Dominic Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 ... then why isn't it a widespread practice? It seems to make perfect sense to test someone's reactions to various chemo drugs and combinations of drugs BEFORE subjecting him/her to those drugs using trial-and-error. There also seem to be some good anecdotes about how assay-guided chemo treatment performs better than traditional trial and error. Is it true that the primary reason why this is not widely done is that drug companies are against it? Or is it due to a lack of evidence that it really works? If anyone knows anything about this topic, please share! Seems like such testing could help a LOT of people in this community. Dominic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karen335 Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 Dominic, This is a good question. Let's hope we get some answers from others. It seems it would possibly be easier on the body... God Bless Karen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cary Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 This subject came up a few weeks ago, I believe we are still waiting for the company to reply to teresag's email. Here is a link to that thread. http://www.buy2k.net/lungcancersurvivor ... php?t=5207 Cary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 I think it is also fairly routine to do a test of anti-biotics against bacteria, just like using chemo and cancer cells. Of course cancer cells (human cells) are more complicated than bacteria. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 I think it is also fairly routine to do a test of anti-biotics against bacteria, just like using chemo and cancer cells. Of course cancer cells (human cells) are more complicated than bacteria. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hebbie Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 I believe this is something that my oncologist recently had experience with -- one of his patients insisted that they did the chemo sensitivity test on his tumor BEFORE deciding on a treatment. They did it and it worked. (He was Stage 3B and is currently in remission) It was the first time my oncologist had heard of/tried it -- he said he was very impressed and intreuged by the results and would certainly be looking into it further to use in his practice with other patients. Perhaps it is a fairly new concept? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dominic Posted January 30, 2004 Author Share Posted January 30, 2004 Dear Cary, Hebbie and all, Thanks for sharing. I hope more people share their information here. Cary, thanks so much for the veyr valuable links. Great to have you here to guide us. Here is the website of what I've heard is one of the leading practitioners, and probably the entity "in California" that was mentioned by Hebbie in http://www.buy2k.net/lungcancersurvivor ... php?t=4428 Please check it out if you want TONS of information http://weisenthal.org/ I'm going to keep digging on this. FYI, we recently had samples from my mom's pleural effusion sent to Dr Wiesenthal for analysis. Waiting for the results. Peace, Dominic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 rational therapeutics is one of the labs that do chemo sensitivity testing http://www.rationaltherapeutics.com/ I think the concept of chemo sensitivity testing has been around for a while. I just dont think oncs know because it still is not completely proven. Maybe dominic is correct, the drug companies might not want it to be used, who knows though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 31, 2004 Share Posted January 31, 2004 Recently I asked my oncologist about this treatment modality after reading about it here on this board. He dismissed it with a short... "This is NOT a proven procedure...we don't use it here." Although I'm being treated by Cleveland's University Hospital Systems......I wonder if they're as up to date on treatments as they should be. Thanks to all of you for keeping these new procedures out in the forefront......good job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.