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posts about #cancer more →
Mastectomy Patients Could Soon Regrow Their Own Breasts
Worst Nanotech Threat Isn't Gray Goo - It's Black Lung
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Magicant
11/12/09

In reply to Mastectomy Patients Could Soon Regrow Their Own Breasts
According to Jeremy Piven, soy milk will do the job just fine. #neopec
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Rasselas
11/12/09

In reply to Mastectomy Patients Could Soon Regrow Their Own Breasts
Marzella says that he hopes the technique will someday alleviate at least one aspect of the breast cancer diagnosis....

If the restorative potential of the technique reduces women's fear of being regularly tested and therefore increases early diagnosis and treatment, so much the better. Breast cancer killed a good friend's mother when I was a kid. #neopec
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Bigdamnhero
11/12/09

In reply to Mastectomy Patients Could Soon Regrow Their Own Breasts

"That's amazing!" #neopec
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reddingofish
11/12/09

In reply to Mastectomy Patients Could Soon Regrow Their Own Breasts
If someone in show biz wants it to be used for cosmetic applications it wont be 10 years before it is ready it will be more like 1 year. Money talks. #neopec
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BadUncle
11/12/09

@reddingofish: No kidding. I'm just wondering why the penile equivalent hasn't already hit the market. #neopec
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Daveinva
11/12/09

@reddingofish: THIS. Monetize this procedure, and everyone will benefit.

Especially me. #neopec
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Golem100
11/12/09

@BadUncle: Are you kidding? I used to get emails about penis enhancement all the time. Don't tell me they weren't ahead of the curve with this technology. #neopec
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Dirk Anger
11/13/09

@BadUncle: Well... just think about this: fatty tissue in your penis

Now you can't unthink it, can you? #neopec
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Dr Emilio Lizardo
11/12/09

In reply to Mastectomy Patients Could Soon Regrow Their Own Breasts
Not sure this will work unless the regrown breast is all fat, no ducts. Very few mastectomies are medically necessary. Most are done because the patient wishes to avoid radiation or reduce her risk of developing a new cancer in the future - usually because of a genetic predisposition to breast cancer (BRCA mutation). If there is breast tissue with the patients own genome in it, a new breast would have a risk for breast cancer, negating the benefit of the mastectomy in the first place. #neopec
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AZTriGuy
11/12/09

@Dr Emilio Lizardo: You make a great point. My wife and I have been going through chemo and radiation for her breast cancer that was diagnosed last Christmas. She underwent a partial mastectomy (aka lumpectomy) but has been discussing reconstruction due to the deformity the partial caused. This would be a better solution from the aspect of growing new tissue rather than taking the muscle from the back and bringing it around front to reconstruct the breast, but you make an excellent point about genetics coming into play when still using the woman's DNA. My wife tested negative for the BRCA1 and 2 mutations, so we might be candidates for this, but no one really knows the cause of breast cancer and what other genes could be involved but not yet identified. Most likely the doctor would sit down with a statistical analysis of reappearance in the same way they do currently around chemo and radiation therapies. Of course, they would need history of the testing, re-occurance rates, all that jazz.

Sorry this reply got so long, between my mother having breast cancer 3 years ago and my wife going through it this year, this is a topic that I (unfortunately) know a lot about. #neopec
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Dr Emilio Lizardo
11/12/09

@AZTriGuy: It is rare (but not unheard of) to need reconstruction after lumpectomy - that's why women opt for the lumpectomy. For women like your wife or the occasional woman who can not have a lumpectomy (small tumor, central tumor right near the nipple) but have no higher risk than anyone else, this may be an option. The manufacturer may be dissappointed to find that they can not market this to all 200,000 women with breast cancer in the US each year.

Would those women need radiation of the newly grown breast tissue? Can you grow new breast tissue in a radiated field after mastectomy or lumpectomy? I don't think anybody knows the answer to those quaestions yet. #neopec
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
11/13/09

@AZTriGuy: Hang in there -- you sound like an awesome husband. It runs in my family, so I get it somewhat.

If it was just fat, maybe it wouldn't be a problem -- isn't most cancer in/from the ducts? #neopec
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ManchuCandidate
11/12/09

In reply to Mastectomy Patients Could Soon Regrow Their Own Breasts
First the pig boobs. Next rabbit dicks.

[www.livescience.com] #neopec
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Ruthless, If you let me
11/12/09

@ManchuCandidate: Lauren already covered this [io9.com] #neopec
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josecanUC
11/13/09

@Ruthless, If you let me: These things always come in threes. I'm waiting for the news that labia can now be grown on bat wings. #neopec
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Wookie1972
10/30/09

In reply to Worst Nanotech Threat Isn't Gray Goo - It's Black Lung
I guess Kurzweill's singularity is going to be on hold for awhile. #nanotechnology
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Arryma
10/30/09

In reply to Worst Nanotech Threat Isn't Gray Goo - It's Black Lung
Very interesting. I suppose that if these fibers will migrate to the mesothelium, then they are good candidates to cause mesothelioma. The mechanism for the initiation of meso is poorly understood - it seems strange that inert substances such as silica and carbon could induce cancerous mutations, but somehow that is exactly what happens. #nanotechnology
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Klebert L. Hall
10/30/09

In reply to Worst Nanotech Threat Isn't Gray Goo - It's Black Lung
Carbon nanotubes are more nanomaterial than nanotech.
-Kle. #nanotechnology
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Lightice
10/30/09

@Klebert L. Hall: But nanotech is made out of nanomaterials.

I've read of research into coating the nanotubes with other materials that neutralize the harmful effects though. Better to come up with good solutions before mass-production begins. #nanotechnology
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Klebert L. Hall
10/31/09

@Lightice: Yep; I'm really just being pedantic.
-Kle. #nanotechnology
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lazyeight
10/30/09

In reply to Worst Nanotech Threat Isn't Gray Goo - It's Black Lung
I do have a question - Is that actually a photo of a nanotube? Correct me, but it appears to be a twisted bunch of fibers. Are the individual 'fibers' the tubes in question? Inquiring minds and all that... #nanotechnology
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Tim Barribeau
10/30/09

@lazyeight: Actually, it's a fiber made of carbon nanotubes. It sure is cool looking, though. #nanotechnology
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Pope John Peeps II
10/30/09

In reply to Worst Nanotech Threat Isn't Gray Goo - It's Black Lung
I remember my grandfather passing away from carbon nanotube lung. He'd go down all day into the carbon nanotube mines, chipping away with those tiny, tiny pickaxes, and then coming home to lay awake all night, coughing in a high-tech kinda way. #nanotechnology
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Tomb: R.O.A.C.H.
10/29/09

In reply to Worst Nanotech Threat Isn't Gray Goo - It's Black Lung
didn't find the "carbon nanotube" in the iphone app store. #nanotechnology
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senatormayer
10/29/09

In reply to Worst Nanotech Threat Isn't Gray Goo - It's Black Lung
Oh great. So what your telling me is I've got to expect some new annoying commercials extolling the dangers of carbon nanotubes and mesothelioma? That's fantastic. #nanotechnology
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Bigdamnhero
10/30/09

@senatormayer: Larry H. Parker's already fighting for you. #nanotechnology
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johnconnorjudgementday
10/29/09

In reply to Worst Nanotech Threat Isn't Gray Goo - It's Black Lung
A bunch of factory workers getting cancer is worse than the planet being consumed by nanobots?

I respectfully disagree.
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MissingPieces
10/29/09

@johnconnorjudgementday: No worries! By then we will all be nanobot controlled zombies anyway. You think the H1N1 vaccine is for the flu? It's really a nanobot delivery system! We're all doomed! #nanotechnology
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Aidan_
10/29/09

@johnconnorjudgementday: I don't think it's worse so much as more plausible. #nanotechnology
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Anekanta - former space marine
10/29/09

In reply to Worst Nanotech Threat Isn't Gray Goo - It's Black Lung
This seems like one of the few times in the history that we've known about the health consequences of a new technology before it became widely implemented.

Hopefully this will lead to some new development that gives us the benefit of carbon nanotubes without the health and environmental risks. #nanotechnology
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Makidian
10/29/09

@Anekanta: Thankfully it's such a specific and small thing that the kind of exposure that leads to mesothelioma in this instance would be pretty rare.

Of course that would not be the case if they started making insulation out of carbon nanotubes, so let's hope they go another route in future insulation tech. #nanotechnology
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Dirk Anger
10/30/09

@Makidian: Carbon nanotubes are not exactly specific, they're being tested for pretty much everything, it may sound unreal, but "from space elevators to synthetic muscles to sports equipment" is kind of an understatement, since those applications only use their mechanical properties, but they also have potential to revolutionize electronics, power storage, medicine, thermal insulation, optics, thermic dissipation, medicine... if all the research that's being done right now on them were fruitful, everything we use day to day, except for food could be made with them.

Yeah, I know, all the research is not going to have results, and not all the ones which do are not going to be cost-effective, but they have potential to be more ubiquitous than plastic. #nanotechnology
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