Cancer Warrior, Drugs and Life
Cancer Warrior was on the movies that get you thinking about the possibilities and struggles of having cancer as a part of your life. I learned what angiogenesis which is the growth of new blood vessels which feeds tumors to make them grow and kill. Scientists came upon this by putting a tumor in a rabbit cornea, where no blood vessels are. They then noticed that the tumor brought the vessels by making an unknown molecule which has been the topic of many questions for years. I also learned that they used flutamide which made the blood vessels grow around it which would help cancer patients by making the blood vessels grow around the tumor. A scientist realized that the body makes an inhibitor which quiets down the blood cells. The cancer then reduces the inhibitor causing chaos and it causes the vessels to emerge to feed the tumor. A lot of tests were done, until a scientist experimented with mice which had tumors and used their urine to find the molecule to stop angiogenesis. They found it and tried the experiment with ten treated mice and with ten mice that were not treated. The treated mice had no signs of angiogenesis and the other ten mice had lung cancer. It showed that the experiment and molecule helped. They made drug named angiostatin. “Angio” means blood vessels and “statin” means stop. Essentially, I learned how cancer spreads, grows and how the road to stopping it was made. While watching the film I realized dangerous and alien cancer is. It made so many people die and many people think about the meaning of life. It also put scientists to the test to see whether they can make innovative ways to cure cancer. I’m glad I have been educated with this video because it showed how the road to recovery and innovation was started, but not yet finished.
The benefits of pharmaceutical drugs in society are that people can have hope to be cured, possibly be cured, ease pain and make the approach of finding the perfect drug to cure a disease easy. The benefits of thoroughly testing a drug before it’s used are making sure it is actually valid and useable and the risk of people getting side-effect, dying or getting more sick from the drug are low.
The problem of determining when a very ill person should be allowed to use an experimental drug is that there is a 50-50 chance that person does not react well to that drug or they get cured. People aren’t like lab rats that can be made quickly and have their life in stake of science. The people who volunteer for trying these drugs don’t know if they will survive or die. Also, the drug might work for every person. If an ill person uses the experimental drug and gets cured, another ill person may not have the same effect. This could lead to death or more serious illnesses.
The pros of releasing the drug early are scientists can find out much quicker if the drug works, maybe save some lives, examine what kind of people do react and don’t react to the drug, giving hope to patients, earn profit for the drug and lessen the chance of death and illnesses if the drug is not curable. For example, if the drug was to be tested on one sick patient but at an early stage of it being experimental, then scientists could examine whether or not that drug is good enough for it to be sold. But, if the drug was tested along time and used on many patients, but had a bad effect; more people would die or get injured than using it one person as a “guinea pig”. That person could volunteer to get better so it makes it equal. The cons of releasing the drug early are people dying or getting more ill, maybe the drug is not up to its required standards, giving false hope to people and wasting time and energy for something that has not been tested to its standards. For example, scientists can release a drug and make millions of bottles with the drug inside, only to find that it does not work. A lot of money, time and energy were put into making that drug, but it didn’t help anyone. The risks when patients take the drug are they have to expect the worst. This is not their way out and no miracle can help them, but pure science can.
In conclusion, I personally think that drugs should be released early if patients volunteer to be test subjects. I think so because maybe they can be cured and the results if the drug is good are not is much faster and more effective than testing it for many years. The only protection against all these troubles is to exercise, live a balanced life, have a healthy diet, don’t take any drugs and have a positive perspective on life!
