Living Proof

So, to anyone who has access to the Lifetime Channel, I have a viewing recommendation. I had DVR'd their new movie a week or so ago and finally sat down today to watch it. Living Proof stars Harry Connick Jr. and a plethora of famous females in various roles. It is based on the book, Her-2, which I read in graduate school. Both the book and the movie describe the story of Dr. Slamon, a researcher and oncologist at UCLA who is working on what he believes can be really the first big breast cancer drug. Other than surgery and chemotherapy, there was nothing else doctors could do to help women with breast cancer. Dr. Slamon designed the drug, Her-2 neu (marketed as Herceptin) based on the theory that 1/3 of breast cancers express a protein called Her-2. It is a growth factor that aids the uncontrolled growth of the cancer cells. He thought that if he could grow an antibody targeted to the Her-2 protein, it would block the growth signals of the cancer cells. While it would not be a cure, this would be a treatment that would give women with Her-2 expressing cancers a chance. (Her-2 breast cancers are fast-growing and do not respond well to chemo- essentially a death sentence prior to Herceptin.) While I encourage people to watch this movie, definitely bring your tissues. The world of drug trials is not pretty and I found myself crying both when women succeeded and when Dr. Slamon had to inform some women that they couldn't be included in the trial. And of course, as a researcher myself, I cried when he finally succeeded. This is pretty much what every researcher dreams of- discovering or designing something that saves lives. So, if you get a chance- watch it. The science is for the most part given in simplified terminology, and obviously things are omitted in order to make it watchable and understandable to your average viewer. But, the way people came together to raise money, get participants for the trials, and get this drug approved really shows what is possible in cancer research (and other research for that matter) if we could all just work together for the common good.