Cancer Treatment Is An Abject Failure- Actually Worse than the Disease!

[Guest guest]

Cancer Treatment Is An Abject Failure

(Actually Worse Than The Disease)

http://www.knowledgeofhealth.com/

 

If you were playing sleuth and tracking recent developments in the

world

of cancer care, you would get a certain picture in your mind that

cancer

treatment is a dismal failure and even hastens the demise of

patients.

Here are recent reports, posted by date at www.thecancerbook.com

 

Friday, October 12, 2007

 

Chemotherapy of no benefit for younger estrogen-receptor positive

breast

cancer patients

 

A young woman is told she has breast cancer. She undergoes

lumpectomy

and possibly radiation treatment, and then must endure chemotherapy.

Her

hair falls out. She must be given antibiotics to prevent infections

caused by damage to the immune system. Then the worst of insults ---

She

reads the newspaper and finds out chemotherapy was of no benefit.

According to a recent study, chemotherapy for breast cancer patients

under age 40 is of no value and should be abandoned. About two-

thirds of

breast cancers are hormone receptor-positive. Tumor cells have

receptors

or docking ports for estrogen on their surface. Reference: Breast

Cancer

Research 9:R70, 2007.

 

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

 

PSA velocity being questioned

 

When the PSA (prostate specific antigen) test was dismissed from

many

scientific quarters, urologists began coaching their patients to

examine

the rate at which the PSA number accelerated. Patients bought into

this

idea and began to opt for treatment. Now researchers say the

practice of

monitoring the velocity of PSA increase is not necessarily valuable

as a

screening tool and that patients shouldn't elect to undergo biopsies

based on this measure alone.As widespread as this practice is, No

studies to date have addressed the costs and benefits of using PSA

velocity for prostate cancer screening. An increase in PSA among men

with very low PSA number to begin with may be meaningless. Source:

Etzioni RD, et al. Is Prostate-Specific Antigen Velocity Useful in

Early

Detection of Prostate Cancer " A Critical Appraisal of the Evidence.

Journal National Cancer Institute 2007; 99:1510-1515.

 

Thursday, October 4, 2007

 

Pathology Lab Mistake Misleads Patient Who Underwent Double Breast

Removal

 

Darrie Eason, a 35-year-old single mother from Long Island, N.Y.,

underwent a double mastectomy after she was told she had breast

cancer.

But after the surgery, she learned the unthinkable -- she never had

cancer at all. " I remember the words, 'You don't have breast cancer,

you

never did,' " Eason said today on ABC NEWS " Good Morning America. "

Lesson: never rely on one biopsy report.

 

Monday, October 1, 2007

 

Androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer encourages spread

of

tumor cells (metastasis)

 

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore report that a

commonly used treatment for advanced prostate cancer may actually

encourage cancer cells to produce a protein that makes them more

likely

to spread throughout the body. Androgen deprivation. using drugs

like

Lupron, Zoladex or Casodex, reduces testosterone. Source: Cancer

Research, October 1, 2007

 

Androgen deprivation therapy may also increase the risk of death

from

heart disease in patients over age 65.

 

Monday, September 24, 2007

 

Cancer treatments actually increase the number of cancer cells

 

After 30 years of failed cancer treatment, experts are finally

conceding

modern treatment of cancer has its downsides. Experiments conducted

at

the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Maryland

show

that treatments like chemo and radiation do shrink the size of

tumors,

but they end up triggering a small population of cancer stem cells

that

drive the disease and promotes the spread (metastasis) of cancer.

Source: Science Daily Sept. 22, 2007.

 

Sunday, September 16, 2007

 

F DA approves drug that allegedly prevents breast cancer, but it

promotes blood clots that cause cancer to spread

 

A drug that raises the risk of blood clots that then facilitates the

spread of cancer is the second drug approved by the Food & Drug

Administration to prevent breast cancer. The drug, Evista

(Raloxifene),

also used to treat osteoporosis, was found to increase the relative

risk

of dying from a stroke by 49 percent in a study published last year.

Nonetheless, the FDA approved Evista as an alternative to tamixofen.

But

many women refuse to take tamoxifen because of its side effects.

 

The FDA press release says evidence from three studies show that

Evista

reduces the risk of invasive breast cancer by 44 to 71 percent,

while a

fourth larger study showed no advantage over tamoxifen. Why was the

data

from the largest study separated from the other three reports?

(Obvious,

all totaled it would have shown no advantage at all).

 

Since 1998 it has been quoted that Raloxifene (Evista) reduces the

incidence of breast cancer by a reported 76%. But that figure is

specious. The Canada Drug Guide Project explains Raloxifene this way:

 

It is claimed that Raloxifene (Evista) reduces incidence of breast

cancer by 76% with only a 1% risk of side effects. What it didn't

make

clear is the fact that the patients who took the drug in the study

went

from having a 1% absolute risk of having breast cancer down to a

0.24%

absolute risk of having breast cancer over three years (hence,

the " 76% "

reduction). If measured in relative terms, many of the side effects

increased much more than 76%--in fact some risks, such as those for

blood clots, increased, relatively speaking, by 300%.

 

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

 

More frequent screening for prostate cancer finds more tumors, but

fails

to reduce incidence of aggressive life-threatening tumors

 

Most men who live into their 70s and 80s and beyond will die with,

but

not of, prostate cancer. But some men do develop a fast-spreading

type

of prostate cancer that has a high mortality rate. The idea is for

men

to undergo bi-annual checkups to monitor for prostate cancer in

hopes

this will find the aggressive prostate cancer that is life-

threatening.

But a just-released study, published in the Journal of the National

Cancer Institute, shows that men who underwent bi-annual PSA testing

had

about the same risk for aggressive tumors as men who were not

screened

as frequently. " Although many of us believe that early detection is

saving lives, definitive evidence is lacking, " Dr. David Crawford of

the

University of Colorado Health Sciences Center wrote in an editorial

accompanying the study. This makes much of what modern medicine does

to

monitor prostate cancer nothing more than a " Chinese fire drill. "

 

Friday, August 24, 2007

 

New Zealanders Wake Up To Reality: There Is No Cure For Cancer

 

In recent months two articles in the New York Times underscore the

state

of chaos in cancer treatment in America. Now New Zealand health

officials concede their " cancer battle plan " is " uncoordinated and

ad

hoc. " An article in the August 24, 2007 Dominion Post asks: " What is

the

point of detecting cancer if we don't have equipment and medicines

to

treat it? " Despite a government action plan, " very little has, in

reality, been achieved, " said a documentary report.

 

The report cited patient frustration with a " a truncated, unproven

course of Herceptin while the patient must desperately raise funds

to

personally fund the extended course. " Herceptin is an expensive

anti-cancer drug that extends the life of breast cancer patient by a

few

months at best. Its widespread use would bankrupt most health plans.

 

A Cancer Society official said it was " intolerable " that nine years

after the need was identified, cancer patients in the Wellington

region

were still waiting for a third radiation machine. The $5 million

linear

accelerator, which fires a gamma radiation beam to destroy tumors,

cannot be installed till the ministry decides who will pay an

estimated

shortfall of $500,000 in treatment funding. While linear

accelerators

treat cancer, there is little evidence even one cancer has been

cured by

such treatment. The New Zealand Cancer Society is demanding more

treatment, even if it is ineffective.

 

Thursday, August 23, 2007

 

Does Sun Phobia Promote Cancer?

 

After a young woman developed melanoma skin cancer in Australia

following frequent visits to a sun tanning parlor, health officials

there have banned use of these UV-ray treatments for children under

the

age of 16. But will this practice really reduce the rate of skin

cancer,

and if it does, will it spawn other forms of cancer because of a

lack of

vitamin D?

 

Simultaneously, researchers report that 10-15 minutes of sun

exposure

will prevent hundreds of thousands of cases of breast and colon

cancer

annually. Cedric F. Garland, cancer prevention specialist at the

Moores

Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego estimates

250,000 cases of colorectal cancer and 350,000 cases of breast

cancer

could be prevented worldwide by increasing intake of vitamin D3,

particularly in countries north of the equator. Vitamin D3 is

available

through diet, supplements and exposure of the skin to sunlight.

[Nutrition Reviews August 2007]

 

At the same time the U.S. Food & Drug Administration has issued a

bulletin claiming labeling of topical sunscreens is incomplete

because

the labels don't indicate the amount of UV-A radiation they filter.

Sunscreens are labeled for their ability to block UV-B radiation,

the

type of sun rays that produce vitamin D in the skin.

 

The FDA acknowledges that there is no scientific evidence that using

sunscreen prevents skin cancer. To learn why cancer rates soared,

beginning with the widespread use of sunscreen lotions in 1971, read

the

book " You Don't Have To Be Afraid Of Cancer Anymore. "

 

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

 

Recent ejaculation can elevate PSA and mislead doctors and patients

regarding prostate cancer risk

 

Doctors in Greece report the case of a 52-year-old Greek man who had

no

prostate symptoms and who in an annual routine blood test had an

elevated serum total PSA of 6 ng/ml (normal range 0-4.0 ng/ml). His

personal and family medical history was unremarkable. There was no

history of using drugs, or having symptoms of benign prostate

hypertrophy, prostate cancer or prostatitis, and he had no recent

diagnostic clinical tests of the genitourinary tract. The patient

refused digital rectal examination. An abdominal and prostate

ultrasound

scan showed no evidence of benign prostate hyperplasia or of

prostate

cancer. Serum total PSA after ten days was 5.2 ng/ml, but the

percent

free PSA was 27% (normal > 20%). After a month, serum total PSA

value

dropped to 1.2 ng/ml. In another blood test after 3 months, serum

total

PSA value rose to 7 ng/ml with a percent free PSA of 40%. The

urologist

recommended a prostate biopsy. The patient also refused biopsy.

After

discussing this situation with the patient, his doctors were

informed

that he had sexual activity and ejaculation in less than 24 hours

before

the first and before the last serum PSA measurements (being 6 and 7

ng/ml respectively). Ejaculation might have had an effect on serum

PSA

levels in our patient. All other values of serum total PSA

measurements

performed at least 4 days after sexual abstinence were Greek doctors

suggest a 48-hour period of abstinence prior to total PSA

measurement.

–Hellenic Journal Nuclear Medicine 10: 119, August 2007.

 

Friday, August 10, 2007

 

Chemotherapy, hormone therapy and tamoxifen induce bone loss

 

Women receiving tamoxifen for prevention or treatment of breast

cancer

will experience accelerated bone loss. This is because the

inhibition of

estrogen entry into cells results in loss of calcium from bones.

Stronger estrogen-blockers called aromatase inhibitors pose an even

greater risk, increasing the risk of a bone fracture by another 35-

50%

compared to tamoxifen. Males with prostate cancer face similar

problems.

Hormone treatment (androgen deprivation- Lupron) reduces bone mass

by

4-5% per year. –Osteoporosis International August 10, 2007 online.

 

Friday, July 6, 2007

 

Cancer treatment is potentially fatal

 

Standard chemotherapy (combination of 5-FU and irinotecan drugs) can

produce such a rapid killing of cancer cells that it may induce

acidosis, a life-threatening condition. Called " tumor lysis

syndrome, "

this fatal complication is admission that first-line chemotherapy

for

cancers, like colon cancer, is potentially fatal within 72 hours of

the

first course of treatment. - [Tumori 90: 514-16, Sept-Oct. 2004]

 

Monday, April 9, 2007

 

Anti-anemia drug decreases survival?

 

Cancer patients frequently experience anemia as the body tightens

its

control of iron to prevent tumors from growing and spreading. This

control is so tight that iron cannot sufficiently get loose to make

new

red blood cells in the bone marrow. To enhance the quality of life

for

cancer patients, a drug that boosts a hormone (erythropoietin) in

the

kidneys, a hormone that boosts red blood cell count, is often

prescribed. But there are troubling studies that indicate this drug

reduces survival of cancer patients. The patients feel better but

die

sooner. Survival was worse among patients with breast cancer and the

drug actually seemed to encourage tumor growth in patients with head

and

neck cancer rather than help prevent it. The question is, are cancer

patients told any of this? [Lancet Oncology 8: 285, April 2007]

 

Thursday, April 5, 2007

 

Modern medicine is hidden factor in breast cancer.

 

A sudden, large decline in the diagnosis of breast cancer has

occurred

due to the decline in use of hormone replacement therapy by women

over

age 50. As prescriptions for hormone replacement (estrogen) have

declined in the US from 62 million to 18 million per year from 2000

to

2005, the rate of breast cancer has dropped from 135 to 126 per

1000,000

women. This means about 30,000 more American women are free of

breast

cancer in a short period of time, a period of just 2 years under

recent

analysis. About 200,000 American women are diagnosed with breast

cancer

each year. The decline was 11.8% for women age 50-69 years of age.

[New

England Journal Medicine 356:1670-1674, 2007] This information

indicts

modern medicine has been one of the leading risk factors for breast

cancer as it intuitively prescribed estrogen pills rather than

relying

upon scientific evidence.

 

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

 

Lung cancer screening may do more harm than good

 

It's difficult to imagine how cancer screening could lead to harm,

but

efforts to screen for cancer often lead to unnecessary treatment.

When

fear dominates in the cancer patient's mind, cancer patients may

impulsively opt for treatment that may be of little or no benefit.

The

recent fan-fare is for CT scans that can detect tumors in the lungs

and

other organs when tumors are smaller and before they cause symptoms.

However, CT scans may not reduce mortality rates. CT scans detect

more

cancer at an early stage, but that doesn't mean treatment is any

more

effective and most patients will succumb to cancer on the same

calendar

day. The earlier detection of lung cancer just adds more days

between

the date of first diagnosis and the date when the patient passes

away.

Early detection of lung cancer unfortunately does not reduce the

number

of patients that go on to develop advanced cancer. Early detection

with

CT scans does increase the amount of treatment that is performed, by

10

times, and since surgery has its own risks (5% of patients die and

another 20-40% experience serious complications), efforts to detect

cancer at earlier stages may only provide an imaginary benefit.

[Journal

American Medical Association 297:953-61, 2007]

 

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

 

Breast cancer guideline impractical

 

The American Cancer Society has issued a new guideline for high-risk

women which recommends annual MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans

starting at age 30. The guideline only applies to 1.4 million women

at

high risk of developing breast cancer. MRI helps to detect breast

tumors

among younger women who have denser breast tissue which may obscure

detection of a tumor by mammography. However, younger women are not

generally considered at high risk for breast cancer, making this

recommendation a contradiction in terms. Most women have no idea

they

are at high or low risk, which clouds the impact of the

recommendation.

MRI screening is more sensitive than mammograms, but they also are

more

likely to find benign lumps that generate more needless anxiety and

treatment that is based upon fear and imagined disease rather than

confirmed cancer. [CA Cancer Journal Clinicians 57:75-89, 2007; New

York

Times, April 3, 2007] There may be application for MRI scans among

women

diagnosed with breast cancer in one breast, since a second tumor in

the

other breast may sometimes be obscure with mammography. In one

study,

MRI detected hidden breast cancer in the companion breast in 30 of

969

women who were enrolled in the study (3.1%). [New England Journal

Medicine 356:1295-303, 2007]

 

Monday, April 2, 2007

 

Cervical cancer vaccine fizzles

 

According to the Centers for Disease Control, almost 80% of US women

have acquired one or more types of Human Papilloma virus by the age

of

50. However, over time most genital infections produce no symptoms

and

resolve spontaneously, probably due to nutritional factors that

influence the immune system. The virus can persist in some women and

cancer can develop over the subsequent 20-30 years, again proving

that

age is a primary factor in cancer. Immunizing 11-12 years olds would

cost approximately $30 billion in the first 20 years (4 million

children

per year times $360 X 20) before the vaccine would save a single

life,

and even then the vaccine's effects may wear off by then. That's a

$30

billion price tag for a type of cancer that represents only 0.7% of

the

cancer diagnoses and death each year in the US. [Nature

Biotechnology

25: 261, 2007]

 

Sunday, April 1, 2007

 

Abandon chemoprevention for colon cancer

 

The US preventive services task force has warned doctors not to

prescribe aspirin or anti-inflammatory drugs to prevent colon

cancer.

Low-dose aspirin is ineffective and high-dose aspirin does reduce

risk

but also causes gastrointestinal bleeding and possibly hemorrhagic

stroke. [british Medical Journal 333: 559, 2007]© 2007 Bill Sardi,

Knowledge of Health, Inc.

 

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20Is%20An%20Abject%20Failure%20Actually%20Worse%20Than%20The%

20Disease & catagory=Cancer

 

 

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