Donald R. Yance, j r.,C.N., M.H., A.H.G., with Arlene Valentine
See book keywords and concepts |
 These include lymph node removal following breast surgery, "look-and-see" surgery (sometimes after ovarian cancer surgery and/or following chemotherapy to see if there is any remaining cancer), and removal of cancerous primary organs, such as the spleen when treating lymphomas or leukemias, for example.
Admittedly, despite these criticisms, great strides have been made in conventional medicine, and I believe there are many good doctors who want their patients to get well no matter what kind of treatment is ultimately responsible for their healing. |
D. Lindsey Berkson
See book keywords and concepts |
 Many doctors now believe that progesterone can also act as a protective agent during breast cancer surgery.
In the End
Breast cancer is caused by any number of different factors. |
Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.
See book keywords and concepts |
 This rapid rise of cancer surgery is well illustrated by the early history of what is now Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
The spiritual founder of Memorial Sloan-Kettering was a famous nineteenth-century "woman's doctor," J. Marion Sims. Sims received only a cursory medical training in the South before turning his hand to surgery. An enterprising young man, he resolved to extend the boundaries of surgery in the antebellum era. To do so, he gathered a group of slave women, upon whom he performed experimental operations in a kind of makeshift hospital behind his house. |
Dr. Gary Null
See book keywords and concepts |
 A study of 249 women who had breast cancer surgery showed 10-year survival rates of 54 percent for those whose last menstrual period was 12 days before surgery and 84 percent for those whose last menstrual period was either 0 to 2 days or 13 to 32 days before surgery.
R. A. Badwe et al., "Timing of Surgery during Menstrual Cycle and Survival of Premenopausal Women with Operable Breast Cancer," Lancet 337 (1992): 1261. |
Larry Trivieri, Jr.
See book keywords and concepts |
 Alice, 40, had recendy undergone cancer surgery and radiation. However, she continued to have persistent pain in her upper back. Because doctors could not identify the problem, she decided to try guided imagery with Dr. Rossman. First, he asked her to relax and imagine herself at some beautiful place. Alice saw herself on a beach surrounded by cliffs. Next, she was invited to have a dialogue with an imaginary "inner advisor." Alice asked for an image to appear and saw a wise old man tending a fire. He looked like Merlin, the magician of Arthurian legend. |
Artemis P. Simopoulos, M.D., and Jo Robinson
See book keywords and concepts |
 During cancer surgery, cancer cells can be dislodged from the main tumor and spread throughout the circulatory system. If those cells are fortified with EPA and DHA, they may grow more slowly and be less able to establish themselves and colonize new areas of the body.
There is already good evidence that omega-3 fatty acids can help cancer patients recover from surgery. In a 1996 study, cancer patients recovering from major gastrointestinal surgery were given omega-3 supplements. The patients given the supplements fared much better than ones given the standard postoperative treatment. |
Martin L. Cross
See book keywords and concepts |
 A former smoker, he has suffered from emphysema for twenty-five years, and four years ago had lung cancer surgery, including an operation to reduce the size of his diseased lungs. Most of the work was done at a first-rate university teaching hospital in Boston, where he has also had cataract surgery and now faces another operation to remove a growth from his throat.
Although he has had a few tiffs with the plan, he credits them with his survival. This retiree had the benefit of an older, more idealistic nonprofit HMO connected with a university hospital. |
| But what of a patient who requires cancer surgery and chemotherapy and might be liable for $150,000 in treatment? Then he must come up with $30,000 of his own money in co-payment. Who can afford that? Then the once academic concern about inflated hospital bills becomes a harsh reality.
In the case of indemnity insurance, many companies check the care retrospectively, after it's completed. At that point they can—and sometimes do—refuse to pay for much of it, either because it is not "covered" or they claim it is not "medically necessary. |
Francisco, M.D. Contreras
See book keywords and concepts |
| In the past 20 years, critical care medicine has emerged as a specialty in its own right, paralleling improving trends in cancer treatment. cancer surgery has become less radical, radiotherapy more precise and less toxic because the normal treatment volume has become smaller, and chemotherapy less empirical, more effective and less toxic. More cancer patients are alive and well as a result." said Dr. De Vita.
The comments of Dr. De Vita never cease to dumbfound me. |
D. Lindsey Berkson
See book keywords and concepts |
| This was such a strong association that one researcher wrote a paper in 1997 suggesting that it might be wise for women going in for breast cancer surgery to receive a presurgery shot of progesterone to offset the circulating unopposed estrogen. Research published in 1999 gave additional compelling evidence that premenopausal women have a better chance of beating breast cancer based on the menstrual timing of their surgery.
I faxed my ideas to Dr. John Lee. He said that the balance between estradiol and progesterone is more important than the levels of either hormone alone. |
Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.
See book keywords and concepts |
 Hundreds of patients recovering from stomach or colorectal cancer surgery were given Krestin and/or various drugs. Survival was significantly increased when patients received alternating doses of Krestin and the toxic drug carboquone, discovered by Japanese scientists five years earlier. Patients treated with this combination fared better than those receiving carboquone alone, or nothing at all.
"These differences were much more apparent among patients who received more than six courses of the regimen," said gastric surgeons at the Aichi Cancer Center in Japan (4). |
E. Richard Brown
See book keywords and concepts |
 Greenberg chalks up much of the improvement in survival rates through the midfifties to the postwar introduction of antibiotics and blood transfusions that reduced the death toll due to cancer surgery. "It wasn't that more patients were surviving cancer," Greenberg asserts, "rather, they were surviving cancer operations that previously killed them." In Greenberg's view the contributions of chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and new surgical techniques have been negligible. |
Kenny Ausubel
See book keywords and concepts |
 Bernie Siegel as we filmed him in 1985 in his New Haven office near Yale University, where he taught and operated his private cancer surgery practice.22 A spirited, radiant presence with shaved head and white doctor's smock, he spoke in swirling gusts of ideas. "What I think doctors call false hope are statistics. You take a disease, and it kills nine out of ten people. So you go down the line telling ten people they're supposed to die. You probably will kill ten out of ten by taking hope away. I see that in reverse. I say, 'Oh, 10 percent survive. That's good. |
| The first statistical analysis of the value of cancer surgery was conducted in 1844 by Dr. Leroy d'Etoilles and published by the French Academy of Science. Spanning a thirty-year time frame, the study looked at case histories of 2,781 patients from 174 doctors. It compared survival after using either surgery, escharotics, or no treatment. "The net value of surgery or caustics was, in prolonging life, two months for men and six months for women. But that was only in the first few years after the initial diagnosis. |
| It must also be said that cancer surgery has saved innumerable lives and is the best option under certain circumstances. Surgery has produced more remissions than radiation and chemotherapy combined. Yet its limitations are also evident, and it does not fundamentally address the underlying causes and mechanisms of this systemic illness.
Surgeons came to dominate and define cancer treatment for the first thirty years of the twentieth century until radiation treatment began to emerge as a serious competitor in the 1920s. |
| Whether it's cancer surgery or whatever, they seem to be afraid to have a real doctor-patient relationship for fear they're going to get hurt. When it comes to hurting, we hurt every day."
I returned to the Bio Medical Center a few months later. It was calving season and Mildred was at the ranch, recuperating and overseeing the mass spring birthing. Her sister Liz Jonas was now presiding. Liz stepped in to manage the clinic in 1997 during Mildred's increasingly extended sick leaves. Another open-hearted Texan, Liz did not expect to be operating her sister's cancer clinic. |
James A. Howenstine, MD
See book keywords and concepts |
 Important research has shown that if a woman has breast cancer surgery during the luteal phase of her cycle (after ovulation and before menstruation) the survival rate is improved.
For women at onset of menopause, natural progesterone can often eliminate hot flashes. The usual medical approach is to add estrogen (Premarin) knowing that estrogen production by the ovary is falling. |
Phyllis A. Balch, CNC
See book keywords and concepts |
 LI Lymphedema is a swelling of the tissues that may follow cancer surgery. (See lymphedema in Part Two.)
For measures to reduce the side effects and increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy and 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.
Chlamydia
See GONORRHEA AND CHLAMYDIA.
Cholesterol Problems
See HIGH CHOLESTEROL. |
John Robbins
See book keywords and concepts |
 Another example of the wise integration of alternative methods in cancer surgery is found in the work of cancer surgeon (and noted author) Bernie Siegel, M.D. As a surgeon, he offers his technical skill and training in orthodox medicine, but he also seeks to enlist the assistance of the patient's innate healing abilities. |
Dr. Gary Null
See book keywords and concepts |
| A study of 249 women who had breast cancer surgery showed 10-year survival rates of 54 percent for those whose last menstrual period was 12 days before surgery and 84 percent for those whose last menstrual period was either 0 to 2 days or 13 to 32 days before surgery.
R. A. Badwe et al., "Timing of Surgery during Menstrual Cycle and Survival of Premenopausal Women with Operable Breast Cancer," Lancet 337 (1992): 1261. |
Dr. Mary Dan Eades
See book keywords and concepts |
 If you are cur-ently recovering from breast cancer surgery and postoperative treat-nent, you will need a little more. Continue to increase your daily ose to about 12 grams (that's 1 teaspoon taken 3 times a day).
• Vitamin D appears to be a factor in improved survival from reast cancer, although the reasons for this effect remain unclear, he vitamin does seem to inhibit the growth of cancer cells in the boratory, and this may be a part of why it helps. Recommendation: ike 400 IU to 600 IU per day. |
Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.
See book keywords and concepts |
| Some doctors and patients hold that much cancer surgery is either unnecessary or excessive in its scope. The fiercest argument has taken place over the question of breast cancer, but the issues raised in this debate appear applicable to other forms of cancer as well.
For years, breast cancer was routinely treated with an operation called the radical mastectomy or the Halsted procedure, after its chief promoter. At the hearings of Senator Edward Kennedy's (D.-Mass. |
| As medical techniques in general improved, so too did the scope of cancer surgery. "Talented assistants, blood banks to replace lost blood, a variety of anesthetics, antibiotics, strict antisepsis, tissue replacements, information on the patient's physical and chemical status before, during, and following surgery, and scores of other contributions by physicists, engineers, biologists, and biochemists" aided the aggressive surgeon (McGrady, Sr., 1964:304)-
For the treatment of head and neck cancer, for example, ingenious surgeons devised an operation called the commando. |
| The existence of this and other cancer hospitals greatly increased the prestige of cancer therapy and of cancer surgery in particular. A stable base
žIronically, it is now known that this condition is almost entirely iatrogenic—that is, it is caused by faulty procedures on the part of obstetricians and gynecologists. Thus, in a broad sense, Sims and his fellow doctors were unwittingly causing a disease and then curing it (Huffman, 1962; Green, 1971). of patients provided "teaching material" for the development of new types of operations. |
Patrick Quillin, PhD,RD,CNS
See book keywords and concepts |
 Coley, MD, a New York cancer surgeon scoured the hospital records around 1880 looking for some clue why only a minorty of patients survived cancer surgery. He found that a high percentage of survivors had developed an infection shortly after the surgery to remove the cancer. This observation led Dr. Coley to inject a wide variety of bacteria, known as Coley's cocktail, into his cancer patients, who then underwent the feverish recovery phase, with noteworthy cancer cures produced. |
Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.
See book keywords and concepts |
| Bard, 1973).
It must be emphasized that such patients figure among the successes of surgery and orthodox medicine—not its failures. Yet one of the psychologists who conducted this study was moved to remark:
Such stories of "death expectancy" reveal untold suffering for people whose lives have been saved, and for their families. They suggest a disturbing thought—more and more lives are being saved, but for what? (ibid.:i66)
It is little wonder, then, that "a great many patients fear cancer treatment as much as or more than death itself," according to Dr. |
Email this page to a friend
