Cancer's Magic Bullet Myth
Let's face it folks, there is no magic bullet. About every week, there is some story about a pharmaceutical company that has a new improved cancer drug. The press runs some stories on it, the success stories are told, and then it does not pan out. Recent medications that have gone this route are Herceptin and Taxol for breast cancer. Do they work in some patients? Of course, but when they came out, we were all led to believe that the cure for breast cancer had arrived.
Another reason the magic bullet will never appear is because a tumor mass is made up of a heterogeneous mix of cancer cells. In other words, when a person is found to have a lung cancer mass with metastases in the liver, the cells on the outside of the lung mass may be different than the ones on the inside of the mass, which also may be different from the cells of the liver metastases. They are all lung cancer cells, but the antigens on the cell surface, their individual biochemistry, may make some of the cells more receptive to kill by the immune system and various chemotherapy medications. This is why a person may get some tumor regression of one cancerous lesion with high-dose chemotherapy but another one grows. High-dose chemotherapy too often relies on just one or two medications. This is in contrast to when a patient undergoes IPT. Often three to five different chemotherapy medications are used (in low doses) so as to effect the whole population of cancer cells in the patient.
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You Can Feel Great, And The Cancer Still Grows
Ross Hauser, M.D.
The person who stops sugar and grains and eats more vegetables, drinks juices, and takes herbs is going to feel better. While the person feels better, the cancer can be growing and infiltrating more organs. A healthy diet and proper nutritional supplements help the body organs function better but do not in any way make the immune system destroy cancer cells. On the contrary, the various vitamins and nutrients that a person is taking to be healthy could, in fact, be feeding the cancer. It is only by appropriate objective monitoring that a person would know if his or her particular cancer was arresting (stop growing) or going into remission (shrinking).
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Thinning the Blood
Ross Hauser, M.D.
Cancers are able to elude immune detection by many different mechanisms. One of them is probably the cancer clotting coat. This is comprised of a fibrin network of collagen that surrounds the tumor cells. Fibrin is the normal end product of blood clotting. Cancer physiology often involves blood coagulopathy. It is common to find in a cancer patient that markers for excessive blood clotting (coagulopathy) are high.
Common tests to show this are platelet aggregation studies, as well as fibrinogen levels, thrombin-antithrombin III complex, and others. Many cancer patients are treated with high-dose chemotherapy, which can worsen the excessive coagulopathy, thus worsening their cancer physiology.
Studies have shown that cancer patients who thin their blood with medications such as Coumadin and dipyridamole have better outcomes. It is best to have blood coagulation parameters checked before and after some type of anticoagulation therapy has been started to see if it has been corrected. If it has been corrected, this should have a positive impact on the outcome of other treatments the cancer patient requires.
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Aspirin and Colon Cancer
Ross Hauser, M.D.
In regards to cancer, anti-inflammatories do have a role. For cancers to metastasize, they require numerous blood vessels. What most people do not realize is that cancers cause the body to make a whole new blood supply to the Cancers themselves by causing the secretion of vascular growth factor (VGF).
VGF induces new blood vessel formation. VGF is needed if you are an athlete training in a running event because VGF will increase the circulation to the muscles so you won't get so tired when sprinting. VGF is also helpful for people with blocked arteries, because VGF can help collateral circulation form (new blood vessels to go around the blockage).
As it turns out Celebrex, aspirin, Voltaren, and other anti-inflammatory medications block the production of VGF. So when a person comes to Caring Medical for cancer care, an anti-inflammatory medication is often prescribed.
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