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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think this is a cure, merely a less impactful way of keeping the cancer at bay. As stated in the recent CBC piece, "Panov says the therapy has given him a new lease on life. 'My cancer always comes back, but from the patient's point of view, I know if that chemo was tested on the mice, I know it will work. That's huge,' Panov said. 'Because usually people get chemo without knowing what will be the end result.'

This other article also doesn't talk about a cure, per se, but rather keeping the cancer "at bay." It also says the cost of all that mouse rangling is $15,000.

So, it looks as if Rob is signing up for chemotherapy for the rest of his life.

Which, as an aside, can have horrible affects on one's teeth—at least according to my dentist, whose father has been fighting cancer for some time. In fact, it makes me wonder if Rob's new teeth might not be false.

Ideally, the chemo shrinks the tumour for sucessful surgery, unfortunately in many cases the chemo simply delays the inevitable. I noticed that the other patient was diagnosed at a much earlier stage and that can make a huge difference. I don't think Rob will be around next election, but I could be wrong.
 
"I can't tell you how many mice I've had come up to me and volunteer for the treatment to save Rob" reported Doug. ".... oh you mean actual mice? I was talking about Hispanic DECO employees. And by volunteered I mean that I volunteered them."

'Course, the hard part is getting them to keep still during the treatment, heh heh'

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Ideally, the chemo shrinks the tumour for sucessful surgery, unfortunately in many cases the chemo simply delays the inevitable. I noticed that the other patient was diagnosed at a much earlier stage and that can make a huge difference. I don't think Rob will be around next election, but I could be wrong.

The problem with chemo is that what it doesn't kill is likely a) resistant or b) it;s located somewhere the drugs can't reach (e.g. brain, given the blood/brain barrier) - and the treatment is basically selecting for the nastiest strains if it doesn't work. It's pure natural selection at work along the line of antibiotics or antivirals. That's why you see one experimental treatment after another - because you are basically trying to keep one step ahead and eventually it catches up. An unpleasant line of business, but that's evolution.

Which, as an aside, can have horrible affects on one's teeth—at least according to my dentist, whose father has been fighting cancer for some time. In fact, it makes me wonder if Rob's new teeth might not be false.

Not sure about his - but there are instances that calls for complete removal of teeth because it interferes with radiation treatment. PMH has a dental clinic for a reason.

AoD
 
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From my somewhat rusty understanding of medical research, there are two different things being described in the Sun article. The first involves the ten hapless mice, who are incubating cells from Rob's tumour in order to test the effectiveness of different chemo cocktails. In SAL's article, it says: "Doug says they’re doing the “mouse test” next week — meaning they’ll start applying five different chemotherapy treatments to see to which the Rob Ford mice respond." Given the story also reports that it takes three months to grow the cells, this would indicate that the mice were first inoculated with Rob's bits back in November/December. Assuming SAL's got her facts straight and Doug isn't making up his own scientific universe to suit media deadlines.

The second project sounds like a massive piece of genetic research to investigate the mutation that causes liposarcoma, and no suprise that an undertaking like that would involve multiple cancer centres/labs. If they're calling it the Ford Panov Whatever Initiative, my guess is they are being smart scientists and are expecting a hefty donation from FoFam towards the work. Goodness, Diane may have to hock some of those Chinese vases.

In either case, Rob isn't being any kind of hero: bits of his tumour are being used in various ways but he's not having to make any additional effort beyond accepting the chemo that's recommended. My worst fear is that Rob Ford finds immortality as a line of culture cells. See the story of Henrietta Lacks, whose cancer cells were grown into culture in the 1950s and still form the basis of much experimentation. If Rob's kit turns out to be so very medically interesting, we may indeed end up with an undead RoFo lurking eternally within the petri dishes of our nation. Now that's scary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeLa
 
My sympathies for the mice, and to tell them that their sacrifice may be rewarded by helping to save many other more humane humans from the scourge of cancer.

Sooner or later Doug will say it. so I'm a say it first: nobody has done more for cancer patients than Rob Ford.
 
I know lousy grammar is par for the course at the Sun, but this second paragraph:

Severely ill with a form of malignant liposarcoma — an aggressive cancer that attacked first his abdomen and now his bladder — Ford’s brother Doug says he’ll be the first to participate in the Panov program

really makes it sound like Doug is the one who's ill and will undergo treatment.

From your lips to God's ears!
 
"I can't tell you how many mice I've had come up to me and volunteer for the treatment to save Rob" reported Doug. ".... oh you mean actual mice? I was talking about Hispanic DECO employees. And by volunteered I mean that I volunteered them."

"I can get 5000 mice for Rob, no problem."


12 mice show up
 
What about the Rob Ford cocktail - Gatorade and Iceberg Vodka?

As for prayer - I'm agnostic by the way - I think it has power as a spiritual/meditative act. It focuses the mind and provides many people with comfort. So if I was asked whether I believe in the power of prayer, I'd say yes, even if I don't believe in any sort of divine intervention.

The placebo effect is real, even when the subject is in full knowledge it's a placebo.

That said, knowing people are praying for you may just give one cause to think they're protected and act less mindfully—just as seatbelts make people feel safe and thus they drive faster multiplying the risk to themselves and others.
 
The placebo effect is real, even when the subject is in full knowledge it's a placebo.

That said, knowing people are praying for you may just give one cause to think they're protected and act less mindfully—just as seatbelts make people feel safe and thus they drive faster multiplying the risk to themselves and others.
So the key is for you to know people are praying for you. If they are praying, but you don't know it -- you won't derive any benefit (feeling "positive vibes" etc). It's not the prayers themselves, just the patient's positive thinking.

But I always get really mad when the family of someone who was deathly ill and who made a full recovery says "God answered our prayers."

So what, then, of the 6-year-old child who died horribly and painfully from the same disease that your relative recovered from? Her family didn't pray hard enough? You want to say that to their face? Or God decided their prayers were sub par? If God truly "answers prayers" then he's an asshole, because it means he's rejected to do any good for millions of good and innocent people.

Sooner or later Doug will say it. so I'm a say it first: nobody has done more for cancer patients than Rob Ford.

or "nobody has done more for mice than Rob Ford" :p
 
Lab animals are custom bred for this type of work so its making me wonder, given the patient, if lab rats might not be more compatible given his peculiarities.
 
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