“Intensive attack on cancer cells with new drugs before cancer becomes resistant”
Entered 2023.12.23 18:10 Views 150 Entered 2023.12.23 18:10 Modified 2023.12.23 19:45 Views 150
Professor Christopher Gregg of the University of Utah School of Medicine, who suffered from breast cancer, is smiling with his wife. He worked to develop new cancer treatments in the “thirsty man digs a well” way. As a result, he came up with ‘extinction therapy’. [사진=미국 유타대 의대(제공)]A male medical school professor who was researching cancer is achieving great results by focusing on developing new cancer treatments after being diagnosed with breast cancer. The protagonist is Dr. Christopher Gregg (neurobiology, human genetics), a professor at the University of Utah School of Medicine. Dr. Gregg is a neuroscientist and member of the Nuclear Control of Cell Growth and Differentiation Program at the University of Utah’s Huntsman Cancer Institute.
Dr. Gregg was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer in 2018. He was a thunderbolt. From then on, he began to search in earnest for ways to improve cancer treatment. He said, “A thirsty person digs a well.” “The key problem with metastatic cancer that spreads to other sites is that the cancer evolves,” he said. “As time passes, the current therapy may not respond well due to resistance,” he said. He wanted to solve this problem with a groundbreaking approach called ‘Extinction therapy.’
Desperate to save his own life, he pursued a further career in cancer research. This year, the team he led won the championship at the 11th Annual Moffitt Cancer Center Integrated Mathematical Oncology (IMO) Workshop. At this annual event, the world’s leading scholars create and present cases of innovation in cancer treatment. His team included 20 diverse experts from around the world. Cancer specialists, as well as professional mathematicians, researchers, and software developers, have been working on the development of metastatic cancer treatment solutions. The collaboration of the workshop played a major role in the development of new extinction therapy.
“On the first day of the IMO workshop, we decided to create the tools oncologists need to determine the right drug dose and treatment for each patient, giving them the best chance to eliminate their cancer and the best quality of life,” said Dr. Gregg. He said, “One of the biggest difficulties in cancer treatment is the toxicity of drugs. “We have to consider disease response as well as how much drug the patient can tolerate over a certain period of time.”
Dr. Gregg worked day and night to develop new therapies using his own breast cancer treatment data. His research team used artificial intelligence to create an algorithm that accurately measures patient symptoms detected from voice and behavioral information captured by smartphones. Using this, the patient’s prognosis can be predicted. Oncologists tailor cancer therapy to avoid drug toxicity and dangerous side effects. A customized treatment plan can be created that is most suitable for each patient.
Eradication therapy is a cancer treatment that intensively attacks cancer cells with a new drug before the cancer develops resistance to the drug. Gregg calls this a ‘treatment resistance management plan’. We believe that making this therapy a standard treatment could greatly improve the treatment of metastatic cancer. His idea for calling therapy came from a response from a cancer specialist at Huntsman Cancer Institute. After being diagnosed with breast cancer, he asked his cancer specialist, “Is there a new cancer treatment?” The specialist answered this way: “I have seen many cases where many ideas and new drugs related to cancer treatment failed to produce satisfactory cancer treatment effects. “I think a much better solution would be to find novel ways to use existing drugs in better ways.” Dr. Gregg took great interest in that direction and came up with the idea of ’extinction therapy’ as his first treatment plan.
According to statistical data from the Central Cancer Registration Headquarters, there were 24,923 newly diagnosed breast cancer patients in Korea in 2020, of which 117 were male breast cancer patients. [사진=게티이미지뱅크]According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), the incidence of breast cancer in men is much lower than in women. However, in 2023 alone, it is estimated that about 2,800 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States, and 530 of them will die from breast cancer. Male breast cancer is very rare. Many people are diagnosed only after the condition has progressed to the terminal stage. Most patients with metastatic cancer receive palliative care. Palliative care is a treatment that focuses on relieving symptoms rather than aiming for cure.
Dr. Gregg’s team continued to develop this ‘extinction therapy’ tool with the $50,000 prize money they received from the IMO workshop. This therapy will be applied to clinical trials at the Moffitt Cancer Center starting in January 2024. Dr. Gregg said, “My dream is to turn fatal metastatic cancer into a chronic disease that can be properly managed so that patients can enjoy a long, high-quality life.” This information was introduced by EurekAlert, a media outlet published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
According to statistical data from the Central Cancer Registration Headquarters, there were 24,923 newly diagnosed breast cancer patients in Korea in 2020, of which 117 were male breast cancer patients. The majority of male breast cancer patients were in their 60s (37.6%). This was followed by those in their 70s (22.2%) and those in their 50s (19.7%).
Reporter Kim Young-seop
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2023-12-23 09:11:03
#male #oncologist #breast #cancer.. #Development #treatment
