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<p>Dear Plamen and FIS Colleagues,</p>
<p>Finally I could find some spare time for the paper you mentioned.
It is very interesting. The analysis of hydrophobic profiles for
proteins shows rather unexpectedly a power law (self similar) scaling--self
organized criticality (SOC). How much hydrophobic the protein
becomes seems to be subject to Darwinian evolution in the
relationship with its target in the host. For instance, in the
virulence of Influenza and other types. Yes, it looks as if a new
analytical tool can be incorporated to the existing plethora of
biomolecular/biophysical/bioinformatic medical resources. <br>
</p>
<p>I have serious doubts, however, that the formidable claim in the
title "SOC: A Prophetic Path to Curing Cancer" has any chance to
be realized. Although not being a biomedical expert in cancer at
all, I think that the NDV oncolytic virus --the proposed magic
tool-- has not proved its general efficacy for all tumors and
metastasis. I mean just in vitro. The complexity of cancer types,
of cancer ecologies, and of the interactions with the immune
system, suggest that "massive doses by arterial injection" as the
author proposes might never be dreamed of for any clinical trial.
Given the complete lack of evidence, no ethical committee would
devote more than 5 seconds to consider the issue.<br>
</p>
<p>Let me reiterate that the the analysis of hydrophobic profiles
looks very interesting, but directly jumping to prophetic cures of
cancer... Some years ago, a mathematician also claimed that
incorporating non-linearity analysis in the timing of anti-cancer
combined therapies, tremendous advancements could be achieved.
After the media immediate uproar, the final conclusion was that
only in a few cases there could be an improvement of the
treatment.</p>
<p>So, as you Plamen were pointing some days ago, medicine is very
important for us, a matter of life or death, of deep knowledge and
high anxiety. That means that withing the messiness of the whole
disciplines and informal practices involved, there always be
quacks and prophets playing with wild cards, trumping the
credulity of people for self-promotion or for marketing reasons.
It is chilling that entire practices in industrialized medicine
may be regularly caught into those blind games. But it is not only
medicine, our scientific technological civilizations are blind in
so many regards!</p>
<p>All the best-- Pedro <font size="+2"><font size="+2"> </font><br>
</font></p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
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Pedro C. Marijuán
Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group
Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud
Centro de Investigación Biomédica de Aragón (CIBA)
Avda. San Juan Bosco, 13, planta X
50009 Zaragoza, Spain
Tfno. +34 976 71 3526 (& 6818)
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.es">pcmarijuan.iacs@aragon.es</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/">http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/</a>
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