Two Articles

A couple of recent articles on treatments:

The first is a look at Rituxin and other monoclonal antibodies, and how they're being used in general in fighting cancers. There's a big focus on lymphoma, of course, since that's the cancer that has had the most success with monoclonal antibody therapy. The good part of the article, I think, is the explanation of how the antobodies work. Not exactly new information, but a nice piece.

The second is an article on some Bay-area researchers, who are working on a cancer vaccine, again focused on lymphoma. An interesting approach: a specific tumor is weakened by radiation, then a modified DNA is injected. The DNA had been modified to look like bacteria. The immune system goes after this bacteria, attacking the tumor at the same time. Early results seem to show some success. Cancer vaccine research is still not what we had all hoped it would be, but researchers are taking a bunch of different approaches to it, so maybe one will work, or work well enough that others will find a way to improve upon it.

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I hope everyone has a good holiday. This is always a nice time of the year. Re-birth is a good thing.