In China, scientists have discovered that arsenic ,which was previously used as a murder weapon during the Middle Ages, can get rid of blood cancer. Arsenic destroys the specific proteins that prolongs the cancer's life. Contrary to chemotherapy, arsenic's side effects are not as dangerous and risky. When treated with chemotherapy, patients often come back with negative results such as hair loss or suppression of bone marrow function. Arsenic is known as a toxic poison because its symptoms are undetected. However, China has discovered medicinal uses for arsenic different from Chinese traditional medicine. During 1992, Chinese doctors explained the application of arsenic in the treatment for acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). APL is a blood and bone marrow cancer and has over 90 percent cure rates in China. Zhang Xiaowei, the lead researcher at the State Key Laboratory of Medical Genomics in Shanghai, demonstrated how Chinese doctors use modern equipment and arsenic to destroy specific proteins that would expand the cancer's life.
I am personally surprised that arsenic, a murder weapon in the middle ages, can be used to save cancer patients. I hope that in the future scientists will find more odd uses of poisons to improve human health.
9 comments:
arsenic is also a modern day murder weapon; for rats. I think that this is really great research because if arsenic can kill the cancer cells, this could lead to finding chemicals that can kill more than just blood cancer. also, having less side effects from treatment is a great plus.
However, science needs to be careful because many times something isn't tested enough and then in the future, the real problems are discovered.
It's pretty amazing that scientists have found a way to use arsenic, a poison, to actually save lives. I have to wonder what the side effects of using arsenic as a treatment are though. Like Seth said, the long term effects of using arsenic as a treatment need to be considered. Maybe arsenic has less short-term effects compared to chemotherapy, but there seems to be a lack of information about what happens in the long-term. It would also be interesting to see if arsenic worked to treat other forms of cancer, not just APL.
Great article! I agree with Seth and Sarah that more research and testing needs to be done in order to really know what the side effects are of using something so dangerous. The world of cancer can really change when powerful poisons can be used to cure cancer.
-Emily Niemann
Wow, interesting article. Amazing how far science has taken us. If arsenic can be used to kill cancer cells, then one day there will be cures for all cancers (hopefully).
If arsenic really proves to be an effective treatment for blood cancers that would be great news. This just goes to show that many compounds that we currently know about and use can still have even more purposes. We went from killing people with arsenic, to killing rats, to killing cancer. We don't need to go to extreme lengths to find a cure for cancer, maybe the solution is right before our eyes and we just haven't recognized it yet.
I agree. I feel like people look for great solutions to great problems when sometimes there are much simpler solutions that are easy to find. I also think that a combination of traditional Western medicines along with Eastern herbal treatments will work better than one can alone. I feel that if the two styles of medicine worked together, we could have a better understanding of internal medicine and how there could be many different solutions for the same problem. When my brother had severe acne problems, he used both a combination of Chinese herbal medicine and topical acne treatment from an American pharmacy in order to maximize their effectiveness.
Wow this is amazing! It is crazy to see something as horrifying as a murder weapon turn into a life saver.Honestly, I hope this does work out because saving lives is the number one concern and that is all that should be concerned about. How did they find out? if you dont mind e asking. Other than that I really hope they strt using this, but i hope it does not come to the U.S. first because third world countries are in more need. U.S. is already so much more advantage and spolied they should use this weapon somewere else first.
This really blows my mind at how innovative "new age" science can be. If a toxic poison can be transformed into a likely cure for cancer, then there's really no stopping how far science can go in the coming future. :]
As I read this article, though, I had a random passing thought that this could have some similarities to the medical marijuana controversies... but that was just a passing thought.
-Annie Yang
It is amazing how people are testing all different kinds of method to find ways to help treat blood cancer.
I hope that they will keep on working on find ways to help people.
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