Healthwise: Alternative Therapies in Ovarian Cancer

Immunotherapy

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The body's white blood cells or leukocytes are designed to seek and destroy anything that wants to causes harm--including bacteria, viruses, parasites and cancer cells. Immunotherapy is the process of determining which leukocytes are effective against a cancer and then delivering them as a vaccine to kill the cancer cells. Ovarian cancer cells depend on the development of many blood vessels to allow their growth. A specific population called vascular leukocytes targets the formation of these structures, according to researchers from Dartmouth University Medical School writing in the May 15, 2007 issue of "Cancer Research." This is effective against ovarian cancer that has spread outside the ovary into the pelvic cavity. Other cancer vaccines are already in use, usually for women whose tumors are resistant to traditional chemotherapy.

Ayurvedic Therapies

More than 75 percent of women with ovarian cancer are diagnosed after the cancer has spread beyond the ovary, and only 25 percent achieve five-year survival. These women look at alternative approaches in greater number than people with cancers more amenable to conventional treatment. Many of the most popular treatment alternatives come from Ayurveda medicine, an approach to health care that integrates detoxification, herbal remedies, massage, exercise, yoga, breathing techniques and meditation. Dietary Ayurveda principles include increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables while decreasing or eliminating sugar, white flour and saturated fat. Massage, yoga and meditation can be used with chemotherapy, radiation and immunotherapy. Interactions between medications and Ayurveda's detoxifying enemas, episodic fasting and herbal remedies may be debilitating.

Tumeric

Ovarian cancer causes the buildup of free fluid in the pelvis, a process called ascites. It's painful and allows the cancerous cells to float freely. Researchers from India and Germany collaboratively revealed in the October 2002 issue of "Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications" findings that turmeric, an herb, effectively blocks the development of blood vessels that supply ovarian tumors and causes a 66 percent decrease in ascites. They recommend infusing turmeric directly into the peritoneal cavity; an approach already used to deliver chemotherapy.

This is a example of a simple, non-toxic treatment that can be used in combination with chemotherapy and radiation. It allows a woman to embrace a natural, plant-based approach to cancer treatment without abandoning treatments supported by medical research. In order to prove whether an approach such as turmeric is safe and effective, public research funding is required because there is no profit in proving that an herb can effectively treat cancer.

Yoga

Survival is not the only goal in battling cancer. When a woman faces the stress of an ovarian cancer diagnosis or the fatigue that accompanies chemotherapy, her quality of life is affected. If long-term survival is not possible, maintaining comfort, emotional peace and quality relationships becomes the focus. Yoga provides these improvements. Yoga is valued for its ability to restore flexibility and aid meditation. A team published in the 2008 issue of the "Journal of the Society for Integrative Oncology" found yoga to be an effective complementary ovarian cancer treatment for depression, negative effect, anxiety, fatigue and overall quality of life.

References

http://www.livestrong.com/article/240591-alternative-therapies-in-ovarian-cancer/

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