Good-Bye Cancer

By AMY ZINIAK FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

PUBLISHED: 9 October 2014

A team of medical researchers are on their way to finding a cure for cancer after the discovery of an
amazing rainforest berry which holds cancer fighting properties.
Scientists at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Queensland have used an experimental
drug produced from the seeds of the rainforest plant, Blushwood tree (Hylandia Dockrillii), which
exclusively grows in far north Queensland, to cure solid cancer tumours in pre-clinical trials. Already
the drug has been used to successfully destroy or shrink tumours in pets and animals – including
dogs, cats and horses and even Tasmanian Devils, while human trials are imminent.
The study led by Dr Glen Boyle found a single injection of the drug EBC-46, which is a compound
extracted from the fruit of the Blushwood tree found in north Queensland rainforests and has been
known to have fast acting medicinal properties, led to rapid breakdown of a range of tumors which
could be effective in human patients. 'We were able to achieve very strong results injecting EBC-46
directly into melanoma models, as well as cancers of the head, neck and colon,' said Dr Boyle.
'In most cases the single injection treatment caused the loss of viability of cancer cells within four
hours, and ultimately destroyed the tumours,' he added. Dr Boyle says EBC-46 works in part by
triggering a cellular response which effectively cuts off the blood supply to the tumour. In more than
70 per cent of pre-clinical cases, the response and cure was long-term and enduring, with very little
relapse over a period of 12 months.'
Dr. Boyle also told ABC News about the use of several models of tumours. 'Including melanoma,
head and neck cancer, colon, prostate cancer, and breast cancer, and it works very well in all of
them. We're looking at around about a 75 per cent ablation rate. The drug can start working
instantly. There's a purpling of the area of the tumour itself, and you see that within five minutes.
You come back the next day and the tumour is black, and come back a few days later and the
tumour has fallen off. ' he said.
Dr. Boyle has also described how the compound works in three ways, killing the tumor, cutting off
blood supply and activating the body's immune system to clean up. However, he points out that
finding the wonder-berry can be difficult because the Blushwood is extremely particular about which
conditions it will grow.
But it was discovered by the Queensland biotechnology company EcoBiotics and is being
developed as a human and veterinarian pharmaceutical through QBiotics which is currently
undertaking formal veterinary clinical trials in Australia and the USA while a final regulatory approval
is still required for a human phase and clinical trial.
'The human trial planning is a work in progress,' said a QBiotics spokesman. 'They have not yet
started trials.'
Dr. Boyle says he is keen to pursue further research to see if this drug could be made more
effective. 'We must stress at this point that EBC-46 will only be trialled in the short-term for tumours
which can be accessed by direct injection or topical application,' Dr Boyle said.
'There is no evidence to suggest EBC-46 would be effective against metastatic cancers.'

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For some people, Mondays are always black days. But for around 1 in 100 people, the days of the
week are very literally seen as - or even associated with smells.

New research from the Australian National University is shedding light on why some people are
more likely to hear colors, see sounds and experience other unusual sensory phenomena, a
condition known as synaesthesia.

Lead researcher from the School of Psychology, Doctor Stephanie Goodhew said many
"synaesthetes" tend to be creative types"Very common stimuli are things like days of the week or
months of the year, that will have particular colors for particular synaesthetes," Dr Goodhew said.
"For somebody the word Tuesday might elicit the color orange, for somebody else it might be green.
They're more likely to be engaged in artistic or creative pursuits, so they'll sort of be over
represented among artists and writers."

Dr Goodhew said synaesthetes have stronger than average connections between different brain
areas, particularly the language part of the brain and the color part of the brain. She said those
connections can lead to a triggering effect, where a stimulus in one part of the brain causes activity
in another.

The ANU research attempted to measure the extent to which people with synaesthesia draw
meaning between words. Dr Goodhew said going into the research, the team predicted that
synaesthetes might have a more concrete style of thinking that does not emphasise conceptual-
level relations between stimuli, given that they have very rigid parings between sensory
experiences.

"We found exactly the opposite," Dr Goodhew said. There are many schools of thought as to why
some people hear or smell colors, while others do not. And while this study does not give any
definitive answers, Dr Goodhew said it did give new weight to the idea synaesthetes were creative
individuals. Dr Goodhew said synaesthesia affected different people in different ways. "One person
reported that smells have certain shapes. For example the smell of fresh air is rectangular, coffee is
a bubbly cloud shape and people could smell round or square," she said. "Some particular
synaesthetes say it's more of an association, something they might see in their mind's eye. And
then there's particular other synaesthetes that really report it as more like a perceptual experience,
something they would actually see in front of them. For example, if they've got word-color
synaesthesia they would tend to have stronger connections between what we think of as the
language and the color areas of the brain. It might be due to these extra connections that potentially
a lot of people have early on in life, but perhaps they sort of die out in most people."

But Dr Goodhew emphasised it was not seen as a condition that people "suffered". It could in fact
have a positive impact, she said. "It's not something like a hallucination, where it would have
generally a negative impact on someone's life," Dr Goodhew said. "Perhaps they see unusual
connections between things that might be a little bit more obscure to the rest of us. Some
synaesthetes report that they can use their experiences advantageously to remember stimuli
better." The research will go toward further understanding the phenomenon, and its causes.