No More Chemo: Doctor's Say It's Not So Far-Fetched

[CrohnsChicago]

http://healthland.time.com/2013/06/26/no-more-chemo-doctors-say-its-not-so-far-fetched/

There is no denying that such methods work; deaths from cancer have dropped by around 20% in the U.S. over the past two decades. But as effective as they are, these interventions can be just as brutal on the patient as they are on a tumor. So researchers were especially excited by a pair of studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week that showed a new type of anti-cancer drug, which works in an entirely different way from chemotherapy, helped leukemia patients tally up to an 83% survival rate after being treated for two years.......

It’s the difference between carpet bombing and “smart bomb” strategies for leveling an enemy – in this case a fast-growing mass of cells that can strangle and starve surrounding normal tissues. Targeted therapies, as they are called, are aimed at specific pathways that tumor cells use to thrive, blocking them in the same way that monkeying with a car’s ignition, or it’s fuel intake, can keep it from running properly. The advantage of such precise strategies is that they leave healthy cells alone, which for patients means fewer side effects and complications.

“The field is moving toward using the right drugs at the right time in the right patients,” says Dr. George Demetri, senior vice president of experimental therapeutics at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. “We’re moving toward a more precise understanding of cancer, and being able to tailor therapies toward an individual’s cancer.”

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2013/06/...ors-say-its-not-so-far-fetched/#ixzz2XM5Dx6ak

 

[nogutsnoglory]

It's very promising and encouraging to see progress being made. I think scientists are realizing more and more that individual therapy is better than a broad medication. Even with IBD we all have variations of where and how our disease manifests and different cocktails may be more appropriately tailored to the persons needs.

 

[CrohnsChicago]

Ideally removing crap from our food, water and air supply would in my mind more significantly remove the instances of cancer.

It blows my mind the number of instances of cancer you hear about these days. It's almost as common as the common cold the word get's thrown around so frequently.

But since we do not know fully to what extent that the government and certain companies are allowing dangerous products to be consumed by the population nor are we allowed to have a fair say in this topic, I guess this will have to do for now regarding making progress in beating cancer....

 

[nogutsnoglory]

I really wish that consumers were educated and active in demanding companies stop using these harmful chemicals. The move towards natural is a great one but the products are largely unaffordable and we need to have healthier products be more accessible.

 

[wild_one353]

starve them of glucose, slow them down.

starve them of polyunsaturated fatty acids, slows them down.

melatonin inhibits the genes required to make the enzyme which cancer cells use to grow on polyunsaturated fatty acids.

these arent necessarily smart bomb techniques, but they will likley be utilized for anti- cancer diets to treat cancer.

 

[Beach]

Interesting article, thanks for sharing.

The other week I was reading about the history of the disease tuberculosis, or as it was called back in the day consumption. What I ran across surprised me in that just a couple generations ago in America and likely Europe 1/3 of the population died from TB/consumption. In someways TB is similar to how cancer is thought of today. Both are diseases that effected the body in different places in different ways, and in general if one catches TB (before treatments were developed) or develops cancer today, over time the body wastes away, consumed by the disease.

Today, with TB all is different. Almost no one in the west passes from TB. From time to time there are reports of tuberculosis super bugs showing up in a city, where a dozen or so people are effected and quarantined from the rest of the population to prevent the spread of the disease. Overall though there are few signs of the disease making a big come back effecting many as it did in the past.

No one is for sure why the plaque of TB began to go away. TB was largely a disease found in crowded polluted cities. Possibly with new sanitation measures put in place during those time TB lost some of it means of transmission. Diets also changed. Sun or heliotherapy also became popular during the time when TB numbers began to decrease. Vitamin D has been found to help in combating TB infections. And then eventually modern medicines was able to directly effect and kill the TB bacteria in those effected.

Many of the sanitariums that housed TB patients went out of business. Sometimes a new clientele was found, which often turned out to be mental patients.

Anyway! Bit of a ramble on my part with this, but would be nice if our modern consumption plague, cancer, went the way of TB. I wouldn't complain if history repeated. Along those lines, it's interesting to me to read of all the cancers that are possibly prevented by vitamin D. Dr. Cannell's sight has been keeping a list of studies that look into the link between low vitamin D levels and the development of cancers.

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/tag/cancer/

& the starving of cancer cells glucose, ketogenic diets look interesting also.

"The Benefits of a Ketogenic Diet and Its Role in Cancer Treatment"

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/06/16/ketogenic-diet-benefits.aspx

 

[723crossroads]

Ideally removing crap from our food, water and air supply would in my mind more significantly remove the instances of cancer.

It blows my mind the number of instances of cancer you hear about these days. It's almost as common as the common cold the word get's thrown around so frequently.

But since we do not know fully to what extent that the government and certain companies are allowing dangerous products to be consumed by the population nor are we allowed to have a fair say in this topic, I guess this will have to do for now regarding making progress in beating cancer....

If you check msnbc page today they talk about all the dangerous chemicals we allow in our foods here in the states that are banned in many other countries. Time to make some noise and demand changes!:mad2on't eat processed foods! It could kill you!