Alternative
Cancer Treatments
Introduction:
If I said "unproven cancer therapy", then everybody
would look the other way. But when it comes to unproven alternative cancer treatments,
everybody hopes that this particular technique will bring the great break through.
Unfortunately this is exactly what many unconventional treatment centers in Mexico,
in Germany or on the Internet promise. You may want to look at the following
Internet site: http://www.nci.nih.gov/
This contains a section with questions about alternative cancer
therapies. Here are
the instructions how to click your way there: First open the National Cancer Institute
site(nci) above; then click on "Cancer Information"; click on "Treatment
Options"; click on "Complementary and Alternative Medicine". Then
choose a topic under "Introduction". Ref. 13 has a detailed historical
run down of the various cancer therapies, that have proven to be ineffective.
Some of them might surprise you to be on the list. The following alternative therapies
are discussed there: Laetrile, macrobiotic diet, immuno-augmentative therapy(IAT),
Iscador, Issel's treatment, and Krebiozen. Other unproven therapies are: chaparral
tea, Hoxsey tonic, Gerson, grape fruit diet, Kelly malignancy index, Koch antitoxins,
metabolic therapy, psychic surgery, Orgone make energy devices, iridology and
ultraviolet blood irradiation, just to mention a few of the more popular ones.
The problem is not that these therapies would not have been tested. They
have been tested by reputable Cancer Clinics in an objective manner. But the media
seems to get manipulated by the proponents of these methods so that the truth
does not get communicated. The truth is that all these methods do not work when
measured with the evidence based medicine tools.
A
doctor's experience with the Laetrile therapy I had personal
experience with 35 end stage cancer patients who all went to Mexico to get Laetrile
treatments in the early 1980's. They all signed a consent form that they wanted
intravenous Laetrile for their terminal condition when they came back. All of
them died a few weeks or months later from their cancers except for one patient
who had been treated in Mexico with a combination of chemotherapy and Laetrile.
The chemotherapy, I was told on the phone by the physician in Mexico, would have
been three times as strong as is customarily used, because Laetrile would have
a "cell protecting effect"on the bone marrow cells. The patient
had a non Hodgkins lymphoma, which had been extensively treated by the Cancer
Clinic at home and as there had been no more response, he had been given up as
"incurable". To my surprise the follow-up blood tests were normal and
after about 1 year of intermittent Laetrile this was stopped with the patient
living a normal life. Eventually I lost track of the patient, but for at least
10 years after completion of the therapy he was still healthy. In terms of mathematics:
this was a 2.9% response rate. In other words, we had to treat 35 patients to
get one good response. And the response rate was due to the combination of high
dose chemotherapy and Laetrile. From an evidence based medical point of view this
is not a good response rate. On the other hand from this patient's point of view
this was a marvelous success.
What
are some of the problems with alternative treatments? -
The biggest problems are the exploitation of the cancer patient and their
families by so called "cancer specialists" who often have no or inadequate
credentials. Cancer tends to grow in growth spurts. There are intervals where
it seems that the patient is winning. If the patient had just tried some alternative
therapy program in such a quieter interval, then there might be a period of time
where the patient seems to be "responding". But with the next growth
spurt of the cancer it becomes painfully clear that the cancer is still present
and gaining momentum. In the meantime the patient had to pay for the expensive
alternative therapy. There is a danger that a patient with a stage
1disease wastes time on an ineffective alternative therapy program only to find
out when it didn't work that he/she is now in a stage 2 or 3 disease, which is
much more difficult to treat. Time is of essence and effective cancer therapy. -
The incurable patient may have been better served with a palliative care program
and grief counseling than waste a lot of money on alternative medicine, which
does not work. When the patient dies, the second mortgage on the house or the
debt at the bank have to still be paid for the alternative therapy that did not
work. If the family still wants this, at least everybody needs to agree that they
will foot the bill when all is said and done. The other thing that should be agreed
on is that the alternative therapy that is being used is non toxic and that no
curative approach is overlooked by following the alternative approach.
Pain
Control: There is an FDA approved non-drug method available, IceWave
patches from Lifewave, which will control pain. This is mentioned in the
book "Breakthrough" by Suzanne Somers (Ref. 16) where newer insights
of antiaging medicine are also reviewed. Although the patches are placed over
acupuncture points, there are no needles involved. Nanotechnology, a newer technology,
was used in the manufacturing of these patches and infrared (heat) waves from
body heat are utilized to stimulate an acupuncture point, which modifies pain
perception and reduces pain to half or less. Medically this would be considered
an excellent pain reliever. For more info on the patches see the IceWave patches
from Lifewave link above (click "products"). In the US a 5 pack of the
IceWave spray is available that can be directly sprayed onto the skin in the area
where the pain is located. Summary:
Cancer is a disease, which stirs up emotions in all of us as we remember
often a loved one who died from this disease. It is also a disease, which can
mostly be cured, if it is diagnosed early(stage 1 of the disease). However,
it is still often only diagnosed in a later stage for various reasons when cure
rates are less favorable or even poor. Gene therapy guided immune therapies (Ref
7 and 8 mentioned above) have already shown remarkable results in end stage cancer
and will play an important role in the mop-up stage, if not in future at an earlier
stage of cancer treatment. Any cancer patient reading this, do not delay
your treatment. Seek the advice of your family physician. Get a prompt referral
to a specialist in the field of expertise, where the cancer is located. Ask the
specialist whether you need to go to the nearest Cancer Clinic where the latest
technology is available or whether the specialist thinks that your cancer can
be treated locally.
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