Ted Kennedy’s Cancer
A year ago next month, Ted Kennedy’s life took a dramatic turn when he suffered a seizure at his Hyannis Port home on Cape Cod. A biopsy showed a malignant glioma in the upper rear of the senator’s brain. In moments, the world knew of his diagnosis. His treatment of surgery followed by chemo and radiation kept him out of the mainstream for months until he made a surprise and celebratory appearance at the presidential inauguration. There, during lunch, he had another siezure and was transported to a nearby emergency room by ambulance. Again, for a couple of hours, the global media coverage shifted from the president to the senator. Cancer is a huge intrusion into anyone’s life, but for a celebrity, it draws attention of monumental proportion. Suddenly, a person with instant fame from being born into the Kennedy family and rising to the top of his profession is no more able than 11 million others to discount this disease. The difference between Ted Kennedy and most others is the benefit the anti-cancer movement gets from the public’s attention to a political icon. We can be thankful for that increased awareness and use it in the fight while sincerely regretting the price Senator Kennedy is having to pay for it.
Now, more people are learning that over 15,000 malignant gliomas are diagnosed annually in the U.S. Those with severe forms live less than a year on average. Fewer than 10 percent of people with this kind of cancer survive two years after their diagnosis. Recent research regarding this cancer has shown some genuine promise. Cedars-Sinai Institute has been developing a vaccine against malignant brain tumors. The tumor is taken out by surgery, and some of the cancer cells are united with special immune cells. Those combined cells are then injected back into the patient’s body as a vaccine. This will highly activate the body’s natural immune system and cause it to mount an attack against the brain cancer. In the earliest clinical trials, 60 percent of patients have an immune response against the tumor, and their survival is much longer than patients that don’t get the vaccine. This and other research with cancer fighting vaccines convinces me that this is a very promising advancement in the war on cancer. Alternative cancer treatment advocates for years have been saying that the anwser is in the natural immune system. They proclamed that if we find ways to help the immune system fight the disease, the disease will be defeated.
The concept of vaccines to fortify the immune system has worked for many other diseases throughout medical history. Why don’t our scientists immerse themselves in it’s potential to erradicate cancer? Vaccine research must be a major player in the field of integrative oncology–the new strategy that must be implemented in the war against cancer. It is worthy of your awareness and support. We can’t escape cancer. We must fight it. Learn all you can about the components of integrative oncology.