Prolongation of life

Helmont, Jean Baptiste van. Oriatrike, or physick refined. The common errors therein refuted, and the whole art reformed and rectified being a new rise and progress of phylosophy and medicine, for the destruction of diseases and prolongation of life. Written by that most learned, famous, profound, and acute phylosopher, and chymical physitian,. 

Gruman, Gerald J. A history of ideas about the prolongation of life. American Philosophical Society, 1966. 

If the drug proves safe and effective, phase III trials are initiated. (In the context of clinical trials, safe and effective are rarely used in the absolute sense. Safe generally refers to a favourable risk beneht ratio, i.e. the benefits should outweigh any associated risk. A drug is rarely 100 per cent effective in all patients. Thus, an acceptable level of efficacy must be defined, ideally prior to trial commencement. Depending upon the trial context, efficacy could be defined as prevention of death/prolonging of life by a specific time-frame. It could also be defined as alleviation of disease symptoms or enhancement of the quality of life of sufferers (often difficult parameters to measure objectively). An acceptable incidence of efficacy should also be defined (particularly for phase II and III trials), e.g. the drug should be efficacious in, say, 25 per cent of all patients. If the observed incidence is below the minimal acceptable level, then clinical trials are normally terminated. 

Indeed, this last supposition would become increasingly significant to chemistry, but Dewar was premature in pronouncing the end of alchemical goals of transmutation of metals and the prolongation of life through an elixir vitae. 

Percent prolongation of life, except for figures in parentheses which represent percentages of control tumor growth (data from Ref. 14). 

Patients with other types of unresectable cancer also may benefit from chemotherapy, as evidenced by prolongation of life, shrinkage of tumor, and improvement in symptoms. Notable among these are ovarian epithelial and breast carcinomas, oat cell (small cell undifferentiated) carcinoma of the lung, and acute myelocytic leukemia. Cancers that are for the most part resistant to today s agents include melanoma, colorectal and renal carcinomas, and non-oat cell cancers of the lung. 

Radiophosphorus is used in the treatment of patients with a number of diseases, lliis element has a half-life of about 14 days and emits beta rays. It is taken up by die body in the greatest quantity by those tissues which manufacture blood cells. In polycythemia vera, a condition in which too many red blood cells arc formed, the radiation from this isotope often brings about a sufficient suppression of the blood cell-making tissues to alleviate some of the symptoms of the disease. Leukemia patients, in whom there is an excessive production of white cells, are offered added comfort and, m some instances, prolongation of life by the use of radiophosphorus. This element also may be used m treatment of metastatic cancer to the bone and, although the treatment is not used in an attempt to eradicate cancer, it can result in significant palliation of pain in some patients. 

We have also a number of artificial wells and fountains, made in imitation of the natural sources and baths, as tincted upon vitriol, sulphur, steel, brass, lead, nitre, and other minerals and again, we have little wells for infusions of many things, where the waters take the virtue quicker and better than in vessels or basins. And among them we have a water, which we call water of paradise, being by that we do it made very sovereign for health and prolongation of life. 

Therapeutic modalities in cancer treatment may involve surgery, radiation, and/or chemotherapy. The objectives of cancer chemotherapy include (1) cure, (2) reduction in tumor size, and (3) prolongation of life. At the present time, approximately 50 percent of patients with cancer can be cured, with drug treatment estimated to contribute in 17 percent of cases. Cancer chemotherapy can be curative in testicular cancer, diffuse large cell lymphoma, Hodgkin s disease, choriocarcinoma, certain childhood tumors (acute lymphoblastic leukemia, Burkitt s lymphoma, Wilms tumor, and embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma). Certain cancers are more resistant to chemotherapy than others (e.g., lung and colon). 

Metchnikoff, E., The Prolongation of Life, E.P. Putman s Sons, New York, 1907. 

Genentech made headlines in 2004 for a reported 3-6 month prolongation of life in an oncology trial. It gained approval from the FDA. 

J. P. van Helmont, Oriatricke, or Physick Refined, the Common Errors therein Refuted, and the Whole Art Reformed and Rectified Being a New Rise and Progress of Phylosophy and Medicine, for the Destruction of Diseases and Prolongation of Life , Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1648. 

UNIVERSAL MEDICINE — Substances which contribute to the prolongation of life. The best among these are quintessences, extracted from animals, minerals, and vegetables. The perfection of these quintessences consists in their preparation. So much does this vary that it would sometimes seem almost impossible that these essences are extracted from one and the same principle. 

Among other quintessences which officiate in the prolongation of life may be enumerated ... 

Prolongation of life span Male/female white rats C3B10RF1 mice S. cereveacae (yeast) C. elegans F344 X Brown Norway FI rats... 

Despite his negative statements there, Paracelsus affirms in another passage that the mandrake can indeed be produced, even if the natural philosophers and physicians have enveloped it in error. In his work on the prolongation of life, Devita longa (1526/1527), after discussing the theory that pearls are generated from sperm, he says that... 

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