-----Mensagem original----- De: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]Em nome de Steve Perry Enviada em: terça-feira, 22 de maio de 2001 10:43 Para: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com Assunto: question re: cancer & aids
here's a question for alexandre and anyone else on the list with any medical expertise: how much of the breakthrough research with respect to cancer--immunotherapy and drugs such as gleevec--is directly attributable to immune-system research conducted in the aids fight?
-Sorry for delay, I was on vacations. It seems immunological research isn´t helping too much in the development of anticancer drugs, althought it can change with the development of new and effective monoclonal antibodies (with an impact still undefined, despite interesting results from both Rituximab and Herceptin, in Lymphoma and beast cancer). Advances like gleevec (and the older and well proven All-transretinoic acid in Promyelocytic leukemia) are much more correlated with molecular biology research, which gives us very important informations about the mechanisms od cancer growth. However, it must be considered that the results of those new drugs are largely overestimated by pharmaceutical industry marketing. Gleevec (STI 571) seems to be very efective in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia, but its exact advantages in relation to conventinal treatment, as its curative potential are largely unknown. I would conclude by saying that the advances you mentioned are more related with genoma project than with AIDS fight.
Alexandre