How to ride the new wave of immune therapies | Prof Brendon Coventry and Jill O’Donnell-Tormey PhD Show the Way

Good news on cancer: There is a definite change in the wind! The face of oncology is changing. Both cancer patients and oncologists are undergoing a cancer metamorphosis. Treatments are moving – albeit slowly from a killing cancer focus to a focus on retraining the body’s own immune system to seek and destroy cancer cells.

Good news on cancer: There is a definite change in the wind! The face of oncology is changing. Both cancer patients and oncologists are undergoing a cancer metamorphosis. Treatments are moving – albeit slowly from a killing cancer focus to a focus on retraining the body’s own immune system to seek and destroy cancer cells.

Riding the wave of new immune therapies. Pic: ABC News
Riding the wave of new immune therapies. Pic: ABC News

Last week on Navigating the Cancer Maze internet radio Prof Brendon Coventry spoke about cancer vaccines and in particular about his success treating advanced melanoma.

He also spoke about the importance of measuring a patient’s immune cycle as a new approach to that value-adds to the “New Wave” of immunotherapy treatments against cancer.

Click here to listen to that interview if you missed it – (live streaming or download on itunes to listen later at no cost).

Questions from cancer patients clearly demonstrate a thirst for knowledge about immune therapies.

Therefore – today – I have replayed my interview from mid last year(2014) with Cancer Research Institute’s CEO Jill O’Donnell-Tormey PhD.  Click Jill’s name to be redirected to the interview on Voice America internet radio. In this interview Jill provided a clear picture of where immune therapies are headed and what they actually do and where you can find trials and treatments.
VISIT:  http://www.theanswertocancer.org/

Jill talks about the new immunotherapy pharmaceuticals – an innovative class of drugs that block PD-1.  (Stands for programmed cell death protein 1). PD-1 inhibitors, activate the immune system to attack tumors and are therefore used to treat cancer.  These drugs have complex names such as nivolumab successfully used in non-small-cell lung cancer, melanoma, and renal-cell cancer; Pembrolizumab; intended for use in treating metastatic melanoma; to name but a few. Then there are CTLA-4 antibodies such as Ipilimumab; a fully human, monoclonal antibody that overcomes CTLA-4–mediated T-cell suppression to enhance the immune response against tumors.

Anti-PD-1 and Anti-PD-L1 Antibodies – Unlike CTLA-4 antibodies, the PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies aim to potentiate the antitumor T-cell response at a tumor-specific level, by impairing the interaction of the inhibitory receptor PD-1 on T cells with PD-L1 expressed on tumor cells

Cancer patients as well as doctors and oncologists are having to learn a new language and a new way of thinking about cancer. The process is slow – but the most important people in cancer medicine –  patients; need to know the basics and what to ask of their oncologists because these new immune drugs, cancer vaccines and immune timing of treatments, appears to hold the key to curing cancers.

As I see it – the only caution right now is that patients may be rushing to overseas alternative clinics who promote the new elaborate cocktails of immune therapies. Skill and experience is required in using these new immune treatments- best to ask an expert.

Now – back to Prof Coventry and Martin Ashdown’s work for some additional information….
There are many studies that demonstrate that conclusions made by Prof Brendon Coventry and Martin Ashdown that propose that our immune system has a rhythm that can be measured especially when a patient has advancing cancer.

T lymphocytes (orange colour) assembling to kill cancer
T lymphocytes (orange colour) assembling to kill cancer

 It is known that Cytokines (cell signalling molecules that aid cell to cell communication in immune responses and stimulate the movement of cells towards sites of inflammation, infection and trauma), are crucial mediators for shaping immune responses. Cytokines are important regulators of both the innate and adaptive immune response.

The following from the Journal of Immunology Research 2014 – states that Several parameters of the immune system exhibit oscillations with a period of approximately 24 hours that refers to “circadian rhythms.” Such daily variations in host immune system status might evolve to maximize immune reactions at times when encounters with pathogens are most likely to occur. However, the mechanisms behind circadian immunity have not been fully understood. Recent studies reveal that the internal time keeping system “circadian clock” plays a key role in driving the daily rhythms evident in the immune system. Importantly, several studies unveil molecular mechanisms of how certain clock proteins (e.g., BMAL1 and CLOCK) temporally regulate expression of cytokines. Since cytokines are crucial mediators for shaping immune responses, this review mainly summarizes the new knowledge that highlights an emerging role of the circadian clock as a novel regulator of cytokines. Continue reading “Review Article
Temporal Regulation of Cytokines by the Circadian Clock” at: http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jir/2014/614529/

Research such as the above; should encourage us to support the important work on immune synchronization and timing of cancer treatments recently pioneered by Prof Brendon Coventry (and Martin Ashdown) as featured on my internet radio show: Navigating the Cancer Maze 23 January 2015; please see interviews and links below.

Biological_clock_human_svgProfessor Coventry’s first interview listed on the Science show with Robin Williams was broadcast : Saturday 17 April 2010 !! At last there is an intervention that can positively impact outcomes of treatments and that is relatively non invasive (apart from a series of blood tests over a 2 week period).

The information graphed from results can tell you when your window of opportunity for optimum response from your cancer treatments will be. It is my hope that patients will take the time to read and understand the research on both the immune system and immune synchronization of cancer treatments and its exciting implications and begin to ask for their immune systems rhythm to be measured and evaluated.

Prof Brendon Coventry Adelaide, South Australia
Prof Brendon Coventry Adelaide, South Australia

Prof Brendon Coventry says immune system rhythm, may be a fundamental discovery. Implications are better health and reduced costs for the health system. A survey showed that tumours disappear completely in just 7% of patients when treated with chemotherapy. Did the time of administering chemotherapy have an effect? Daily blood measurements show fluctuation in inflammatory markers in the blood. A cycle emerged. It’s now thought the immune system is being regulated, being switched on and off against the tumour. The periodicity is roughly 7 days. This matters, as hitting the immune system with chemicals when it isn’t receptive might be ineffective.

For more information visit the following URLs

Melanoma Study:

http;//www.immunotherapyofcancer.orgcontentpdf2051-1426-2-9.pdf

Immune System pulsing – Timing of Treatment

Martin Ashdown Window of Opportunity1

Be a particicipant in the medicines and approaches that could save your life!

until next time…..
Grace

Why Innovative Oncology is an Effective Way to Tackle Cancer

Today on Navigating the Cancer Maze I speak with Prof Brendon Coventry about melanoma and in particular, vaccines against melanoma. But more than a melanoma treatment, Cancer Vaccines are showing up as not only as a part of innovative and integrated oncology approaches; but as likely treatments for other types of cancers that have failed conventional treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy protocols.

Today on Navigating the Cancer Maze I speak with Prof Brendon Coventry about melanoma and in particular, vaccines against melanoma. But more than a only a melanoma treatment, Cancer Vaccines are showing up as not only as a part of innovative and integrated oncology approaches; but as likely treatments for other types of cancers that have failed conventional treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy protocols. For example Jeffrey Deslandes, who after 4 recurrences of NH lymphoma – found his success with cancer vaccines. He is 9 years clear of the disease.

Prof Brendon Coventry with Grace Gawler
Prof Brendon Coventry with Grace Gawler

 The combination of Surgical Oncologist  in combination with a PhD in Immunology – is rare; but this is what Prof Coventry brings to the cancer “treatment table”. He has many years experience in cancer research, vaccine therapies and the role of the immune system in cancer control.

To Listen to audio of show – 4 sessions – select  each link below

Listen to Navigating the Cancer Maze-with Prof Brendon Coventry

Sessions one to four  with

Remember the show is for you and sponsored by our charity – The Grace Gawler Institute. It is free to air and free to listen live streaming within an hour of live broadcast. It is archived indefinitely on my Voice America Page. Crucial to the shows intention – to educate patients and families about the availability of  scientifically valid cancer treatments and safe and effective complementary medicine; we ask that you forward the ecard (available on the website) or URL to those you know who are trying to navigate the increasingly complex cancer maze.

Every week, some 160,000 people die of advanced cancer around the world, despite our best attempts at cancer treatment globally. Some $32 billion is being spent on oncology drugs and the USA National Cancer Institute/ NIH spends about $5.2 billion on cancer research, per annum. Sadly, cancer has remained a tremendously costly public health problem of major proportions for over 5 decades, and our progress has been puzzling slow towards solving this using standard methods.

On today’s show, Navigating the Cancer Maze, my guest Professor Brendon Coventry, an Adelaide-based oncology surgeon suggests there may be another way to approach the problem and shows that the immune system my hold the answer. With a special interest in Melanoma Surgery, he is a clinical researcher whose interests include anti-tumour immune response in human malignancies, tumour Immunology and cancer vaccine treatments.

His group’s research paper, published in 2014, entitled “Vaccinia Melanoma Cell Lysate Vaccine (VMCL) Trial for treatment of advanced Stage IV Melanoma with and without Chemotherapy”, captured the attention of medical and scientific community. Trial conclusions reported high complete response rates (where all cancer disappears) of 17%, with useful clinical responses occurring in nearly 80% of patients overall (slowing the disease), and over 15% of patients experiencing survivals past 5-years, with essentially no toxicity. The longest survivor now remains alive for over 14 years. These response rates and survivals are unusual for advanced melanoma. The researchers reason that the repetitive and prolonged delivery of the vaccine therapy might hold part of the clue, because this was a strikingly different approach to that used in other trials.

At this weeks Meeting of Minds in Brisbane Prof Coventry with Grace Gawler and Martin Ashdown
At this weeks Meeting of Minds in Brisbane (LtoR) Martin Ashdown with Grace Gawler and Prof Coventry

Prof Coventry with colleague Martin Ashdown, have now developed a remarkable understanding of how the human immune system continuously oscillates in a dynamic fashion. The timing of ‘when’ the therapy dose is precisely delivered in synchrony with each individual patient’s own immune system waveform or cycle might hold the very key to improving cancer treatment, thus leading to better survival.

Martin Ashdown says: …..”The concept of immune monitoring and accurately synchronizing therapy (immune synchronization), brings a new level of science to oncology. The published mouse experiments and human clinical trials, together with our knowledge of physiology tells us this is the way forward, particularly with the new cancer immunotherapies. This approach potentially has the triple benefit of increasing efficacy, lowering toxicity and substantially reducing the cost of treatment”

Professor Brendon Coventry is well crendentialled

Professor Brendon Coventry BMBS, PhD, FRACS, FACS, FRSM is an Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Adelaide and Senior Consultant Surgeon (General, Breast-Endocrine, Surgical Oncology & Trauma Surgery) at the Royal Adelaide Hospital since 1993.

He holds a PhD in cancer immunology.

Positions:
• Immediate Past Chairman, Surgical Oncology Section, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons;
• Research Director, Australian Melanoma Research Foundation & Board Member;
• Past Chairman, Melanoma and Skin Cancer Group, Clinical Oncological Society of Australia;
• Foundation Chairman, Multidisciplinary Melanoma Management Group, Royal Adelaide Hospital
• Senior Examiner, Australian Medical Council
• Board Member of Cancer Care Centre, Unley

Fellowships:
• Royal Australasian College of Surgeons,
• American College of Surgeons
• Royal Society of Medicine.

Research:
• Over 85 journal publications; including New England Journal of Medicine, British Journal of Cancer, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lancet Oncology; widely published topics including surgical treatment for melanoma and breast cancer, sentinel node surgery, sarcoma surgery, adjuvant radiation therapy, melanoma vaccine therapies,laparoscopic spleen surgery techniques, neuroscience, microscopic methods, high-sensitivity tissue immunochemistry, public health,
medical education, internet learning.
• NIH Principal Investigator: Multicenter Selective Lymphadenectomy Trial (MSLT-I) surgical sentinel node; C-Vax melanoma vaccine studies (x2).
• Editor-in-Chief, 7-Volume international textbook series “Surgery: Complications, Risks and Consequences” published by Springer; general adult, paediatric and cardio-vascular surgery.
Current Research:
• Surgical Complications, Safety and Quality improvement
• Vaccine Therapies for Advanced Melanoma, novel findings from repetitive dosing where 5-year survival and Complete Response rates have been significantly improved
• Timing of Therapies is novel collaborative work with Martin Ashdown concerning serial blood biomarker monitoring for advanced cancer patients for more accurate timing to improve therapy dose delivery and clinical efficacy further, which is gaining recognition

 

More on Vaccine successes – listen to Jeffrey Deslandes interviewed on Juice radio – Gold Coast yesterday 16 January 2015. https://soundcloud.com/juice-107-3/cancer-survivor-jeffrey-deslandes

Sometimes we can’t make financial donations for a cause – but we can use the internet, emails social media and word of mouth to help bring about change. Patient demand through critical need will make a difference- but voices are required! Please spread the word about this interview and the show and make your contribution to change the paradigm of treating cancer for the benefit of humanity.

Until next time
Grace

Cancer Experts Discuss Cancer Vaccines and Immune Cycle Timing of Treatments in Brisbane

Cancer vaccines and immune cycle timing: Hear Prof Brendon Coventry and Martin Ashdown on 612 ABC radio Brisbane, Queensland with Steve Austin today 10.30am Tuesday 13 January 2015. State-wide broadcast. Listen or Download later as a podcast at: http://www.abc.net.au/brisbane/programs/612_morning/

Cancer vaccines and immune cycle timing: Hear Prof Brendon Coventry and Martin Ashdown on 612 ABC radio Brisbane, Queensland with Steve Austin today 10.30am Tuesday 13 January 2015. State-wide broadcast. Listen or Download later as a podcast at:

http://www.abc.net.au/brisbane/programs/612_morning/

A MEETING OF MINDS – EXPLORING FURTHER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT OF • Cancer Vaccines in

Prof Brendon Coventry Adelaide, South Australia
Prof Brendon Coventry Adelaide, South Australia

Australia & Immune Synchronisation of Cancer treatments is organised by my Institute. The Grace Gawler Institute is always looking for better ways to assist cancer patients to navigate the increasingly complex cancer maze.

We have invited a group of Medical scientists and clinicians to come together in Brisbane to discuss new ways to tackle the issue of improvements in the medical treatments of cancer. Conventional cancer treatments often get bad press, but the fact is they save lives, true not all lives; but significant enough particularly in some areas of medicine. As one solution to the growing swell of alternative cancer treatments; this group are looking at what can be done to improve conventional cancer medicine by extending the scientific knowledge of our immune system; utilising its inbuilt power and ability to “remember” pathogens, and invaders like cancer cells and proactively destroy them.

GG and Martin AShdown 31 Oct 14 interview  - Copy (2)
Martin Ashdown Melbourne University & Grace Gawler

Immune therapies and the discovery of the immune cycle in cancer patients to help better time delivery of treatments with potentially better outcomes and less side effects; is worthy of attention and research funding in the current climate.

Jeffrey Deslandes – recovered patient using cancer vaccines after 4th recurrence stage 4 lymphoma and now 8.5 years clear will also be in Brisbane this week. His book “From Cancer Good things Grow” tells his story of recovery using cancer vaccines made from his own tissue. All proceeds from the book go to research & Development and clinical application of cancer vaccines in Australia.

I will also be interviewing Prof Brendon Coventry on this weeks Navigating the Cancer Maze internet radio show.
Stay tuned for more updates…..

Until next time…

Grace

Cancer Vaccines | A survivors story|From Cancer Good Things Grow Grace Gawler

I encored a recent interview with Jeffery Deslandes on my Voice America Internet radio show today for the Christmas period for a special reason. Because his story is both true and inspirational.

I encored a recent interview with Jeffery Deslandes on my Voice America Internet radio show today for the Christmas period for a special reason. Because his story is both true and inspirational. As Jeffrey quotes in his recently released ;  book; “From Cancer Good Things Grow”;  there are about 4,000 new cases of NHL each year in Australia. 1600 Australian die from NHL each year. If this were our road toll and there was an effective way of preventing deaths of even half of that number – there would be campaigns and lots of public and political interest. Why is there such little  interest in cancer immunotherapies? Jeffrey Deslandes is just one of many who have had success with vaccine treatments.

The questions begs – Have we become so conditioned to believing that cancer is a one-way ticket and there’s nothing we can do apart from try alternative medicine and throw out the “conventional medicine” baby with the bathwater?  Have we been convinced that conventional cancer medicine doesn’t work and that all big Jeffrey Deslandes Book 001pharma wants you to do is stay sick to garnish the pockets of doctors?  Have we bought into the rumour that the war on cancer is lost?  These are common statements from the Google cancer entrepreneurs whose aim is to convince patients to follow them, buy their “one size fits all” cancer products and……… take no responsibility for patient outcomes.

I know of far too many  patients who are not here to be with their families this Christmas because they used “faceless” advice from books, CDs or the internet – leaving aside treatable and potentially curable treatments for their cancer until it became obvious that their attempts to replicate the “cures” they have read about; ultimately failed them. This year I have experienced a new phenomenon, receiving many emails from parents who have taken the natural cancer “healing” path with their children using bizarre nutritional regimens, GcMAF, Budwig and Gerson Diets to name a few – most read about these treatments on blogs. Some of these children have been 3 and 5 years of age.  I try my best to influence them towards excellent sources of conventional medicine – but after a few emails – I never hear from them again. This is truly exasperating!!

Genuine, well documented  stories of cancer treatment successes are much needed. Such is the story of how Melbournian Jeffery Deslandes recovered from Stage 4 recurrent lymphoma that had grown resistant to conventional treatment found his remission – now eight and a half years clear. Jeffery did not seek Alternative medicine treatments when his lymphoma recurred again and again; rather he looked outside the conventional box to see what else science-based medicine could offer.

By purchasing Jeffrey Deslandes book (soft Cover /eBook) – you can help to promote the immune therapy he had right here in Australia. All proceeds go toward making this treatment more available for those in our region. PLEASE spread the good news. Vaccine therapies as immunotherapies go wider than just lymphoma. Successes are appearing from many cancer types including melanoma, prostate cancer and many more. If these therapies can be investigated alongside immune cycle research; we may indeed have a two incredibly power non invasive cancer treatment allies. Scroll to end of blog to see the effect of melanoma vaccine.**

Excerpts from Jeffrey Deslandes book “From Cancer Good things Grow”.

 

Chapter 7 -The cancer Returns Again and Again

Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is a bit like buffalo grass; it is hard to get out all of the roots and it tends to grow back. I had been informed that my cancer was incurable. It was a real shock at the time.
Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) is Australia’s fifth most common cancer, yet has a very low profile, compared to more publicised cancers such as breast, ovarian, bowel, melanoma and leukaemia. There are about 4,000 new cases of NHL each year in Australia, with about 1,600 deaths each year. That’s about the same as the National Road Toll in this country. Each year we spend billions trying to stop idiots killing each other on the road, yet comparatively little on a disease which is poorly understood. While Australia’s economy is soon to be taxed with the introduction of a Carbon Tax to combat Climate Change. Funny that, I have never known anyone who has died from Climate Change, but I have known scores and scores of people who have succumbed to cancer. We need Governments to spend serious money on cancer research.

After my cancer had returned for the fourth time in 2006, the next mainstream cancer treatment outlined by my specialist, was an autologous stem cell transplant. An autologous stem cell transplant, refers to your own body’s stem cells being first harvested, you are then given high-dose chemotherapy to hopefully kill all cancer in your body, and your stem cells

Jeffrey Deslandes
Jeffrey Deslandes

are then re-infused to build up your white cells, which have been decimated by the chemotherapy. The other option was an allogeneic stem cell transplant; the same procedure but the stem cells are used from a matched donor who is obviously free from cancer. However, for this we would need to find a matched donor, since my brother Ron was not a match, and other brother David was no longer with us. I decided not to take the recommendation of my highly trained lymphoma specialist. I decided that I would need to take charge of my treatment, and find something with a different mode of attack. If something is not working, you don’t keep hitting it with the same old stick! Read on,,,,,,,,

Chapter 8 – Vaccine Therapy–The New Beginning

Through my association with Lymphoma Australia, a fine not-for-profit organisation dedicated to raising awareness and supporting lymphoma patients, I became aware of work being done on vaccines for cancer treatment. This work was still experimental or being proven in clinical trials, but it was not quackery, it was being carried out by highly qualified haematologists and scientists.

My diseased lymph node, and my immature dendritic cells, were processed in the laboratory to manufacture a dendritic cell idiotype vaccine to fight the cancer. It is termed idiotype, because the vaccine is grown from my own cancer cells, and is thus specifically tailored to the idiosyncrasies of my cancer. It is worth noting that there are over 30 sub-types of lymphoma alone, and it is my understanding that each and every lymphoma is going to be somewhat different in its individual characteristics. By using my own lymphoma, we got a perfect match, the exact antibody to my cancer. The laboratory grew the vaccine formulation to make 33 doses of vaccine, which were stored at minus 196 °C in liquid nitrogen, and could be kept for perpetuity. Each dose of vaccine is about 1 ml, about a fifth of a teaspoon, but it contains about five million cells. Yes, that’s five million cells, each with a message for my immune system. The message was “this is what the cancer looks like, now do your job like you are supposed to, and go seek and destroy”.  Excerpt: “From Cancer Good Things Grow”

Help save a life ……… Readers of this blog – please help us to help others through cancer education. By passing on this blog or an episode from Voice America – you could also help cancer patients to re-frame their cancer experience and learn about the nature of cancer and how to outsmart it with science-based medicine.

May your Christmas season be filled with joy, love, passion and compassion….

Until next time….

Grace

**Warning:  Below – graphic image melanoma – positive results from repeated vaccine cancer treatments.

Conclusions: Prolonged, repetitive VMCL vaccination immunotherapy appears to be a clinically effective means
of generating relatively high CR rates, useful clinical responses and long-term survivals, with little toxicity, but
remains notably under-explored. Successive immunomodulation might explain the results. Closer analysis of
repetitive dosing is required.

Melanoma vaccines
Successful application of repeated dosing with Melanoma vaccines. Research- Brendon Coventry

Listen to Your Body Clock – Cancer and Your Health – Grace Gawler

We have knowledge of many cycles in our world. The tides, day and night are the most obvious. All creatures great and small are subject to these unseen forces that ultimately shape our life and our experience of it.” The circadian clock in mammals drives many physiological processes including the daily rhythms of sleep–wake behaviour, hormonal secretion, and metabolism. Less known, is that the clock also drives our immune cycles; an important factor in cancer treatment and recovery says Melbourne University Research Fellow Martin Ashdown, who has studied the phenomena for a long time. The science of taking advantage of the body’s own immune rhythm to improve efficacy of treatments is worth paying attention to whether its surgery, chemotherapy, immunotherapies, radiation/cyberknife; one thing is now clear – timing of treatment matters!

Research work of Synchronizing cancer treatment with the patient’s immune cycle has been recently launched into our awareness by Martin Ashdown and Brendon Coventry – and hopefully this blog, and my radio show Navigating the Cancer Maze on Voice America’s Health and Wellness Channel. Please spread the news!

With regards to timing – Did you know that majority of best-selling drugs in the United States target circadian gene products? Consider the case of statins, a class of drug that lowers cholesterol by inhibiting HMGCR (HMG-CoA reductase). HMGCR is the rate-limiting enzyme in cholesterol biosynthesis and its activity peaks during the night. Statins with short half lives showed maximal efficacy when taken in the evening (when their target gene was most active).This is just one example of chronotherapeutic practices positively impacting drug treatment. In other words – it’s all in the timing. (see resources below for more information on this).

In terms of Circadian rhythms and body clocks – simply reconsider an old message for good health. Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise!”

Take a look at the following diagram ( source Scientific American) to see what your body clock is doing – and at what time!

Circadian-rhythm-chart-on-physiologyBody clocks–-circadian rhythms—health; has been a hobby–horse of mine for some years. I am widely read on the subject and back more than 20 years ago – it became clear to me that there were tremendous health connections and implications for health and wellbeing and disease prevention – not only treating disease once it is evident.

So here is a Window of Opportunity for you
Readers of this blog – I invite you to stop for a moment and consider how your body clock affects your life. Is it possible to make some simple changes IN TERMS OF TIME & TIMING?

Do you listen to your body clock or constantly override it? Those of us who are disease free have the luxury of change and can enjoy the consequences-improved health. We don’t even have to have an immune cycle test – we SIMPLY NEED TO BECOME MORE AWARE of living in synch with ourselves and who and what is around us. It is the only real power that we have.

Being aware of your body clock and timing in your world, has one enormous benefit and this is also useful for anyone GG and Martin AShdown 31 Oct 14 interview  - Copy (2)dealing with a diagnosis of cancer – It brings you more into conscious connection with your body. Many patients over the past 40 years have told me that this is an unexpected gift that cancer brought to their lives. Some could view it as an opportunity for changing lifestyle, jobs etc…In terms of timing – the question begs what has happened in this person’s life that has perhaps interfered with their personal body clock? What could have caused a highly synchronized system to go into cellular chaos? These are big questions – but then again cancer is a big illness!
Left  Martin Ashdown and me – Grace Gawler.

Visit http://www.gracegawlerinstitute.com/immune-cycle-registry/ to join our exploratory pilot study -Measure your immune system.

A paper published by Department of Cellular and Structural Biology, UT Health Science CenterSan Antonio, Texas, USA; 2Department of Internal Medicine, Thuringia, Saalfeld, Germany; 3Department of Physiology, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Cracow, Poland states:

“There is a vast amount of literature suggesting that the photo-periodic environment (day/night) influences the incidence of cancer. While an association of chrono-disruption was initially proposed only for breast cancer, we recently suggested a more general theory, i.e., chrono-disruption may aggravate the development of many cancer types.”

Knowledge is power and knowledge of not only your body clock – but that of other mammals and nature. It’s all in the timing! Women’s’ menstrual cycle is perhaps the obvious one we know about. In nature – just watch a David Attenborough documentary to see the wonder of timing in nature!

We have knowledge of many cycles in our world. The tides, day and night are the most obvious. All creatures great and small are subject to these unseen forces that ultimately shape our life and our experience of it.” The circadian clock in mammals drives many physiological processes including the daily rhythms of sleep–wake behaviour, hormonal secretion, and metabolism.

Less known, is that the clock also drives our immune cycles; an important factor in cancer treatment and recovery says Melbourne University Research Fellow Martin Ashdown, who has studied the phenomena for a long time. The science of taking advantage of the body’s own immune rhythm to improve efficacy of treatments is worth paying attention to whether its surgery, chemotherapy, immunotherapies, radiation/cyberknife; one thing is now clear – timing of treatment matters! There is a window of opportunity within the 7 day cycle, Listen to Martin Ashdown to hear the story of how TIMING MATTERS!
Following on – some interesting articles and resources that relate to our body clock.

  • Complete clinical responses to cancer therapy caused by multiple divergent approaches a repeating theme lost in translation
    Coventry BJ1, Ashdown ML.1Discipline of Surgery, University of Adelaide, Royal Adelaide Hospital and Faculty of Medicine, University of Melbourne, Australia.
    SOURCE: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22740774
  • Window of Opportunity – Martin Ashdown and Brendon Coventry:

          SOURCE:   http://www.immunaid.com.au/download/pressreviews_2014053001.pdf

  • The Clock Is Off: Bipolar Disorder and Circadian Rhythm – Scientific American – Apr 1, 2010 By Monica Heger
    Bipolar disorder may be linked to mutations affecting circadian rhythm
    |By Monica Heger
    “An off-kilter body clock can throw off our sleep-wake cycle, eating habits, body temperature and hormones—and mounting evidence suggests a malfunctioning clock may also underlie the mood cycles in bipolar disorder. In a new study led by psychiatrist Alexander Niculescu of Indiana University, researchers found that children with bipolar disorder were likely to have a mutated RORB gene, which codes for a protein crucial to circadian clock function.”
    Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-clock-is-off/

Circadian gene expression atlas in mammals: Implications for biology and medicine
Ray Zhanga,1, Nicholas F. Lahensa,1, Heather I. Ballancea, Michael E. Hughesb,2, and John B. Hogenescha,2
Department of Pharmacology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104; and bDepartment of Biology, University of Missouri, St. Louis, MO 63121

“We generated high-resolution multi-organ expression data showing that nearly half of all genes in the mouse genome oscillate with circadian rhythm somewhere in the body. Such widespread transcriptional oscillations have not been previously reported in mammals. Applying pathway analysis, we observed new clock-mediated spatiotemporal relationships. Moreover, we found a majority of best-selling drugs in the United States target circadian gene products. Many of these drugs have relatively short half-lives, and our data predict which may benefit from timed dosing.”

Source:  http://www.pnas.org/content/111/45/16219.abstract

For the more scientifically minded – don’t be put off by the title!

The Photoperiod, Circadian Regulation and Chronodisruption: The Requisite Interplay Between The Suprachiasmatic Nuclei and The Pineal And Gut Melatonin:

1Department of Cellular and Structural Biology, UT Health Science CenterSan Antonio, Texas, USA; 2Department of Internal Medicine, Thuringia, Saalfeld, Germany; 3Department of Physiology, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Cracow, Poland

“Part of their conclusion is that “Circadian rhythmicity is an integral component of normal and optimal physiology. Not only the SCN, but cells throughout the organism are equipped with internal clocks that control the molecular events that occur during each 24-hour period. These events appear to be precisely timed and in modern societies the intrinsic time keepers are provided with misinformation which, when prolonged, likely has ramifications in terms of increased pathologies.

It would seem judicious to take better care of the circadian network by providing appropriate photoperiodic cues, which currently seemed to be almost totally ignored. In addition, large amounts of this indoleamine (melatonin) is produced in the mucosa of GIT that seems to serve as local antioxidant and protective substance for the gut and liver against a variety of noxious agents, particularly the bacteria and their toxins, introduced into the gut with each meal.

There is a vast amount of literature suggesting that the photoperiodic environment influences the incidence of cancer. While an association of chronodisruption was initially proposed only for breast cancer, we recently suggested a more general theory, i.e., chronodisruption may aggravate the development of many cancer types.”
Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21893686

Happy reading! Remember to visit our website: http://www.gracegawlerinstitute.com/immune-cycle-registry/

Until next time ………Grace

An Answer to Cancer – How Your Immune Body-Clock can assist Complete Remission | Navigating the Cancer Maze

Cancer affects everyone around the world in some way. Friends, relatives, children, mums and dads, grans and grandpas! It does not discriminate. It causes as much or perhaps even more misery than war because it reaches into every race, culture and country! If there was just one thing we could add to the recipe for Curing cancer or extending life with quality and well-being – wouldn’t we all be excited and interested?Do you want to know one important missing piece of the cancer puzzle? Two cancer researchers Martin Ashdown & Brendon Coventry have explored that question and yes they are excited!

How Your Immune Body-Clock can assist Complete Remission: (Please pass on the link to this blog to those in need)

Cancer affects everyone around the world in some way. Friends, relatives, children, mums and dads, grans and grandpas! It does not discriminate. It causes as much or perhaps even more misery than war because it reaches into every race, culture and country!  If there was just one thing we could add to the recipe for Curing cancer or extending life with quality and well-being – wouldn’t we all be excited and interested? Do you want to know one important missing piece of the cancer puzzle?  Listen to today’s show at: http://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/81479/an-answer-to-cancer-how-your-immune-body-clock-can-assist-complete-remission

Measuring immune cycles
Measuring immune cycles may be one missing piece of the cancer cure puzzle!

The show is free to air on the internet – live streaming listening at any time- free download – archived indefinitely.

Two cancer researchers Martin Ashdown & Brendon Coventry have explored that question and yes they are excited! So am I and so are some doctors and oncologists! Testing patients to map their immune cycle is not a complex exercise, but to do this, a system needs to be changed. All discoveries of worth seem to be hobbled for while – then accepted – struggling across the finish line…sometime after decades!

In 1983, Australian doctors J. Robin Warren and Barry Marshall isolated Helicobacter pylori, the bacterial cause of peptic ulcer disease. When the H. pylori hypothesis was developed, the doctors were certain that it would immediately gain universal acceptance and that within two years peptic ulcer therapy would be essentially an antimicrobial regimen”. This was far from the case. A 1986 book on Peptic Ulcer and its Drug Causation lends a page to the bacterial hypothesis, noting, “Whether these bacteria have an aetiological role in peptic ulcer gastritis is unknown”. At this time, doctors still prescribed drugs to reduce stomach acidity and monitored patients for complications. The story of Helicobacter pylori’s acceptance as a pathogenic agent reveals the issues with the acceptance of new thought even when there is validation and justification. http://www.jyi.org/issue/delayed-gratification-why-it-took-everybody-so-long-to-acknowledge-that-bacteria-cause-ulcers/

There are ethical laws in place; essential for the safety of humans in medicine. Changed laws of medical ethics, prevent a modern reprise of Pasteur’s heroic demonstration of his rabies vaccine through the vaccination of an infected boy. Measuring each cancer patients immune cycle and timing their treatment at the right time –  is nothing akin to that! It simply makes sense!

Perhaps one can understand the caution in prescribing an antibiotic. Measuring immune cycles and timing treatment for a better outcome? Now to my way of thinking this fulfills the old Hippocratic oath – “Above all, do no harm!”

The Grace Gawler Institute has a history of wanting to procure the best treatment options for cancer patients. We feel that by educating patients about their immune cycle and taking this material to their doctor – they can help change the face of cancer treatment in a risk free experiment to prove (or not) the research work of Martin Ashdown & Brendon Coventry.  This is why we have created the Cancer Immune Registry:

world cancer
Cancer affects everyone around the globe- it does not discriminate!

Background –  A cancer drug used for more than 20 years that is now providing oncologists with new information about how to best help patients achieve complete remission. The drug called interleukin-2, is providing cancer researchers with something akin to how the “Rosetta Stone” was used to unlock historical script; the outcome; mapping the immune cycle!

To understand how this is possible – join me with guest Martin Ashdown on Navigating the Cancer Maze on Voice America’s Health and Wellness channel ( internet radio)  to hear the full story of this amazing breakthrough.

Learn how you can access info about your immune cycle to assist cancer treatment efficacy.

RESOURCES:

1. http://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/81479/an-answer-to-cancer-how-your-immune-body-clock-can-assist-complete-remission

2. http://www.gracegawlerinstitute.com/immune-cycle-registry/

3. Martin Ashdown Window of Opportunity1 article: Australasian Science

4. MARTIN ASHDOWN A Matter of Time_AS_Article: article Australasian Science

5. VIDEO: Treatment of Metastatic Melanoma: Could Timing Be Everything? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXX-9t8xiAo

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