| | Nutritional Medicine: Treatments Currently Used for Cancer | |
Pioneers and Their
Alternative Cancer Therapies
The alternative therapists are at a serious disadvantage in the battle of
documentation. Even after $35 billion spent on government-funded research
and thousands of researchers working for decades, scientists are hard pressed
to prove efficacy in the assortment of conventional cancer treatment. Alternative
therapists don't publish results for a number of reasons:
- poorly financed and cannot support research efforts
- poorly organized and shy away from cooperative pooled data
- outlawed in the U.S. and ineligible for government research grants
- leery of reporting their data in the U.S. for fear of medical license
revocation and/or imprisonment.
There have been efforts recently to examine certain alternative cancer therapies.
Harold Foster, PhD at the University of British Columbia showed some rather
promising results from alternative cancer treatment. "Spontaneous regression"
is that elusive miraculous cure that comes to a few cancer patients after
traditional therapists have given up. It seems wise to study these "winners"
and see if there is something that they have in common. Of the 200 cancer
patients that Foster studied who had experienced "spontaneous regression",
87% made serious dietary changes which were mostly vegetarian in nature,
and many others underwent some detoxification program or used nutritional
supplements.
All of the following alternative cancer therapies are practiced somewhere
in the world. My most humble apologies to the pioneers or therapies that
have been left out of this brief overview. For more information, read:
- THIRD OPINION by John Fink, Avery Press, NY, 1988
- UNCONVENTIONAL CANCER TREATMENTS by the Office of Technology Assessment
of the U.S. government printing office, 1990
- CANCER THERAPY by Ralph Moss, PhD, Equinox Press, 1992
- OPTIONS by Richard Walters, Avery, 1993.
Max Gerson, MD emigrated from Europe to the United States in 1936
and began practicing medicine in New York. Gerson was labelled by the famous
missionary doctor, Albert Schweitzer, as "I see in Gerson one of the
most eminent geniuses in medical history." Gerson was treating cancer
patients with a diet and toxin purgative approach. Gerson's program included
a diet that was high in raw unprocessed plant food, low in fat, included
raw liver injections, thyroid extract, pancreatin (digestive aids), and
supplements of minerals and vitamins, especially high doses of vitamin C.
One of the more intriguing aspects of Dr. Gerson's therapy was an emphasis
on foods and supplements high in potassium. Realize that we evolved on a
"caveman" diet which was high in potassium from fresh plant food
and low in sodium (pre-salt shaker era). Our modern American diet reverses
this ratio from an ideal of 4 to 1 (potassium to sodium) to our current
1 to 4, a full 16 fold deterioration in this crucial balance of electrolytes.
All of your cells are bathed in a salty ocean water, with higher concentrations
of potassium inside the cell to create the "battery of life."
Birger Jansson, PhD at the University of Texas finds a strong link between
dietary sodium to potassium ratio and cancer.7 Stephen Thompson,
PhD researcher at the University of California San Diego, found that increasing
sodium content could accelerate the metastasis of colon cancer in animals.
Maryce Jacobs, PhD, former research director of the American Institute of
Cancer Research, has written an extensive technical chapter on the link
between the sodium to potassium ratio and cancer progression.8
When the National Cancer Institute reviewed Gerson's book which illustrated
his 30 years of clinical experience with 50 patients who recovered from
end-stage cancer, the NCI felt that the evidence was inadequate. The American
Cancer Society heavily criticized Gerson for several decades and did not
recognize a nutrition cancer link until the 1980s. The modern ACS anti-cancer
diet looks remarkably similar to Dr. Gerson's diet.
William D. Kelley, DDS was a dentist who claimed to have healed himself
of pancreatic cancer with his own therapy in 1964. Kelley's program included
metabolic typing to provide a patient-specific dietary program, detoxification
(coffee enemas, etc.), neurological stimulation through chiropractic adjustment
and supplements of vitamins, minerals and enzymes. Until 1977, the MERCK
MEDICAL MANUAL, considered the "bible of physicians", included
coffee enemas as an accepted means of detoxification and constipation relief.
Yet coffee enemas became the focal point of critics who considered the Kelley
program unscientific.
Meanwhile, there has been an abundance of scientific studies in Europe showing
that enzymes (protease, amylase, lipase) can improve the general course
of the cancer patient.9 Kelley's work is carried on by a Sloan-Kettering
trained oncologist, Dr. Nicholas Gonzales, in New York City. In his 1970s
trial, Kelley was ordered by a federal judge never to speak or write about
cancer again. Kelley has since become a recluse.
Macrobiotics. This program is based on the writings of a Japanese
physician, Sagen Ishizuka (1850-1910) who cured himself of cancer by abandoning
the refined diet of affluent Japan and reverting back to the unpurified
Japanese diet of brown rice, soybeans, fish, miso soup, sea vegetables and
other traditional Oriental foods. When you read the "laws of nutrition"
later in this book, you will notice the importance of consuming one's ancestral
diet. Some proposed mechanisms why the macrobiotic diet helps some cancer
patients:
- low in fat
- high in fiber
- high vegetable intake
- improved sodium to potassium ratio
- ability to change an acid (cancer) environment back toward alkaline
(healthy)
- potent anti-cancer agents found in soybeans, sea vegetables and other
fresh produce
- thyroid stimulating substances found in sea vegetables.
Macrobiotics includes an Eastern philosophy of balancing yin and yang, which
are opposing forces. Michio Kushi established a macrobiotic center in Boston
in 1978 and has gained a noteworthy following. Kushi has publicly encouraged
cancer patients to continue with conventional care.
There are varying levels of intensity in complying with macrobiotic principles,
with the ultimate level (+7) being a diet of 100% whole cereals. An American
physician, Anthony Sattilaro, cured himself of advanced prostatic cancer
with the macrobiotic diet and wrote a book to further popularize this approach.
While the macrobiotic lifestyle is certainly a major improvement over the
typical American diet, certain aspects of this program are a bit mystifying:
- unlimited access to miso and pickles, which are high in sodium
- limited intake of fruit and fish
- potential for protein and B-12 malnutrition.
This program includes cotton clothes, fresh air and exercise.
Herbal Therapies. Plant extracts are mankind's oldest medicines.
One third of all prescription drugs in the U.S. are based on plant extracts.
There is a desperate scramble among drug companies and even the National
Cancer Institute to develop patentable variations of the many anti-cancer
agents found in plants. Many of the people listed below have staked their
claim to herbal cures of cancer, including Caisse, Hoxsey, Winters, and
others. Periwinkle plant is now the very acceptable cancer drug, vincristine.
Undoubtedly, plant extracts will become a major source of cancer drugs in
the future. James Duke, PhD, a well respected botanist with the United States
Department of Agriculture, has written textbooks on the anti-cancer ingredients
in many plants. If you have seen the movie "Medicine Man", then
you can appreciate the complexities of trying to find the active ingredient(s)
in plant extracts. Botanicals used to fight cancer include Pau D'Arco (LaPacho),
ginseng, green tea, mistletoe, polyphenols, carotenoids, bioflavonoids,
echinecea, astragalus, chaparral, blood root, garlic and various mushroom
extracts.
Rene Caisse, a Canadian public health nurse, was told by a patient
in 1922 that an Indian herbal tea had saved her life from breast cancer.
Caisse obtained the recipe, reportedly used it successfully on a few of
her patients and then named the therapy "Essiac", or Caisse spelled
backward. Her troubles with the government waxed and waned for the coming
decades until 1978, shortly before her death, when she signed over the rights
to her secret formula to a Canadian manufacturing firm.
Harry Hoxsey (1901-1974) popularized his great-grandfather's herbal
formula which had reputedly cured horses of cancer. Harry Hoxsey's father
was a veterinary surgeon who also used the formula on both animals and people
with cancer. Yet Harry is the man who made the formula famous. Hoxsey's
flamboyant and controversial style led to many encounters with federal officials
and the American Medical Association. At his zenith in the U.S., Hoxsey
had thousands of very happy cancer patients going to his 17 clinics across
the country. After uncountable arrests, he closed his Dallas clinic in the
late 1950s and moved to Mexico to continue practicing. Hoxsey's formula
included bloodroot, burdock, buckthorn, cascara, barberry, licorice, red
clover, pokeroot, zinc chloride and antimony trisulfide. Hoxsey's general
formula has ended up in many escharotics, or topically applied ointments
that successfully burn away surface cancers.
Rudolph Steiner, PhD popularized the use of mistletoe in the early
20th century. A certain lectin in mistletoe has been found to inhibit the
growth of proliferating cells. By the 1980s, about 40,000 patients worldwide
were receiving Iscador, a fermented form of mistletoe that is injected.
Iscador and its variations are licensed in Germany as drugs.
Stanislaw R. Burzynski, MD, PhD theorized that certain anti-neoplastons,
or naturally occurring peptides, could inhibit the growth of tumor cells
without interrupting normal cell growth. Burzynski first isolated his anti-neoplastons
from human urine and later synthesized these compounds in the laboratory.
Dr. Burzynski uses about 10 types of anti-neoplastons in both oral and intravenous
fashion. Government authorities have restricted Burzynski to administering
his cancer therapy only in his clinic in Houston, Texas, and now even that
narrow scope of practice is in jeopardy.
Paul Niehans, MD developed his "cell therapy" techniques
in Switzerland in the 1930s. The principle is that "something"
in young tissue is able to regenerate old and sick tissue. Hence, injecting
cells derived from whole fetuses is supposed to make old people feel younger
and sick people get well. Cell therapy has been used for a wide range of
otherwise untreatable conditions, most notably for aging wealthy people
to feel younger.
Joseph Gold, MD of the Syracuse Cancer Research Institute reported
good results in the 1970s using hydrazine sulfate to inhibit the growth
of tumors in animals. While there certainly are some less effective approaches
among alternative cancer therapies, hydrazine sulfate has been found in
human clinical studies at the University of California at Los Angeles to
reduce lean tissue wasting (cachexia) and improve the abnormal glucose and
insulin levels which are common among end stage cancer patients.10
Hydrazine sulfate, for some unknown reason, has become a tainted subject
among traditional cancer researchers, which is a real travesty for millions
of cancer patients worldwide.
Ernst Krebs, Sr., MD, and Ernst Krebs, Jr. were the developers of
laetrile, which is amygdalin, a cyanide-containing compound first isolated
from the seeds of pit fruit, like apricots. The ancient Egyptians, Chinese,
Greeks, and Romans all used seed pits, or amygdalin, as their "sacred
seeds" against cancer. Since the 1970s, 70,000 people have used laetrile
to treat cancer. Laetrile has become an irrational "head butting contest"
between the conventional and unconventional cancer communities.
Ralph Moss, PhD was the science writer for the Sloan-Kettering cancer hospital
in New York when research was being conducted by a celebrated scientist,
Dr. Kanematsu Sugiura, on laetrile. Dr. Moss writes of a disturbing coverup
that basically ended any legitimate assessment of laetrile.11
Dr. Sugiura found that laetrile did not destroy primary tumors in animals,
but did inhibit the growth of tumors and signficantly retarded lung metastases.
A San Antonio physician, Dr. Eva Lee Sneak wrote a letter to the editor
printed in a publication of the American Medical Association: "Laetrile,
properly used, has had, in my hands at least, as good a success as chemotherapy
with far fewer side effects."12
In 1982, the National Cancer Institute funded a laetrile cancer study conducted
by Charles Moertel, MD of the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Moertel's results, published
in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, played "Taps"
for laetrile, claiming that it neither helped cancer nor the symptoms of
cancer. About 21 states still allow the use of laetrile in cancer treatment,
while other states have revoked medical licenses for the same.
A curious footnote to laetrile is that young plants develop their own naturally
occurring pesticides to provide some protection against insects and rodents.
This "pesticide" is rich in nitrilosides, which are similar in
chemical structure to laetrile. Could it be that a diet high in young fresh
plants, like alfalfa sprouts, is like having continuous non-toxic chemotherapy
to kill pockets of cancer cells before they can flourish?
Virginia Livingston-Wheeler, MD felt that cancer was caused by a
specific pathogen, Progenitor cryptocides (PC), a cousin of the bacteria
that causes leprosy and tuberculosis. Treatment includes immunologic vaccines
of PC, pharmacologic therapies and nutritional components. Dr. Livingston
helped many cancer patients with her nutritional approaches, which included
avoidance of foods that contain PC, like chicken and eggs. However, most
cancer patients are immune suppressed and subject to nearly every opportunistic
infection that comes along, including PC.
While this bacteria and many others are present in most cancer patients,
linking cause and effect is another matter. For instance, fire engines are
present at most fires, but they do not cause fires. Yet, other researchers
are equally intrigued with the theory that cancer is caused by a bacteria.13
It is known that older people are at greater risk for both developing cancer
and experiencing a reduced output of stomach acid. Since the acid bath of
the stomach is supposed to destroy many invading organisms, the theory of
"cancer caused by a pathogen" would help to explain the prevalence
of cancer in older adults.
I. William Lane, PhD has been the forerunner in the use of shark
cartilage to inhibit angiogenesis and stop tumor growth. Dr. Lane's use
patent on cartilage, bestselling book, Sharks Don't Get Cancer, and
appearance on the TV series "60 Minutes" have heralded a modern
champion for non-toxic cancer therapy.
Hans Nieper, MD is a European physician who uses conventional and
unconventional drugs, vitamins, minerals (many of his own design), plant
and animal extracts, a certain diet, and avoidance of "geopathogenic
zones" which may incite disease.
Otto Warburg, PhD was awarded two Nobel prizes and first discovered
the link between low oxygen levels and cancer growth. Other scientists have
proven that cancer becomes more resistant to therapy as the tumor mass becomes
more acidic and anaerobic.14 Warburg's theories provided the
foundation for ozone and hydrogen peroxide therapies, which are given intravenously,
orally and rectally. While the efficacy of these therapies is controversial,
experts caution against drinking hydrogen peroxide, since it is such a potent
free radical generator.
Emmanuel Revici, MD based his treatment on correcting an imbalance
between fatty acids and sterols in the cancer patient; called "biological
dualism". Revici was considered a very dedicated physician and developer
of selenium as an anti-cancer agent.
Ewan Cameron, MD, a Scottish surgeon first popularized the use of
high dose vitamin C in terminal cancer patients. Linus Pauling, PhD, twice
Nobel laureate, furthered this cause with studies and writings. While vitamin
C is far from a "magic bullet" against cancer, many cancer patients
have been found to have clinical scurvy. Both in studies and my experience,
high dose vitamin C does improve the quality and quantity of life for most
cancer patients.
J.H. Lawrence, a British scientist during World War II, found that
something in urine seemed to have anti-tumor activity in animals. His work
has since been refined and carried on by numerous disciples throughout the
world.
Lawrence Burton, PhD developed Immuno-Augmentative Therapy by injecting
various blood products into cancer patients to stimulate the immune system.
Once a well-respected researcher, Burton was ridiculed by his colleagues
and forced to practice in the Bahamas.
714X & Gaston Naessens. Naessens was driven out of France in
the 1950s when he developed a treatment for leukemia called Anablast. He
settled in French Quebec in Canada and developed a microscope that supposedly
has a much better resolution than other conventional microscopes. Naessens
claims to have found "somatids" or "elementary particles
endowed with movement and possessing a variable life cycle of many forms."
Pleomorphism is the theory that inanimate objects can change into living
pathogens and back again. If this principle is true, then traditional microbiologists
will have to add a new axiom to their texts: "Ignore all previous axioms."
Naessens invented 714X, a compound of camphor and nitrogen, which is injected
directly into the lymph system of the cancer patient to bring nitrogen to
starving cancer cells.
CanCell (Entelev) was developed by an analytical chemist and patent
attorney, Jim Sheridan. The basics of this formula came to Sheridan in a
dream, in which he visualized interrupting the respiratory energy chain
of cancer cells. Cancell contains a catechol, a natural chemical that can
inhibit respiration. By 1942, Sheridan claimed to be getting better than
70% tumor response in mice studies. In 1953, human clinical trials with
Cancell were blocked by the American Cancer Society. In 1961, Sheridan tried
proving his theories to the government, which needed to see results in 5
days, while Cancell supposedly takes 28 days to show effect. In 1982, Cancell
was put into "handcuffs" when the Food and Drug Administration
gave Sheridan an Investigative New Drug (IND) number, then put the project
on "clinical hold". By then, Sheridan gave up and turned the formula
over to Ed Sopcak, a foundry owner, who has since given away 20,000 bottles
of Cancell.
Where do we go from here?
As you can see, alternative therapists have been busy developing their own
versions of cancer remedies. There is a serious problem with this long menu
of alternative therapies for cancer: the gatekeepers of the Food and Drug
Administration, the insurance industry, the American Medical Association
and the American Cancer Society have been quick to "throw out the baby
with the bathwater". That is, some of these approaches warrant further
study, yet they have all been lumped together under the tainted reputation
of "fringe" and either discouraged or outlawed. We need to separate
the chaff from the grain in these therapies and expose them to some much
needed research scrutiny.
It is obvious that no unqualified cure for cancer exists, either in conventional
or unconventional circles. Given the disappointing results of traditional
cancer therapy, it only makes sense to expand our horizons and look at other
possibilities. As cancer is about to become the primary cause of death in
Western society and as the "war on cancer" drags into its third
decade, we need to ponder the inspirational words from one of history's
greatest minds, Benjamin Franklin: "If everyone is thinking alike,
then no one is thinking."
References
(Excerpted from Beating Cancer with Nutrition: Clinically Proven and Easy-To-Follow Strategies to Dramatically Improve Quality and Quantity of L ISBN: 0963837281)
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 | Dr. Patrick Quillin, an internationally respected expert in the area of nutrition and cancer, has served as the Director of Nutrition for Cancer Treatment Centers of America (800-577-1255) for the past ten years.......more |
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