From Tripping over the Truth, by Travis Christofferson:
Quote:
Dr. Thomas Seyfried earlier in his career was interested in gangliosides (found in the outer membrane of cells where they act to relay signals). Seyfried found an English company that discovered a unique compound that inhibited the formation of certain gangliosides. He was able to obtain some samples and started testing them how they would influence brain development. He gave it to mice with brain tumors out of pure curiosity and to his surprise, the drug appeared to slow the growth of tumors in comparison to the control group!
Eureka! The company was immediately notified as to a possible cancer cure with this new compound!
“Unfortunately, the truth eventually came out when they noticed the mice treated, also lost weight. Accordingly, Seyfried had the control mice group’s diet changed to cause them to lose the same amount of weight, too. To everybody’s surprise, the tumors slowed in the control mice. The drug was just causing the mice to lose their appetite, mimicking caloric restriction. Seyfried said, “I had to call the company back and tell them their drug didnt work.” The strange results raised another question: why would restricting calories slow tumor growth? The observations made Seyfried wonder if other known anticancer drugs might be operating through the same mechanism, unknown to the developers. He begin testing other drugs, and it turned out that many of them did, including ImClone’s ERBITUX (the drug known from the Martha Steward insider trading scandal). Many of these drugs were doing nothing but making mice lose their appetites. It was the reduced calories that had the anti-tumor effect. “