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Asian Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences | Volume 8
May 14-15, 2018 | Montreal, Canada
Global Summit on
Biopharma & Biotherapeutics
This is a personal case report from a cancer researcher who
23 years ago chose a previously untested therapy rather than
conventional adjuvant chemotherapy for recently diagnosed
stage IIIc colon cancer. Metronomic chemotherapy, as this
therapy is now called, is frequently discussed and is the
subject of scientific investigation but has not yet been tested
as researcher-patient used it those decades ago. The concern
most expressed is that while it works, the mechanism is not
understood. I can’t explain exactly why it works but I can
describe why I made the choice to use it on scientific grounds
and why I would likely do something similar if diagnosed
today. An important reference is Retsky, M., Swartzendruber,
D., Wardwell, R., Bame, P. Computer model challenges breast
cancer treatment strategy. Cancer Investigation, 12(6): 559-
567, 1994. This paper was published shortly before I was
diagnosed and describes my thinking at that time. It is freely
available online at my DASH account at Harvard.
Speaker Biography
Michael Retsky (PhD in Physics from University of Chicago 1974) made a career change
to cancer research thirty years ago. He was on Judah Folkman’s staff at HarvardMedical
School for 12 years. Retsky is Editor of a Springer-Nature book on breast cancer that
was published in 2017 (Retsky M and Demicheli R, editors, Perioperative Inflammation
as Triggering Origin of Metastasis Development). He is a founder and was for 10 years
on the Board of Directors of the Colon Cancer Alliance. He has published more than
60 papers in physics and cancer. He has been Editor in Chief of two journals in cancer.
e:
michael.retsky@gmail.comInitial use of metronomic chemotherapy for stage IIIc colon cancer in 1995-1997
Michael Retsky
Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, USA