimes mission. March of Dimes programs fund several different types of research, all aimed at preventing birth defects and infant mortality. These programs include basic research into life processes, such as genetics and development; clinical research applied to prevention and treatment of specific birth defects and prematurely; the study of environmental hazards; and research in social and behavioral sciences relevant to our mission.
The March of Dimes is certainly a fine organization but as you can see they still hype the polio vaccine from 1952 as there claim to fame. Its 53 years later any other cures? PD
The next 2 paragraphs are part of a bio on Dr. Jonas Salk, he was ostracize from the medical community for simply applying the work of others and came out with a vaccine that stopped polio. We could use more people like him today. PD
The success of the vaccination effort won Jonas Salk unsought fame. The March of Dimes, hoping to boost publicity and donations to fund vaccination programs, lionized Salk to the point of offending his colleagues. He had applied the findings of others in a successful bid to prevent disease. Other researchers and doctors grumbled that he hadn't found anything new; he had just applied what was there. But the timing of his successful vaccine at the peak of polio's devastation made the public blind to that.
Salk's vaccine was soon replaced by a variation developed by Albert Sabin that could be taken orally. There were pros and cons to each, but the oral vaccination won out. In 1963, still somewhat alienated from the medical community, Salk founded the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences in La Jolla, California. "I couldn't possibly have become a member of this institute if I hadn't founded it myself," he said. Jonas Salk died of congestive heart failure in 1995.
I don't know how many hundreds of millions of dollars the March of Dimes has spent since 1938, any cures since the polio vaccine? PD
Background 4. The National Institutes of Health
Mission: The National Institutes of Health is the steward of medical and behavioral research for the Nation. It is an Agency under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Location: NIH headquarters are located in Bethesda, Maryland, and the surrounding area. NIH funds scientific studies at universities and research institutions across the Nation. NIH also sponsors public events around the Nation.
Organization: The NIH comprises the Office of the Director and 27 Institutes and Centers. The Office of the Director is responsible for setting policy for NIH and for planning, managing, and coordinating the programs and activities of all NIH components.
Leadership: NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D.
Institute and Center Directors
Staff: More than 18,000 employees
Funding: $27,066,782,000 in FY2003 Congressional appropriations
Above data downloaded from the NIH web site.
The NIH is a pretty big deal, I'm sure they do wondrous things except deliver medical cures.
Lets see why, you would think with $27,066,782,000 billion dollars a year in funding we might expect a cure or two. The following paragraph is also from their web site. PD
New Organs and Tissues: In the United States, the total cost of health care for patients who have lost organs or tissues -- such as the air sacs in the lung, a heart valve, or blood vessel -- due to damage or disease exceed $400 billion annually. Because of the dearth of transplantable organs, many of these people die. In an effort to improve the treatment of heart, lung, and blood diseases, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) will award grants to develop ways to "grow" functional tissues and organs to replace those that are lost or damaged, and create suitable substitutes such as artificial blood components or heart valves.
There a lot of billions being spent. as Carl Sagan would say, Billions & Billions and not a cure insight.
NIH Funding: $27,066,782,000 in FY2003 Congressional appropriations PD
$400 billion annually: total cost of health care for patients who have lost organs or tissues
Background 5. Can a Virus Kill Cancer?
Genetic engineers are turning nasty, infectious microbes into smart treatments for a deadly disease.
From an article published in Popular Science May 2005 by Joshua Tomkins
Here are some excerpts from that article.
In February, researchers at UCLA announced a clash of titans, biochemically speaking: They turned one of the great scourges of humankind-HIV-into a hunter on another: cancer. Around the same time, researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, announced similar results after engineering the measles virus to seek and destroy cancerous tumors while leaving healthy tissue unscathed. as radical as it sounds, the idea of turning viruses loose on cancer actually predates the genetic technology that now fuels it.
During the 1950s, scientist proved that adenovirus, a version of the common cold bug, was mildly effective against cervical cancer. But research was abandoned as chemotherapy gained prominence, and virotherapy was resurrected only after a study published in the Journal Science in 1991 showed that a virus could be genetically modified to invade a tumor with out inflicting disease.
It seams to have taken 50 years for some people in the medical field to come to the conclusion that chemotherapy isn't a cure for cancer, but it sure is a profit center (I hope your getting the message) P.D.
Background 6.
MSNBC.com
Dr. Emil Frei Establishes a New Cancer Services Platform
PrimeZone
Updated: 6:00 a.m. ET Feb. 17, 2005
Here are some excerpts from this article.
LAS VEGAS, Feb. 17, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Dr. Emil Frei III, one of the world's premier researchers in the field of oncology chemotherapy, today announced that he has established a new consultative services firm to meet the growing global needs of entrepreneurs and scientists in the fight against cancer. His plan will provide for a stronger and more consistent approach to the development of drugs and most therapeutic biologics used to diagnose, treat, and prevent cancer.
Dr. Frei 's new service platform makes him available for a variety of consultative arrangements including reviewing non-profit grant applications, project grant reviews, Cancer Center Grant Application reviews, assisting with recruitment for executive management and or specific medical/scientific skillsets, and industry collaboration guidance. Pricing for various services are ascertained on a per time basis.
Dr. Frei, being one of the leading cancer researchers in the world, has originated some of the most revolutionary oncology breakthroughs of the last century and is respected throughout the medical community for his stellar contributions. Dr. Frei is a legend in the development of modern chemotherapy treatments. He is Physician-in-Chief Emeritus at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute -- Harvard Medical School and has served on the editorial board of the New England Journal of Medicine and Journal of Clinical Oncology among others. Past appointments in his distinguished career include: served as President of both the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). He was the Director of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, and Chief of Medicine at the U.S. National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD and Chief of Clinical Therapeutic Research at M.D. Anderson in Houston Texas.
(With no disrespect to Dr. Frei but it was right there in the first paragraph of the article "to meet the growing global needs of entrepreneurs and scientists in the fight against cancer." instead of saying "to meet the growing global needs of humankind in the fight against cancer." We get that same old word entrepreneurs and that stands for profits.
Background 7.
The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (At least they have the right idea, finding a cure) PD
FACTS about JDRF
Dedicated to Finding a Cure The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International (JDRF) is the leading charitable funder and advocate of type 1 (juvenile) diabetes research worldwide. The mission of JDRF is to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research. Building Upon Research Successes JDRF funding and leadership is associated with most major scientific breakthroughs in type 1 research to date. In fact, JDRF funds a major portion of all type 1 diabetes research worldwide, more than any other charity. JDRF provided over $80 million to diabetes research in FY 2003, and is responsible for more than $680 million in direct funding since it was founded. Our research review process not only includes leading research scientists from around the world, but lay reviewers who either have type 1 diabetes or have family members with type 1 diabetes, ensuring that JDRF funds research with the greatest impact throughout the world, leading to results as soon as possible. Moving Research from Bench to Bedside JDRF is driven by results and successes in three major cure goals: restoring normal blood sugar, preventing and reversing diabetes-related complications, and preventing diabetes. Working toward these goals, JDRF has taken the lead in translating basic research breakthroughs into cure therapies in such areas as experimentation in islet transplantation, transplant tolerance, beta cell regeneration, and diabetes prevention. The Foundation creates multidisciplinary programs that bring together diabetes researchers from many institutions and diverse disciplines to find a cure for diabetes and its complications. Efficiently Organized for Successful Results JDRF is structured on a business-world model that efficiently and effectively directs resources to research aimed at finding a cure as soon as possible. More than 80 percent of JDRF’s expenditures directly support research and research-related education. Because of its unwavering focus on its mission to find a cure, JDRF annually receives top rankings from independent sources that rate charitable giving. JDRF leverages its research impact by partnering with and stimulating increased research spending on the part of public and private medical organizations and other entities throughout the world. A Backbone of Dedicated and Active Volunteers JDRF was founded in 1970 by the parents of children with type 1 diabetes. As a result, JDRF volunteers have a personal connection to type 1 diabetes, which translates into an unrelenting commitment to finding a cure. These volunteers are the driving force behind more than 100 locations worldwide that raise money and advocate for government spending for type 1 diabetes research. For more information, visit the JDRF Web site at www.jdrf.org, or call 800-533-CURE. March 2004
(The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation may have a great mission statement but there still a charity and must dedicate most of their time searching out new funding sources. As you can see It's been 35 years since they started and type 1 diabetes is still with us.) PD
Posted at 12:14PM on Jun 28th 2005 by Peter Deck