Lincoln on a stick

I've been neglecting the blog lately, but I do have an excuse. We were out of town for a week on vacation. We didn't drive too terribly far, but we saw everything. We drove across Missouri and spent some time in Hannibal, where we rode on a riverboat, toured a cave, and saw all kinds of Mark Twain stuff.

Next, we visited my sister, brother-in-law, and niece in Jacksonville, Ill. For the next few days, they took us on some whirlwind tours of Springfield and the area, where we saw all kinds of Abraham Lincoln stuff. The Lincoln Museum is really, really cool. There is a fun place for the kids to play, where they can dress up in costumes, play with old-timey toys, and play in an old-fashioned kitchen with a pretend fireplace and butter churn and things like that. This play area was a good thing, because WCK wasn't too fond of all of the wax figures and loud noises that dominated all of the other exhibits. She and her cousin were able to play in the play area while the adults visited the exhibits in shifts.

They were very good exhibits. I was shocked and pretty choked up when Lincoln died at the end.

Then we went to the gift shop. WCK had a lot of money saved up from her birthday, so I told her she could use that to pick out souvenirs on our trip. I was worried she'd pick out dumb things that I'd have to abide by, but she did an excellent job managing her money. She was very careful and would look at everything in each shop, and then she'd either decide she didn't want anything or would pick out just one thing. This is what she picked out at the Lincoln Museum:




That's right. It's Abe Lincoln's head on a stick. When you pull the lever on the bottom, he moves his mouth.

I love this toy. I think this is the greatest toy ever, but I would have felt absurd picking it out on my own. I was so happy I could use WCK's whims as an excuse. "She's paying for this with her own money," I told the old ladies in the cash-register line, who looked a little disapproving when WCK was attacking me with the head and growling, "ABRAHAM LINCOLN IS GONNA EAT YOUR NOSE!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!"

Secretly, though, I loved the fact that Abraham Lincoln was going to eat my nose. I loved that Abe Lincoln on a stick was with us for the rest of our travels. My brother-in-law got some video footage of Abe lip syncing to Hannah Montana in the car

After several days of Lincoln sites, we headed to St. Louis for a couple more days. We went to The Magic House, a very cool and very crowded children's museum. We went to the top of the Arch, walked all around downtown, visited the Science Center and Union Station, and toured the Anheuser-Busch brewery. I'm sure taking our child on a brewery tour makes us terrible parents. What would Abraham Lincoln say? I'd ask him, but he's eating my nose.

Alloreactive NK cells detect and target leukemic SCs

Human acute myeloid leukemia CD34+CD38– stem cells are susceptible to allorecognition and lysis by single KIR-expressing natural killer cells by Ulrich Langenkamp and 6 co-authors, including Aleksandra Wodnar-Filipowicz, Haematologica 2009(Jul 16) [Epub ahead of print][FriendFeed entry][Early version of the full text PDF]. PubMed Abstract:

The concept of tumor immunosurveillance has raised prospects for natural killer (NK) cell-based immunotherapy of human cancer. The cure of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) may depend on eradication of leukemic stem cells (LSCs), the self-renewing component of leukemia. Whether NK cells can recognize and lyse LSCs is not known. To develop strategies that effectively target AML-LSCs, we investigated anti-leukemic effects of human alloreactive single KIR(+) NK cells. NK effectors with KIR specificity mismatched with respect to HLA class I allotype of target cells effectively recognized AML-LSCs defined phenotypically as CD34(+)CD38(-), while healthy bone marrow-derived CD34(+)CD38(-) hematopoietic stem cells were spared, as demonstrated by cytotoxicity and hematopoietic colony-forming assays. The HDAC inhibitor valproic acid augmented the activating NKG2D ligand-dependent lysis of AML-CD34(+)CD38(-) LSCs. These results show that alloreactive NK cells have the potential to detect and target LSCs, and thus to improve the treatment outcome in AML.

Vertigo again

A little more vertigo last night, but this time I think due to sleeping on the sofa bed. When you roll, it collapses under you and so it feels a little like being seasick. Hopefully next week's scan will say this is so....

We hope to have corrected this by putting the mattress on the floor, so it feels firmer.

Chemosensitization of AML

Another nail in the AML coffin by Camille N Abboud, Blood 2009(Jun 11); 113(24): 6045-6. Editorial [Full text is currently publicly accessible][PubMed Citation]. First paragraph:

In this issue of Blood, Nervi and colleagues and Zeng and colleagues independently report similar findings in both in vitro and in vivo AML models, showing chemosensitization by blocking CXCR4/CXCL12 (SDF-1{alpha}:stromal cell–derived factor 1) signaling using novel CXCR4 antagonist bicyclams, namely AMD3100 (plerixafor) and AMD3465.

Excerpt from the final paragraph:

Finally, while both reports open new avenues for overcoming in vivo drug resistance in AML, it is yet unclear whether durable complete remissions can ensue from this strategy. AML is indeed a very heterogenous disease, and successful eradication of leukemic stem/progenitor cells will require blocking multiple receptors/pathways ...

The two articles discussed in this editorial are:

1) Chemosensitization of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) following mobilization by the CXCR4 antagonist AMD3100 by Bruno Nervi and 10 co-authors, including Timothy J Ley, and John F DiPersio, Blood 2009(Jun 11); 113(24): 6206-14 [Epub 2008(Dec 2)]. [PubMed Citation].

2) Targeting the leukemia microenvironment by CXCR4 inhibition overcomes resistance to kinase inhibitors and chemotherapy in AML by Zhihong Zeng and 12 co-authors, Blood 2009(Jun 11); 113(24): 6215-24 [Epub 2008(Oct 27)]. [PubMed Citation][FriendFeed entry].

[Only the abstracts of these two articles are currently publicly accessible].

Finding Joy

Sometimes being in the cancer world is tough, sometimes joy gets hard to find.

I was at a point a few weeks ago where I was kind of down. The cancer community is a tough place to be, there's a lot of sadness and grief there. I also work in a hospital intensive care unit. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with the sadness and struggle that surrounds me. I am also getting ready to send my youngest off to college...both of my kids will live away from home next year. We are close and I will miss them a lot. And there's a lot that goes on with kids who are on the cusp of independence. They still love and need you, but look forward to life on their own, to living separate and independent lives. You want them to be independent adults, but still feel a loss.

So, I was needing to find some joy. I wanted to feel really good and lighthearted for a bit.

One of the things that brings me great joy is playing piano. I'd wanted to learn to play since I was 5 years old. I finally started to take lessons at age 29 and actually learned to improvise popular piano music and began to play professionally a few years later. I used to play a lot, but sometimes life gets in the way, and I hadn't played for a long time. So, I played for a little bit at home. Then I decided to do an impromptu visit to the soup kitchen I used to run and to play for the guests there, rusty as I was. I just left my house and showed to the soup kitchen unannounced. I played while the guests were eating lunch, like I did a few years ago. The only thing better than playing for myself is playing for others, knowing the music brings back happy memories for them, seeing them smile. I connect with others via music in a way I can't with words sometimes.

It turned out it was the best thing I could have done. I got to see all of the people who work at the soup kitchen who are like family to me, for a few years we worked together every week; shared our troubles while we worked, teased each other, celebrated each others birthdays, successes and set-backs. We even made time to get together for lunch and dinner when we weren't working at the soup kitchen. I'd missed everyone there. I was treated so well, lots of hugs, lots of catching up, people applauded my piano playing. I felt very loved. I did my best to play requests. Strange thing about me, I am horrible at remembering names, but I always remember the guest's favorite songs. I had a great time, and definitely felt joyful. I went back to play again this week.

I think we need to make a priority of doing what brings us joy. I think it's as important as chemo, as important as a healthy diet, as important as breathing and sleeping. We make time for those things as we see them as priorities, but I think finding what brings us joy should be just as much as a priority, it's vital. It's not selfish to do what makes us happy as individuals, it helps us recharge and be able to give more to others and to ourselves. Whether it's alone time, time in nature, music, or reading a novel...whatever brings us joy needs to be our priority. Seeking joy is a healthy thing to do, we need to make the time.

Partnership to develop new colon cancer drugs

Ontario joins top researchers, Pfizer, to develop new colon cancer drugs by Amy Fuller, Canadian Press (via Winnipeg Free Press), July 15, 2009. (See also the same news release, via Yahoo News). First two paragraphs:

The fight against colon cancer got an infusion of funds Wednesday as the Ontario government and leading medical research centres joined with the world's largest pharmaceutical research company to develop new drugs.

Pfizer, a New York-based company with 1,400 employees across Canada, is partnering with the Ontario Cancer Institute and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research in a $6.9-million collaboration over three years.

See also: Pfizer Gives $5.4M for Ontario Cancer Research Project, GenomeWeb Daily News, July 16, 2009. [Free registration required][Twitter entry]. Excerpts:

Pfizer Global Research and Development will collaborate with two Ontario institutes to discover and validate targets that could be used to diagnose, predict, or treat colorectal cancer.

.....

Ben Neel, who is director of OCI and is serving as a principal investigator on the project, said in a statement that the collaboration will "join the world class genomics and informatics programs at OICR, cutting edge research in cancer stem cell biology and functional genomics at OCI/PMH and the world's largest pharmaceutical company in a concerted effort to bring new therapies to colon cancer patients worldwide."

Bay Area

I read from my book last night to a group at the Women's Cancer Resource Center in Oakland. It's independent, and sponsors many groups and events, with a feminist/progressive philosophy. For those of you who shy away from the word feminist, take note: I don't mean that they push ideology, but that they aim to be inclusive. We were talking about Thinking Before You Pink, and the exec director said that the center receives funds from the Avon Walk, which goes to show that the mainstream breast cancer philanthropies are becoming more responsive to grass-roots organizations, and are not so wedded to the military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us about after making his contributions to it.
Several of the women told their stories and we talked about alternative treatment as well as the politics and emotions of breast cancer.
Before that, I spoke to a class on healing stories at John F. Kennedy University in Contra Costa County. I find I'm speaking more and more about the benefits and uses of humor in living through cancer. You can hear a lecture on this by Enid Schwartz here. You can find my piece on humor in breast cancer narratives on the Jan. 19, 2009, post on this blog.