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Modified Virus Kills Human Brain Tumors
Posted By: Mooreberg <mooreberg@attbi.com>Date: 5/9/03 12:33 a.m.

In Response To: Flood = cure for Forerunner cancer? (Mooreberg)

I noticed this article while on the train heading to school, and you-know-what popped into mind. I couldn't find an online version, so here it is verbatim. From the Wednesday, May 7th Edition of Boston Metro:

---------------------------------------

Modified virus kills human brain tumors

A cold virus genetically engineered to help it sneak into cancer cells can kill inoperable brain tumors in mice, U.S. scientists reported yesterday.

The effects were so stunning that the National Cancer Institute and the Food and Drug Administration are rusing to test the apporach in people with brain tumors.

If it works, it will be the first treatment for malignant glioma, the deadliest form of brain cancer.

Brain tumors affect about 18,000 peope in the United States every year, killing 13,000. Gliomas are responsible for about half of all the cases.

"The bottom line of the gliomas is that they are bad. Everyone dies within a year," said Dr. Frederrick lang of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Lang and colleagues used a genetically engineered form of a common cold virus known as an adenovirus. They weakened it so it could not affect healthy cells, then gave it an added genetic "key" to open the door into cancer cells.

When they tested it in mice inject with human brain tumor cells of a particularly nasty nature, called glioblastoma multiforme, it apparently cured 60 percent of them.

"The animals lived 140 days - we took the brains out at that point and found no tumors there," Lang said in a telephone interview. Normally, mice injected with human brain tumor cells die within 20 days.

"We've never seen this kind of response before with any other treatment test in either animals or humans," Dr. Juan Fueyo, who led the study, said. (Reuters)

---------------------------------------

If anyone could find some online sources that substantiate it this, it would be appreciated. I guess it was just reported this week, so it may not be easy to find.

It just sort of surprised me how well an actual "stunning" scientific discovery corresponded to what I had been speculating about in regards to a video game. :-)

Inoperable tumors... virus eliminates cancer without harming healthy cells... treament extends survival rate seven-fold (20 x 7 = 140)...

Necessity is the mother of all coincidences... :p

: I just got an Xbox in March and have played through Halo a few times since
: then. I've been reading up on all of the various sections on the Halo
: Story pages which have had some excellent explanations, as well as some
: great speculation.

: From reading some of the various queries in the story section, there seems to
: be confusion as to who 343 Guilty Spark is reffering to when he states
: "The installation was specifically built to study and contain the
: Flood. Their survival as a race was dependent upon it. I am grateful to
: see that some of them survived to reproduce."

: I think it's obvious that "Them" means forerunner, as he had just
: met up with Master Chief, and knew that the flood had survived all along -
: they lay dormant in the ring and couldn't have died off unless they tried
: to spread and were starved into extinction.

: What I've wondered is: how is it that the flood are vital to the Forerunner's
: survival, yet they're so dangerous that should they escape Halo
: installation 004, all life able to sustain them must be eliminated? I
: think the most important statement in all of 343 GS' ramblings in The
: Library is that the flood will eventually alter the atmosphere.

: After thinking about these pieces of information for a while, I came up with
: this conclusion: From looking around the area just outside of the flood
: holding cells (where the pvt. Jenkins cinematic comes to a halt) the whole
: structure seems like a giant lab. There's a control panel, observation
: windows, and the various rooms leading up to area almost remind me of
: bleak hospital rooms.

: I think that the Forerunner were an extremely advanced and powerful race, but
: either as a result of an advanced molecular structure of just plain old
: fate, developed a deadly cancer that threatened the species.

: When looking at cancer in human beings today, there is a treatment that is
: not too disimilar to the flood: radiation. Think about it: small amounts
: of radiation are used to treat cancer and various tumors, but too much
: radiation (and by that I mean massive amounts) would kill off everything.
: A nuclear winter, with so much radiation that sunlight cannot nourish
: plants, would make earth completely and totally inhabitable.

: I think a direct correlation could be made to the flood: by exposing a
: forerunner to a small amount of flood spores, they could possibly
: "eat" or somehow remove the cancerous cells, dying off in the
: process all the while leaving the forerunner healthy. Should something go
: horribly wrong during a "procedure," the flood could end up
: getting off the ring. As mentioned by 343 GS, they could eventually alter
: the atmosphere. It's known that the loss of all sentient life doesn't
: worry the forerunner, they were willing to do that or else Halo wouldn't
: exist. But I think that if the flood completely altered the atmosphere of
: planets as they ventured off into space in their endless need to consume
: ("they will consume all"), not only would life forms be wiped
: out, the the planets themselves would be inhabitable to the forerunner.
: They'd only be able to survive on these planets while wearing a suit like
: MC has on, but they'd be completely unable to reproduce on these planets.
: We never saw MC's face, but we know his helmet comes off at the end. The
: suit provides great protection from attacks, but would obviously inhibit
: human (or human-esque) reproduction activities.

: This is really the only way I can think of that would fulfill the crieria of
: 343 GS' seemingly contradictory statement. Halo contained the flood so
: they could be studied and used to treat plagued Forerunner, but also acted
: as a failsafe to prevent the flood from spreading and making the galaxy
: inhabitable. If the Forerunner could build Halo and develop technology far
: beyond what humans of the 26th century had seen, than terraforming and
: repopulating the galaxy wouldn't be such a difficult task.

: None of this really takes into account why the Forerunners have apparently
: vanished or why the Covenant want to eradicate humanity, but I couldn't
: even really begin to speculate on that at this point. I think those
: answers may be within reach after playing Halo 2. But from what I've
: witnessed in Halo and taking into account that even when he sounds crazy,
: 343 GS says what he means, I think this is a good explanation as to why
: the flood were needed in the first place.


Message Index




Replies:

Flood = cure for Forerunner cancer?Mooreberg 5/3/03 2:37 a.m.
     Re: Flood = cure for Forerunner cancer?rebel 5/3/03 7:47 a.m.
     Re: Flood = cure for Forerunner cancer?JaBo:MiR 5/3/03 9:18 a.m.
     Read my disproving theory: click the link! *NM*Jamirus99 5/3/03 11:17 a.m.
     Modified Virus Kills Human Brain TumorsMooreberg 5/9/03 12:33 a.m.
           viral phage (sp?) in the former ussr -check it out *NM*myrad_dragon 5/9/03 7:26 p.m.



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