I’m not qualified to make such a claim, of course, but maybe some knowledgeable researchers who are would go so far as to say such a thing. There’s a bit of hyperbole in that statement, but it’s an eye-catching way to point out a new discovery that could be a really significant development in the long term, for blood-cancer patients.
According to an article the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society has been sending around, Silvestrol is a compound derived from “a plant called Aglaia foveolata, which is native to Indonesia, Brunei, and Malaysia.”
Rather than attacking a certain well-known cancer-causing gene, this stuff prevents it from being produced at all.
The tree is an endangered species, whose habitat is threatened by development.
An older article, chronicling the substance’s discovery, is here.
There’s more on the website of Memorial Sloan-Kettering (which is where Silvestrol’s treatment potential is being investigated)). “Blocking the production of key cancer genes is a completely new way of treating cancer,” says Dr. Hans-Guido Wendel, a Memorial Sloan-Kettering cancer biologist. “That is exciting, and it also means we have a lot to learn about it.”
I will likely be years before any patients can be treated with this new drug, but its discovery is certainly something to celebrate.
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