THE BECK FAMILY CHRISTMAS LETTER, 2013

 

To paraphrase Ramses II: 

She for whom the Christmas tree shines its brightest.

 

Well, heck, it’s Christmas time again.  This is the third Christmas without Linda, and I seem to be missing her more all the time.   She loved the holidays, and her enthusiasm transmitted itself to all around her, making things special.  It won’t be that much fun this year, but I know she would want me to give it a try, and I am.  I spent Thanksgiving with Carolyn (and stayed on for her birthday), and in a few days I am going to Cordova for Christmas and New Year’s.  There I will meet my two great grandbabies, Seamus and Evelyn, for the first time, and also enjoy the company of my three granddaughters, one daughter – and, of course, their various male support staff.  It should be a blast.  Still, Linda’s little ornaments will spend another year in their box.  I urge you all to consider making an end-of-year contribution to cancer research.  Go to

http://getinvolved.fhcrc.org/site/TR?pg=fund&fr_id=1050&pxfid=2861

and do it to honor Linda.  Write something in the “guest book”, too.

I am planning to cover the back of this page with pictures, so let me use the rest of this side to tell you what I’ve been doing, and what the immediate future holds.  I did get away from Bellingham some during 2013, but not to anywhere exotic.  I did the usual rain-avoidance stint in Borrego Springs; and I also had a great week in Flagstaff with Kristen and Joe.  I like that country (the Colorado Plateau and the Big Rez), and I hope to return frequently.  I have spent a considerable amount of time and energy in Seattle, trying to help out with ovarian cancer research.  As all of you probably already know, I am a volunteer with the Marsha Rivkin Center for Ovarian Cancer Research (where I am trying to help Dr. Rivkin himself with various writing projects), and also a “research advocate” with the ovarian program at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.  Other than that I just hang out in Bellingham, trying to keep the house livable and the cats fed.  So far I have succeeded – with the help of Molly for the first task, and Bunny and David for the second.  When I am in Seattle I stay with Karen, and we explore the café and movie scene.  And that’s about it.  Not very exciting?  Heck, I’m 80 – a weekly beer with the boys fills all my social needs, darned near.

As for the future, well, gnutz, I get to have another joint replaced.  January 10^th is the date, and the weeks before that are filling up with things I need to do – joint replacement class, stop medications, start other ones, see the doctor, see the nurse, make out my will, etc., etc.  When I got my first tin hip, maybe 20 years ago, I don’t recall all this fuss.  I’m sure it all is helpful – and of course it also helps guarantee full employment in the medical professions.  So, anyway, recovery time for an OF is of the order of six weeks, so I may not be able to spend much (or any) time in Borrego Springs this winter.  I should be recovered enough for Karen and me to take our planned trip: visit Kristen and Joe in Flag, then tour Indian Country.  I will wear my bola tie and Navajo silver belt buckle and fit right in.  (Hosteen Beck, I will be.)  After that – no clue.  Continue to help out in Seattle.  Keep adding to my blog*.  Keep drinking beer with the boys.  Keep the house passable until Linda and Paul buy it  and I can move into a nice mobile home with no stairs.  And make sure my fat cats are healthy.  Pretty exciting, don’t you think?

·         http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6665628846095491748#overview/src=dashboard

So anyway, HAPPY HOLIDAYS! 

Blogger won't let me post the second page.  Grinch!

 

 

 

 

 

 



IMMUNOTHERAPY and other stuff

A Michigan Fall

 

When I am home alone, which is most of the time, I have an evening routine.  I ride my stationary bike for 30 minutes, thus pretending to stay in shape.  Then I watch the BBC news, while imbibing a vodka and tonic.  Next I fix dinner, then sit down to eat it.  While eating I like to watch a TV program from On Demand, which – as most of you probably know – records certain popular shows for watching later.  Until recently this has worked out well, because it takes me about 44 minutes to eat dinner and that happens to be the length of an hour-long TV show – divested of commercials.  Lately, however, they have been fixing the shows I like to watch so that you HAVE to watch the ads – Fast Forward disabled.  Thus the show lasts a full hour, and I rarely stick around for the conclusion.  It follows that, since I usually watch cop dramas, I never find out who done it.  A small thing, but irritating.

The worst of the ads I am forced to walk features a well-known black movie star, whose name escapes me at the moment, urging me to use the Capital One credit card.  So why is this important?  Because, when I tried to watch the video that accompanies the link I am about to describe to you, I first had to watch that same damned commercial!  So, click on the link given below, but skip the video.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/07/health/cohen-cancer-study/?c&page=4

The article concerns a boy who entered a clinical trial studying an immunotherapy response to a type of leukemia that was killing him.  The trial, conducted at the University of Pennsylvania, studies the effects of removing T cells from the patient’s body and somehow “re-programing” them to attack cancer cells.  So far it seems to be successful.  T-cells are a part of the immune arsenal, and I have written about this kind of therapy before.  It holds excellent promise for the future.  Let’s all hope the poor kid doesn’t relapse.

I was alerted to this article by faithful reader Parkfriend.  Parkfriend lives in Canada, and has done so for many years.  She is an American by birth and education, but has taken on a Canadian persona to the extent that she now wastes vowels in such words as honorable, and (no doubt) pronounces “strength” as if it rhymes with “tenth”.  Strong medicine, that Canadian culture – don’t visit  too often!

Sorry, Parkfriend – just kidding.

 



TO WALK IN BEAUTY

Our Mexico trip, 2010

 



This isn’t really about ovarian cancer at all, nor is it an attempt to be funny.  I have been studying Navajo culture for a few months, ever since I returned from Kristen’s place in Flagstaff.  “Studying” so far consists of re-reading all the Tony Hillerman Leaphorn-Chee novels.  I have ordered a few more serious books; they lie there on the coffee table looking at me accusingly.  When I finish Hillerman I promise to give them a try.  But, I am lazy.  It’s my right; I’m an old fart.

The purpose of this blog is to share something I have gradually come to realize.  Hillerman relates how the Navajo Way consist of “walking in beauty”.  I don’t pretend to understand that; all my life I have “walked” in a constant state of competitiveness and inner turmoil.  But last night I realized that “walking in beauty” exactly describes Linda.  I’m not going to try to elaborate: you who knew her well will understand.  Even when she contracted ovarian cancer she continued on, in beauty.  There wasn’t a Sing that could save her, nor any trick of modern medicine.  But she continued.  The world really is a darker place, now that she is gone.

BACK AT WORK

Looks like an anniversary

In our little Cowgill house

 

The purpose of this blog is to re-kindle your interest.  I have been away for over a week, and so nothing new has been posted.  The result is that my “hits” dropped from about 150/week – to 6!  And all of them from Moldova!  (Not really.)  So here are some articles I found in the NY Time, which you might want to read.  Well, I doubt if you'll really WANT to read them, but you should, anyway.

The first concerns the availability of new drugs or treatments to end-stage patients, without FDA approval.  Apparently there really is an avenue to do this (without going to Mexico), but it has its limits.  One seems to be not knowing (or not caring) about possible “deleterious side effects.”  I’ve always felt that if nothing approved will work and the patient is going to die, something unapproved could be administered without  violating any ethical guidelines,  No doubt it isn't that simple.  Anyway, here it is: 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/04/business/rare-cancer-treatments-cleared-by-fda-but-not-subject-to-scrutiny.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&ref=science

The second item of interest is a blog published in the Times, written by an extremely articulate woman who has advanced ovarian cancer.  Heaven forfend that any of you should ever experience what she is going through, but it might be a useful exercise to promote understanding.  Linda went through this, and I didn’t help her enough.  Now I’m trying to make it up to her, when it’s too late.  Anyway, here is the latest blog:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/05/living-with-cancer-nude-mice/?ref=health

 

 

 

 



THE FORCES OF DIGITAL CONFUSION HAVE DEFEATED ME: temporarily!

Galapagos, 1989

She liked to snorkel

Me?  I hate cold water

 

I can’t get the blogging robot that governs “Myrl’sBlog” to relent an allow me to publish any more pictures.  Perhaps, at 172 blogs and nearly 10,000 hits it feels that I’ve used up my welcome.  However, the “Fight Back against Ovarian Cancer” blog robot still is willing to cooperate.  So this pathetic entry is to inform you that, for the immediate future at any rate, I will be posting new stuff to the “Fight” address.  For those of you who follow me directly, you can bookmark www.quiltcutie.blogspot.com and go directly to the site.  For those of you who follow me on Facebook, nothing will change.  And for those of you who don’t follow me at all:  shame on you.

Also, I am going to be away for the next ten days or so, so re-read old blogs and give me some feedback.  Thanks.  Myrl





Nuts, aspirin, coffee. All good for us. Why?

Certainly a birthday

Probably early 80s

I had more hair and less stomach than I do now.

She was as beautiful as ever

 



Amazing how quickly some news items get around!  There is a new paper by Dr. Ying Bao  (and six others) in the New England Journal of Medicine.  It is about nuts: apparently they help you stay alive.   

In the last 24 hours I have heard about this study on TV (once), radio (twice), and read about it in two newspapers.  Contrast this with the cancer-sniffing-dogs story that broke in early September on “Sixty Minutes”, of all places, but has just now made it to the NY Times.  Maybe the Times was saving it for a slow-news day?  Anyway:

 

The nut result falls out of two massive studies, conducted on medical professionals, which lasted for a long time.  After “controlling” for potential confounding factors, nut-eaters appeared to die less (at any given age, of course; we all die eventually) than do non nut-eaters.  Die of things like cancer and heart disease, that is – people who only eat nuts while driving at high speeds on the freeway probably gain no overall benefit.  The question of “why” doesn’t seem to have a definite answer as yet; there was some mention of reducing cholesterol (heart) and inflammation (cancer), but a detailed explanation was lacking.  The result apparently is robust statistically; although maybe we should get Dr. Ioannidis involved.  Moreover, it was reassuringly dose-dependent: the more nuts you ate, the less likely you were to die.  So, pass the nut bowl.

 

As you can imagine, there are many “confounding factors”.  That is, maybe the cause and effect chain only carries nuts along for the ride.  To make up a stupid example:  When I drink beer with my buddies I often eat nuts.  I don’t doubt that there are many more beer-drinkers  like me.  So, maybe it is the beer that reduces mortality.  Or, to make it even more absurd, note that many people who drink beer drink too much, get a headache, then take aspirin.  It has been shown that aspirin is effective against some cancers, and also thins the blood, hence helps with stroke.  So maybe it’s the aspirin that goes along with the beer and accompanies the nuts that deserves the credit.  These are the sort of things that need to be "controlled" for.  Again, calling Dr. Ioannidis.

 

One disturbing aspect of this study is that it was partially funded by the United Nut Pickers of the World, or some such body.  It is stated that they had no hand in the design of the experiment  nor interpretation of the results.  I’m sure that’s true – isn’t it?
 

Here are the links:

 

The popular press version:  http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/11/21/study-says-nut-eaters-have-lower-cancer-heart-disease-risk/

 

The paper itself:  http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1307352

 

My references to Dr. Ioannidis:  http://ljb-quiltcutie.blogspot.com/2013/11/beware-greeks-bearing-manuscripts.html

 

 



OF CANCER, STEM CELLS, AND SHMOOS

 

Saturday, August 31, 2013

of CANCER STEM CELLS, MICE, AND SHMOOS

 

Linda and lobster pots

 

Newfoundland, , 2001

 

Are you old enough to remember the cartoon strip Li’l Abner?  It was drawn by Al Capp and was one of the funniest things around; often it was the only compelling reason to open the Sunday Riverside Enterprise of my youth.    Anyway, for a time it featured the most benign creature ever conceived   – the Shmoo.  The Shmoo was a small, round, smiling creature that existed only to ascertain  the wishes of humans (seemingly by mental telepathy), then happily turning into whatever was wanted.  If you were hungry, for instance, the Shmoo would suddenly become a hamburger.  Presumably if you were vegan it would become a vegi-burger, with a certified organic, gluten-free, whole wheat bun.  

Well, there aren’t any Shmoos in this world, but there ARE laboratory mice. The laboratory mouse has given its life to benefit humans for many decades.   More have just died to give us important information about cancer stem cells.  They may not have died gladly, but no doubt they went straight to mouse heaven with no pause to clear purgatory.

So, anyway, the British journal Nature has published an important paper about the role of stem-like cells in epithelial ovarian cancer.  The principal author appears to be A. Nikitin to whom the Marsha Rivkin Center gave a nice grant in 2011.   The gist of the matter is that his research team seems to have shown that there are stem-like cells lurking in “niches” in the epithelium of ovaries.  They have a positive role; they repair small tears caused by ovulation.  However, this research also points out that they are particularly susceptible to cancer-causing mutations.  (This may account for the fact, that the more you ovulate, they greater your chance of contracting ovarian cancer.)    They investigated this hypothesis by first detecting and then  isolating mouse epithelial cells with stem-like properties, then injecting them into eight lady mice that previously had several tumor-suppressor genes “knocked out”.  (How this is done is just as much a mystery to me as it is to you, of course.)  Anyway, seven of these unlucky mice developed ovarian cancer.  

I can’t actually discern any immediate applicability of this discovery to human OVCA, but the more we know about the enemy, the sooner we can defeat him.  I got that quotation from The Art of War.  Not really, but I’m sure it’s in there somewhere.

I previously blogged about cancer stem cells on 8/22/12 and again on 8/26/12

 

Do you want to read more about ovarian cancer stem cells? 

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/257367.php

 

Do you want to know more about Dr. Nikitin?

http://www.vet.cornell.edu/BioSci/faculty/Nikitin/

 

Do you want to learn more about Shmoos?

http://deniskitchen.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=bios.shmoo