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Tony Glavan has joined the effort that
may lead to a possible cancer vaccine after being diagnosed with low-grade
B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, an incurable cancer of the lymph system. Now the
46-year-old Medtronic analyst technician has become the first person in the
upper Midwest to test a new vaccine developed for him from his own tumor cells.
Researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.,
are hoping that the new vaccine will cause Glavan's immune system to identify
the cancer cells as invaders and destroy them. It wasn't until his cancer had
progressed enough to need treatment that Glavan finally contacted the Mayo
Clinic, where physicians extracted cells from his tumors and sent them to a
California biotechnology firm
called Genitope that converted the cells into a personalized vaccine. Glavan
then underwent the first of eight chemotherapy sessions in an effort to
initially kill as many cancer cells as possible. In January, he began the first
series of vaccine and human growth factor injections in a program that would
last seven months. He hopes the vaccine will convert his cancer into a chronic
disease--one that can be controlled.
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OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR
LEGAL ADVICE. THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND
COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH
YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.
"A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth."
-- Albert Einstein, letter to a friend, 1901
"I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education."
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to William C. Jarvis, September 28, 1820
"What's the point of vaccination if it doesn't protect you from the unvaccinated?"
-- Sandy Gottstein
"Who gets to decide what the greater good is and how many will be sacrificed to it?"