cancer study/long article

[Guest guest]

Hi, all I don't normally send something so long. But I watched Dateline with this story last night and thought most on this list would find it interesting. It is about a Convential Cancer Doctor who did a year long study with women- that were treated by Tibetan medicine. The tibetan herbs worked as well as convential treatment- with one bonus- no side effects. TO WESTERN EYES, Tibetan Buddhism is an exotic mix: part mystery, part ritual, steps in a lifetime quest for enlightenment. Ancient texts lead the way, some believe, to spiritual growth and physical healing. Tibetan physicians rely on medicines developed thousands of years ago. Medicines said to heal diseases for which western treatment can do nothing. One of those is stage 4 breast cancer, cancer cells that have spread beyond the breast is a virtual death sentence in the West. Could it be that Tibetan doctors already have the answers western researchers still seek? American doctors who once dismissed eastern philosophies are now taking a new look at the world’s oldest medicines. This is the story of a landmark medical study and a renowned researcher who broke ranks with western convention to ask a bold question: Could we do a better job fighting stage four breast cancer if we explore combining modern technology in the west with ancient healing arts from the East? ‘Many of these ancient oriental medical practices are steeped in centuries of tradition. So it’s hard to believe that none of it really is effective.’ — DR. DEBU TRIPATHYCancer researcher “Many of these ancient oriental medical practices are steeped in centuries of tradition. So it’s hard to believe that none of it really is effective,†says Dr. Debu Tripathy, director of clinical trials at the University of California in San Francisco and one of America’s leading cancer researchers. He’s intrigued by stories of remarkable improvement for cancer patients using Tibetan medicine. Even some American patients — with stage four breast cancer — who hadn’t responded to western treatment, swear the herbs helped. “After one year the tumor has not grown. I have not gone back on chemotherapy and as far as I’m concerned, the Tibetan herbs are working very well,†says Judy Ota. Resource links • Learn more about the Tibetan herb study • Excerpt from 'Health Through Balance' • Excerpt from 'Healing from the Source' • Tibetan Refugee Health Care Project • Dr. Yeshi Dhonden web site • Alternative Resouces Unlimited But are the stories wishful thinking or medical fact? Determined to find out, Tripathy set up the first-ever western scientific study using Tibetan herbs to treat breast cancer. He asked one of the foremost Tibetan physicians — a 73-year-old Buddhist monk, Dr. Yeshi Dhonden, for help. A request from a huge research facility in California to a tiny clinic halfway around the world. This is about as far from an American medical center as you can get—the town of Dharamsala in Northern India where Dr. Dhonden lives and operates his clinic. In the U.S., he might be a curiosity of alternative medicine, but here in Dharamsala, he is a revered figure, practicing healing arts that dates back some 2600 years, sought after by growing numbers of Westerners who travel halfway around the world just for a few minutes with him. Dhonden has practiced Tibetan medicine for 40 years — 19 of them as personal physician to the Dalai Lama. He’s lectured all over the world, but never had this kind of chance to prove himself in the West. He accepted Debu Tripathy’s invitation to treat a handful of American breast cancer patients with nothing more than Tibetan herbs for a full year. Dhonden says, “They will generally feel better, I would expect at the very least that the cancer will be arrested. It will cease growing.†Dhonden’s astonishing claims are as foreign to doctors in the U.S. as his crimson robes and his daily prayers. Nothing about western sensibilities lends itself to comprehending the mysteries of the East. So why would Dhonden take the chance to be potentially discredited not only personally but in terms of the effect of Tibetan medicine?†“I think it’s impossible that careful open-minded scientific research into Tibetan medicine for breast cancer will indicate that it has no efficacy at all,†he says. The study won’t admit patients with early stage cancer, who potentially can be cured by existing treatment. It’s only open to women with stage 4 breast cancer... considered incurable by western standards. The study won’t admit patients with early stage cancer, who potentially can be cured by existing treatment. It’s only open to women with Stage 4 breast cancer — considered incurable by western standards. Eleven women sign up. Two of them allow ‘Dateline’ to follow along every step of the way — to let us see exactly what happens no matter what the next 12 months might bring. They are both patients and medical pioneers. We first met 43-year-old Teresa Wilhelm in June of 1999. She’s a wife and mother of a teenage girl, who had been living with cancer for four years. It’s a battle that’s taught her to appreciate every day. “Cancer is a gift to me. It just comes in a really ugly package,†says Teresa Wilhelm. She’s had a mastectomy, cancer-fighting hormone treatments, radiation and two rounds of chemotherapy so harsh she lost her hair for a year both times. Her doctor believes it’s likely the chemo even damaged her heart, but it certainly failed to conquer her cancer. What scares her the most? Wilhelm says, crying, “not watching my daughter graduate high school, watching her get married. That frightens me.†Her prognosis two years ago was less than five years’ survival. “I have exhausted everything as far as western medicine,†she says. “For me basically what have I got to lose really? What do I have to lose?†Like Teresa, Marita Brown has Stage 4 breast cancer, diagnosed four years ago. During that time, she struggled through a bitter divorce and seven months of chemotherapy that ravaged her body. She says she had no strength to continue work as a school psychologist. The chemo shrank her tumors, but the side effects were brutal. “It was killing me. What good is a shrunken tumor as I think of it with a body that’s lost it’s vitality and it’s will to live. I lost my will to live,†says Brown. Marita says the chemo also destroyed her fertility, a terrible emotional blow. It was too much. When her doctors urged her to have a mastectomy, she refused, believing that alternative therapies would help without the horrible side effects. “I’ve been dabbling in spiritual and metaphysical concepts for quite a long time,†says Brown. She believes the eastern thought and medicine she’s embraced all her life has kept her alive and functioning. For her, experimenting with Tibetan herbs is a natural. Isn’t it a leap of faith on her part? “Yes and no,†says Brown. “No in that I already know it’s helped many people in another part of the world and it has a long history of over 2500 years, this type of treatment, and I trust that.†For Dr. Tripathy, it is not about trust, just science. If the herbs work, his scans and x-rays will confirm it. What does he want to get out of this study? “Well, we’re looking at many things. We’re looking at improving quality of life,†says Tripathy. He adds, “We would like to see something that lengthens life. We would like to see something that has an anti-tumor response, something that makes the cancer shrink.†But is it possible that these women are too ill for anything to help them? “Yes,†says Tripathy. “That is possible and that is something we have to consider any time we look at a new drug.†But Dr. Dhonden is sure he can get results. “I would expect on the whole within a matter of a few weeks if you ask them they will find some clear benefit,†he says. Teresa and Marita are banking on it. For the next year, Dr. Dhonden and his herbs will be all they have. Teresa faces an awesome foe — cancer that has spread to 11 places in her bones, including an often painful tumor on her hip. She can actually feel another tumor that grows on her chest. High blood pressure and constant pain require daily medication. What does she want out of this study? “Time,†she says. “I am looking for time.†Marita suffers from a growing tumor in her left breast, now the size of a large lemon. Another tumor near her neck is golf ball size. Her goal? “I would love to extend my days,†she says. “I would love to be around for another 30 years. I have so many ideas of how I want to spend the rest of my life.†Both women are praying for time — but also hope the lessons of the coming year will save others from this difficult disease. For the doctor from the West, it’s a chance to open a lifesaving door in cancer research. For the doctor from the East, a critical test of everything he believes. And for these two courageous women, it is a gripping battle, body and soul, with their lives on the line. It is a long and difficult journey to Dharamsala India — the capital of the exiled Tibetan nation. But the trip is eagerly made by the curious, the faithful and by the very sick. Many are cancer patients from all corners of the world, drawn here by stories that Tibetan medicine can heal when nothing else has. Are the stories myth or an amazing clue to a cancer cure? Back in the U.S., patients Teresa Wilhelm and Marita Brown are determined to find out. Teresa and Marita will get much the same treatment for their cancers as any of the thousands of patients who come here to Dr. Dhonden’s clinic in India each year. He won’t use any blood tests or high tech machines to determine the extent of their illness. And when it’s time to prescribe treatment, there will be no radiation or chemotherapy, no surgery, no prescription drugs. In fact nothing that traditional western medicine considers a worthy weapon against cancer. What they will get is based on centuries-old Tibetan theory: a belief that three factors govern the body. The Tibetans call them wind — related to the nervous system, and includes the heart, bile, which relates to the liver and digestive system and phlegm, that influences the organs of the upper body. According to Tibetan teaching, when any of these factors are out of balance, illness results. To discover what’s wrong, Dr. Dhonden, like all Tibetan physicians, “listens†to the patient’s body with his fingers, feeling the pulse in both wrists. In this way, he says he can actually monitor 12 different pulses giving him information about every major internal organ such as the heart, liver, and stomach. Then he looks at a sample of the patient’s urine — whisking it in a cup to observe the color, the sediment and bubbles. Dhonden says, “The urine analysis looks very simple, in fact it’s very complicated. There are nine different aspects of the urine that are investigated and analyzed very very carefully.†Some patients also get a quick check of the eyes or tongue. That’s all Dr. Dhonden needs to make his diagnosis. That’s where Tibetan medicine parts even more dramatically with western medicine. In the U.S., drugs are mass-produced; the same drugs given to thousands of people. But Tibetan herbs are formulated specifically for each individual patient, aimed at restoring balance to the entire body rather than attacking the disease. In India, Dr. Dhonden has his choice of hundreds of herbal formulas to treat patients. “Most of them are found along the Himalayas in Northern India,†he says. “The herbs used in Tibetan medicine can very potent indeed especially in combination.†But as Dr. Dhonden arrives form India to start his work there is a huge setback. The FDA has been examining the herbs to be used in the study to make sure they won’t cause serious side effects. It is a long tedious process and only 49 of the 1200 herbs Dr. Dhonden uses routinely have been approved. It is a process not required for herbs sold in America. With the trial about to start, there’s no time or funding to wait for more herbs to be okayed. Dr. Dhonden reluctantly agrees to go ahead with just the 49 herbs, the ingredients for his seven most common cancer formulas. Summer — the groundbreaking study begins. Teresa and Marita are ready. They know the rules: no treatment except the herbs. If they get worse, guidelines require Dr. Tripathy drop them from the study so they can pursue other help. But if the tumors shrink or just stop growing, it could be a critical sign that the herbs are working. “If everybody has stability of their cancer for say a year of therapy,†says Tripathy, “then I think that would be very interesting, because we normally wouldn’t expect something that’s totally inactive to keep everybody’s cancer from growing.†Both doctors have put their reputations on the line for this study. But far more hangs in the balance for the patients. The time has come for their first meeting with Dr. Dhonden. Both women are excited, nervous, a bit in awe. “I’ve never felt so humbled in my entire life,†says Wilhelm. “This is medicine that’s over 2000 years but to me this is a practice that’s one hour old.†Dr. Dhonden’s English is limited, so a translator attends every session. “Your particular cancer relates to the wind system, which is very closely related to the nervous system,†he says. Dr. Dhonden prescribes the herbs — then orders something else — critical changes in her diet. “Number 1 — Tobacco of any sort is out in addition to that any kind of food that is prepared in such a way that it becomes sour, and in terms of meat, you should avoid chicken.†On top of giving up poultry and sour foods like vinegar and pickles, Dr. Dhonden tells all his cancer patients to cut down on sweets and avoid alcohol. Tibetan physicians believe certain foods upset the body’s balance. And most patients, no matter what their ailment, are told not to drink coffee because it’s considered a harsh substance that aggravates the blood. “I felt a very strong energy and when he took his hand off my wrists the energy left,†says Wilhelm. Teresa has been through all sorts of tests: blood tests, lab tests, all sorts of machinery, and all sorts of doctors. Now somebody says they are going to stir her urine, and take her pulse. Didn’t this at any point sound a little out of this world? Wilhelm says, “It wasn’t difficult for me, because I have exhausted all western medicine I have no other options right now so for me it was a natural progression that turn was very easy.†It’s now Marita’s turn. Dr. Dhonden feels her pulse; and then looks at the urine sample. â€[T]he urine indicates there is no unusual sediment,†he says. “There are no really bad characteristics, or indications of danger here.†The exam hardly lasts ten minutes before Dr. Dhonden prescribes Marita’s herbs — then encourages her to recite a Tibetan prayer —a spiritual practice Tibetans believe helps the body to heal. Before she leaves, she gets the same strict diet instructions Teresa received. In particular, she is told not to drink coffee so the herbs can do their jobs. Routine orders that will later change the entire course of Marita’s treatment. It’s all so foreign — nothing of the exam or the treatment is like anything Marita has ever seen before. “These little silly looking pills that I have to bite into is my total cancer treatment, nothing else,†she says. “I hope it effects the pain first off, I’m tired of taking pain medication.†It made us wonder: now that he’s seen both women who have Stage 4 breast cancer — nothing in western medicine can cure them — does Dr. Dhonden still believe he can help? What is Wilhelm’s condition and prognosis? “The cancer has spread a lot, so that’s going to make it slower to treat effectively,†says Dr. Dhonden. “But I do expect to see improvement as she continues to take the medication over the coming months.†And what about Marita whose breast tumor is as big as a large lemon? Dhonden says, “If she takes the medication as I have prescribed it and if she follows the other advice especially pertaining to her diet and behavior, if she follows that, I think she will be healed.†Is Dhonden not just talking about better quality of life or more time, but also about the cancer being gone? “No, I don’t quite mean a total cure,†he says. “In fact she will have to take medication for the rest of her life.†Is that a normal life span for Brown? Dhonden says, “I do believe that she could live out a normal life span.†It’s an almost unbelievable prognosis, based only on her pulses and urine sample. In fact during the study Dr. Dhonden discovers a kidney infection in another patient who was totally unaware of a problem. Dr. Tripathy admits Dr. Dhonden’s methods baffle him, but he’s impressed with the monk’s uncanny diagnostic abilities. “He has picked up parts of a patient’s history or their clinical diagnosis that he would have not known otherwise simply by looking at their tongue and examining their pulse,†says Dr. Tripathy. But will Dr. Dhonden’s results be as skillful as his diagnoses? He’d predicted Marita would feel much better in a few weeks. But two months into the study, we check with her at her home in Modesto, California. She says her tumor is bigger. The breast is continuing to become disfigured and discolored and the lymph nodes are continuing to get larger. And there’s another problem. Dr. Dhonden’s diet rules are much tougher to follow that Marita have ever expected. “I love strong, strong coffee,†she says. “Dr. Dhonden would like me to stop that. And I still occasionally take a glass of wine which I should be stopping that. So I’d like to say I am a perfect student, but I’m not.†At the same time, two months into the therapy, we see Teresa. Dr. Dhonden is reserved about her prognosis, but we found her with her family, in Hemet California at the top of her game. “I take the herbs four times a day and I’m feeling great,†she says. “I have a lot of energy, well, in fact I’ve never felt better in my entire life.†Plus even more good news. Teresa’s high blood pressure is now normal and the tumor on her chest wall feels smaller. “It’s the first time in two years that it’s decreased in size,†she says. “Just a little but it’s digressing rather than increasing so that’s pretty substantial. It’s good news and I haven’t had good news in a long time, so that’s real positive for me.†But real test — the one that counts most—is still two months away, when Dr. Tripathy takes a look. Right now, neither woman knows the greatest challenges yet in their long, exhausting fight for life are just around the corner. Four months have passed since Teresa Wilhelm reached beyond western medicine to trust her health to Tibetan herbs. And as far as she’s concerned, it’s a gamble that’s paying off. “This is the first time in several years that I am seeing some positive changes,†she says. “I don’t know if these herbs are going to effect the length of my life, but I know I’m effecting the quality of my life.†Wilhelm believes that there’s actually been an emotional component, a spiritual well being component to these herbs even her family has noticed it. But does Teresa feel better just because its a new treatment or are the herbs really working? Dr. Dhonden arrives from India to give all the patients on the study, including Marita and Teresa their first checkups since starting the herbs. Dhonden checks Teresa’s pulse. His face is impassive, giving Teresa no clue about what her pulse reading tells him. There’s growing tension in the room and his questions reveal he’s discovered something Teresa hasn’t told anyone. “Do you ever feel any shooting pains? Just kind of shooting pain that comes and then vanishes?†asks Dhonden. “The past month I’ve been having a dull shooting pain under my right arm,†she says. Pain is sometimes a sign that cancer has spread. Is this what Dr. Dhonden senses? It’s one of Teresa’s biggest fears. It’s a nervous wait as he moves on to check her urine sample. Wilhelm asks the translator, “Would you ask Dr. Dhonden how he feels I’m doing from three months ago, to this month, if I have I improved, or what he feels.†The translator responds, “Generally speaking you’re getting better.†That’s Dr. Dhonden’s opinion based on Tibetan theory. Tripathy looks at x-rays, but what will the sophisticated high tech scans lead him to the same conclusion? Teresa is clearly anxious to know what he thinks. Tripathy says, “The main areas that we know have been involved, those are all stable.†It’s a victory, or at least a reprieve. The pain is likely just inflammation or a tiny bone-fracture. It isn’t linked to cancer growth. The tumors are no worse. Teresa heads home — for now relieved, cautiously optimistic, but closer to her goal to see her grandchildren and her grandchildren’s children now. For Marita Brown, it’s clear Dr. Dhonden will not have such good news. She confesses she still drinks some coffee, beer and occasional wine, even though Dr. Dhonden told her to stop. His exam confirms what Marita already suspects. Her tumor is much worse. Then the shocker: because of that, she is now off the study. Dr. Dhonden is not pleased. He tells Brown, “You had the best prognosis and now you are off the study and what undermined it was your coffee and the beer — that really, really did it. It completely overwhelms and overshadows the efficacy of Tibetan medicine, but if you continue to take alcohol of any sort, hard liquor or beer, you continue to take coffee, then you are wasting your time, and you’re wasting his time as well. It will not work.†Brown says, “I figured well, one beer or one cup of coffee a day can’t be that harmful.†What does she think now? “I made a misjudgment out of my own fear that I couldn’t handle what I’m going through without this crutch of caffeine,†she says. Dr. Tripathy confirms that Marita’s scans show the tumor has grown 36 percent in the four months she’s been on the herbs. Once the size of a lemon, it is now the size of a grapefruit. “Since we know that there is progression and you are coming off this study you could still continue to take any alternative therapy off the study available to you and that includes continuing to see Dr. Dhonden,†says Tripathy. So at this point, Marita faces an unexpected and wrenching choice — continue with the herbs or surrender to the aggressive western treatments she’s fought so hard to avoid. “I’m not ready to give up my commitment to these herbs,†she says. “Three months to me is just a drop in the bucket.†Marita decides to stay with the herbs and forego any other treatment. Despite her shock at being dropped from the study, there is a silver lining. Dr. Dhonden can now treat her with any of his herbal formulas, not just the seven the FDA allowed him for the clinical trial. The translator for Dhonden tells Brown, “If you will see him on Monday and take these medicines and keep your diet strict as he’s told you, you will see benefit in three weeks. You’ll see clear benefits yourself.†Brown says, “According to the western way of assessing according to the western lens and perspective, little changes do not throw me off because I am looking at the long term process. That’s the value in eastern medicine in my opinion.†But Marita’s calm, almost detached, approach to her advancing cancer doesn’t last. By Christmas time, Marita takes an even steeper turn for the worse. Despite Dr. Dhonden’s personally tailored herbal therapy, she says she can barely hang on. Brown says, “I sleep a lot and have no energy and many days it’s hard for me to even get up to eat.†It is one of her darkest fears: a spiral into disability or death. What if she couldn’t manage it this time? Dr. Dhonden repeatedly adjusts her prescription but the pain just intensifies. He said at the time that within two or three weeks she’d be feeling much better, much better and be on the road to healing, did it happen that way? She says it didn’t and it threw her into more fear and depression. Marita had already been down; now she’s despondent. She clings to a close circle of friends who pray for her healing. Had she miscalculated in trusting the herbs? Was it time to give in and at least try western therapies, even if it only gave her temporary relief? Hundreds of miles away Teresa Wilhelm, who’d been doing so well — is alarmed. She too has suddenly taken a nosedive. “My hip was inflamed and it hurt and I couldn’t bear weight on it,†she says. Then a horrible development — after being so active, teaching water aerobics, riding horses — the old pain in her hip becomes almost unbearable and forces her to use crutches. The fear is even worse. What if the cancer is growing again? What if she can no longer take care of herself? “Oh my God, what could happen to me?†she asks. “You know I’m picturing all these things like I’m designing wheel chair ramps in my house.†It is the cruelest of moments for both women who’ve already endured so much. The faith and hope that started them on Tibetan medicine is now severely tested. But the study is only halfway finished. Every day they wonder if they’ll survive the next six months. It is the scariest waiting game imaginable. It’s the New Year, 2000. While many of her friends nurse the hangovers of a new millennium, Teresa Wilhelm fights a fresh battle with an old enemy — paralyzing pain. “It could mean the tumor is getting bigger,†says Wilhelm. “It could mean I overdid. It could mean a lot of things.†But it certainly means Teresa is scared. And miles away, Marita Brown is also gripped with fear. She can feel her tumors growing. The question today is by how much? Dr. Dhonden has given her new herb formulas — designed just for her — over the past three months. Yet her pain is out of control. Most days, depression locks her inside her house and keeps her in bed. “From the western perspective things are definitely getting worse,†says Brown. Increasingly, she relies on still other alternative therapies to cope, even wearing a special vest to hold a heavy magnet over her breast tumor, â€[W]hat they call medical grade magnets and that helped with the swelling, inflammation and pain more than anything,†she says. Brown got on the study and the cancer grew. She went off the study and got on the customized herbs and the cancer still grew. Was there a time when she thought, “this just isn’t working? It doesn’t work?†Brown says, “When I surrendered to the fear and despair and depression, you bet I fell into self pity and why go on but it didn’t last that long.†Now, six months into the yearlong Tibetan Herb study Dr. Dhonden travels from India to examine Marita, Teresa and the rest of his patients. On her way to exam, Teresa says, “I came in here today thinking OK well I’m off the study.†She believes her worsening pain means the cancer has spread. The exam begins with Dr. Dhonden. She asks, “What is causing the numbness?†Dhonden explains, through a translator, “It is indeed because there has been some sort of pressure on the nerve.†Teresa is surprised Dr. Dhonden senses no progression of her cancer. Teresa says to Dhonden’s translator, “Tell him I thank him from the bottom of my heart and bones.†Once again the doctor from the east says Teresa is doing just fine. But she knows the sensitive scans ordered by her western doctor could reveal even the tiniest trace of cancer. Dr. Tripathy comes in to the exam room. The routine exam is anything but routine for Teresa. It’s an agonizing delay before she can get the news she so desperately wants to hear. Dr. Tripathy gives her the news. “Well Theresa, the good news is, based on everything I’m looking at, the scans and your exam, I think your are essentially stable. There’s a tiny reduction in the little nodule on your skin under your scar.†Teresa smiles. At the beginning of this study, Teresa Wilhelm was one of the most seriously ill, her prognosis poor. But at the halfway mark, she’s still getting great reports. Now it’s time for Marita’s exam. Even though Marita’s off the study because her cancer has grown, both doctors’ still monitor her progress. She is dreading the exam. But Dr. Dhonden finds no cause for alarm.Through the translator, Marita hears the diagnosis. “Based on Dr. Dhonden’s pulse analysis and urine diagnosis the gone actually down.†The pain was so awful, she’d been sure something was terribly wrong. But Dr. Dhonden believes it just means the herbs are hard at work. Dhonden explains, “What you are experiencing is the confrontation or the impact of the medication on breast, on the illness in the breast that was like two wrestlers coming together.†Dhonden says, “So take your medicine and he will see you in June.†But because her tumor is still growing, Dr. Tripathy doesn’t want to wait until June to start Marita on a western treatment of hormones to fight her cancer. It complicates his research. If she gets better he won’t know if it was the herbs or the hormones or the combination that helped — but it doesn’t matter. Right now, he’s focused on controlling the tumor however he can. “I can’t guarantee it is going to help you,†he says, “but I think it has a reasonably good chance of helping.†Marita is unsure, fearful of more western drugs and their side effects. She wants to keep her faith in the herbs. “I feel I haven’t given it enough time,†she says.â€There is something deep in me aaying, ‘there’s something moving, there’s something changing. Be patient.’†Here, halfway through the study, it seems the patients are spinning their wheels. Dr. Tripathy is frustrated. “I’ve got mixed emotions about the trial right now,†he says. “I would have liked to have seen some responses by now. That would have made us all very enthusiastic.†Still several patients like Teresa are — a significant achievement with Stage 4 breast cancer. Eight months into the study Marita’s continuing pain and growing tumors make even the the smallest choices sobering — testing her faith in her treatment decisions. “Actually, I had to buy a car,†she says. “I had to decide should I just get months to a year? Or should I be really bold and buy a new one?†Marita finally relents. She’ll try the hormone therapy Dr. Tripathy believes could shrink her tumors. It’s a difficult decision. “I was at my knees,†she says. “I was exhausted I hadn’t lost hope in the Tibetan herbs but my patience was wearing thin.†Four months later, Dr. Dhonden makes the long trip from Dharamsala India for his final visit with the women he has cared for throughout the year. Dhonden examines Marita. After taking both the western hormones and Tibetan herbs, Marita is finally feeling a lot better. The translator says, “He sees a lot of improvement. There is less inflammation in the breast and the lymph nodes. But internally, the actual size of the tumor would have to be checked with an X-ray.†Dr. Tripathy’s exam supports those findings. In fact, for the first time in a year, her scans show improvement — and it’s dramatic. “The lymph node that I felt in the left side of the neck is way down and the breast mass is down,†he says. “The nodes in the sternum and the abdomen are a little bit smaller as well too.†In fact, her tumors have actually shrunk back to the size they were when the study started. If Brown hadn’t done the hormone therapy, would the results be as good as they’ve been? “It’s very possible that the hormone therapy acted synergistically with the Tibetan herbs,†she says. Teresa has been faithful to the herbal regimen, and unlike Marita, has remained on the study the whole year. “There’s nothing anyone could say to me that would ruin my emotion or mood,†she says. “I’m just feeling excited.†Now she’ll find out just how well the Tibetan treatment has worked. Tripathy asks, “Any new symptoms to report?†Wilhelm laughs and replies, “I’m happier.†Tripathy responds, “OK, good.†He is ready with the results of Teresa’s scans. “As a clinician, my interpretation of your clinical course is that you’ve been stable, which is remarkable for a period of a year.†Teresa is thrilled. Very few Stage 4 cancer patients on western therapies live a year with no cancer growth. “Oh you’re going to miss me,†Teresa says to Dr. Tripathy. “You bet I am,†he says. “You’re one of our star patients.†Teresa’s stability is just what Dr. Dhonden had predicted a year before. With the study over, he upgrades her prescription with herbs he couldn’t use during the clinical trial. Teresa is eager to stay on what she calls her “Tibetan journey.†It seems she might well get that extra time she’d prayed for 12 months earlier. “I never felt better in my life,†she says.†In fact, I feel like this study represents to me fertilizer and I feel like I’ve really grown this past year. It’s been a journey of hope for me.†It’s also report card time for the Tibetan study after a critical year under a western microscope. Had the herbs made the grade? More than half the patients — six out of the original 11 — saw their cancer spread on the herbs. But Teresa and one other patient remained stable — the cancers didn’t grow at all. And best of all, another patient had terrific results. Her tumor actually shrank. Dr. Tripathy says these results with the medicine from the East aren’t much different from early studies on what are now considered the most effective western cancer drugs. If Tripathy had to give a letter grade to this study so far, what would it be? Advertisement Quick Gifts Swimwear Books Music & Video Computing Electronics Toys & Games More . . . “I’d probably give it a C,†he says. Good enough, for the doctor to pursue a larger clinical trial, using more of the herbs Dr. Dhonden routinely uses against cancer. Dr. Dhonden welcomes more testing of the full array of Tibetan herbs, confident the east has answers for his western colleagues. “We’ve seen some good results some promising results. I think that is sufficient grounds for expanding the scope of this study,†Dhonden says. But ultimately the truth about the herbs may well lie beyond study, beyond the statistics. And what does Wilhelm’s heart say? “My heart says that I wouldn’t be the same person sitting here right now and it feels good,†she says. “It feels really good I’m looking towards the future now where as a year ago I kinda wasn’t.†Both Marita and Teresa believe the herbs gave them something no other treatment ever has — a better quality of life with no side effects, and the joy of knowing they contributed to helping find a cure for other women. For them, the year is a triumph. They are — in the truest sense of the word — survivors.Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com