February 3, 2023
Chemo number 7, over half way through! Today I began thinking about all the people who have made treatment possible for me.
Dennis Slaman MD fought so hard to bring us all Herceptin. Before his invention women with Her + received a grim prognosis.
I think about Taxol (paclitaxel), originally derived from the bark of the Pacific Yew tree. The beginning of the story was way back in the early 1960’s when the USDA sent workers out to collect samples from 35,000 plants to investigate medicinal potential. Amazing to think they looked at SO many and among them, the bark of the Pacific Yew came to light as a cancer fighter. It was work by Mansuker Wani and Monroe Wall in 1962 that made this discovery possible. It was not until 1977 that Dr. Susan Horowitz was able to define the mechanism that the bark extract used to halt cancer growth.
YEARS of research, likely dozens of doctors, lab assistants and institutions worked to give us a usable treatment. One difficulty that arose that while the bark extract was promising for cancer therapy, the tree itself is slow growing and removing the bark would kill it. Eventually, more researchers found that precursors of Taxol were found in the needles of the more common Yew plant and those precursors could be used to chemically synthesize the active drug Taxol.
Marrie Curie had to seek education illegally and was denied a teaching job because she was born a woman. She was the only woman to receive two nobel prizes in two different fields of science. Marrie Curie gave her life to contribute to millions of others when she and her husband discovered the potential of radiation.
Curiousity. Diligence. Perseverence. Compassion. Dedication. Precision. Hope. Success.
We are not alone. All of us have an ARMY of humans fighting the fight with us. Simply miraculous. Millions of people working in the health field saving us. Dealing with the worst of us with a smile of their faces and no sleep. I will forever be grateful for scientists, researchers, and health care professionals who made it possible to treat cancer.
I wonder if that one USDA worker that sampled that first Pacific Yew ever knew the impact that act would have? I hope they do. I am eternally grateful.
I am also super excited about these new massage chairs! Feeling fancy!
