"FELLOW SURVIVORS: Send me your photo-info about you, your family-your support group-I'll post them here"

We'll post a link to your support group on "Brain Tumor News" Do you have up to 100+ photo's of your last fundraiser? We'll create a photo gallery for you and post each and every one of your event photos on this site.

It's all FREE for all of my fellow survivors and their support groups!

I WANT SURVIVORS LIKE MYSELF- FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD - TO BE ABLE TO CLICK ON OUR SITE AND VIEW 1000'S OF THEIR FELLOW SURVIVORS...PLUS THEIR SUPPORT GROUPS.

I WANT TO GIVE EVERY SUPPORT GROUP A LINK ON "BRAIN TUMOR NEWS"

I WANT YOU TO BE ABLE TO SEE THAT YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

You probably wonder how we can do this and not charge 1-cent! Our publisher's closest friend - who also happens to be his niece - is a 3 year Survivor! He is doing this in honor of her for us!

Send everything to me at my E-mail address: Braintumornomore@aol.com

Sincerely Yours.
LANETTE McLAMB-VERES

EDITOR, THE MD HEALTH CHANNEL

Researchers at St. Jude showed in mouse models of neuroblastoma that a virus engineered to carry the gene for an anti-cancer protein is an effective treatment for this tumor.
The finding is important because it suggests that this technique might improve the treatment of neuroblastoma by offering a way to use the anti-cancer protein human interferon-beta (hIFN-beta) more effectively, while reducing treatment toxicity, according to Andrew Davidoff, MD, Surgery. Davidoff is senior author of a report on this work that appears in the August 15 issue of Clinical Cancer Research.
The virus, called adeno-associated virus (AAV) carried the gene for hINF-beta to the liver, which used that gene to make hIFN-beta continuously at a low level, blocking the growth of blood vessels feeding the tumors. This treatment significantly restricted continued growth of established abdominal tumors; and it significantly prolonged survival for mice with established, disseminated disease. In addition, the combination of hINF-beta and infrequently administered, low doses of the chemotherapy drug cyclophosphamide caused established abdominal and disseminated tumors to get smaller.
hIFN-beta most likely exerted its effect on blood vessels by reducing the activity of the genes for VEGF and bFGF, two proteins that stimulate vessel growth, said Davidoff. In the case of small tumors newly engrafted into the laboratory models, hIFN-beta appears to have also had a direct killing effect on the tumor cells.
“This technique might be effective against a variety of solid tumors that are not necessarily vulnerable to direct cell-killing by hIFN-beta,” Davidoff said. “And the continuous, low-level expression of hIFN-beta that the genetically modified liver cells would generate could achieve therapeutic effectiveness while minimizing toxicity.”MORE: ... St. Jude Children's Research Hospital