The White House spokesman’s cancer has returned and spread to his liver. Given the staggering progress that mankind has made in controlling the world and our own bodies, to feel as powerless as we often are against this illness is maddening.
For a review of some recent advances, seethis post that I put up during Jane Hamsher’s fight.
Mary
That’s awful for anyone. I wish him well.
Tsulagi
Can’t stand the sucker personally, but I wouldn’t wish that on anyone nor the heartache it causes for their family.
My mom had her own fight with cancer. A very aggressive one that required multiple surgeries, radiation, intravenous chemo courses, etc. It was very tough on her, my dad, and of course the rest of the family as well.
But, she is now seven years cancer free. According to her primary oncologist he sees no reason now why she won’t have a normal life expectancy. She won. We won. So there can be happy endings.
grumpy realist
Look at some of the new nanotech-based cancer drugs, now approaching human trials. So far in animal testing we’ve seen 100% cure, no side effects.
I’m going to take a stand here and say that we will see eradication of at least one type of cancer within 5 years. I’ll stick my neck out even further and say cancer will become a “nuisance” rather than a death penalty within 15 years.
Zifnab
After all the accumulated crap FOX and this Administration have put this country through… I’m sorry, but I just can’t feel bad for the man.
Call me an ass or whatever, but I’m not going to pretend to have sympathy for that prick, especially in the wake of the “Why doesn’t Elizabeth Edwards just curl up and die in a corner where we can’t see her?” fest the right-wing radio (and to a lesser extent Katie Couric) has been vomitting up for the past few days.
Jimmmm
I’m rooting for Tony. Much as I despise his performance as a Fox anchor and Bush’s mouthpiece, I gotta say that, after meeting him in the FOX News greenroom (while waiting with a client), he came across as a bright and genuine person.
I hope he beats his illness, and does something worthwhile with the remainder of his life (which I pray is long).
Mary
But Zifnab, Tony Snow himself was very gracious about Elizabeth Edwards. I don’t think it was his own imminent surgery staring him in the face that made him act decently. I’m giving him some serious slack.
nobody
My sympathies to Mr. Snow and his friends and family.
I hope his political allies have the good grace to consider just how fortunate Mr. Snow is to not be one of the 40+ million americans without health insurance during this battle.
Facing cancer is tough enough, facing cancer and financial ruin… no one should have to do that.
The Other Steve
I hope he has good health insurance.
And I’m hoping grumpy realist is right that we’re making breakthrus towards fighting cancer.
grumpy realist
It’s getting close enough that I’m keeping eyes on the bionanotech industry in Wisconsin for possible investment.
Take a look at nano.cancer.gov for all the dope that’s going on in the area.
Punchy
I’d like Tim’s take on this, but I’d say no way. As fast as medicine works, it’ll never catch up. The cell is such a ridiculously complex “machine”, that there’s too many sites of mechanical breakdown. If they do identify more medicinally-manipulatable bottleneck points on the way from normal to oncogenic that many cancers must go thru, or huge advances on imposing apoptosis on just oncogenic cells (again, how a med would diffentiate between onco and normal is a HUGE research undertaking; this lack of specificity is the reason chemo drugs are so damaging), then perhaps a few cancers can be controlled/eliminated.
Consider that for many cancers, there’s a trigger…say, a chemical. Many more chemicals in the enviro now than ever, and more in the future. More in our food, air, water, and basement. The fine line between acceptable and toxic levels of mercury is razor thin; cancer rates are sure to stay unacceptably high.
As for Tony….wow. Anytime cancer returns, it’s nearly always fatal. Tumors become resistant to chemo drugs attempted a second time as they ramp up efflux transporters like MDR1 and MRP2…this must be devestating.
Mike S
Unfortunately, that only makes you as bad as they are. Do you really want to be the left’s equivalent to Rush, Big Pahrma, Limbaugh?
demimondian
Don’t we wish. Unfortunately, it isn’t that simple.
Or, perhaps, it is, in an even worse way. There’s a trigger, all right — it’s called “cellular activity”. The only reason we don’t have cancers all the time is that most of our cells never replicate, and we can use them to provide monitoring for the cells which do.
canuckistani
I hope he recovers, and I hope he learns some new compassion for those without health insurance on the way.
grumpy realist
That’s why the National Cancer Institute is working towards intervening at earlier points in the process. You want to nip cancer when it’s very small clumps. Better tracking of the production of “cancer hot spots” within the body, ability to inject medicine or treatment assistance that is preferentially carried by the bloodstream to the cancer cell, molecular recognition of the proteins associated with cancer.
The problem with present cancer drugs is that they’re not specific enough and end up poisoning the “good cells” as well as the cancerous ones. We’re talking about “intelligent drugs” here, guys.
One example, still very crude, is the coating of gold nanoparticles with specific antibodies. Injected into the bloodstream of a rat with tumors, they were preferentially attracted to the tumors and coating them. At that point the rat was zapped with low-level microwave radiation, which fried the tumors (and left healthy tissue alone.) 100% success.
Oregonian
I think that’s right on the money. I wish Mr. Snow well and I hope he fully recovers, but I also hope that he and GWB get some polite but firm questions about health care policy in the coming weeks.
Here’s one question that reporters could toss out to the shrub at his next press conference: From what we currently know, Tony Snow’s cancer was only found because he and his doctors decided to have surgery and remove a growth “out of an aggressive sense of caution.” Given that result, is it still your opinion that Americans currently have “too much” health insurance?
Punchy
Uh…what? Most of our cells replicate. Nerve and muscle cells dont. That’s about it. Everything else does, and thus the incredible amount of cancers.
No, cellular activity by itself doesn’t normally cause cancer. It takes a mutagen or replicative error (usually caused by a exogenous source) in the DNA to cause later problems in resplicing, truncation, or otherwise alteration of a protein’s secondary and tertiary structure to become an oncogenic protein.
ThymeZone
I have bashed Mr. Snow at every turn here, but this is sad and unnerving news, and in such situations, politics seems pretty trivial compared to what he is going through now.
I hope for the best for him.
CDB
I hope his insurance is cancelled. Just like what an average American can expect. I hope he survives, but it bankrupts him.
ed
The three year survival rate for liver cancer is less than 10%. This is not good at all. My wife died three years ago from liver cancer and you don’t wish this on your worst enemy. Godspeed, Tony Snow.
p.lukasiak
From what we currently know, Tony Snow’s cancer was only found because he and his doctors decided to have surgery and remove a growth “out of an aggressive sense of caution.”
what health insurance plan covers surgery that is performed not because it is absolutely necessary, but “out of an agressive sense of caution”?
Like others here, I hope he is able to beat this, and return to his job — at the same time, I hope that this can be used as another moment where the GOP can be educated about the importance of health care availability for ALL Americans…
but I’m not holding my breath.
Enlightened Layperson
I am glad t hear of all the latest advances in treating cancer. However, by all accounts, when cancer reaches the liver it is very bad indeed.
Shabbazz
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve yelled at this guy as he blathered away on my TV about rhetoric that was demonstrably false. It drives me absolutely crazy. Bat-shit crazy. “Stop peddling that shit, ’cause no one in their right mind is buying it!”
But I wish him no ill-will on a personal level and hope he lives his remaining days with a newly found sense of importance — however long that may be.
semper fubar
He was a piece of shit republican operative white house shill liar contributing to the demise of our country and spreading misery to the rest of the world before, and he’s a piece of shit republican operative white house shill liar contributing to the demise of our country and spreading misery to the rest of the world now. Except now he has cancer.
Jon H
Am I a bad person for thinking this was all manufactured by Rove to take the air out of the Edwards’ announcement, and Snow is kicking back in Samoa?
Jon H
Anyone know how many people in the White House got cancer during the Clinton administration?
It seems like an awful lot of Bushies have had it.
Jimmm
Yes, Jon, you are. But Rove bears part of the responsibility, because no matter how bad we think he is, he ends up proving that he’s worse.
That said, I again wish Tony well. The odds are stacked against him, but I hope he beats them. Like I said before: a decent guy doing the devil’s work. Maybe his return to health will focus on the need to make health care available to all, and not to just a few.
On another topic. I’ve no desire to wade into the fever swamp until I’ve had my shots, so can anyone here recall the RedStaters’ and Little Green Goofballers’ reactions when Jane Hamsher had her most recent recurrance. I recollect a lot of boot-on-the-back/see ya in Hell types of sentiments.
Digital Amish
I hope things work out for Tony however the universe intends them to work out. My first thought when I heard this bit of news was to wonder who the White House will replace him with. Ari — Scott — Tony — ? The trend leads me to look for one of the hackier tools from Red State or Powerline.
Jon H
“The trend leads me to look for one of the hackier tools from Red State or Powerline.”
Red State? Never work. The fool would just stand there answering every question with “Blam! See ya!” and crazy laughter.
Richard 23
You are an ass or whatever.
It’s always politics with the left.
You are a sick, sick person. I wouldn’t wish such a thing on my worst enemy. Well, Osama bin Laden maybe.
Yes you are. Congratulations on being the most repulsive person in this thread.
Redleg
Richard23,
I agree with your sentiments but it’s not fair to say “it’s always politics with the left.” You used your criticism of one jerkoff commentator to slam all of us on the left. I’m almost suprised you didn’t bring up Bill Clinton.
Wise up.
CDB
Richard 23 –
Bankruptcy? You wouldn’t wish Bankruptcy on your worst enemy? If an average American, or a current Circut City employee, were to get Cancer they would most likely have to claim Bankruptcy as a result.
Richard 23
CDB, you said you hoped he loses his insurance and is bankrupted by his illness. Look further up the thread and you’ll see your words quoted in their entirety. Now you’re backpedalling and claiming you only hope he files for bankruptcy. Dishonest to the core.
Rather than experience empathy and proclaim that you hope he recovers, you want more bad things to happen. Congratulations on being the second most repulsive person in this thread.
Redleg, Clinton has nothing to do with this. It’s silly for you even to bring your hero into this. As for “the left” comment, do you see any on the right crowing over Snow’s illness? No. The illness is on the left side of the aisle. Maybe not you, but some of your fellow travellers see this is Tony getting what he deserves. And it’s despicable.
Jon H
Hey, look at the bright side – maybe Snow will turn to marijuana to sooth his pain, and then get busted by the Bush DEA.
Redleg
Richard23,
You conveniently ignored my point that some on the right also engage in politics uber alles. I guess you didn’t get that point, however, because you were too busy painting all of us liberals with the same brush. By the way, Clinton is not one of my heroes.
And I have seen SOME on the right crow about illnesses and other mishaps that have befallen liberals. Are you just another cheap imitation of Michelle Malkin or Ann Coulter who denies that there is plenty shitty behavior coming out of the righwing and sees all sickness and evil as emanating from the left?