THE MOSS REPORTS Newsletter (10/31/04)

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31 Oct 2004 21:00:25 -0000

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THE MOSS REPORTS Newsletter (10/31/04)

 

 

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Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D. Weekly CancerDecisions.com

Newsletter #156 10/31/04

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THE MOSS REPORTS

 

 

In the thirty years I have been researching and reporting on the

treatment of cancer in the US and abroad, I have repeatedly been

struck by

the widely varying positions taken by physicians in different countries

on the correct treatment for a particular kind of cancer. What is

considered standard in Germany may be considered totally outlandish in

the

US, while some of the accepted norms of American oncology would raise

eyebrows in Europe. Despite the fact that the medical profession likes

to see itself as totally science-based and objective, the truth is that

medicine is arguably as much an art as a science, and as such is

strongly culturally influenced.

 

The trips I make to other countries enable me to amass information on

both the new and the established treatments that are being offered

elsewhere. During my long career in this field I have developed a

comprehensive library of detailed reports on the best conventional and

alternative treatments for more than two hundred thirty different

kinds of

cancer.

 

For cancer patients there can be few more useful guides and

decision-making tools than a Moss Report.

 

To order a Moss Report please visit our website,

www.cancerdecisions.com, or call Diane at 1-800-980-1234 (814-238-3367

from outside the US).

 

We look forward to helping you.

 

 

 

RECENT TRIP TO GERMANY

 

 

I recently returned from a trip to Germany, where I visited CAM clinics

and spoke at an important regional meeting on cancer treatment

alternatives. The meeting was called the Seventh Annual Pfälzer Days for

Integrative Cancer Therapy. The subtitle was Cancer Therapy in

Transition—

Innovative Concepts and Integrative Medicine. The October 1-2 event was

sponsored by the Society for the Advancement of Complementary Tumor

Therapy, an affiliate of the BioMed Hospital, a 100-bed CAM facility

located in Bad Bergzabern, Germany.

 

For a picture of the BioMed Hospital, click or go to:

http://www.cancerdecisions.com/images/biomed1.jpg

 

The adjective " Pfälzer " refers to the Pfalz, another name for the

district known in English as the Rhineland-Palatinate. This is a

lovely area

in western Germany, adjoining the French border, most famous for being

a stop on the " Wine Road " (Die Deutsche Weinstrasse) that ambles

through many picturesque towns.

 

Since I was the only English-language speaker at the two-day

conference, sitting through the other lectures turned out to be a

crash course

for my limited German language skills! In addition to learning a great

deal from the presentations, I was able to interview other participants

and thus fill out the fascinating picture of new developments in German

oncology. I came away more convinced than ever that the Germans have a

20-year lead on the US in the CAM field. With the current attitudes

towards CAM that prevail at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), we

may

in fact never catch up.

 

The event was held in the hometown of the BioMed Hospital, at Bad

Bergzabern's beautiful conference center adjoining its spa-like " cure

park. "

 

For picture of participants doing Tai Chi on a break, click or go to:

http://www.cancerdecisions.com/images/taichi1.jpg

 

Welcoming comments were presented by the town's mayor, Harald Bratz.

This was followed by opening remarks from E. Dieter Hager, MD, PhD,

medical director of the BioMed Hospital, who was the driving force behind

the meeting. Dr. Hager is president of the annual Medicine Week in

Baden-Baden, the premier CAM event in Germany. He is also

secretary-treasurer

and board member of the International Clinical Hyperthermia Society,

which held its annual meeting in Shenzhen, China (Sept. 9-12, 2004).

 

For over 20 years Dr. Hager has led the movement in Germany for an

integrative approach to cancer treatment. He has a medical degree and

also

a doctorate in physics. Not surprisingly, therefore, he takes a

scientific stand towards all treatments, including both conventional

and CAM

approaches.

 

Although academically rigorous, the presentations at the meeting were

anything but dry. There were talks on such fascinating topics as

chemosensitivity testing, mistletoe extracts, dendritic cell therapy,

breast

cancer prevention, plastic surgery, new developments in radiotherapy

(including radioimmunotherapy), molecular biology, hyperthermia, combined

radiation and hyperthermia, nanotechnology, heat therapy using

high-frequency needle-electrodes, the psychosocial aspects of malignancy,

mammographic screening, health promotion, and electro-magnetic field

therapy.

 

These talks were all at a very high level, yet they held the attention

of several hundred participants, almost two-thirds of whom were not

scientists, but patients. These patients are serious students of the

disease and the new approaches being developed to treat it.

 

For a picture of the audience, click or go to:

http://www.cancerdecisions.com/images/badberg1.jpg

 

 

Combining Heat with Light

 

 

Many of the presenters were people of considerable academic and

scientific achievement. Prof. Peter Vaupel, for example, is Professor and

Chairman of the Institute of Physiology and Pathophysiology at the

University of Mainz. He is a member of the Academy of Sciences and

Literature

of Mainz and Chairman of the Commission for Medical Research of that

Academy. He has been a full professor of radiation biology and physiology

at Harvard Medical School, Boston. Dr. Vaupel is the author of 259

PubMed articles, 46 of which relate to hyperthermia (therapeutic heat).

 

Lately, his research has focused on the effects of combining

hyperthermia (therapeutic heat) with photodynamic therapy (PDT). He

told the

audience that his experiments on mice had shown that tumors can be

eradicated using hyperthermia in 15 percent of cases. He obtained similar

results in experiments using photodynamic therapy, in which certain

frequencies of light are administered after the injection of a sensitizer

derived from chlorophyll. However, when he combined the two modalities,

experimentally, he achieved 65 percent remissions! There is a powerful

synergy between heat and light.

 

The treatment induces what he calls " vascular collapse " within the

tumors, thereby making them unable to survive (Kelleher 2003). True,

these

results were obtained in laboratory animals, not human beings, but his

work could have dramatic benefits for human cancer patients in the

future. The great thing about going to excellent regional conferences

like

this is that one learns about new treatments before they start making

headlines.

 

Scientists from other prominent institutions such as the State Clinic

in Karlsruhe, the Heinrich-Heine University in Dusseldorf, the

Universities of Berlin (Free University), Cologne, Erlangen-Nürnberg,

Hamburg,

Jena, Gottingen, Witten-Herdecke, and the Charité Hospital in Berlin

were also among the speakers. In Germany, scientists of this stature feel

comfortable associating—professionally and socially—with doctors who

actually practice hyperthermia and other `alternative' treatments in

private hospitals. The closest we in the States have come to that

situation

was when the Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) was sponsoring its

annual conferences (2000-2003). Nowadays, in America, academic cancer

researchers and CAM practitioners are once again going their separate

ways, to the detriment of both.

 

One could argue that there are historical reasons for the fact that the

integration of CAM with orthodox medicine has proceeded so well in

Germany yet so poorly in the US. With the broad-scale attack on Native

American culture from the time of Columbus onwards, truly indigenous

herbalism was almost completely destroyed. In addition, most

immigrants were

locked in their own life-and-death struggle for survival and found

their own native traditions denigrated by their adoptive culture. Most

quickly lost contact with the healing traditions of their countries of

origin.

 

By contrast, in Germany, herbalism has maintained a continuous and

vital presence for hundreds of years. One might compare it to the

traditions of viniculture—the Pfalzers have been cultivating grapes

and making

wine since the time of the Romans. German herbalism was given official

legal status early in the 20th century. The German people are more

likely to reach for natural St. John's Wort than for the synthetic

antidepressant, Zoloft (sertraline). A standard German pharmacy looks

more like

a health food store than a typical American discount drugstore.

 

Even so, Germany is not paradise for CAM practitioners or patients, and

some clinics are suffering from the health cutbacks that are afflicting

most of the world these days. But the basic attitude of both the public

and the medical profession towards alternative medicine seems

reasonable and balanced. It is a far cry from what we have in the

" land of the

free, " where the FDA and its `quackbusting' allies pursue alternative

practitioners with the blind fury of Captain Ahab.

 

 

 

--Ralph W. Moss, PhD

 

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References:

 

Kelleher DK, Thews O, Scherz A, Salomon Y, Vaupel P. Combined

hyperthermia and chlorophyll-based photodynamic therapy: tumour growth

and

metabolic microenvironment. Br J Cancer. 200389:2333-39.

 

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IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER

 

The news and other items in this newsletter are intended for

informational purposes only. Nothing in this newsletter is intended to

be a

substitute for professional medical advice.

 

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