Cancer researcher hopes to mitigate chemo damage

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Chemotherapy helped cure Melinda Dutton's breast cancer, but it left her with a badly damaged heart.Bruce Ogden, who survived prostate cancer that had spread to his bones, lives with feminizing changes to his body from drugs he took to block testosterone that would have accelerated the malignancy.And Sally Coplin is almost totally deaf and can't produce saliva. Radiation treatment caused that, even as it rid her nasal passages of spiderweb-like tumors.Stories like these are what keep stem cell scholar and medical student Joyce Ma up late, mulling theories she hopes will one day make traditional, often toxic cancer therapies obsolete."We are harnessing the power of the human body's ability to heal itself," said Ma, an M.D./Ph.D. candidate at University of California, Davis who has two pending stem cell-related patents. "If we help it recognize the bad cells, the body will take care of the rest."The revolutionary concept is to target and eliminate cells that cause tumors to regrow, without harming healthy tissue.It's esoteric and still in its early stages, for sure, but cancer researchers generally agree that strategies from emerging stem cell science could transform conventional cancer treatment."There has already been an enormous rate of progress in stem cell biology related to cancer, and we expect this to accelerate," said Dr. Arnold Kriegstein, director of the Institute for Regeneration Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.Although doctors and researchers are constantly looking for ways to cut out or kill more tumor cells and minimize collateral damage, principles of conventional therapies are the same as they have been for decades.Chemotherapy's origins lie in the cell-killing properties of mustard gas used in World War I. Today, most of the drugs remain fairly indiscriminate poisons.Radiation therapy damages genetic material in cells so they can't replicate. Although new technologies better aim the radiation, surrounding healthy cells cannot always be spared.In January of 2004, Dutton discovered a lump in her other breast while working in New Orleans. A year later Dutton went into cardiac arrest at an Oregon airport. She was resuscitated by a nurse who happened to have a portable defibrillator.Tests detected an enlarged heart, likely from the chemotherapy.Even with medication to protect the heart muscle, two years later Dutton again suffered cardiac arrest, this time moments before a James Taylor concert.Today, she has a small defibrillator in her chest, which gives her a jolt of electricity when her heart rhythms go awry. Personality changedSally Coplin, 69, believes the long-term effects of life-saving chemotherapy and radiation treatment for nasopharyngeal cancer changed her personality.Before her 1994 diagnosis, she was a vibrant wife and mother, tireless volunteer and globe-trotting scuba diver. Since then, Coplin said, she's felt alienated because of the hearing loss from radiation damage to the cochlea."It's very difficult to be in a crowded room," said the Carmichael, Calif. woman.Radiation treatment also obliterated her salivary glands, the structures around the mouth and throat that produce saliva. The glands make chewing, swallowing and digestion seem like second nature.To prevent dehydration, Coplin always carries a bottle of water. This, too, has created problems in certain places -- including secure areas at airports."They're little things, and you can't dwell on them," she said, smiling. "It's just different."Every day is a giftBruce Ogden, 66, described the pain from cancer as a "toothache all you're your body."In addition to radiation, Ogden received two drugs -- Casodex and Lupron -- which are sometimes used for "chemical castration" of sex offenders.The medications stop production of testosterone. That hormone fuels sex drive but sometimes promotes prostate cancer growth. For Ogden, the side effects were stunning. He gained weight. His breasts grew. He suffered hot flashes day and night. And he lost the blanket of hair on chest, back and legs, only to see it regrow on his head."It really taught me that sympathy is a far easier emotion than empathy," Ogden said.As for the loss of sex drive, he quipped, "You become an accomplished conversationalist."And Ogden's wife, Marlin, herself a cancer survivor, told her husband she wishes she'd kept an unwashed shirt with his musky odor.Quest personal for doctorMa was 4 years old when she started tagging along to the hospital with her mother and older sister, who had stubborn, noncancerous facial tumors that made talking and eating difficult.She had lots of questions for the doctors, who patiently explained to her the concept of cell growth. By fifth grade, Ma was poring over science books, memorizing the periodic table and imagining possible cures for her sister."Every time I see another patient who is sick, I think, 'I have to go back and work harder,' " she said. "The sooner we get this done, how many people will not have to suffer?"(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)