Amazon.com
Curing cancer is medicine's holy grail, and its Sir Galahad might be a quiet Boston researcher. Judah Folkman has spent 40 years studying tumors as a surgeon, and Nova: Cancer Warrior examines his career and exciting breakthroughs. Focusing on the blood vessels that feed tumors rather than the cancer itself, he and his colleagues have made giant steps toward starving the bad cells while keeping the rest of the body healthy. Clinical trials at the University of Wisconsin should offer crucial evidence in living patients; at the same time, lab research is quickly finding newer and better candidates for treatment. Including lab footage, interviews with researchers and patients, and careful explanations of the scientific concepts involved, the program goes far to convince the viewer that safe and effective treatments for cancer may soon be available. --Rob Lightner

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 3 reviews)

Correction

Just read Robert Cook's biography of Judah Folkman, "Dr. Folkman's WAR: Angiogenesis and the Struggle to Defeat Cancer", which was excellent. I was thinking about buying copies for my group to read, a little inspiration never hurts, but then remembered this NOVA program. I haven't seen it since it originally aired, but it impressed me (and my non-scientist significant other) at the time.

By the way, I have to disagree with the previous comment that most approved anti-cancer drugs are statins. Statins are cholesterol lowering drugs, although they may or may not have some anti-cancer activity as well. But they are not approved for cancer. Also, the recently approved drug, Avastin, is not a statin, but a monoclonal antibody targeting VEGF, a key regulator of blood vessel growth in tumors, which you will hear a lot more about in this NOVA episode.
June 27, 2006

Great inspiring material

Clear, inspiring and well narrated. This is the story of Dr. Judah Folkman's quest for a tumor growth inhibitor known as angiostatin.

The results on mouse were perfect. The ten mice the got the inibitor had their tumors resolved, while the ones that did not get the angiostatin had worsening tumors. On humans, it was a different story.. there was some success for some patients, but it was not as easy as a magic drug. Cancer is indeed complex.

However, if you read on the latest cancer drugs approved by the FDA today in 2005, you will find that most of them are statin based. A 10 year study of more than 30,000 men proved that people who take statin drugs to lower cholesterol have a lower prostate cancer risk. Breast cancer also found better numbers with statins.

The FDA just approved Avastin for colon cancer.. again this is a statin based drug.

Great true story.
May 30, 2005

SUPERB!

Fascinating, clear, compelling story of a dedicated scientist and a radical new way to treat cancer. Everyone touched by cancer should see this film.
June 13, 2001

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