CURING CANCER?

<--------- Cyanobacteria. It may be a cure for cancer.

Scientists are saying, more frequently nowadays, that there is hope, a real possibility of being cured, if you have cancer.

The Cancer Treatment Centers advertisements on television, make it sound as if they're the place to go to for support, for help, and possibly a cure. But it's an advertisement -- most treatment centers are profit-making corporations that are selling you hope as well as treatment.

There IS hope -- new medications are already being used. Of course, we know that a cure depends on what you've got, and how long you've had it.

We see "happy" Michael Douglas -- he looks sort of happy and hasn't lost his hair. But he looks worn, and gaunt, almost frail, and it wasn't so long ago that Patrick Swayze was whooping it up, saying he was beating Pancreatic Cancer, and he didn't beat it.

But hope lives in a fighting spirit -- think of Lance Armstrong, professional road racing cyclist, who won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times, after having survived testicular cancer, with a tumor that had metastasized to his brain and lungs.

Cyanobacteria is found in brackish muck in the Indian River Lagoon, on the Atlantic Coast of Florida.

One cyanobacterium called "Symploca" emits a toxin that attacks tumors. The guy who's mining it, collecting, studying it, hoping to get it FDA approved, is Hendrik Luesch, a 40-year-old associate professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Florida, in Gainesville.

He has sprinkled it on bone, breast, colon cancer, and they have withered before his eyes. He used "largazole" (another cyanobacterium), that doesn't do anything to healthy tissue.

Luesch hopes to have CYANOBACTERIA on the market in 10 years -- that's how long it usually takes to get FDA approval.

What's going on? Scientists have discovered that 60% of drugs are natural products, or mimics of natural products. Advances in technology are making it easier and profitable to hunt for drugs in coral reefs, and deep-sea trenches. And many research teams are experimenting with marine-derived compounds for treating cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, malaria, diabetes, depression, asthma, and other ailments.

There is real hope. Reach for it. Grab it. Hold onto it.

If I've said that before, it's because hope is your fighting spirit and fighting keeps you vigorously alive.