ART OF HEALING
By DR AMIR FARID ISAHAK
Sunday May 3, 2009
A look at some cancer treatment methods that have yet to be proveBy
clinical studies.
CANCER will always be a hot topic in health circles because the problem is increasing in magnitude, and we don’t seem to have satisfactory answers.
In the last two weeks, there were two articles in the star ( Supplements and cancer, Fit4Life, Sunday, April 19 and What’s up, doc?, Fit4Life, Sunday, April 26, 2009.) that reminded readers that there is insufficient evidence to rely on supplements to prevent cancer. The only proven effective ways are to stop smoking if you are a smoker, and to have vaccinations for hepatitis B (men and women) and cervical cancer (girls before becoming sexually active).
In the past, I have reported on new methods of treating cancer (eg the cytotron magnetic field therapy), which elicited some unfriendly comments from several oncologists who accused me of promoting unproven methods.
To avoid controversy, let me emphasise that what I would like to share with you today include some methods which are yet to be proven by clinical studies, but which offer hope for the future, and hope for the present for those who have advanced or terminal cancers after current proven methods failed to help or cure them. Some of these methods are already being utilised in cancer centres around the world and if proven effective, will hopefully be made available here soon; while others, even if proven, may not be offered here because of ethical reasons (eg the use of embryonic stem cells or their extracts).
The fruits of medical research carried out in non-English speaking countries often do not reach us promptly. Sometimes new methods tried in clinics or medical centres not affiliated to any university or research centre only become known to us through word of mouth. I hope this information, which I gathered from China and Ukraine, may be useful, especially to those with advanced cancer who have nothing else to hope from conventional methods.
Many Malaysians with advanced cancer have already gone to some cancer centres in China to avail themselves of these treatments. I have reviewed some of their reports and am impressed with the results. Some are in remission even though conventional treatment failed to destroy their cancers. One patient is a Malaysian lady with breast cancer that had spread to her pelvic bones and spine. A post-treatment PET scan showed that all the cancer primary and secondaries are gone.
It is too early to pronounce them as “cured” because we have to wait for five years of non-recurrence.
The individual methods may not be new, but the novel way these centres combine the various methods to defeat the cancer is probably the reason they succeeded where others failed.
As the treatments are extremely expensive, only those with advanced cancers and deep wallets have made the journey. I hope that as the treatments become more acceptable, the costs will come down and be accessible to more patients. It will be best, if the methods are proven effective as these early results indicate, that the treatments are made available here.
Chemoembolisation
This method is already in use in many countries, especially in treating liver cancer, but a cancer centre in GuangZhou, China, is using this to treat many types of cancer. Chemoembolisation involves the injection of one or more cancer drugs directly into the blood vessels directly nourishing the cancer tumour. This allows high concentration of drugs to be sent to the tumour without poisoning the rest of the body.
This centre uses combination chemotherapy to attack single or multiple tumours, and this technique also kills the cancer cells that may have spread nearby beyond the border of the tumour. These cells, if they survive, would result in “local recurrence” of the tumour after the primary growth is removed. However, this method is not very effective if the tumour is large, and will have to be repeated at intervals. This is the first step before targeting the destruction of the main tumour mass.
RAPI
This stands for Radio-Active Particle Implant, which is a form of brachytherapy. Using computer-guided imaging, small titanium (or other inert metals) capsules containing radioactive isotopes appropriate for the cancer-type are implanted into the tumour mass to completely eliminate the tumour.
Again, if the tumour is large, repeated implantations will be necessary. Brachytherapy is already widely used throughout the world. In this centre, it is done as part of a multi-step treatment protocol.
HIFU
If RAPI is not suitable for the patients, then High-Intensity Focussed Ultrasound is used to kill tumour cancer cells using heat generated by ultrasound. This method is increasingly being utilised in cancer therapy because it is non-invasive.
Whole body cancer cell clearance
This is the most difficult part of cancer therapy. Too often we know of cancer patients who have had their primary tumours successfully removed, including a wide margin of surrounding tissues (and often the whole breast in the case of breast cancer) only to have the cancer resurface some time later. The standard treatment for the prevention of local recurrence is by radiotherapy, and that of distant metastases is by chemotherapy. For certain cancers, anti-hormone therapy and immune modulators may be employed.
Below are several novel methods employed in some hospitals in China, and possibly elsewhere too.
Lymphocyte/NK cell transfusion
In this method, compatible blood from the closest relatives (parents, siblings) are collected and the lymphocytes are isolated. The NK (Natural Killer) cells, which are the body’s main cancer-fighting cells, are isolated, and the NK-rich fraction is transfused into the patient. This can be repeated at intervals.
Nano transfusion
Using nano-technology, it is possible to deliver minute radioactive atoms as well as chemotherapy molecules to cancer cells throughout the body, with minimal harm to normal cells. The radioactive isotope (eg strontium 89) and chemo-drug molecule are attached to iron atoms that are rapidly taken up by metastatic cancer cells. In this way cancer cells marauding in the body far away from their origin, including those that are undetectable by current tests, can be killed. The three-in-one (iron, isotope, chemo-drug) bullet is transfused as per normal fluid transfusion.
Maturation Factors (MF)
Cancer cells grow and multiply without proper differentiation or maturation. Differentiation refers to the process of becoming specific cell-types with specific functions. Maturation refers to undergoing a process of fully acquiring the ability to perform the specified function of that particular cell-type.
For example, the cells lining the uterus have a specific function of preparing for and supporting a pregnancy. In the menstruating young woman, they undergo a maturation cycle that makes them fully prepared to support the early embryo which has implanted. If there is no pregnancy, they die, and new cells repeat the cycle.
Proper differentiation and maturation are determined by genes, maturation and growth factors, hormones and nutrients. Infections, drugs and chemicals may interfere at any stage.
The current understanding about cancer is that cancerous stem cells are probably the real culprit we should go after. Other stem cells can replicate ad infinitum because they always produce one copy of themselves at each division, while the other cell begins the process of differentiation and maturation. The trouble with cancer stem cells is that they divide into two cells that do not differentiate, and do not mature. Thus they have abnormal behaviour, including having unstoppable growth, and being locally and distantly invasive.
Maturation factors are substances that hasten the differentiation and maturation process of young, new cells. When applied to cancer cells, they have been found to cause some differentiation and maturation of the cancer cells. They become less aggressive, with less local invasion and metastasis. With continued treatment, progressive maturation of succeeding generations means the cells lose their ability to multiply indefinitely, and will die through the normal process called apoptosis (programmed cell-death).
This therapy is also called “taming” of cancer because the cancer cells are not killed by the treatment, but are “tamed” into becoming less harmful, or even harmless, until they die naturally. If you remember, cytotron cancer therapy also does not kill the cancer cells directly, but stop their ability to divide until they die naturally. While cytotron therapy is best for localised tumours, MF can be injected to tame tumours in the entire body.
At present, the source for MF used is Ukraine, because the best source is embryonic stem cells (ESC), and most countries still ban ESC research due to ethical reasons. MF is actually a combination of many known growth factors, and possibly many yet to be identified factors present in the embryonic stem cells.
Please be reminded that some of the above is not yet proven therapy, but it offers hope for those who are desperate, and who can afford it.
I am sure there are many more exciting therapies for cancer and other diseases out there that we have yet to discover. If you know of any, please let me know and I will do my research on them, and if justified, will share the information in this column.
CANCER will always be a hot topic in health circles because the problem is increasing in magnitude, and we don’t seem to have satisfactory answers.
In the last two weeks, there were two articles in the star ( Supplements and cancer, Fit4Life, Sunday, April 19 and What’s up, doc?, Fit4Life, Sunday, April 26, 2009.) that reminded readers that there is insufficient evidence to rely on supplements to prevent cancer. The only proven effective ways are to stop smoking if you are a smoker, and to have vaccinations for hepatitis B (men and women) and cervical cancer (girls before becoming sexually active).
In the past, I have reported on new methods of treating cancer (eg the cytotron magnetic field therapy), which elicited some unfriendly comments from several oncologists who accused me of promoting unproven methods.
To avoid controversy, let me emphasise that what I would like to share with you today include some methods which are yet to be proven by clinical studies, but which offer hope for the future, and hope for the present for those who have advanced or terminal cancers after current proven methods failed to help or cure them. Some of these methods are already being utilised in cancer centres around the world and if proven effective, will hopefully be made available here soon; while others, even if proven, may not be offered here because of ethical reasons (eg the use of embryonic stem cells or their extracts).
The fruits of medical research carried out in non-English speaking countries often do not reach us promptly. Sometimes new methods tried in clinics or medical centres not affiliated to any university or research centre only become known to us through word of mouth. I hope this information, which I gathered from China and Ukraine, may be useful, especially to those with advanced cancer who have nothing else to hope from conventional methods.
Many Malaysians with advanced cancer have already gone to some cancer centres in China to avail themselves of these treatments. I have reviewed some of their reports and am impressed with the results. Some are in remission even though conventional treatment failed to destroy their cancers. One patient is a Malaysian lady with breast cancer that had spread to her pelvic bones and spine. A post-treatment PET scan showed that all the cancer primary and secondaries are gone.
It is too early to pronounce them as “cured” because we have to wait for five years of non-recurrence.
The individual methods may not be new, but the novel way these centres combine the various methods to defeat the cancer is probably the reason they succeeded where others failed.
As the treatments are extremely expensive, only those with advanced cancers and deep wallets have made the journey. I hope that as the treatments become more acceptable, the costs will come down and be accessible to more patients. It will be best, if the methods are proven effective as these early results indicate, that the treatments are made available here.
Chemoembolisation
This method is already in use in many countries, especially in treating liver cancer, but a cancer centre in GuangZhou, China, is using this to treat many types of cancer. Chemoembolisation involves the injection of one or more cancer drugs directly into the blood vessels directly nourishing the cancer tumour. This allows high concentration of drugs to be sent to the tumour without poisoning the rest of the body.
This centre uses combination chemotherapy to attack single or multiple tumours, and this technique also kills the cancer cells that may have spread nearby beyond the border of the tumour. These cells, if they survive, would result in “local recurrence” of the tumour after the primary growth is removed. However, this method is not very effective if the tumour is large, and will have to be repeated at intervals. This is the first step before targeting the destruction of the main tumour mass.
RAPI
This stands for Radio-Active Particle Implant, which is a form of brachytherapy. Using computer-guided imaging, small titanium (or other inert metals) capsules containing radioactive isotopes appropriate for the cancer-type are implanted into the tumour mass to completely eliminate the tumour.
Again, if the tumour is large, repeated implantations will be necessary. Brachytherapy is already widely used throughout the world. In this centre, it is done as part of a multi-step treatment protocol.
HIFU
If RAPI is not suitable for the patients, then High-Intensity Focussed Ultrasound is used to kill tumour cancer cells using heat generated by ultrasound. This method is increasingly being utilised in cancer therapy because it is non-invasive.
Whole body cancer cell clearance
This is the most difficult part of cancer therapy. Too often we know of cancer patients who have had their primary tumours successfully removed, including a wide margin of surrounding tissues (and often the whole breast in the case of breast cancer) only to have the cancer resurface some time later. The standard treatment for the prevention of local recurrence is by radiotherapy, and that of distant metastases is by chemotherapy. For certain cancers, anti-hormone therapy and immune modulators may be employed.
Below are several novel methods employed in some hospitals in China, and possibly elsewhere too.
Lymphocyte/NK cell transfusion
In this method, compatible blood from the closest relatives (parents, siblings) are collected and the lymphocytes are isolated. The NK (Natural Killer) cells, which are the body’s main cancer-fighting cells, are isolated, and the NK-rich fraction is transfused into the patient. This can be repeated at intervals.
Nano transfusion
Using nano-technology, it is possible to deliver minute radioactive atoms as well as chemotherapy molecules to cancer cells throughout the body, with minimal harm to normal cells. The radioactive isotope (eg strontium 89) and chemo-drug molecule are attached to iron atoms that are rapidly taken up by metastatic cancer cells. In this way cancer cells marauding in the body far away from their origin, including those that are undetectable by current tests, can be killed. The three-in-one (iron, isotope, chemo-drug) bullet is transfused as per normal fluid transfusion.
Maturation Factors (MF)
Cancer cells grow and multiply without proper differentiation or maturation. Differentiation refers to the process of becoming specific cell-types with specific functions. Maturation refers to undergoing a process of fully acquiring the ability to perform the specified function of that particular cell-type.
For example, the cells lining the uterus have a specific function of preparing for and supporting a pregnancy. In the menstruating young woman, they undergo a maturation cycle that makes them fully prepared to support the early embryo which has implanted. If there is no pregnancy, they die, and new cells repeat the cycle.
Proper differentiation and maturation are determined by genes, maturation and growth factors, hormones and nutrients. Infections, drugs and chemicals may interfere at any stage.
The current understanding about cancer is that cancerous stem cells are probably the real culprit we should go after. Other stem cells can replicate ad infinitum because they always produce one copy of themselves at each division, while the other cell begins the process of differentiation and maturation. The trouble with cancer stem cells is that they divide into two cells that do not differentiate, and do not mature. Thus they have abnormal behaviour, including having unstoppable growth, and being locally and distantly invasive.
Maturation factors are substances that hasten the differentiation and maturation process of young, new cells. When applied to cancer cells, they have been found to cause some differentiation and maturation of the cancer cells. They become less aggressive, with less local invasion and metastasis. With continued treatment, progressive maturation of succeeding generations means the cells lose their ability to multiply indefinitely, and will die through the normal process called apoptosis (programmed cell-death).
This therapy is also called “taming” of cancer because the cancer cells are not killed by the treatment, but are “tamed” into becoming less harmful, or even harmless, until they die naturally. If you remember, cytotron cancer therapy also does not kill the cancer cells directly, but stop their ability to divide until they die naturally. While cytotron therapy is best for localised tumours, MF can be injected to tame tumours in the entire body.
At present, the source for MF used is Ukraine, because the best source is embryonic stem cells (ESC), and most countries still ban ESC research due to ethical reasons. MF is actually a combination of many known growth factors, and possibly many yet to be identified factors present in the embryonic stem cells.
Please be reminded that some of the above is not yet proven therapy, but it offers hope for those who are desperate, and who can afford it.
I am sure there are many more exciting therapies for cancer and other diseases out there that we have yet to discover. If you know of any, please let me know and I will do my research on them, and if justified, will share the information in this column.
http://thestar.com.my/health/story.asp?file=/2009/5/3/health/3810234&sec=health
