DH24004 Cancer Treatments V01 040624

 At last the techniques of treating cancer by the cut (surgery), poison (chemotherapy) and burn (radiotherapy) medical interventions is being superseded by a new digital approach based upon getting the patients immune system to kill the mutant cancer cells. By analysing a biopsy of the mutant cancer cells for each patient an inactive copy can be made which triggers the patient’s own immune system to attack and kill it along with the real cancer cells. Its applying the principles of immunisation to defeating cancer using a vaccination technique. The essence is being able to digitally model the chemical components (Periodic Table), DNA/RNA digital structure and physical appearance, think electron microscope spatial photographs. In considering living cells the actual spatial structure of these cells is becoming a more significant aspect in their analysis with the depth of interrogation now down to atomic levels and below. What ChatGPT has to say on the spatial subject below :-

In biology, spatial appearance refers to the physical organization and distribution of structures within an organism.This can encompass various scales, from cellular and tissue organization to the layout of entire biological systems. Here are some key aspects:-

 

Cellular and Subcellular Level

1. Cell Morphology. The shape and structure of cells, which can vary widely among different cell types (e.g., spherical, elongated, or irregular). This morphology is crucial for the cell’s function.

2.Organelle Distribution: The arrangement of organelles within a cell, which affects cellular processes. For example, the positioning of mitochondria near areas of high ATP demand.

3.Cytoskeleton A network of protein filaments that gives the cell its shape and helps organize cellular components.

Tissue and Organ Level

1. Histology: The study of the microscopic structure of tissues. Different tissues have distinct spatial organizations, such as the layers in the skin or the branching pattern of blood vessels.

2. Organ Structure: The arrangement of different tissues to form organs, each with a unique spatial configuration that supports its specific function (e.g., the alveoli in lungs for gas exchange).

 

Organism Level

1.Body Plan: The overall layout of an organism's body structure. This includes symmetry (e.g., bilateral or radial), segmentation, and the relative positioning of body parts.
2. Developmental Biology: The study of how spatial patterns emerge during development, such as the formation of the vertebrate limb or the patterning of flower petals.

Importance of Spatial Appearance 

Understanding spatial appearance in biology is crucial for many reasons:

Functionality: The spatial arrangement of biological structures is often closely tied to their function.

 Health and Disease: Abnormal spatial arrangements can indicate disease, such as the disorganized growth of cancer cells.

Ecological Interactions: The spatial distribution of organisms affects ecological interactions like predation, competition, and symbiosis.

Conservation Effective conservation strategies often depend on understanding the spatial needs and distributions of species and ecosystems.

 So what triggered this post today is an event recorded in The Times that took place at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, United Kingdom very near to where I live.

 

Copyright Acknowledged as The Times, Newspaper.

 

Cancer vaccine is “Landmark moment’ for NHS”

Eleanor Hayward - Health Editor, Chicago

 

The NHS has begun vaccinating patients against their own cancer, in a “landmark moment” that ushers in a new era of treatment.

 

Thousands of people will have access to personalised cancer vaccines over the next year as part of an NHS scheme launched to fast-track patients on to clinical trials. Elliot Pfebve, a 55-yearold father of four with bowel cancer, was the first patient to receive a cancer vaccine on the NHS, at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.

The new therapies involve “cutting and pasting” mutations from a patient’s tumour to create a custom-made vaccine, designed to trigger the immune system to kill any cancer cells and prevent the disease returning after surgery.

NHS leaders hope this developing class of medicine will soon be part of routine care, providing a new weapon against many types of cancer including bowel, lung and pancreatic.

 The health service announced its plan for a national launch of the vaccines on the eve of the world’s largest cancer conference, held in Chicago by the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Details of several groundbreaking trials involving vaccines for skin, bowel and lung cancer will be announced at the conference, which begins today.

Early results show that the vaccines significantly boost patients’ survival rates. None have yet been approved by medical regulators because the technology is so new, but the NHS has decided to make them available “as widely as possible” through clinical trials.

A new Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad programme will “match-make” eligible patients with suitable trials. The first trial is for a bowel cancer vaccine, codeveloped by the pharmaceutical companies BioNTech and Genentech. Dozens of bowel cancer patients have been enlisted, with 30 hospitals in England signed up to the vaccine scheme.

 

Amanda Pritchard, the chief executive of NHS England, said: “Seeing Elliot receive his first treatment as part of the Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad is a landmark moment for patients and the health service as we seek to develop better and more effective ways to stop this disease.

 

“Thanks to advances in care and treatment, cancer survival is at an all-time high in this country, but these vaccine trials could one day offer us a way of vaccinating people against their own cancer to help save more lives.”

 

Cancer patients who want the chance to benefit will be referred to their nearest participating NHS hospital, where their eligibility will be checked with a blood test and sample of their cancer tissue.

While other vaccines protect against disease, personalised cancer vaccines are for people who already have cancer, representing a new type of immunotherapy treatment. Each patient has their own vaccine manufactured within weeks, using mRNA genetic code found in their tumours. It is delivered in several doses via an infusion into the arm. This instructs the body to create proteins identical to those found on the surface of tumours, triggering an immune response.

 

The treatment puts the immune system on high alert to detect and destroy any “rogue” cancer cells that remain in the bloodstream after surgery. It is based on the same mRNA technology first used in the Pfizer- BioNTech Covid jab, which was developed in 2020.

 

Professor Peter Johnson, the NHS national clinical director for cancer, said he hoped that vaccines would soon be part of routine care for several common cancers. He said the BioNTech bowel cancer vaccine was leading the way, and the NHS was hoping to enrol patients in trials for other types of cancer such as breast, lung and bladder over the next few months.