THE LEUKEMIA PROBLEM

For those that are unfamiliar with leukemia, here are the cliff notes. Leukemia is a blood cancer that starts in the blood-forming cells of the bone marrow. The cancer is categorized into 4 main types, acute myeloid leukemia (AML), chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). They are grouped based on how quickly or slowly the disease spreads (A or C) and secondarily grouped on the starting blood cell type of the disease (L or M).

Generally, a patient is diagnosed with leukemia when doctors discover abnormal leukemia cells in the bone marrow or blood. While the exact causes of leukemia is not certain, generally leukemia begins with a cancer causing agent, such as exposure to certain toxins (radiation, chemotherapy or other chemicals), cellular mutation, or genetic disposition, which mutates white blood cells (WBC) and their precursors into abnormal leukemia cells.

These mutated WBCs or leukemia cells are no longer able to function normally and protect our bodies from foreign threats and the mutation also allows them to multiply uncontrollably. These leukemia cells then multiply rapidly and accumulate in the bone marrow disrupting the healthy formation of normal blood cells. Proliferation of these leukemia cells then start to crowd out healthy cells and spread from the bone marrow and blood to the lymph nodes, liver, spleen, and eventually all organs causing organ failure. As the healthy cells continue to decrease it will make it harder for the body’s tissues to get oxygen, control bleeding, or fight harmful bacteria, infections and viruses, meaning that the slightest illness may be lethal.

 
 

Currently, conventional treatments for leukemia include chemotherapy, targeted drugs, and bone marrow transplants.

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CHEMOTHERAPY

  • Approximately 90% of cancer patients are treated with some form of chemotherapy, which is a huge problem
  • Act as a nuclear poison to our body, killing all cells, hoping to rid our body of cancer, and if cancer isn’t eradicated, relapse occurs. Then, the chemo nuke is repeated if your body can handle it; if not, all hope is lost
  • Causes many severe side effects including: fatigue, hair loss, infection, nausea, vomiting, constipation, anemia, and more
  • Contributes to high relapse rates, high death rates, and high treatment costs

TARGETED THERAPY

  • An approach targeting specific clones or cells of cancer

  • Flawed approach due to the many clones and variations of cancer that can exist in your body at the same time, meaning that it could rid your body of one clone of cancer but won’t be able to kill all the types of clones, which results in relapse

  • Generally requires to be used in combination with chemotherapy or other drugs because its inability to kill all clones of cancer

  • Overuse can allow cancer cells to can become resistant to the drug

  • Causes many severe side effects including: diarrhea, liver problems, problems with blood clotting and wound healing, high blood pressure, fatigue, mouth sores, nail changes, the loss of hair color, rash or dry skin, a hole forming through the wall of the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large bowel, rectum, or gallbladder.

  • Contributes to high relapse rates, high death rates, and high treatment costs

BONE MARROW TRANSPLANT

  • Currently the best option to treat leukemia
  • Difficult to find matching donors and still has a relatively high chance of relapse
  • Chemo or radiation is still required before bone marrow transplant along with its side effects and painful bone marrow biopsies
  • Causes many severe side effects including: graft-versus-host disease, stem cell (graft) failure, organ damage, infections, cataracts, infertility, new cancers, death

HOW EFFECTIVE ARE THESE TREATMENTS?

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The current 5 year survival rate is about 60% which is still nowhere near acceptable, and this average was raised by the higher success rates of children which means adult survival rates are very low. In fact, the 5 year adult survival rate is 30% or lower depending on the type of leukemia, and the overall relapse rate is about 50% with the median age of diagnosis at 66 years old. These treatments also result in painful side effects for the patient and high-relapse rates which translates to high death rates and high treatment costs. These treatments can cost patients anywhere from $7000 - $25000 dollars per month depending on the type of cancer, and overall, can cost a patient a total of more than $100,000 dollars.

These facts show that these treatments are just not working nor sustainable. These methods do not address the root cause and root issues of leukemia and are reactive approaches. At the same time, cancer continues to evolve at a much faster rate than we can develop new drugs, and this is partly due to increased usage of drugs and poison to fight it.

RECENT EXPERIMENTAL THERAPIES

In recent years, a new strategy against leukemia and other cancer has surfaced called immunotherapy. The logic of immunotherapy is to use your body’s own immune system to kill leukemia instead of nuking our bodies with chemo. It sounds like a great strategy, right? Well, not completely.

Many biotech companies are driven to quickly apply “immunotherapy” as a treatment, so they revert back to impractical and less effective strategies. These strategies require costly genetic engineering in order to manipulate immune responses instead of simply activating the immune system to do its job.

These new treatments can cost anywhere from $300,000 to more than a Million dollars, which is just not affordable for everyday people. These high treatment costs are partly due to the impractical approaches and the barriers of entry by the FDA. All of these so called “solutions” are also not sustainable especially with its high cost and the rate of new cancer and leukemia diagnoses.

People desperately need a sustainable solution to this dreadful disease, which is exactly what I want to share with you.