After a Leukemia doctor and researcher develops the disease himself, he finds an effective treatment when his colleagues sequence his cancer genome:
Dr. Wartman’s doctors realized then that their last best hope for saving him was to use all the genetic know-how and technology at their disposal.
After their month of frantic work to beat cancer’s relentless clock, the group, led by Richard Wilson and Elaine Mardis, directors of the university’s genome institute, had the data. It was Aug. 31.
The cancer’s DNA had, as expected, many mutations, but there was nothing to be done about them. There were no drugs to attack them.
But the other analysis, of the cancer’s RNA, was different. There was something there, something unexpected.
“Genetic Gamble: New Approaches to Fighting Cancer.” — A three-part series by The New York Times on the new frontier of cancer treatment.
• Part One: “In Treatment for Leukemia, Glimpses of the Future”
• Part Two: “A New Treatment’s Tantalizing Promise Brings Heartbreaking Ups and Downs”
• Part Three: “A Life-Death Predictor Adds to a Cancer’s Strain”
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[Part One of “Genetic Gamble: New Approaches to Fighting Cancer.”] After a Leukemia doctor and researcher develops the disease himself, he finds an effective treatment when his colleagues sequence his cancer genome:
“Dr. Wartman’s doctors realized then that their last best hope for saving him was to use all the genetic know-how and technology at their disposal.
“After their month of frantic work to beat cancer’s relentless clock, the group, led by Richard Wilson and Elaine Mardis, directors of the university’s genome institute, had the data. It was Aug. 31.
“The cancer’s DNA had, as expected, many mutations, but there was nothing to be done about them. There were no drugs to attack them.
“But the other analysis, of the cancer’s RNA, was different. There was something there, something unexpected.”
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Published: Jul 7, 2012
Length: 10 minutes (2,697 words)
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Longreads Pick
[Part Two of “Genetic Gamble: New Approaches to Fighting Cancer.”] Genetic sequencing has led to promising new treatments for cancer, but we still have a ways to go:
“Scientists had compared the entire genetic sequences of the tumor cells invading her body with those in her healthy cells, searching for mutated tumor genes that could be thwarted by drugs approved for other cancers or even other diseases. That had led them to give her an expensive drug approved just a month earlier for melanoma patients. It had never been given to anyone with a blood cell cancer like hers. In theory, the drug should have killed her. Instead, it seemed to have halted or even reversed her cancer.
“But would it last? And what would it mean if it did not?”
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Published: Jul 8, 2012
Length: 10 minutes (2,590 words)
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In Atlanta, a drug dealer is asked to become a confidential informant for cops in a narcotics unit. He ends up turning them in when the officers try to cover up a botched drug bust that ends up killing an innocent woman:
You made a buy today for us,’ Smith explained. ‘Two $25 baggies of crack.’
‘I did?’ White asked. It took him a moment to register. ‘O.K. Who did I buy it from?’
‘Dude named Sam.’ Smith described the imaginary seller, told how Sam had taken his money then walked White to the back of the house and handed him the drugs as Smith and a fellow officer, Arthur Tesler, watched from a car across the street.
‘O.K.,’ White said. ‘Where?’
Smith said: ‘933 Neal Street. I’ll call you later.’
Now in the living room, the TV reporter was saying how a 92-year-old woman had died in the incident, and people were suggesting that the police had shot her. Two and two came together in White’s mind. They did it, he suddenly knew. They messed up. They killed that old lady. Now his heart pounded as the implications became clear. And they want me to cover for them.
“A Snitch’s Dilemma.” — Ted Conover, New York Times Magazine
More #longreads about drugs
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In Atlanta, a drug dealer is asked to become a confidential informant for cops in a narcotics unit. He ends up turning them in when the officers try to cover up a botched drug bust that ends up killing an innocent woman:
“‘You made a buy today for us,’ Smith explained. ‘Two $25 baggies of crack.’
“‘I did?’ White asked. It took him a moment to register. ‘O.K. Who did I buy it from?’
“‘Dude named Sam.’ Smith described the imaginary seller, told how Sam had taken his money then walked White to the back of the house and handed him the drugs as Smith and a fellow officer, Arthur Tesler, watched from a car across the street.
“‘O.K.,’ White said. ‘Where?’
“Smith said: ‘933 Neal Street. I’ll call you later.’
“Now in the living room, the TV reporter was saying how a 92-year-old woman had died in the incident, and people were suggesting that the police had shot her. Two and two came together in White’s mind. They did it, he suddenly knew. They messed up. They killed that old lady. Now his heart pounded as the implications became clear. And they want me to cover for them.“
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Published: Jun 29, 2012
Length: 30 minutes (7,688 words)
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How the upcoming Mexican presidential election could impact the drug war in cities like Guadalajara:
Weary of pantallas, I tried to get to the bottom of a single bust—the ‘historic’ meth-lab raid in Tlajomulco that confiscated some four billion dollars’ worth of drugs. Were the drugs seized really worth that much? Well, no. The more experts I consulted, the lower the number sank. Maybe it was a billion, if the meth was pure. Then was it really fifteen tons of ‘pure meth.’ as widely reported? Well, no. There had been some confusion. There were precursor chemicals. A lot of equipment—gas tanks, reactors. Maybe it was eleven pounds of pure meth. Eleven pounds? Nobody wanted to speak on the record, but the spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office in Guadalajara, a young man named Ulises Enríquez Camacho, finally said, ‘Yes, five kilos.’ Eleven pounds. The fifteen tons had been methamphetamine ready for packing, according to the Army. But it was not ‘a finished product,’ and there had been only five kilos of crystal. In the U.S., where meth is often sold by the gram, that amount might be worth five hundred thousand dollars. So the reported value had been inflated by a factor of eight thousand?
“The Kingpins.” — William Finnegan, The New Yorker
More by Finnegan
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How the upcoming Mexican presidential election could impact the drug war in cities like Guadalajara:
“Weary of pantallas, I tried to get to the bottom of a single bust—the ‘historic’ meth-lab raid in Tlajomulco that confiscated some four billion dollars’ worth of drugs. Were the drugs seized really worth that much? Well, no. The more experts I consulted, the lower the number sank. Maybe it was a billion, if the meth was pure. Then was it really fifteen tons of ‘pure meth.’ as widely reported? Well, no. There had been some confusion. There were precursor chemicals. A lot of equipment—gas tanks, reactors. Maybe it was eleven pounds of pure meth. Eleven pounds? Nobody wanted to speak on the record, but the spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office in Guadalajara, a young man named Ulises Enríquez Camacho, finally said, ‘Yes, five kilos.’ Eleven pounds. The fifteen tons had been methamphetamine ready for packing, according to the Army. But it was not ‘a finished product,’ and there had been only five kilos of crystal. In the U.S., where meth is often sold by the gram, that amount might be worth five hundred thousand dollars. So the reported value had been inflated by a factor of eight thousand?”
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Published: Jun 25, 2012
Length: 40 minutes (10,206 words)
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How Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, led by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, became a global, multibillion-dollar drug trafficking business:
Known as El Chapo for his short, stocky frame, Guzmán is 55, which in narco-years is about 150. He is a quasi-mythical figure in Mexico, the subject of countless ballads, who has outlived enemies and accomplices alike, defying the implicit bargain of a life in the drug trade: that careers are glittering but brief and always terminate in prison or the grave. When Pablo Escobar was Chapo’s age, he had been dead for more than a decade. In fact, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, Chapo sells more drugs today than Escobar did at the height of his career. To some extent, this success is easily explained: as Hillary Clinton acknowledged several years ago, America’s “insatiable demand for illegal drugs” is what drives the clandestine industry. It’s no accident that the world’s biggest supplier of narcotics and the world’s biggest consumer of narcotics just happen to be neighbors. “Poor Mexico,” its former president Porfirio Díaz is said to have remarked. “So far from God and so close to the United States.”
“Cocaine Incorporated.” — Patrick Radden Keefe, The New York Time Magazine
More Keefe
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How Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, led by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, became a global, multibillion-dollar drug trafficking business:
“Known as El Chapo for his short, stocky frame, Guzmán is 55, which in narco-years is about 150. He is a quasi-mythical figure in Mexico, the subject of countless ballads, who has outlived enemies and accomplices alike, defying the implicit bargain of a life in the drug trade: that careers are glittering but brief and always terminate in prison or the grave. When Pablo Escobar was Chapo’s age, he had been dead for more than a decade. In fact, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, Chapo sells more drugs today than Escobar did at the height of his career. To some extent, this success is easily explained: as Hillary Clinton acknowledged several years ago, America’s ‘insatiable demand for illegal drugs’ is what drives the clandestine industry. It’s no accident that the world’s biggest supplier of narcotics and the world’s biggest consumer of narcotics just happen to be neighbors. ‘Poor Mexico,’ its former president Porfirio Díaz is said to have remarked. ‘So far from God and so close to the United States.'”
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Published: Jun 15, 2012
Length: 31 minutes (7,815 words)
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A reflection on a mother’s life, and how advancements in medicine have extended our life expectancy, and have made it more difficult for us to die:
ME: ‘Maybe you could outline the steps you think we might take.’
DOCTOR: ‘Wait and see.’
NEUROLOGIST: ‘Monitor.’
DOCTOR: ‘Change the drugs we’re using.’
MY SISTER: ‘Can we at least try to get a physical therapist, someone who can work her legs, at least. I mean … if she does improve, she’s left without being able to walk.’
NEUROLOGIST: ‘They’ll have to see if she’s a candidate.’
ME: ‘So … okay … where can you reasonably see this ending up?’
NEUROLOGIST: ‘We can help you look at the options.’
ME: ‘The options?’
SOCIAL WORKER (to my sister): ‘Where she might live. We can go over several possibilities.’
ME: ‘Live?’
“A Life Worth Ending.” — Michael Wolff, New York magazine
More from Wolff
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