electricity. and it is going to happen. his most provocative idea though centers on how cancers may become met static. he believes chemotherapy works best when administered in frequent low doses. and that in some cancer the traditional method of blasting a tumor with heavy doses of chemotherapy is counter productive because it could induce them to enter the bloodstream and find a new home. it s on move. it s on move. it s looking for another place to land. so circulating tumor cells in the blood is the next frontier. so those are the sick tumor cells. that s incredible. if cancer spreads, the hikelihood of survival decreases dramatically. so before individual rogue cancer cells fan out and form new tumors, he wants to detect them with what are known as liquid biopsies. a person s blood samples put through this bio chip that separates normal blood cells from heavier circulating tumor
less, people live longer as a result of surgery, and when the cancer spreads, the quality of life is a nightmare. the study was randomized, something we may not be able to do in the u.s. you can t tell one guy we re going to do watchful waiting and another one so they did it. it s randomized. 23 years of follow up, great study, and it tells you surgery is superior to watchful waiting. gregg: yeah. you ve got to keep an eye on your psa, regularly have that tested. you do robotics surgery, right? that s right. gregg: you re at top of your field, highly regarded. thank you. gregg: robotics surgery is really the way to go? so, look, i would say in the hands of again, it s your experience. who s the person behind these robots? this is what i do day in and day out. i also protect my patients meaning there are people right near where i work that may run two, three rooms at the same time. i think that s bad medicine. one patient at a time, you need to be a good oncologist. if you hav
doing some wonderful work on it and it seems to be sort of the key as how cancer spreads and starts. we re not actually looking at the cancer, which is what s so innovative about this approach. your body s immune system is altered any time the cancer continues to grow in the body. so we re looking at a population of suppressive immune cells that get in the way of the body itself clearing the cancer. this is the population we re detecting. how soon? this year? yes, this year. so at the university of southern california we re going to be starting a pilot study in head and neck cancer patients in january and hope to do melanoma and lung cancer next. thank you so much. i m excited about that. i know there s a lot going on in cancer. probably the people born now won t have to deal with cancer. it will be cured or won t have to deal with it for the rest of their lives. still on the breaking news of the tornadoes in missouri, illinois and arkansas and of course the bank hostage situat
brave battle. elizabeth edwards cancer spreads and doctors are now saying she should stop treatment. what she s saying to friends and family today. then, frigid forecast. there will be another shot of even colder air coming down into the deep south. what the freezing temperatures mean for the billion dollar orange juice industry. a walk on the wild side. we show you a cat s-eye view of the circle of life. it s tuesday, december 7th. from abc news, this is world news now. rob is tidying up. we re all so neat. good morning and thanks for being with us. i m vinita nair. i m rob nelson. elizabeth edwards family has now flown to be by her bedside this morning after