Monday, January 29

Hello!
Well we are off to Houston again tomorrow evening. We get to meet with a transplant Doctor at 9:00 am Wednesday. His name is Naoto Ueno, M.D., Ph.D. I was reading up on him and here is his description of what he does:

"The primary interest of my laboratory is to dissect molecular events related to chemotherapy-induced apoptosis or cell cycle changes. Further, we translate these molecular events into developing innovative gene therapies, immunotherapy or diagnostic tools for patients with breast or ovarian cancers. Paclitaxel-induced cell death is the event that follows metaphase arrest. Thus, we have investigated the role of mitotic checkpoint in taxane-induced cell death. We have identified CDK1 activity which may allow predicting the tumor response to taxane. So far, we have successfully quantified mitotic checkpoint to develop a novel biomarker to develop paclitaxel sensitivity.

We have also focused on Paclitaxel sensitization of breast and ovarian cancer cells by adenovirus type 5 E1A gene. E1A is a well-known tumor suppressor that can induce apoptosis or downregulate HER-2/neu overexpression in cancer cells. This E1A can effect multiple genes that can allow cells to be more prone to apoptosis when treated with chemotherapeutic agents. We initiated and completed a phase I trial of E1A gene therapy among patients with breast and ovarian cancers. We showed that E1A can be delivered locally (intraperitoneally) to cancer cells by using cationic liposome. Because E1A gene therapy has been limited to locoregional delivery, we introduced a systemic gene delivery system using the cationic liposome LPD. The safety and pharmacokinetics of this cationic liposome are currently being studied, and we plan to open a clinical trial using this delivery system in the near future. Recently, we have initiated phase I/II clinical trials of E1A gene therapy combined with Paclitaxel for patients with ovarian cancer (sponsored by ovarian SPORE). The study design allows collection of samples before and after E1A gene therapy to determine the precise mechanisms of tumor response of E1A combined with paclitaxel."

Ummmmmmmmm. Ok! I think he will be repeating everything he says to me lol! I need to hear it so I can understand. I think I'll be breaking out the big pad of paper for this one!

Ahhhh--It's about tax time! I've been spending time lately getting things in order. I am usually so on top of it during the year, but I guess I slacked this year and am paying for it now haha! I do have all my receipts at least categorized by month, now just to add them all up!

In case you haven't been to my photography blog "www.photographybykasey.blogspot.com"
I have added a couple new photos taken recently. I will add more in February! You should be able to click the link under my photo on the right. The link wasn't working for awhile (someone just pointed it out to me) as I had it coded wrong, but it should be working now!

My Dad is still doing good! Thank you for the prayers for him! Hopefully he will be back online soon posting comments!

That's it for now! Like I said, we are heading to Houston tomorrow evening. We should be home Friday evening as my Chemo is at 2:30, so we should make the 8:00 flight home.
Talk to you all soon!
~Kasey