And now for some GOOD news.
There was some good news today, that I think everyone here will agree with, no matter what political stripe. Testing has started on a vaccine for the brain cancer that was responsible for Senators Ted Kennedy and Arlen Specter's death (i.e. Glioblastoma). Other celebrities who died from Glioblastoma include singer Ethel Merman, and composer George Gershwin, movie reviewer Gene Siskel (of Siskel and Ebert fame), and Robert Moog, the inventor of the synthesizer. This horrible disease is responsible for nearly 50 percent of all forms of brain cancer, and has always been fatal.
The first patient in Europe has received the treatment at King's College Hospital in London. Robert Demeger, 62, was diagnosed with the condition earlier this year.The personalised vaccine is designed to teach his body's immune system to fight the tumour cells. King's is one of more than 50 hospitals - the rest are in the US - which are testing the treatment.
More information here.
This follows up a series of wonderful outcomes with a new treatment called targeted cellular therapy, which had yielded some amazing results in new treatments for a variety of cancers including leukemia. This new treatments work by using immune cells from each patient to treat their cancer. New studies have shown promise in cervical and lung cancers, as well as melanoma. Some patients in these studies were literally at death's door, and had dramatic improvement with these treatments. Robert Bazell of NBC News filed a report.