THE MOSS REPORTS Newsletter (03/27/05)

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27 Mar 2005 21:40:52 -0000

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THE MOSS REPORTS Newsletter (03/27/05)

 

 

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

Newsletter #177 03/27/05

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THE MOSS REPORTS

 

 

In thirty years of monitoring the complex field of cancer research and

therapy I have assembled a comprehensive library of reports, the Moss

Reports, on the conventional and alternative treatment of more than two

hundred different types of cancer. For a newly-diagnosed cancer patient

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.

 

 

 

MARCH 2005 CALIFORNIA TRIP

 

 

I recently completed a two-week, 2,000 mile automobile trip through the

state of California. I visited many doctors and clinics between the

Mexican border and the northern Bay Area, and passed through just about

every geological region of this amazing state, from the snow-capped

Sierras to the broiling Mojave desert. I also crossed the border to

Tijuana,

to revisit some of the clinics and doctors I had last seen in October,

2004. This was my seventh site visit to the " TJ " cancer clinics since

my first trip there in 1976.

 

I began this journey on March 2 in Long Beach, where I gave the Grand

Rounds Lecture at the Todd Cancer Institute. This is a division of

Memorial Medical Center (LBMMC), the second largest private hospital

on the

west coast. Now in its 90th year, this 726-bed hospital is nationally

recognized for its excellence in health care. I felt honored to present

a lunchtime lecture there, on the subject of evidence-based

complementary cancer therapy, to the Center's physicians, nurses and

other staff

members. (Grand rounds are periodic lectures, given by an expert, that

are open to the staff of a hospital or medical school.)

 

I also had productive meetings with hospital officials, including

Robert A. Nagourney, MD, director of the Todd Institute. Dr. Nagourney is

also founder of Rational Therapeutics Institute, which is located across

the street from LBMCC. He is best known for his staunch advocacy of an

innovative, individualized approach to chemotherapy, which uses

chemosensitivity testing to determine the optimum drugs for a particular

patient's tumor treatment.

 

I next drove north to Westwood, where I interviewed Kenneth Conklin,

MD, PhD, in his office at the University of California at Los Angeles

(UCLA) medical center, the top-rated hospital in the West. Dr. Conklin is

a rising star in the world of integrative oncology. He received his

doctorate in pharmacology and did his residency in anesthesiology. He

practiced anesthesiology for many years. But he also pursued an

interest in

complementary medicine. For the last eight years, he has focused on CAM

and today primarily advises cancer patients on how to use dietary

interventions and food supplements in conjunction with conventional

chemotherapy for a better outcome. He also practices acupuncture.

 

Dr. Conklin first came to my attention because of an article in 2000

defending the judicious use of some antioxidants along with chemotherapy.

The concurrent use of these two modalities requires knowledge and

intelligence. Dr. Conklin concluded that antioxidants can reduce or

prevent

many of the side effects of chemotherapy, although in his opinion a few

antioxidants might also interfere with the anticancer effects of

chemotherapy. At the present time, Dr. Conklin uses the non-toxic

supplement

coenzyme Q10 to counter the damaging effects of the drug Adriamycin

(doxorubicin) on the heart. Because of his work there is growing

acceptance for the use of antioxidants in the treatment of cancer at

UCLA and

beyond.

 

After leaving Los Angeles I again headed south to the world's busiest

border crossing in San Ysidro, and to Tijuana beyond that frontier. In

many ways, this is another world, with different cultural norms. While

some decry the laxity of Mexican regulations, they also permit a greater

freedom for new ideas and medical practice innovations than is possible

in the US. For over 40 years, Tijuana and its adjoining suburbs have

harbored dozens of clinics offering non-conventional treatments to US

citizens.

 

I met with a number of CAM leaders there, including Gar Hildenbrand,

clinical epidemiologist at the Issels cancer vaccine program; Donato

Perez Garcia III, MD, director of the Insulin Potentiation Therapy (IPT)

clinic; Charlotte Gerson, celebrated founder of the Gerson Research

Institute; and Antonio " Tony " Jimenez, MD, of the Rapha (Hope4Cancer)

Clinic. In addition, I met with Frank Cousineau, vice president of the

Cancer

Control Society, who also happened to be visiting some of the clinics.

Frank periodically conducts tours of the clinics on behalf of

prospective patients.

 

Wherever I went, I took my camcorder and tripod with me, and recorded

many of these interviews for posterity. I also had opportunities to

discuss the article I wrote on the Tijuana clinics for the March, 2005

issue of the journal Integrative Cancer Therapies. In that article I put

forward several proposals for reforming the Tijuana clinics in the

current post-NAFTA environment. These reforms center on five main

areas: (1)

research, (2) physical plant, (3) finances, (4) ethics, and (5)

education.

 

While it would be naïve to suppose that any one article is going to

spark the total overhaul of such a complicated situation, I am happy to

report that this article has begun to affect thinking in " TJ. " I am told

that at one hospital it has been made required reading by the medical

staff.

 

Leaving Mexico, I drove back up the coast and visited with Ferre

Akbarpour, MD, founder of the Orange County Immune Institute in

Huntington

Beach, CA. We held an interesting discussion of her innovative approach

to bolstering the immune system during and after cancer treatment. I

also had the pleasure of meeting with the patients at this outpatient

institution.

 

 

CancerGuides

 

 

My final stop was the San Francisco Bay Area. For several days, I

participated in the annual CancerGuides conference, convened by James

Gordon, MD, and the staff of the Center for Mind Body Medicine (CMBM) of

Washington, DC. Dr. Gordon is Clinical Professor in the Departments of

Psychiatry and Family Medicine at the Georgetown University School of

Medicine. He also served as Chairman of the White House Commission on

Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy.

 

Over 100 participants came from all over the country to take part in

this weeklong event (March 13-19, 2005). CancerGuides is a unique program

that trains health professionals and what some call " expert patients "

to assist people with cancer who are seeking to integrate CAM into their

treatment plan. ( " Expert patients " are laypeople who, by necessity,

become educated to the level of professionals through struggle with their

disease.)

 

Participating in this excellent and exciting meeting, which is held at

the beautiful Claremont Resort and Spa in Berkeley, was like a

homecoming for me. During the 1990s, I worked very closely with Dr.

Gordon and

his staff, first on the Alternative Medicine Program Advisory Council

(AMPAC), of which he was the chair, and then on the Cancer Advisory

Panel on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAP-CAM). I was also on

the advisory board of the Comprehensive Cancer Care (CCC) meetings, a

prior venture of the CMBM. It was therefore a great pleasure to be

back in

touch with these leaders in the field of integrating conventional and

alternative medicine.

 

I lectured and also served on two " tumor board " -like panels that

discussed particular cases. But I also sat in as a participant and

learned a

great deal from both the faculty and the many attendees. In addition to

Prof. Gordon, these included, but were hardly limited to:

 

Timothy C. Birdsall, ND, vice president for integrative medicine at the

Cancer Treatment Centers of America;

Henry Dreher, MA, a well-known New York City author and CancerGuide;

Joel M. Evans, MD, founder of the Center for Women's Health in Darien,

CT, and professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine;

Debra L. Kaplan, LMSW, an integrative psychotherapist in Dallas, TX;

Susan B. Lord, MD, director of nutrition programs at the Center for

Mind-Body Medicine, Washington, DC;

Stephen M. Sagar, MD, Associate Professor, Division of Radiation

Oncology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario;

Susan Sencer, MD, Director of Integrative Cancer Care, Minneapolis/St.

Paul Children's Hospital and Clinics;

Garrett Smith, MD, founder and medical direct of the Golden Gate Center

for Integrative Cancer Care, San Francisco.

 

In addition, I had excellent and productive conversations with many of

the participants, including Ann Fonfa, founder of the Annie Appleseed

Project and website, and Barry Boyd, MD, a medical oncologist from

Greenwich, CT, and lecturer at Yale University Medical School.

 

Lately, some writers have speculated that truly alternative medicine is

dying, having itself become a victim of the success of milder

complementary procedures. They believe that there is no room in the

" new world

order " for radical challenges to pharmacological medicine. However, my

visit to California convinces me that alternative medicine is indeed

alive and well. But, naturally, it is having to adapt to a changing

political and economic environment.

 

The great humorist Mark Twain once said, " There is something

fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of

conjecture out of

such a trifling investment of fact. " Let's face it: this has been true

of many alternative treatments as well—long on conjecture, short on

evidence. I am happy to report, however, that the new breed of CAM

practitioners now realize that radical ideas are not enough. Those who

want to

change the system must provide rigorous proof of their concepts.

Meetings such as CancerGuides provide an important testing ground for the

thorough discussion and documentation of daring new ways of looking at

cancer. I'm already looking forward to next year's meeting.

 

 

 

--Ralph W. Moss, PhD

 

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References:

 

Conklin KA. Dietary antioxidants during cancer chemotherapy: impact on

chemotherapeutic effectiveness and development of side effects. Nutr

Cancer. 2000;37:1-18.

 

Moss RW. Patient Perspectives: Tijuana Cancer Clinics in the Post-NAFTA

Era.

Integr Cancer Ther. 2005;4:65-86.

 

CancerGuides: http://www.cmbm.org/trainings/CancerGuides/index.htm

 

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