Medical advances don't happen overnight, but often over a lifetime
2:01 a.m. Tuesday, November 7, 2006
Dr. Carmen Guerra hopes curcumin, a substance found in the Indian spice tumeric, can help prevent colon cancer.
"Researchers discovered that colon cancer was lowest in India. They began to logically wonder: what is it about their diet that potentially lowers their risk?" asks Guerra.
She's put together a study to see if 20 years of promising laboratory science will hold up when curcumin is tested in humans.
"It seems that everything points to this being effective, and now we have three international phase one studies showing that it's safe. Let's go ahead and study this," Guerra said.
But getting results may take another 20 years, because her study's answers will likely lead to new questions.
"I think that scientists view their career as something that evolves over decades, not over just the, a few years," says Guerra.
Guerra says she's prepared for a long journey of discovery.
"I think once an investigator finds his or her calling, mine was colon cancer, and colon cancer prevention, we then look at the science. And,how can we take a step forward in the science?" says Guerra.
In the late 1990s, Dr. David Matson thought he's taken that step. For nearly two decades, he'd studied a devastating childhood illness called Rotovirus and been involved in developing a vaccine.
"We've got, what is it, a child dying one per minute, worldwide with rotovirus disease and that's unacceptable," says Dr. Matson.
Fast Facts
- Last year, the biopharmaceutical industry spent about $51.3 billion on drug research and development.
- It can take 30 years or more until a potential beneficial compound is identified, tested and approved for marketing.
- Some researchers spend a good portion of their entire lives searching for answers that lead to treatments or cures.
More information about medical research and drug development can be found at the National Center for Research Resources and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturer's Association.
But a year after the vaccine went to market, it was pulled because of an unforeseen side effect. Another drug company asked Dr. Matson to try again. A safer vaccine was approved this year.
"I was glad to lend my name to their effort and they were glad to find somebody like me," says Dr. Matson.
But years of studying a problem is no guarantee of success. His latest challenge is how to prevent or treat the Cruise Ship Virus.
"I may get out of my research on that virus without any meaningful accomplishments along that line," says Dr. Matson.
The good news is, science is always changing. So researchers years from now may build on what Dr. Matson learns.
"Your belief structure has to change when new information comes along, because that's the only way you're going to make progress, is to give up what you were thinking was the right idea, because that study proves that's not the way to go," says Dr. Matson.
So next time there's a medical discovery, a tip of the hat may be due to generations of scientists who gathered all the clues.
If you are wondering whether eating lots of the Indian spice tumeric can help prevent cancer, Dr. Guerra says probably not. Tumeric adds color and flavor to foods like curry, but contains only a small amount of the key ingrediant she's studying, which is curcumin. Her study participants are taking specially made pills with highly concentrated doses of curcumin.
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