Cancer News Blog

Arizona Senator John McCain, a patriot and war hero who served for over three decades in Congress died on Saturday August 25, 2018. He was 81 years old. He fell victim to brain cancer. Although a lifelong Republican, he was held in high esteem by political rivals from both sides of the aisle.

It is difficult to find a decent and honest person like him in politics. The highlight of his decency and how he respected even his
opponents came during his election campaign for presidency against Obama in 2008.

When a woman in the audience said that she did not trust Obama because she thought he was an Arab, John replied “No, ma’am. He’s a decent family man, a citizen, that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that’s what this campaign is all about.”

President Bush wrote in his tribute “Some lives are so vivid, it is difficult to imagine them ended. Some voices are so vibrant, it is hard to think of them stilled. John McCain was a man of deep conviction and a
patriot of the highest order.”

Cancer Institute Foundation joins millions who are grieving his loss in paying tribute to him. We are proud to share the video from ABC News on his legacy.

Thendral Tamil magazine interviewed Ms. Vedavalli for June 2018 issue. She was a top performer in a multinational corporate company when she discovered she had stage-3 cancer. She was only 32. The whole world crumbled around her.

One of the doctors recommended her to take up yoga. She started
taking yoga lessons from Yogacharya Jayagopal (Sivarishi). He introduced
her to yoganidra, a type of yoga training to control body, thought and
breathing. She had miraculous recovery and decided to bring the power of
yoga to other cancer patients. She started a group named Saki and
visited Cancer Institute on weekends and taught yoga to cancer patients.
She decided not to go back to work and started Sathyananda Yogam to 
teach yoga full time to patients at her home. She decided to take the
power of yoga to special need children and started training them also.
She could see significant improvement in their condition.

When life threw a curve ball at her not only did she face it bravely, she also decided to help others. Read her inspiring story here. You can also read the PDF version of the interview here. If you do not read Tamil but understand it, you can listen the entire interview narrated here.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration made a historic announcement on August 30, 2017 making the first gene therapy available in the United States. The FDA approved Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) for certain pediatric and young adult patients with a form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Scientists refer to Kymriah as a “living drug” because it involves
using genetically modified immune cells from patients to attack their
cancer. “We’re entering a new frontier in medical innovation with the
ability to reprogram a patient’s own cells to attack a deadly cancer,”
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a written statement.

The treatment involves removing immune system cells known as T cells
from each patient and genetically modifying the cells in the laboratory
to attack and kill leukemia cells. The genetically modified cells are
then infused back into patients. It’s also known as CAR-T cell therapy.

The treatment, which is also called CTL019, produced remission within
three months in 83 percent of 63 pediatric and young adult patients.
The patients had failed to respond to standard treatments or had
suffered relapses.

Watch the news coverage in CNN video. Read the full press release by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration here.

Time is something that cannot be bought; it cannot be wagered with God; and it is not in endless supply. Time is simply how you live your life.” Wise words of a man who fought Leukemia all the way with his chin up and positive attitude.

Craig Sager is a well known reporter in National Basketball Association
(NBA). He died on December 15, 2016. He is well known for his
outlandishly garish outfits as well as the questions he asked coaches
and players. The story of his fight against cancer is thought provoking.
He is an epitome of optimistic outlook who faced his terminal illness
with extreme courage. He was aptly awarded Jimmy V Perseverance Award at the ESPY Awards.

Here are the videos of his interview featured in Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel on HBO
and his inspiring speech at ESPY Awards show. This is his take on
fighting cancer: “The way you think influences the way you feel and the
way you feel determines how you act.”

These are words that all of us should definitely live by in our lives.

Does your friend or a family member have cancer and you do not know how to explain what cancer is to a toddler in your house? Here is a Charlie Brown cartoon that explains it to the kids the way they can understand it. We have included the short version and the long version of the cartoon here. Long version is in two parts.

Even if you do not have anyone in the kith & kin suffering from cancer please encourage your youngsters learn about cancer. It might inspire them to become an Oncologist or get into research when they grow up to find an effective treatment or cure for the disease. In the meantime it might encourage them to volunteer to help those suffering from cancer.

The book “The Emperor of All Maladies” by Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee won Pulitzer Prize and was New York Times #1 best seller. An exhaustive account of cancer’s origins, The Emperor of All Maladies illustrates how modern treatments–multi-pronged chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery, as well as preventative care–came into existence thanks to a century’s worth of research, trials, and small, essential breakthroughs around the globe. The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance but also of hubris, paternalism and misperception. The book is available for purchase in Amazon.

The book was made into a 3 part documentary and was produced by Ken
Burns and directed by Barak Goodman. Episode 1 titled Magic Bullets,
Episode 2 titled The Blind Men and Elephant and Episode 3 titled Finding
the Achilles Heel were screened in March 2015 in PBS. You can learn about these very informative episodes online at http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/cancer-emperor-of-all-maladies/home/ and http://cancerfilms.org/. You can also watch full episodes at http://www.pbs.org/video/2365450686/.

Note: PBS has removed these videos and they are no longer available.