The Pacific Yew tree and chemo

3 down - 1 more to go.

I have one more AC (Red Devil) - chemo treatment left !  

See - it really is RED !!!  It is scary looking and it is a bad mam-a jam-a ...but if it does the job it will killing all those teeny tiny aggessive cancer  cells that may be hiding away in the nooks of my  body.   Not every one can take this chemo...you have to be very strong with a good heart to withstand it.  I tell myself I should be lucky I can take it  (but I dont always feel that way).

Then it is on to my Taxol treatments (I will have 4 of these) ....this is a whole other ballgame, with a different set of rules and side effects.  I am Scarlett O Hara and I will worry about that another day.

A little bit about taxol:

The Pacific Yew tree, which only grows in the Northwestern United States, has received media attention because of its amazing anti-cancer properties. In fact, the miracle anti-cancer drug Taxol, used for treating many varieties of cancer, including mine, was originally derived from its bark.

Taxanes, found in the bark, fight cancer by preventing cancer cells from dividing. Cancer cells reproduce when the parent cell grows small tentacle-like tubes called micro tubules. New cancer cells grow at the ends of the tubules and when they mature, the tubules disintegrate so that the new cells are freed from the parent cell and can reproduce and function on their own. Pacific Yew taxanes, unlike any other anti-cancer drug or substance, actually prevent the disintegration of tubules, so the new cancer cells cannot separate from the parent cells. This paralyzes cell division and the cancer cells eventually die.

IT’S EXOTIC: a cancer drug made from the bark of a yew tree that grows only in a few areas of the Pacific Northwest and gives shelter to the rare northern spotted owl. It’s one of the most expensive drugs ever: Three whole trees produce only enough for a single treatment;

The National Cancer Institute calls it the most promising anticancer compound to come along in 15 years. Industry analysts guess that Bristol-Myers Squibb, so far the clear leader in taxol development, could turn it into a $500 million to $1 billion product annually by the end of the decade. That would make it the biggest-selling cancer drug ever.

Chemical Research in Boulder, Colorado, which has a contract to collect yew bark and extract raw taxol from it. Bristol-Myers has largely locked up the domestic supply of trees through an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, and it has won ”orphan drug” status for taxol as an ovarian cancer treatment from the Food and Drug Administration.

Currently, all paclitaxel production uses plant cell fermentation technology developed by the biotechnology company Phyton Biotech and carried out at their plant in Germany. This starts from a specific Taxus cell line propagated in aqueous medium in large fermentation tanks. Paclitaxel is then extracted directly, purified by chromatography and isolated by crystallization. Compared to the semisynthesis, PCF eliminates the need for many hazardous chemicals and saves a considerable amount of energy.