Scientists from the Seattle based Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have stumbled upon a very inconvenient truth.
Chemotherapy is so damaging to the healthy cells surrounding a tumor that it changes their DNA, causing fibroblasts, those cells involved in wound healing and maintaining connective tissue, to produce a molecule called WNT16B that actually encourages prostate tumors to grow and invade neighboring cells.
The researchers also confirmed these findings for breast and ovarian cancer tumors.
The unsettling findings reported by the journal Nature Medicine in August 2012, helps explain why cancer patients sometimes derive little to no benefit from chemo treatments, essentially enduring the worse than death side effects for naught.
Peter Nelson, the study co-author said, “The increase in WNT16B was completely unexpected”.
It also sheds light on why tumors might shrink from an initial round of chemo only to regrow later becoming resistant to further rounds of the devastating treatment. Â Peter Nelson confirms the eventual resistance tumors develop to chemo adding:
“WNT16B, when secreted, would interact with nearby tumour cells and cause them to grow, invade, and importantly, resist subsequent therapy“.
Professor Fran Balkwill, a UK based expert on the tumor microenvironment commented that these findings are in line with other research which has demonstrated that “cancer treatments don’t just affect cancer cells, but can also target cells in and around tumors”.
Researchers seem unfazed by these disquieting results that, though unexpected, did not seem to give them any pause whatsoever in questioning chemo as a valid tumor treatment for the long term.
Instead, they chose to stick their heads further into the sand suggesting that drugs to inhibit the production of WNT16B were in order for “new and improved” chemo treatments.
If one drug doesn’t work, let’s just add another, then another, then another ….
Apparently, “chemo brain” affects cancer researchers too.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Actually, I don’t remember where, but I know that I read probably 15 years ago that chemo damages the enzyme that the body naturally produces to shrink tumors which leads to the tumors exploding in growth shortly after chemo finishes.
So this is not new information, researchers have known about the negative effects of chemo for many years. “Accidentally” discovered it? Either these researchers are more uneducated and intellectually isolated than one can believe – or they simply recognize that the plug will get pulled on their funding if they don’t pretend it was an accidental discovery and profess that the solution will be more chemo.
@ Joanie: Turmeric is one of the best tumor shrinkers around! It has a reputation of being able to shrink tumors quickly, too. This is kind of a funky web site, but his information, although brief, is good. I think Dr. Mercola had a segment on Turmeric shrinking tumors, as well as GreenMedInfo.com (Sayer Ji) but I can’t find either of them right off hand.
Medicine, in general, has known about the uselessness of chemo, not to mention the dangers, for a long long long time. I always wonder why, after 60+ years of “research” from our medical industry, they have only produced three items – which they seem reluctant to give up – and that is chemo, radiation or surgery. That’s it – after all the research money they’ve had at their disposal in 60 years??? No. We need to find our own answers because the medical industry wouldn’t dare find an answer, and doesn’t want anyone else to either, as can be witnessed by the treatment afforded to Dr. Stanislaw Brazinsky (sp?) and his son for their efforts with their Houston, TX clinic and their work with antineoplastons. Shameful behavior on the part of our medical industrial complex towards these men, which only goes to show the AMA, the ACA and all the other cancer related folks don’t WANT an answer. Their profits go out the door if an answer is found.
@ Joanie: Oops – I forgot to add the link to the web site I referred to in my post above. Sorry!
http://newresearchfindingstwo.blogspot.com/2011/10/october-31-2011-tumeric-and-brain.html
What a lot of people don’t realize is that drugs like methotrexate are nothing more than chemotherapy in a pill. So even if they’re not actively using IV Chemotherapy agents, it doesn’t mean they aren’t still using them in some form if they are taking other drugs. I’ve lost two sisters to the system in the past six years and they both died of brain tumors after having been on a regimine of methotrexate, prednisone, humira, nexium (for the related digestive issues) and a host of other drugs over the years. But enormously profitable drugs seem to be all doctors have to offer, because they understand nothing at all about nutrition and the benefits proper eating, as well as a modified exercise program, can have on illnesses and cancers. And just because chemo is starting to lose face with the public (who, really, can only be fooled for about so long) that doesn’t mean the medical industry will put it to bed – EVER. “Modern” cancer therapies like chemo, radiation and surgeries will someday be regarded with the same type of horror as bloodletting from days past. Ignorance plays a big role in unnecessary treatments of cancer (and many other diseases for that matter) – and I don’t mean ignorance on the part of the patient.
D – so sorry to hear about your sisters. One of mine is on the same regime for an auto-immune illness. I think this is her third year. If I ever mention any alternatives, she and her husband respond how dare I think I know better than the Drs. at their big university hospital.
How long did your sisters do their treatments and how long did it take until the tumors
showed up?
@ Helen: One sister died in 2006 after having been diagnosed with RA in 1998, and the other one died just in January of this year (2012) only having been diagnosed in 2010. The one who died in 2006 was just 60 y/o and the one who died this year had turned 69 in December of 2011. Both of them were pretty much on the same medications at some point so I am almost positive those drugs did much more harm than good. The sister who died in 2006 wasn’t interested in ANYTHING alternative (she wouldn’t even try celery seed tea for a diuretic and certainly wouldn’t think of using fish oil or turmeric), and my older sister was interested, but there just wasn’t time to help her too much because she didn’t even tell me about all of this right away (she was a very private person) and also she lived 1,600 miles away from me. She was in the hospital for a hysterectomy (of which I heartily disapproved and tried to convince her was not necessary because she did not have cancer) and after that things went right down hill. They each died within days of their doctors telling the families about the tumors, although I don’t know how long the doctors actually realized the tumors were present. But it couldn’t have been long, maybe talking in terms of days, not weeks – and certainly not months. Time grew short in a hurry.
D – I really appreciate you responding: thanks…..and I’m so sorry for your losses.
My sister has : Dermatomyositis (DM) is a connective-tissue disease related to polymyositis (PM) that is characterized by inflammation of the muscles and the skin. While DM most frequently affects the skin and muscles, it is a systemic disorder that may also affect the joints, the esophagus, the lungs, and, less commonly, the heart.
(from Wikipedia)
So few people are diagnosed with this a year, she was called in more than once at the Barnes teaching hospital in St. Louis where she is also being treated as a teaching patient.
She also saw a top specialist in Pittsburgh for the myositis diseases (more than one kind). Her drug protocol sounds EXACTLY like your sisters’.
There is a doctor that Mercola recommends for this: Dr. Burt Berkson in New Mexico.
His protocol includes low dose Naltrexone and alpha limpoic acid. You’re suppose to
start seeing an improvement in two months. The # of times I’ve run this by my sister – with no interest at all, even though Dr. Berkson lectures at USC! Why is it that people can’t think outside the box? They go FIRST for the most deadly and harmful therapies instead of last!
@ Helen T: Sounds like your sister has a combo of scleroderma and sarcoiditis, which is probably exactly what she has and they had to call it something else! If I were you, and this is just my opinion after doing a bunch of research on this type of stuff, I would encourage your sister to place herself as far away from a teaching hospital situation as possible. And I’m as serious as a heart attack about that. Conventional thinking tells us that a teaching hospital is wonderful. Not so. If you want your sister to be treated like a lab experiment, then a teaching hospital is designed specifically for her. Otherwise, no. Infection rates at teaching hospitals are ginormous. This is just a HUGE subject (too big to go into here) but either do some online research about it (don’t take advice from dot gov sites or wiki sites or dot edu sites, as a rule) or head to the local library and read about it. If I remember correctly, Dr. Robert Mendelsohn had a section in one of his books about teaching situations – he highly DIDN’T recommend it for reasons seen by a doctor. I highly don’t recommend it because of reasons seen by me – and a bit of research! I don’t know anything about this Dr. Berkson you mentioned (I don’t read much at Mercola these days) but maybe he’s utilizing your sister in a different way. And maybe she’s not actually a “patient” admitted there, just seen as an out-patient? That might make some difference. But I’d sure look into that if you really want to help her from a critical standpoint. Does he perform integrative medicine procedures?
I tried Naltrexone and noticed nothing at all. But other people are getting results with it, from what I understand. Also, did you mean ALA (Alpha lipoic acid)? ALA is wonderful stuff, as is the turmeric I suggested. I buy loose turmeric at my health food store (organic) and put it into capsules myself. I take it along with D3 and Vitamin K every single day. I use a few other things too, but it’s too complicated, again, to go into here. I wish there was some way I could let you know my email address without having to post it publicly. I don’t do facebook (not in this lifetime!). We could discuss this further without having to tie up Sarah’s forum! Oh well.
I’m done with bringing up anything with her, her huband or children. For them, things one reads on the net have no credibility. Frankly, it’s not pretty when I do, so I’m backing off. She had the biopsy for the muscle problem: there’s a host of myositis conditions. It came back positive. I’ll look up the conditions you listed.
Dr. Berkson combines the two: Naltrexone with ALA. Dr. Berkson has a website and is also featured on Mercola’s site, interviews, etc.
And, good luck with your health and path you’re taking & thanks for your responses.
@ Helen T.
You’re welcome and I wish your sister good luck.
The platinum IV chemo saved my dad, but the oral chemo the idiot dr. put him on after all signs disappeared except for a shadow in the liver is what killed him.
I wanted to suggest to anyone interested in alternative therapies to read Suzanne Somers’ book “Knockout.” If you haven’t read any of her books, you are in for a real treat. She is well informed and is well connected in the medical community. Don’t picture her as the ding-dong form “Three’s Company.” I put off reading her books because of this pre-conceived notion and by a few pages in, I was hooked. I’ve read all of her health books.
Anyway, in “Knockout” she interviews several doctors who are using alternative treatments quite successfully. It is loaded with info. But one thing comes to mind from all of her books and quoted by many docs that she has interviewed: Curcumin (turmeric). It is a critical cancer fighter. One doc (although I don’t remember which book of hers I read it from) said he believed we could fight off all cancer if we were allowed to give IV’s of curcumin instead of chemo. Of course that will never happen because they can’t make money off of it. We take it daily at my house. Whether you know someone with cancer or not, you should have this book on hand for if the time comes.
I have, in reference to sarah’s post today, heard many. many times people say, “It was the chemo that killed my dad, mom, sister, cousin, whatever.” After watching “Cut, Poison, Burn” and reading Suzane’s books, I feel that just may be true.
Susan,
How do you take the tumeric? What would be an easy way to give it to my kids? Just seasoning with it?
There are capsules available, and you can also add it as a seasoning to foods. Or hide it in a smoothie if your kids are little and/or picky.
What are the alternatives? I have heard off all natural juicing of organic fruits and vegetables?
They say the body can heal itself if it has what it needs. And I’ve considered this and given it a lot of thought…my brother died from cancer…but fasting and juicing, trying to reverse the damage, to me is way better than conventional treatments. I had a dog that had a tumor the size of a grapefruit on her hip and took her off all dog food (high glycemic from grains) and gave her motrin and the tumor went away after the veterinarian told me she wouldn’t make it. Digestion is the most important factor in health, that and blood sugar, imo…and digestion affects the immune system.. Read Gaps Diet
That is the problem with these articles … they create fear and give no alternatives.
I believe that cancers feed off sugar and carbs that turn to sugar. So follow a healthy low carb no/low sugar lifestyle. IMHO juicing has too many sugars in one serving, even tho they are natural ‘healthy’ sugars, the body still perceives them as SUGAR. Many years ago before technology gave us grocery stores, refrigerators etc, people only ate the fruits and vegetables that were in season limiting their intake of these foods.
Cancers do NOT like hot foods, like peppers with capsaicin, hot pepper seeds and that kind of thing. I add crushed red pepper flakes routinely during the day to my foods equaling 1.5 tsps or more, and I use hot pepper sauces.
Obviously, education, research and talking with your doctors will guide you in a direction to follow to avoid cancers.
The point of this article is to MOTIVATE people to look beyond the cut, poison, burn approach and seek answers elsewhere .. and there are many beneficial protocols that are helping folks tremendously. It is beyond the scope of this article to list them all for the many types of cancer out there. If people choose to do nothing and just be scared by this research, that is too bad. I choose to believe that many will read it and be motivated to look elsewhere for their healing.
I agree again !
I took Essiac Tea and Graviola and survived ovarian cancer. I also had chemo, but I believe the natural things I took protected me from the chemo somewhat.
Sue, all cancer protocol diets call for you to juice your VEGGIES and eat your fruit (in moderation), There’s not a single, reputable cancer diet that calls for you to juice the fruit.
Another important fact is to NOT eat regular grocery store meat. It MUST be truly pastured, healthy animal meat and even then, for cancer, in moderation as it uses up an enormous amount of digestive enzymes to break it down. These enzymes are critical to help fight the cancer. That’s why many of these cancer diets recommend a vegan diet to start and adding milk, but only raw, and pastured eggs later.
Turmeric is also a fantastic spice to add as it helps with cancer cell apoptosis (cell death) and has wonderful antioxident value.
Sorry, I disagree. Not all cancer protocols call for you to juice. There are far too many protocols to be listed here. Personally, juicing would never be a fundamental part of my personal approach.
@ Joanie: I agree. I would never use juices as a protocol either. Neither would I use flax seeds since they are mostly rancid from the get-go, unless they’re beyond fresh. Never buy pre-ground flax seeds, for sure, but I try to avoid flax in any form – rancidity being key to the reason why.. I use chia seeds – much more stable. I use them because I like them and they have health benefits. I don’t have cancer, I have an auto-immune condition which I’ve managed to treat nutritionally for the past 10 years with pretty decent success. Juices were never a part of the protocol I’ve been using, except I do occasionally make myself a carrot juice and fresh, raw cream cocktail with a little sea salt in it, as mentioned in Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions Cookbook. It is just delicious and is good for my eyes and a whole bunch of other things!
How does that support the amazing results that the GERSON THERAPY cancer center gets from having people juice, do coffee enemas (to pull the toxins out) etc? Juicing would be MY #1 choice in the cancer battle. Much info can be found by googling the Gerson Therapy protocol.
This IS disturbing but I am grateful to be a 13 yr survivor of ovarian cancer after receiving my chemo treatments, with lots of prayer from friends and family too. This article does not address what to do in place of the chemo, just scaring the wits out of people who need treatments.
This is what to keep in mind “The unsettling findings reported by the journal Nature Medicine in August 2012, helps explain why cancer patients sometimes derive little to no benefit from chemo treatments, essentially enduring the worse than death side effects for naught.” SOMETIMES is the operative word ….
So what are people with cancer supposed to do?
There are many holistic treatments out there that are helping people beat cancer without the cut, poison, burn approach. I’ve been reading about and have friends with excellent results from German New Medicine. Dr. Tom Cowan MD in San Francisco is an excellent resource as well. He does phone consults too.
Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez MD in NYC is another option for a holistic treatment protocol. Long distance treatment but an initial visit to his office would be required i believe. I don’t think he takes folks who have already had chemo though as it messes people up too much.
I read recently a transcript of an interview with Dr. Gonzales at the Healing Cancer Summit and in some cases he suggests they do chemo first for very fast growing tumors to give them time to get in to see him and start treatment. I found this on the Discussing Nourishing Traditions Yahoo Group under “files”, “cancer docs”, “Healing Cancer Summit #1”. His explanation of why cancer tumors form and why his treatment works if a very interesting read!
We know someone that was healed by Dr. Gonzales. Get this: stage IV pancreatic cancer.
Read Suzanne Summer’s book called “Knockout”. She talks about Doctors such as Nicholas Gonzalez, and others. She also provides ways to build your immune system if you already decided to go with chemotherapy. Great read.
Amy, check out all the testimonials and videos from http://www.chrisbeatcancer.com It’s astounding how many have cured themselves by overdosing on nutrition. Something the medical community doesn’t want anyone to know about. There are ALL KINDS of cures out there. Start out by reading Chris’s story how he cured himself of stage 3 colon cancer WITHOUT the use of chemo. He’s been cancer free for 10 years now. It’s amazing!!
GERSON THERAPY…juicing and coffee enemas are a GREAT way to start detoxing your body and allowing it fight the cancer.
The sad thing is radiation and chemotherapy are only temporary fixes if they work at all. And the side effects can be permanent as well.
No, they are not. Sometimes the cancer comes back, sometimes it doesn’t. (And we all, ultimately, die of something.) For many people, chemotherapy and radiation are lifesaving treatments. My dear friend has been cancer-free for nearly 10 years now, thanks to radiation and chemotherapy.
My dad would be dead right now if it wasn’t for chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
I understand where you’re coming from, I have relatives that survived treatment and are in “remission”. It seems to work for some. What we can’t know is what would have happened had they taken a different route. We absolutely can’t know that they would be dead! An anti-cancer diet and lifestyle regimen may well have cured them, without the side effects of medicinal treatment.
I agree.
Inspirational lecture by a father who brought his son back from a deadly condition plus debilitating chemo treatments:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6JsCXjS8lg&feature=relmfu
(part one)
I wish that we would have gone the natural route with my father, They gave him 6 months without treatment and said chemotherapy and radiation would extend that … he lived 3 months and died horribly sick.
i’m glad for you Rebecca but our story is just the opposite. it was chemo that killed my brother within …and the same old fear tactic used to get him to comply: “if you don’t take chemo you’ll only have six weeks to live…with chemo you’ll get more.”
Instead of being offered a feeding tube to build up energy and girth, and palliative care to allow him to live the rest of his life saying goodbye and enjoying his family, the chemo put him in a coma the next day—and he died the day after.
Truth is CHEMO AND RADIATION ARE NOT the only options, and many people have gotten much worse and died sooner from the “cure.” in fact, of the 8 people i know who “died from cancer” actually died from kidney or other organ failure CAUSED by the chemo.