While looking for an article to write about in todays blog, I came across an article on Boston.com called, "In the search for cancer drugs, mice get new role". This article was written by Carolyn Y. Johnson and was published on April 5, 2010. This article talks about how a man named Dr. Pier Paolo Pandolfi has begun an experiment that could have a huge impact on the way cancer drugs are tested in the future. Dr. Pandolfi has begun to give treatment to patients suffering with cancer at Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center and has also begun to give the same treatments he is giving his patients to mice as well.
In recent years, mice have been used as test subjects for drugs before they make it into the clinic. This is because animal models of disease can help doctors and scientists better understand cancer and determine what drugs or treatments are safe to use in human beings. However, in this new work being done by Dr. Pandolfi, mice are being treated with the same drugs at the same time as patients in hopes that what is learned in the hospitals from patients can be put together with what is learned in the laboratories with mice to speed up the development of new and effective cancer drugs.Mice are being used in this experiment because they can be engineered to carry one or more faulty genes known to cause human cancers. For this experiment scientists inserted various human prostate and lung cancer gene mutations into the mice and then gave the animals identical treatments to the people in clinical trials. Pandolfi and collaborators from the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center hope the mice, with simpler genetics than the humans, will help give a better understanding to what is going on in the bodies of the patients.
I found this article very interesting because I am fascinated with how scientists are able to come up with various vaccines, treatments and drugs that have had a huge impact on health all around the world. This article also grabbed my attention because I am very iffy about animal testing and whether or not scientists should use animals for testing. Part of me thinks it is cruel while the other part of me knows that by doing animal testing, scientists are creating treatments that are helping millions of people around the world. Overall, I hope to learn more about this experiment and see if it helps the development of cancer drugs because cancer is a horrible disease that I hope we can find a cure for in the future.
Here is the link to the article:
http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2010/04/05/mice_get_new_role_in_search_for_cancer_drugs/
This article seems to be really interesting. Like Andrea, I am on the fence when it comes to the animal testing debate, but what the scientists are doing in this article seems to be a step in the right direction for helping millions of cancer patients. When it is put into perspective like that, testing on mice seems more reasonable than cruel, while I still think it is wrong. I'm curious to see where this experiment ends up and if it is successful. If it does work, I'm curious to see where scientists will go with it next in terms of finding an answer and a cure for cancer.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is a really cool article because we are actually learning about how they test different treatments for cancer patients. Like Molly and Andrea, I do not believe in animal testing, and I do not think a lot of people do either, but sometimes you have to look at both sides. If scientists do not use mice to see how different treatments will affect cancer patients, then a lot of people could die because there was never a new treatment found. If scientists do use mice to test different treatments, then a lot of people could be saved and new treatments could help a lot of people. therefore, I think that it is great what Dr. Pier Paolo Pandolfi is doing.
ReplyDeleteI believe that if this experiment is successful, then a lot of people could be saved. Right now scientists are just looking for treatments for patients using mice, but maybe in the future they will try to find a cure for cancer using mice.
I enjoyed reading about this topic because like most others I always feel bad for animals who are tested on, even if the outcome is such a great leap for science. As Jack and Andrea said, you have to look on both sides of the animal testing and understand how many people will live a better life from it, there would be such a decrease in deaths from cancer. I hope that there is eventually a way to completely wipe out the disease and this is a major step on the way. I hope that Dr.Pandolfi's experiment comes out successful and I would love to hear more information about it in the future. I would also be interested in knowing if there are any other possible animals that could be used for the testing or is it is just the mice because of their similarities with humans that they are the top pick?
ReplyDeleteResponding to the other comments on this article, I feel differently about animal testing. When it comes to trying out new shampoos and makeup on poor little dogs or sheep I am all against that. I feel like there is no reason to test products on animals that are not going to help medical advances. If hospitals and labs want to use rodents to get information on a drug they are planning on distributing to humans, I am not totally against that. It wouldn't be right to say that humans are the most important species on Earth, but I do feel that animal testing shouldn't be looked down upon if it's going to help tons of people. If everyone is saying that rats shouldn't be bred for medical advances, then why is it okay to slaughter a cow for a cheeseburger that will just be eaten and gone?
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