Tell me what you know about cancer treatments?

I had a cousin who fought MM for 5 years with a lot of success, but she went the traditional route with two stem cell transplant and chemo. Finally she simply got exhausted. But she had five good years and was able to work, travel, see her sons and friends.

The only alternative treatment I used while undergoing tradition treatment for breast cancer (lumpecdomy, chemo, radiation and tamoxifin by mouth for four years) was yoga, meditation and diaphragmatic breathing to fight anxiety. I also used mental imagery during radiation.

I imagined the cancer cells first being pinged with a sling shot, then a BB gun, then a hand gun and kept accelerating the metaphor. At my last radiation treatment, I imagined an atomic bomb getting any remaining cancer cells

That was 14 years ago. But I also changed my diet radically, started an exercise program, began to volunteer, refused to get angry at anything and acquired a cat.

I am sorry to learn about your mother but wish her (and you) the best.

@Facade You might like to checkout http://naturalnews.com/ and search for your Mom’s condition and Mike Adams suggestions, as well as other contributor’s suggestions. He also has a free daily newsletter. Always very informative. My best wishes to you and your Mom.

Dr. Weil’s website and books are great sources of information.
Sending healthy wishes her way.

I do not know if this is applicable to mm, but the doctor is reputable (I live in the area) and he has had success, although he is the first to tell you it is experimental.
Neoplas.org

Alternative medicines don’t work for cancer treatment. If they worked for cancer treatment they wouldn’t be called “alternative”.

@Rarebear I believe you are a doc? Correct? I recently had a family member die of pancreatic cancer and there seemed to be a number of alternative treatments, ie, not the standard chemo and radiation treatments. What am I missing?

You can look into research and medication being used in other countries. I have a cousin with pancreatic cancer who went to Cuba to get their commonly prescribed drug for pancreatic cancer in that country supposedly. Now, what you need to know is it had already spread to the liver when it was discovered. Anyway, the docs at MD Anderson are shocked at how her pancreatic cancer has not grown. But, her liver continues to get worse. She did do some chemo for a while here also. Pretty much it is accepted that the chemo here in the states is ineffective for Pancreatic cancer from what I understand, but she tried everything. She stopped chemo a long time ago, but continued medication from Cuba. I am not sure what to make of it. I would guess it is the same cancer just spread to different organs, so I don’t understand why it would stop growing in her pancreas and not her liver. I don’t know enough about the science.

Can your mom just monitor her kidney function, and if the numbers begin to get screwy ditch the meds? Or, is it the type of thing if you do damage, the damage is done, and the kidney cannot recover?

Another question, have her antibodies been elevated for a while? You may want to get a repeat test in a couple of months before doing anything drastic, to make sure they really are consistently elevated, but I am not a doctor and know very little about MM, or precursors to MM. I had a coworker who was diagnosed with MM, she was very young, and they ignored her physical complaints for many months until she finally got the correct diagnosis. At least your moms docs are on top of it.

I hope it never develops into anything for your mother. I have a close family friend who’s father had very very elevated PSA levels, which means prostate cancer typically. I cannot remember if he had it diagnosed or not officially as cancer. The thing was he was so very old, and prostate cancer is typically very slow moving, they decided they would not treat it even if he had cancer. A year later his PSA went back to normal.

Good luck and good health to you and your mom.

@plethora Yes. I’m sorry for your loss, my father died of pancreatic cancer. There are plenty of “alternative” treatments. They just don’t work. But some may be marginally effective for relieving symptoms (such as marijuana for nausea). If you know an alternative medication that has been proven to prolong life, I’d be interested to know about it.

@Rarebear @plethora That’s the tricky part, if it has been scientifically proven it would not be called alternative. It does not mean that an alternative drug or treatment is not effective, it only means it has not been subjected to scientific study and proven to be effective. There are many medications, FDA approved medications, used off label every day, not proven effective for a particular condition, but commonly accepted and prescribed as effective among the medical community.

@JLeslie That is true, but those “off label” uses of medication have been shown to have some sort of evidenced based effectiveness. For example, Sildafanil (Viagra) was shown to be useful for pulmonary hypertension long before it was an approved FDA therapy. And you are correct, an alternative medication that has been proven to work is no longer “alternative.” That’s my point.

Again, I’m asking @plethora for the name of an alternative therapy that has been shown to have some sort of effectiveness in prolonging life in pancreatic cancer.

@Rarebear Yes, I was backing you up, we agree.

@JLeslie Thanks! Yes, I just wanted to reinforce the point we’re making to @plethora, and more importantly to @Facade

@Rarebear I was asking for info because I had recently been in a situation with a family member where I suddenly became aware of the claims of many alternative treatments. I have no idea whatsoever about such claims.

@plethora OK. The only proven therapies for cancer are those therapies that are proven to work. (And yes, I realize that is a circular statement). The danger of eschewing proven medical therapy in lieu of so-called “alternative” treatments is that the patient will die sooner. I have a good friend of mine who just underwent R-CHOP therapy and she’s cured. If she did “alternative” therapy, she’d be dead.

@Rarebear I do think it is worth pointing out that many cancer treatments don’t work well, and are still used. Many times it is so people feel they are doing something to fight. I saw Suzanne Somers on Larry King, and several doctors on the show as well, and oncologists agreed with her that some cancers we simply do not have good treatments for, but they still gie the medicine to the pts. She also asserted that although she is generally anti chemo and radiation, there are certain cancers she would submit to chemo and/or other traditional treatments, because they are proven to be so effective. I don’t agree with everything she says for sure when it comes to health, but she has some interesting information. I think the patient has to become very educated in these circumstances and not just submit to what the doctors offer as protocol.

@JLeslie Well, there is treatment for cure, there is treatment for palliation, and there is treatment for prolonging life. All are different. Curative treatments tend to be rather heinous (surgery, chemo, hair falling out, the whole works) but you’re going for a cure so patients will usually put up with it. Palliation and prolonging life treatments need to have a risk/benefit ratio associated with them. You’re not going to want to make a pancreatic cancer patient feel like crap for 3 months, just to prolong life for 3 months. And I agree, a patient needs to be as informed as possible.

A ketogenic diet maybe the best way to help your mother to compliment any other treatment she receives. Interesting short link on this here http://www.jacn.org/cgi/content/abstract/14/2/202.

Your mom can try Qigong. A friend recommended it to me as an alternative treatment to cancer.

http://www.healthyfoundations.com/guolin/guolin_article.html

Or not.
http://www.skepdic.com/chikung.html

Thank you for your answers, everyone. I’ll take a look at these websites.
@JLeslie She says they were elevated 3 months ago when a doctor check her blood, but he never informed her of the results from that blood test. Way to go doc. She’ll be 60 this year, so I don’t know about the age thing, but I too hope they go back to normal.