Defeat Cancer (27 page)

Cancer is characterized by the excessive and uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells. These cells deviate from the anatomical and organizational features of normal and benign cells and take on bizarre appearances and maladaptive physiology. They proliferate and spread throughout the body through local tissue invasion, or via the blood and lymph, causing the potential destruction of organs and bodily functions.

Cancer is caused by many things. In general, it’s caused by the interaction of the body’s genes within their environment. Our
chromosomes are like banks of genetic switches. Certain switches are turned on, while others are turned off, to elicit specific behaviors in the body. Genetic switches are influenced by heredity as well as environmental toxins and radiation. Deficiencies and excesses of nutrients, hormones, emotions, and many other factors, such as viruses, also play a role in genetic behavior.

Cancer cells have common characteristics which distinguish them from benign cells. For instance, the ability to self-destruct, which is found in benign cells, is impaired in cancer cells. As such, cancer cells don’t contribute to the welfare of the body. Normal cells self-destruct so that new, vibrant cells can take their place. This process is called apoptosis, or programmed cell death. Cancer cells, instead of self-destructing, produce more dysfunctional cancer cells, eventually producing tumors and metastases. Many therapies target the induction of apoptosis, or programmed cell death, in cancer cells.

Cancer cells are also different from normal cells because they create energy for function, propagation, and repair by metabolizing sugar without oxygen, while normal cells rely upon the metabolism of sugar with oxygen for the production of their energy.

Cancer cells use various strategies to survive at the expense of normal cells, one of which is immune system evasion. Accordingly, targeted therapies for cancer are intended to exploit the differences between malignant and benign cells, in order to improve immune recognition, and cripple the energy producing pathways that cancer uses.

When patients first come to my clinic, I try to gather as much pertinent information as I can about them, including specific information about their cancer tissue. The more I know about my patients, the more I am able to determine what treatments they need. My initial evaluation involves taking a diagnostic history, doing a physical examination, and reviewing patients’ medical records, including their pathology and treatment reports. I then
discuss their case and treatment options with them and their family members. After that, we may do more testing.

We do blood, hair, urine, electro-dermal and biofeedback testing, the latter of which uses acupuncture points on the body to measure the functioning of the body’s systems and organs.

If cancer cells are found to be circulating in the patient’s blood, we use blood tests to determine what anti-cancer agents those cancer cells will be sensitive to. We order tests from a laboratory in Germany called BioFocus (
www.biofocus.de
) and another in Greece called Research Genetic Cancer Centre, LTD. We send our patients’ blood samples out of the country because we don’t have labs that do this type of testing in the United States. These labs look at the genetic (and therefore, metabolic) characteristics of cancer cells, and their sensitivity to various anti-cancer agents, including the natural substances and drugs that cancer cells are most likely to respond to. In addition, the tests can help us determine what synergistic substances may be used to enhance the effects of other substances.

The tests are far from perfect, though, because they can only ascertain the characteristics of the cancer cells that are circulating in the blood. They don’t necessarily tell us the characteristics of cancer in other parts of the body. Cancer cells aren’t homogenous. Even within the same tumor, they can have different characteristics, and therefore, can be sensitive to different treatment agents.

I also select anti-cancer agents based on the standard pathology diagnosis, which is based upon the characteristics of the cancer tissue, such as bodily location, microscopic appearance, and other laboratory findings. Testing labs here in the United States can help to determine which cancer agents may be most therapeutic based on this pathology. Rational Therapeutics (
www.rational-t.com
) is one such lab, which examines small clusters of cancer cells and takes a snapshot of the cancer’s behavior in response to different drugs and combinations of drugs. By analyzing tumor responses in
the laboratory, RT can identify which chemotherapy drug or combination of drugs will induce programmed cell death, and which ones will not. The general overall estimate of positive predictive accuracy (the measure of what drugs will work) from this type of testing is 77 percent, and the negative predictive accuracy (the measure of what drugs won’t work) is 87.9 percent, but the reliability of the testing varies and depends upon the tissues that are tested. Weisenthal Cancer Group (
www.weisenthalcancer.com
) is another lab that determines which drugs cancer cells will best respond to, based on their pathology.

In order to do this type of testing, both Rational Therapeutics and Weisenthal generally require cells that come directly from the patient’s tumor (except in the case of blood cancers like leukemia), and most patients, by the time they come to see me, have already been through surgery and/or usually are in a more advanced state of cancer, which means that we can’t take a biopsy of their tumors for testing.

We want to avoid prescribing ineffective therapies. The following is an excerpt from Pharmacogenomics, a book published in 2001: “Chemotherapy drugs selected empirically and based on the results of clinical trials, using limited patient specific data (tumor size, site, and metastasis) induce positive responses (in patients) only 30 percent of the time.” We need to do better than that when selecting treatments for our patients, which is why we do more extensive testing than many other clinics.

After we do the aforementioned blood tests, in addition to perhaps a pathology test (if we are able to obtain a sample of the patient’s tumor), we end up with several treatment options. We do electrodermal biofeedback testing to help us evaluate those options. This type of testing is done at our clinic, and provides further insight about the agents that might be most effective or most problematic for our patients. Devices that can be used for this type of testing include the EDS 2000 and the Asyra, as well as others. The Asyra evaluates the body and its general needs using sophisticated computer
programs that electromagnetically analyze bodily energy patterns via hand-held electrodes.

Electrodermal testing may also involve placing different anti-cancer substances, such as herbs, homeopathic medication, and chemotherapeutic drugs, “in circuit” with the patient and a testing device. The substances are typically placed on a metal plate which is electromagnetically connected to the testing device and the patient. For example, if a patient has a tumor in the left lung, an electrode is placed on an acupuncture point on the hand corresponding to the left lung (according to principles of Chinese medicine). If a positive change is measured, then that particular substance may be helpful for treating that patient’s lung cancer.

When treating cancer patients, I prefer to use substances that are both anti-cancer and not likely to harm the rest of the body. So when testing substances, I also put them in circuit with acupuncture points that correspond to other parts of the body—the kidneys, liver, etc. to determine the likelihood that they will cause undesirable side effects to those parts of the body. By testing more than one substance at a time, I can obtain information about which substances work together well in the body.

Patients may have a lot of metastases, and different tumors that are sensitive to different agents. We need to determine how our treatment choices will affect the overall body as well as all of the tumors that are present. A chemotherapy agent that tests well for one tumor may not test well for another. Electrodermal testing can alert us to the potential need to change therapeutic strategies. Electrodermal biofeedback testing is also useful for monitoring patients’ progress, because the results that we get from this testing are immediate. And because its cost isn’t high, it can be done frequently.

None of the testing modalities that we use provides a perfect perspective on what patients need: not blood tests, not empirical knowledge, (e.g., tumor type and diagnosis), nor any other test.
Viewing all of the information as a collective “mosaic” of knowledge is the best way to determine what combination of treatments is likely to be the most appropriate; the whole picture is greater than the sum of its parts.

Additionally, we test our patients for substances that they might need to treat other problems in their bodies, such as heavy metal poisoning and other types of toxicity. We also do organic acid urine tests, which give us an idea of how much their bodily functions are impaired. We often look at how they react to different foods, to determine whether they have allergies and sensitivities. We also look for infections, because often, people with cancer have active Candida, viruses, and other pathogens that are causing them problems. We do tests to determine their genetic weaknesses and then try to support them in whatever fashion is appropriate. Our goal during treatment is to reduce the body’s overall stress load so that the immune system can better fight the cancer. We treat for toxicities either before or after their cancer treatments, depending on what’s most practical for our patients.

Our overall treatment approach is to create an environment in the patient’s body which is conducive to health and not disease. We treat the cancerous tissue, but we also treat the rest of the person. We base our therapies upon our patients’ preferences and needs, their ability to do certain treatments, and the options that are available to them based on testing, financial resources, and other factors. We also look at the cost, or risk, of different treatments, versus their benefits.

Our treatment approach can be broken down into three components: treating deficiencies in the body, eliminating its toxicities, and improving cell signaling (both inter- and intra-cellular communication). These are described below.

1. Toxicity is caused by an excess of harmful substances or processes that prevent optimal function and repair of the body: for example, mercury poisoning, or toxic thoughts.
   
2. Deficiencies have to do with what the body is lacking (in a variety of areas): for example, nutrients such as Vitamin C or D. It may also be associated with psycho-emotional factors, such as patients not having enough nurturing in their lives.
   
3. Defects in inter and intra-cellular communication may involve photons, chemicals called cytokines, or hormones (hormones are produced in one area of body and travel throughout it to regulate different functions, such as metabolism). Signaling defects also encompass nerve impulses that conduct information from one area of the body to another through the nervous system.
   

Basically, we concern ourselves with anything that impacts the body and attempt to establish a harmonic state within it which leaves patients in a condition that’s more conducive to health. We also look for infections that need to be treated, as well as substances that need to be removed from the body and nutrients that need to be added to it. We need to pay attention to the body’s excretory and other vital functions in order to help the immune system to perform better. Vitamins and phytonutrients are some of the substances that we commonly use to support these vital functions.

The following sections describe in greater detail some of the treatments that we use to address the aforementioned areas.

Author’s note: IPT is described in Chapter Five, as well as in other chapters throughout this book. Therefore, the basics of how it works won’t be repeated here.

We use IPT in our clinic for the treatment of cancer. IPT can be used to deliver both natural substances and chemotherapy drugs to cancer cells. We generally use chemotherapeutic drugs for this
procedure, but we also use natural substances. We may include dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) in the IVs, which helps the drugs to penetrate the cells better.

I sometimes recommend full-dose chemotherapy to patients with certain types of cancers, and will refer them to an oncologist, who has more experience in full-dose chemotherapy than I do. It is of utmost importance that I recommend treatments that are in my patients’ best interest, even if it means that I must refer them elsewhere.

We sometimes use conventional medicine, but overall, and more often than not, we prefer natural, less toxic approaches to treatment. For example, patients with pancreatic cancer respond poorly to conventional treatments, so we would be inclined to use more natural therapies for them. But sometimes we use chemotherapy in an IPT format for pancreatic cancer, as well, in order to get the best of both (medical) worlds.

Some time ago, a study was done in which researchers tracked two groups of patients with pancreatic cancer. One group was treated with conventional chemotherapy, and the other was treated with a macrobiotic diet. At the end of the year, most of the patients that had been on the macrobiotic diet were still alive. Hardly any of the patients who had done chemotherapy were still alive. While natural treatments may be more effective for certain types of cancers, they are not for all types. For instance, testicular cancer is almost always curable by conventional means (ie: chemotherapy) and therefore such therapy should be the treatment of choice for patients with this type of cancer.

One anti-cancer strategy that we use involves the poisoning of glycolysis, which is the metabolic pathway that cancers use to create energy and which metabolizes sugar without oxygen. Various products on the market are useful for poisoning this pathway,
including wheat germ extract, which is found in products such as Avemar, and substances which come from tangerines and blueberries, which are found in products such as Salvestrol. We sometimes use these as part of our IPT treatments. What’s interesting is that we can poison these pathways without harming the metabolic pathways of normal cells. So feeding cancer things that selectively suppress this particular energy pathway can be helpful for destroying the cancer, and is one of the strategies that we use when treating our patients.