Ramucirumab – no food supply for you!

There is a promising new medicine for the treatment of various forms of cancer. This new medicine is known as RAMUCIRUMAB.
Cancer is a formidable foe. It not only starts out quietly and often grows quietly, it also makes sure that it creates its own blood supply to feed its growing appetite as it grows.
Lately, researchers have focused on this ability of cancer to create its own blood supply – its supply lines as it were – as an Achilles’ heel with which to attack and kill growing cancers. If we stop a cancer’s ability to feed itself, we thereby stop its ability to grow and ultimately to survive.
The way that cancers make new blood supplies is by making a protein in the blood called a VEGF. Think of VEGF as a baseball that comes to the baseball glove. The baseball glove is the VEGF RECEPTOR.
Well, when the baseball (the VEGF) arrives at the baseball glove (the VEGF RECEPTOR) this triggers the production of new blood vessels which in turn bring more blood and nutrition to the growing cancer.
Well, a relatively new medication which has been recently approved for the treatment of both Colon Cancer and Lung Cancer is called Bevacizumab (or Avastin). Avastin binds to the baseball (the VEGF) BEFORE it has a chance to be caught by the baseball glove (the VEGF RECEPTOR). Thus, if VEGF can never get to the VEGF RECEPTOR, then the reaction that happens when those two get together can never happen and, thus, no new blood vessels are made.
Well, what if we were to now make a new medicine to target not the baseball but the baseball GLOVE?
Well that is what the experimental medicine, Ramucirumab is. This is the first medicine that targets the baseball GLOVE (the VEGF RECEPTOR). What’s more, it SPECIFICALLY targets a very SPECIFIC TYPE of baseball glove. In other words, it specifically targets a type of VEGF Receptor known as the TYPE 2 VEGF Receptor. Thus, if the VEGF Receptor is taken out of commission, then, again, as with the medicine Bevacizumab (Avastin), the cancer cannot make new blood vessels to feed itself.
In a recent article in the February 10th, 2010 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, researches prove that this new medicine can be safely given to patients and it is reasonably well tolerated. It also promises to be a new addition to our armaments and weapons for treating cancer. Even though this medicine, Ramucirumab, is still investigational, it promises to be a wonderful new addition to our treatments for possibly Colon Cancer, Lung Cancer and possibly Kidney Cancer.
All of these concepts and more are covered in easy to understand language in the the Lung Cancer and Colon Cancer audio CDs available on www.CancerInPlainEnglish.com

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