Category Archives: Alternative Cancer Treatment

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research

Is Cancer Inevitable?

Future Cancer Prevention Techniques
Future Cancer Prevention Techniques

That cancer risk increases with age is a statistical truth. But does this mean that cancer is inevitable, as George Johnson recently suggested in the New York Times? In an article that has generated a fair amount of debate, the author of The Cancer Chronicles implies that cancer might be a necessary part of a larger plan.

“The rhetoric about the war on cancer implies that with enough money and determination, science might reduce cancer mortality as dramatically as it has with other leading killers – one more notch in medicine’s belt. But what, then, would we die from?”

Like many others, Johnson seems to believe that the simple act of living longer gives cancer cells more time to develop. The very nature of cell replication opens the door to cancer in what Johnson calls “the result of a basic evolutionary compromise.”

“As the body lives and grows, its cells are constantly dividing, copying their DNA. … They in turn pass it to their own progeny: copies of copies of copies. Along the way, errors inevitably occur.”

When the body fails to repair these genetic “glitches,” cancer cells can develop. “As people age their cells amass more potentially cancerous mutations,” Johnson says. “Given a long enough life, cancer will eventually kill you.”

Johnson does recognize that progress against cancer is being made. “New immune system therapies that bolster the body’s own defenses have shown … promise,” he notes, also mentioning the potential of targeted genetic therapy and nano robots to advance the cancer fight to the next level. But at the end, even if we can extend our lives into a second century, Johnson believes, “waiting at the end will be cancer.”

Next time: A different view: Hope IS warranted

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research

Precancerous Cells Linked to Higher Cervical Cancer Rates

Cervical Cancer
Cervical Cancer

A new study shows that women who have been treated for precancerous cells on the cervix may be at greater risk of developing vaginal or cervical cancer and may also be more likely to die should there develop either one of those cancers. Researchers recommended that women continue preventative screenings (PAP smears) into their later years.

The Swedish study found that cancer risk among women diagnosed with CIN3 cells increased with age, rising noticeably after age 60 and again after age 75. By age 75, the risk of developing cervical or vaginal cancer increased to more than 1 in 1,000. Cancer risk also increased among women who had been treated for abnormal cervical cells later in life. For example, the study found that the risk of developing cervical or vaginal cancer was five times greater among women who were treated for precancerous cells when they were in their 60s than it was for women treated in their 30s. Cancer fatalities also increased with age.

As explained on the British Medical Journal website and reported in The Guardian: “Women previously diagnosed with and treated for CIN3 were at substantially increased risk of developing and dying from cervical or vaginal cancer when they reached 60. The risk accelerated with further aging.”

Researchers recommended that women diagnosed with precancerous cells on their cervix when they were young continue to follow-up with their physician as they age. In a separate study, British researchers found that continuing regular PAP smears between age 50 and 64 may reduce cervical cancer risk into a woman’s 80s.

“Where a cervical cancer is found through screening it is usually at a very early stage where treatment has a greater chance of success,” Julietta Patnick of Britain’s National Health Service said.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Stress Management

Improving Your Quality of Life When Living With Cancer

Positive Mind Set
Positive Mind Set

When living with cancer you may find yourself too preoccupied to take part in activities you normally enjoy. It’s important to focus on taking time for yourself and improving your quality of life. Even small pleasures can make a big difference in maintaining a positive mental attitude.

Defining quality of life is highly personal. Only you can say what factors go into your ideal blueprint for living. Are you a social butterfly who loves spending time with family and friends? Maybe you’re more of a homebody who enjoys curling up with a good book.

No matter where your bliss lies, taking care of your emotional and physical well-being boosts your quality of life. Here are some helpful ideas that can be easily incorporated into your schedule.

  • Stress can greatly impact your health. Find a method that helps you relax and free your mind. Meditation is particularly effective because it teaches you to live in the present rather than deal with regrets of the past or fears of the future.
  • Keep your energy level up by including some moderate exercise in your daily routine. Walking and bike riding are fun activities that won’t even feel like a workout.
  • Challenge yourself to become educated about nutrition and try out what you learn in the kitchen. The Internet makes it easier than ever to find healthy, simple-to-prepare recipes. Take some cooking classes at a local community center and make some new friends along the way.

No one else’s story is the same as yours. Write it however you choose and continue finding joy in every day of the journey

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research

Spermbots: The Future of Targeted Cancer Treatment?

Alternative Cancer Treatments
Alternative Cancer Treatments

One of the greatest challenges in targeted cancer therapy is achieving accurate delivery of the beneficial agent directly to the cancer cells you wish to affect. Researchers at the Institute for Integrative Nanoscience in Dresden, Germany are working on a novel solution to the problem. They are attempting to turn sperm cells into cancer treatment delivery agents.

The Germans were trying to build biobots, microscopic robots that could be controlled and directed from outside the body while surviving inside the body without damaging or being rejected by their host. After experimenting with numerous biologic materials, Discover Magazine recently reported that the researchers found a winner in sperm – specifically, the sperm from bulls (yes, the farm animal).

Strong and agile, modified sperm, called “spermbots” by the Germans, were able to deliver the propulsion the scientists desired. The ability to direct the sperm cells’ movement was achieved by exposing the sperm cells to a magnetic field in the laboratory and then using magnets to provide directional guidance. As explained in Discover Magazine, “It’s like a remote-control robot where the sperm start the engines and the researchers provide the navigation.”

While the research appears to have the greatest immediate potential for developing an in vivo, or inside the body, alternative to in vitro fertilization; the German scientists believe that human sperm cells could someday be used to deliver medicine and other beneficial agents directly to the body’s cells, potentially opening a new pathway for the delivery of advanced targeted cancer therapies. Even more boldly, they imagine a day when spermbots might be directed to “drill” into cancerous cells and actually cure cancer!

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research

New Study: Many U.S. Lung Cancer Patients Are Undergoing Unnecessary Treatment

Lung Cancer
Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. for both men and women, killing more than 150,000 people a year. According to the American Lung Association, lung cancer is responsible for 28% of all cancer deaths, surpassing the combined fatality rate of the next three most common cancers: colon, breast and prostate cancer.

The high threat of fatality has made aggressive treatment of all lung cancers standard practice in the United States. A new study that is being labeled “provocative,” by the American press, indicates that many lung cancer patients have endured painful surgery, chemotherapy and radiation needlessly. According to the Duke University Medical Center study, nearly 1 in 5 lung tumors detected by CT scans are too slow-growing to warrant treatment, much less the radical treatment that has become standard procedure among practitioners of Western medicine.

As Dr. Len Litchtenfeld of the National Cancer Institute explained to USA Today, the Duke study suggests that for every 10 lives saved by CT lung cancer screening, about 14 people will have been diagnosed with a lung cancer that does not require radical treatment. What that means is that 3 out of every 5 people diagnosed with lung cancer are likely to suffer through the pain, suffering, worry and expense of cancer surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiation treatments that may be unnecessary.

For patients with slow-growing lung cancers, the study suggests that refusing to undergo invasive treatments would not alter the patient’s health or life expectancy in any noticeable way. Integrated immunotherapy offers many lung cancer patients a welcome, non-toxic treatment option. Visit our website to find out more about our non-toxic cancer treatments.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy: The Living Drug

Immunotherapy Cancer Treatment
Immunotherapy Cancer Treatment

Discussing the targeted gene therapy that has produced such amazing results with leukemia patients (see our previous post), researchers referred to the body’s immune system as a “living drug.” While oversimplifying the immune system’s complex role in fighting cancer, the description is a useful one, particularly for people brought up in the culture of Western medicine.

Driven by the pharmaceutical industry, Western medicine has evolved a largely external approach to medical practice. In treating cancer, traditional practitioners emphasize surgery, chemotherapy and radiation; treatments that are performed on the body and treat the body as either a foe or passive player in the treatment process.

But the body is far from passive. As respected practitioners of science-based alternative cancer treatments know from years of clinical experience, the body is an extremely active participant in fighting disease and maintaining health. Tasked with protecting the body from harmful invaders, the body’s own immune system is cancer’s most potent foe. Immunotherapy puts this “living drug” to good use, optimizing the immune system’s ability to seek out and destroy cancer cells and repair the damage they cause.

If traditional medicine looks outside the body for cures, then integrated immunotherapy might be considered an internal approach to the practice of medicine. Immunotherapy works with, not against, your body, working from the inside to boost the strength and response of your body’s own natural defense system.

Integrated immunotherapy is not a new approach. Issels alternative cancer treatment centers have been practicing integrated immunotherapy with excellent results for more than half a century. But Western medicine is only now beginning to recognize the body’s amazing power to heal itself.