The battle against lethal vectors

The "battle" against cancer.

Downar is to be praised for his brave call to abandon the outmoded language of warfare in the “battle” against cancer. Our job is to help people with cancer survive their illness as well as possible for as long as possible. We do them a terrible disservice by suggesting that their individual strength of character and ability to endure suffering will pull them through. To do so ignores all the e...

The Battle Against COVID-19: Where Do We Stand Now?

Survivin the battle against immunosuppression

Improving on the limited success of cancer immunotherapy requires new approaches to inhibit immunosuppressive pathways initiated by tumor cells to "escape" protective immunity. One unique approach utilizes Salmonella for systemic delivery of inhibitory RNA, targeting the immunosuppressive molecule Stat3, and a Survivin vaccine to suppress growth of aggressive murine tumors.

My battle against gonorrhea.

The familiar white urinals, puce-colored walls, and the queasy odor of disinfectant in M207—the men’s room on the mezzanine floor of the University of Pittsburgh’s medical school. I remember standing in a ragged line of seven young men across from the toilet stalls, pants stripped to my ankles. This was the moment, the crux of the clinical trial, the procedure that had seemed so trivial a few w...

Battle against tobacco.

The increase in the number of tobacco-caused deaths over the last 50 years is one of the most tragic developments in the modern history of medicine. The most common cancers globally are stomach cancer, with 669,400 cases diagnosed each year, and lung cancer with 660,500 new cases yearly (/). Those rates are not stable, however; lung cancer is actually overtaking gastric cancer. This is the situ...