Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

Drug that ‘melts away’ tumours could replace surgery for bowel cancer, say doctors | Bowel cancer | The Guardian

A “gamechanger” immunotherapy drug that “melts away” tumours dramatically increases the chances of curing bowel cancer and may even replace the need for surgery, doctors have said.

Pembrolizumab targets and blocks a specific protein on the surface of immune cells that then seek out and destroy cancer cells.

Giving the drug before surgery instead of chemotherapy led to a huge increase in patients being declared cancer-free, a clinical trial found. The results were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the world’s largest cancer conference.

The study was led by University College London, University College London hospital, the Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester, St James’s University hospital in Leeds, University hospital Southampton and the University of Glasgow.

Source: Drug that ‘melts away’ tumours could replace surgery for bowel cancer, say doctors | Bowel cancer | The Guardian

♫ Only The Lonely ♫ (Redux) | Filosofa’s Word

This is a sad song, and given the multiple tragedies in Orbison’s life (his wife died in a car accident, his home burned down, killing two of his sons) one might think this song was a product of his personal sadness.  But, according to Roy Orbison, you’d be wrong …

“I’ve always been very content when I wrote all those songs. By this I’m saying that a lot of people think you have to live through something before you can write it, and that’s true in some cases, but I remember the times that I was unhappy or discontent, and I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t communicate, and I certainly couldn’t write a song, no way. All the songs I wrote that were successful were written when I was in a contented state of mind.”

Roy Orbison wrote this with his songwriting partner Joe Melson, but intended to offer the song to either Elvis Presley or the Everly Brothers, but the Everly Brothers persuaded Orbison that he should cut it himself.  I think the story of how Orbison and Melson hooked up is fun …

After several years without much success in the music business, and sharing a tiny apartment with his wife and new baby, Roy Orbison had taken to sitting in his car to write songs when, in 1958, his acquaintance Joe Melson tapped on the car window and suggested they collaborate. – Wikipedia

This song reached in the UK and in the U.S.

Only the Lonely
Roy Orbison

Source: ♫ Only The Lonely ♫ (Redux) | Filosofa’s Word