Guest guest Posted January 25, 2001 Report Share Posted January 25, 2001 I have been treating a 59 year old with breast cancer with metastisis to the lumbar spine for about a month and a half. She received radiation treatments which halted the progression of the mets in the lumbar region. She originally came to me for peripheral neuropathy (s/e from tomoxafen) which improved greatly. I had given her herbs for about a month and we found that her tumor markers had dropped significantly during that time. Unfortunately, further testing has found new mets to multiple sites of her brain. She will be undergoing a new series of radiation treatments. She wants to continue with the herbs, my question is has anyone had success in treating brain tumors in what can probably realistically be called end stage metastatic cancer? Do some herbs cross the blood-brain barrier more effectively than others. My thoughts are that I will focus more on strengthening her in general (qi and blood) and try to help her deal with s/e. Her pulse is slightly rapid, bowstring in R guan, tongue has purple center with sticky coating. Sorry this isn't in the proper format as I am pressed for time. Thanks, Sean ********************************************Sean P. Doherty, M.Sc., M.S., L.Ac., D.N.B.A.ONashua Natural Medicine76 Northeastern Blvd., Unit 36ANashua, NH 03062ph(603) 579-0956fax(603) 579-0957Healthcare for the whole family...Naturally!www.nashuanaturalmedicine.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 25, 2001 Report Share Posted January 25, 2001 , " Nashua Natural Medicine " < sean@n...> wrote: my question is has anyone had success in > treating brain tumors in what can probably realistically be called end stage > metastatic cancer? Unfortunately, I have not seen any evidence that TCM can effectively treat metastatic cancer of any kind. I base this upon examination of both research abstracts and personal communication with herb docs from china specializing in cancer. I have heard anecdotes of success, though. One needs to be careful in such cases that the patient's grieving family does not target alternative px using unproven therapies after the likely death of the patient. I would get a waiver from the patient. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 25, 2001 Report Share Posted January 25, 2001 on 1/25/01 3:39 PM, Nashua Natural Medicine at sean wrote: I have been treating a 59 year old with breast cancer with metastisis to the lumbar spine for about a month and a half. She received radiation treatments which halted the progression of the mets in the lumbar region. She originally came to me for peripheral neuropathy (s/e from tomoxafen) which improved greatly. I had given her herbs for about a month and we found that her tumor markers had dropped significantly during that time. Unfortunately, further testing has found new mets to multiple sites of her brain. She will be undergoing a new series of radiation treatments. She wants to continue with the herbs, my question is has anyone had success in treating brain tumors in what can probably realistically be called end stage metastatic cancer? Do some herbs cross the blood-brain barrier more effectively than others. My thoughts are that I will focus more on strengthening her in general (qi and blood) and try to help her deal with s/e. Her pulse is slightly rapid, bowstring in R guan, tongue has purple center with sticky coating. Sorry this isn't in the proper format as I am pressed for time. Thanks, Sean Sean, I've treated a few patients with metastasis from breast to bone and brain in the last few years. It is, obviously critical and an end-stage situation. Leave the brain lesions to the radiation, and don't worry about the brain-blood barrier. The Chinese medical material I've seen suggests the use of medicinals to supplement liver and kidney yin, marrow and bone. While I am not clear on the pattern here, some medicinals that may be of use: gu sui bu, jin mao gou, gou qi zi, ba ji tian, tu si zi, xu duan, shu di, yi yi ren. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 27, 2001 Report Share Posted January 27, 2001 Your posting and Todd's comments underline the difficulty of dealing with advanced or catastrophic cases like cancer in general---despite some anecdotal success stories. Even when there is symptomatic relief, the cancer is still be progressing at the molecular level. The job, then, is largely extending their life and making their quality of life better; giving the chemo and any other therapies a larger window of opportunity to work. If you can read the pulses, there's less guessing; you can track the development and prognosis clearly. In the pulses you should be able to see a knotting or binding quality at each major tumor site---breast, bone, liver, brain. The localized tumor site's pulse movement will often occupy only a small portion, perhaps 1/25 of the jiao it's located in. So your sensitivity and training are key. When the cancer is metastasizing, you may see relative changes in the target site; but when a tumor is actually anchored and growing, your sensitivity in reading pulses will determine how large the tumor becomes before you can notice it in situ. Taking herbs and supplements is highly recommended but contingent upon how well the digestive tract is absorbing nutrition. There are a number of herb books about cancer in English available from Redwing; many more if you can read Chinese a little. We often do moxa to support the immune and digestive systems (CV4, CV12, St36)---adding energy to the system directly and by-passing the digestive tract. The size of the moxa can be from thread-size up to thumb-size (burning and pain with larger cones will have to be dealt with) depending how critical the situation is. If you can read the pulses well, you can come up with an acupuncture strategy but it will be necessary to be performed daily---or at least 2-3x a week if there is any chance to turn the situation around. Anything less often can make their decline slower, but ultimately lowers their chance. Jim Ramholz , " Nashua Natural Medicine " <sean@n...> wrote: > I have been treating a 59 year old with breast cancer with metastisis to the > lumbar spine for about a month and a half. She received radiation > treatments which halted the progression of the mets in the lumbar region. > She originally came to me for peripheral neuropathy (s/e from tomoxafen) > which improved greatly. I had given her herbs for about a month and we > found that her tumor markers had dropped significantly during that time. > Unfortunately, further testing has found new mets to multiple sites of her > brain. She will be undergoing a new series of radiation treatments. She > wants to continue with the herbs, my question is has anyone had success in > treating brain tumors in what can probably realistically be called end stage > metastatic cancer? Do some herbs cross the blood-brain barrier more > effectively than others. My thoughts are that I will focus more on > strengthening her in general (qi and blood) and try to help her deal with > s/e. Her pulse is slightly rapid, bowstring in R guan, tongue has purple > center with sticky coating. Sorry this isn't in the proper format as I am > pressed for time. > > Thanks, > Sean > > ******************************************** > Sean P. Doherty, M.Sc., M.S., L.Ac., D.N.B.A.O > Nashua Natural Medicine > 76 Northeastern Blvd., Unit 36A > Nashua, NH 03062 > ph(603) 579-0956 > fax(603) 579-0957 > Healthcare for the whole family...Naturally! > www.nashuanaturalmedicine.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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