The Life Extension Editorial Staff
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 If surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy is being consideted, please refer to these specific protocols: cancer surgery, Cancer Radiation, and Cancer Chemotherapy.
Note: While it would be wholly inappropriate for the Life Extension Foundation to steer individuals in decisions of omission or commission regarding therapies, it would be equally improper to shun responsibility. Because we are challenged by a professional and moral commitment to assist in overcoming appalling statistics, we have discussed some controversial issues in this protocol. |
Katharine Greider
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 In the last few years, as Congress engaged the drug lobby's onslaught and courts considered the constitutionality of Maine Rx, Quirion underwent cancer surgery and a knee replacement. Between antibiotics for complications from the knee surgery and drugs to prevent cancer recurrence, Quirion has been hard pressed to meet her own prescription-drug bills. One month, after paying $345 for a prescription, she had only $100 left for food and other day-to-day expenses. Her arduous trips to Canada are no stunt. |
Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele
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 Osteopathic Medical Center of Texas in Fort Worth in July 1991 for lung cancer surgery. The operation was a success. As doctors told Jones, the right lung they removed was cancer-free. What they neglected to mention was that they had taken the wrong one. The cancer had been in his left lung. Although the hospital learned of the mistake about a week after the operation, an official said he relied on the doctors to tell Jones because he did not want to interfere with the doctor-patient relationship, some relationships being just too sacred to violate. |
The Life Extension Editorial Staff
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| AVOID ANALGESIC DRUGS THAT PROMOTE METASTASIS
After cancer surgery, the patient often experiences pain and requests an analgesic drug for immediate relief. The drug of choice is often morphine or other opiates. The problem with these drugs is that they impair immune function, specifically NK activity, lymphocyte-macrophage production, and other key immune cytokines. It is during this postsurgical period that healthy immune function is required to kill cancer cells that have escaped from the primary tumor and are seeking to set up metastatic colonies. |
Walter Last
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 I am convinced that this is the main reason why one patient is cured by cancer surgery, while another with the same condition dies afterwards.
Therefore, perhaps the main concern for patients with "incurable" diseases should not be to find an effective therapy, but rather to find a way to harness the power of the mind and become a believer with an unshakable faith-in effect, to put the placebo effect to work.
Before you decide to believe in eating a piece of cake every Sunday as your preferred cancer cure, there is another factor to take into account. |
John Robbins
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 After breast cancer surgery, a woman is visited in her hospital room by a volunteer who has herself recovered from a similar operation. While the concept seems laudable, many patients report that in practice the program does not really serve the women in need.
All volunteers must first be approved by the American Cancer Society. They are told to avoid any discussion of doctors, hospital staff, or treatment options, and are given puffs of lamb's wool to give to patients to stick in their bras. |
Susun S. Weed
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 Until the mid-'60s, all breast cancer surgery removed the entire breast-nipple and skin included. Since then, breast-sparing surgery has gained in respectability and popularity. This is why:
Mastectomy confers no advantage over wide excision lumpectomy and radiation in the treatment of women with early stage breast cancer, according to the National Breast Cancer Clinical Trial. The treatment option is "entirely up to the woman as the studies consistently show that each has exactly the same survival rate."3 This holds true for tumors up to 4 cm. |
| Retrospective studies trying to gauge the impact of breast cancer surgery done at different times of the menstrual cycle give support to the idea that women should avoid surgery just before and during the week of their menses (bleeding). In one sample of 40 women, 71 percent of those who had surgery between the 7th and 20th days of their menstrual cycle were alive after ten years, compared to 27 percent of the women operated on at other times. |
| After breast cancer surgery it may be mixed with rage, fear, and relief. It's normal to be angry that you've had to undergo surgery, perhaps had to sacrifice a breast. And, paradoxically, fear of cancer may surge up when the operation is safely over. When our grief lacks expression in color, form, sound, movement, or words, it seethes within us, weighing us down, making life meaningless, making us depressed.
"Curse!" she said, when I asked about her favorite cancer therapy. "Angry women don't get depressed." Depressed women who find a safe space for their anger get better faster. |
Gabriel Cousens, M.D.
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 The prophylactic long-term use of enzyme therapy post-operatively was helpful in minimizing constant lymphatic edema following breast cancer surgery.
Proteolytic enzymes seem to be significantly helpful in the treatment of viral infections. Cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr, hepatitis, herpes simplex, and acute herpes zoster infections are all diminished with proteolytic enzymes. One of the main reasons proteolytic enzyme therapy is effective is that it stimulates the development of T lymphocytes and macrophages. These two parts of the immune system have specific anti-viral effects. |
Gary Null, Ph.D.
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 This study found that ascorbic acid incubation in cultured stomach cancer surgery specimens resulted in a 50-90% increase in the rate of 5-fluorouracil incorporation into RNA of 5-fluorouracil-sensitive stomach tumors and in an approximately 50% increase of the rate of 5-fluorouracil-resistant tumors. —M.P. Shlemkevich, [Effect of Ascorbic Acid on In Vitro (6-3H)-5-Fluorouracil Incorporation into RNA of Stomach Cancer Tissue, Normal Gastric Mucosa, and Normal Small Intestine Mucosa], VoprMedKhim, 29(1), 1983, p. 17-19. |
Janet Zand, LAc, OMD, Allan N. Spreed, MD, CNC, James B. LaValle, RPh, ND
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 Lymphedema can be present from birth, but it usually occurs as a result of infection or trauma to the lymphatic system. cancer surgery in which lymph nodes are removed is a common cause. Radiation therapy also can lead to lymphedema, as can cancer itself. Once the blockage starts, valves within the channels become ineffective, which makes the situation worse. Fluids leak into the surrounding tissues, and swelling begins. This is not usually-painful, but the swelling can be extreme—a limb or body part may expand to several times its normal size. |
Jean Carper
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 In the Swedish study of220 women, those who commonly ate the most animal fat were 20 percent more likely to suffer another bout with breast cancer in the next four years after their initial breast cancer surgery.
Thus, even if it's debatable whether too much fat actually causes breast cancer, it can prod the growth of an existing tumor, says Norman F. Boyd of the Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto. He says switching to a low-fat diet after detection and removal of a breast cancer may be lifesaving by preventing a recurrence. |
| Such dietary changes are all the more critical if you have had colon cancer surgery or have colon polyps that could become cancerous. In such cases, think of a daily bowl or two of All-Bran (or equally high-fiber wheat cereal) and milk as a natural medication that could help save you as surely as prescription drugs might.
Alcohol poses a particularly formidable threat in cancer of the sigmoid colon, the S-shaped part of the colon that lies in the pelvis. |
| Astonishing as it seems, eating wheat bran can even act as a drug following cancer surgery to block the return of the cancer, suggests research by David S. Alberts, M.D., at the Arizona Cancer Center in Tucson. He documented that after malignant tumors were surgically removed, All-Bran cereal curbed cell changes that would stimulate a recurrence of colon and rectal tumors.
For two months seventeen men and women who had undergone surgery for colon or rectal cancer each ate about half a cup of All-Bran (13.5 grams of fiber) per day. |
John Robbins
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| One example of integrating the best of both worlds is the use of acupuncture for anesthesia in cancer surgery. David Eisenberg, M.D., of Harvard Medical School, and an advisor to the National Institutes of Health Office of Alternative Medicine, was the first U.S. medical exchange student to study in the People's Republic of China. Eisenberg, who speaks Chinese, describes watching major brain surgery being done on a patient with pituitary cancer. The patient, named Lu, was a 58-year-old professor at Beijing University. |
the Editors of FC&A Medical Publishing
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 Recent information suggests about 60 percent of men who have prostate cancer surgery are impotent a year and a half later. Preventing prostate problems is obviously your best option, and the right foods can provide some natural help.
Nutritional blockbusters that fight prostate problems
Lycopene. Harvard researchers created a stir several years ago when they discovered that eating 10 servings of tomato products weekly could dramatically cut your risk of prostate cancer. Lycopene, a carotenoid that gives tomatoes their brilliant red color, is probably responsible for this protective effect. |
Phyllis A. Balch, CNC
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 Ll Lymphedema is a swelling of the tissues that may follow cancer surgery. (See LYMPHEDEMA in Part Two.)
To reduce side effects and increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy, see Side Effects of Cancer Treatment under CANCER in Part Two. To learn about herbal treatments that can prevent a cancer from developing its own blood supply, see CANCER in Part Two.
Ll With early detection and treatment, most people recover from skin cancer, but regular checkups are advised for at least the next five years.
—1 Certain medications may make the skin more susceptible to sun damage. |
| LM Lymphedema is a swelling of the tissues that may follow cancer surgery. (See LYMPHEDEMA in Part Two.)
LM If the cancer has spread into the capsule of the gland, the standard approach is some form of radiation therapy. Radiation therapy results in impotence about 50 percent of the time. It can also adversely affect the bladder and rectum. (For measures to reduce side effects and increase effectiveness of radiation therapy, see Side Effects of Cancer Treatment under CANCER in Part Two. |
| In an Austrian clinical test involving women who had breast cancer surgery, a combination of Wobenzym with manual lymph drainage reduced arm size, lessened pain, and improved skin condition in less than two months' use.
• Avoid long-chain triglycerides, such as those found in fats that stay solid at room temperature. Reducing this kind of fat in the diet can improve lymphedema.
• Do not try to reduce swelling by drinking less water. Drink 1 ounce (20 milliliters) of water daily for every 2 pounds (1 kg) of body weight. |
| Most cases of lymphedema occur when parts of the lymphatic system—the lymph vessels and nodes, small structures in which lymph is filtered—are removed as part of cancer surgery. Of the 161,000 women with breast cancer who have lymph nodes removed every year, 35 to 40 percent develop lymphedema. If a tumor and the adjacent lymph nodes are removed, the natural drainage of lymphatic fluid through that area is blocked. Fluid accumulates and becomes stagnant in the tissues of the limb closest to the obstruction. The limb may then swell to several times its normal size. |
| Ll Lymphedema is a swelling of the tissues that may follow cancer surgery. (See LYMPHEDEMA in Part Two.)
Ll For measures to reduce side effects and increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy, see Side Effects of Cancer Treatment under CANCER in Part Two. To learn about herbal treatments that can prevent a cancer from developing its own blood supply, see CANCER in Part Two.
Endometriosis
Endometriosis is a chronic disease in which tissues that ordinarily develop in the inner layer of the uterine wall are deposited outside the uterus. |
Jean Carper
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| In short, food may help prevent small benign events from becoming large catastrophic ones—even blocking recurrence of new growth after colon cancer surgery. Thus, food acts as a powerful and safe chemopreventive and even chemotherapeutic drug against a cancer that strikes about 110,000 Americans every year and kills some 50,000. Indeed, as much as 90 percent of the colon cancer toll might be influenced by diet, says British cancer authority Dr. Richard Peto of Oxford.
233
IT'S NEVER TOO LATE
So you are already in middle age? Don't despair. |
Thomas J. Moore
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 A woman who helped other women cope with life after breast cancer surgery had seen the need for better drugs with her own eyes, every day. They were desperate for any medicine to help. Their plight was made more difficult, they believed, by the FDA's elaborate requirements for drug testing. At first glance, this looks like American democracy as it is supposed to work. Almost every week elected officials were hearing from one or more of their constituents who were critical of the FDA and wanted action taken. They were well informed about the issues. |
Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.
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 Today, it has become common for women with breast cancer to be given tamoxifen after cancer surgery. A large-scale study is planned to see if tamoxifen can reduce the incidence of cancer in women who have a family history of the disease but who have not gotten it yet themselves. However, serious questions are being raised about tamoxifen's long-term safety.
Tamoxifen is called an "anti-estrogen" because it was originally thought to exert its effects by blocking the female sex hormone, estrogen. Now, however, it is believed that the drug has many unusual side effects in the body. |
Donald R. Yance, j r.,C.N., M.H., A.H.G., with Arlene Valentine
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 Its benefits include:
• Promotion of healing in postoperative cancer surgery or postradiation therapy due to its ability to stimulate the rapid growth of the reticuloendothelial system. This increases healing, decreases inflammation, inhibits scar tissue formation, and inhibits the recurrence of cancer.
• Assists the nervous system with the stresses and fears associated with having cancer.
• Increases the formation of connective tissue components such as hyaluronan (also called hyaluronic acid), a natural substance produced by cells. |
| Beta 1,3 glucan is recommended before and after cancer surgery to enhance healing, reduce the chance of infection, and inhibit recurring and/or metastatic cancer. I recommend beta 1,3 glucan (94 percent pure) as part of a combined protocol for many cancer patients and believe it to be of great benefit. I usually recommend 3 to 6 capsules (500 mg each) daily. Except for the mild fever experienced by some, beta-glucan has no known side effects or contraindications. |
| Studies have also shown positive benefits for the scheduling of breast cancer surgery at certain points in the menstrual cycle of premenopausal women. In a retrospective study of 283 women who had undergone mastectomies for primary breast cancer, the recurrence rate was twice as high for those women who underwent a mastectomy during the first part of the cycle (follicular phase) than for those whose surgery took place in the later part of the cycle (luteal phase). |
Ralph W. Moss PhD
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 While cancer surgery has improved vastly in the last 150 years, such motivations are certainly still understandable in many cases.
There are some famous historical escharotics. Mr. Richard Guy, an 18th century English cancer surgeon, purchased the secret remedy for an external poultice from the Plunkett family and began treating cancer patients with it in the 1750s. In 1762, he published a paper on his alleged successes with this treatment, including 100 cases, especially of breast cancer (159). "His powers of observations were remarkable," says Naiman. |
| Her modern-day followers, and she has them, recommend three pinches of yarrow powder in fennel tea for three days prior to cancer surgery (375).
It is interesting that according to Hartwell, yarrow is a traditional cancer treatment in Germany, as well as in the US and UK.
When I visited the Lukas Klinik in Switzerland recently, external packs of yarrow were being placed over the livers of cancer patients. In fact, in 1994, Japanese scientists isolated three chemicals from the plant, achimillic acids A, B, and C, that were active against mouse P-388 leukemia (387). |
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