Surviving-Cancers.com

Chemotherapy’s basic premise is that it preferentially poisons cells that divide rapidly, such as cancer cells. The problem is that other normal cells divide rapidly and chemotherapy affects them as well. The objective is for the cancer to die before other critical tissues are irreparably lost or damaged.

As stated in previous posts, I have not been enthusiastic about the use of chemotherapy against cancer. Too much damage is done to other tissues and the patient may die from the treatment. That opinion may be about to change due to a report from researchers based in Sydney, Australia.

According to the report, non-reproducing bacterial cells can be produced and modified to target receptors specific to cancer cells. Different types of cancer have different types of receptors, so the bacterial cells must be specific for a given type of cancer.

These bacterial cells, not actually alive as they have no chromosomes, are known as minicells and can be “loaded” with various chemicals. Minicells are about 1/5 the size of normal cells and are capable of transporting highly toxic substances.

In a first round of treatment, minicells are infused with materials which reduce cancer cells’ resistance to chemo drugs. Injected into the body, these cells seek out the cancer cells and pretreat them. This step can be repeated as many times as necessary.

A second “wave” of minicells are infused with chemo drugs. When one of these minicells reaches a cancer cell, it attaches to the receptors on that cell and releases the toxin into the cell, causing the cancer cell to die.

As the mini-cells only attach to the cancer cells, the rest of the body is essentially unaffected. This means no damage is done to other tissues and the side effects experienced with systemic chemotherapy administration methods are absent.

By only delivering the chemo drugs to where they are needed, this delivery method reduces the amount of chemo needed, lowering the cost and the need for hospitalization in many cases.

Developed by EnGeneIC and applied to mice and dogs so far, human trials will be started shortly. If all goes well, this will be a huge and exciting advance in the fight against cancer.

Researchers at Children’s Hospital in Boston have found proteins secreted by certain types of cancer inhibit metastasis, the migration of cancer cells from the original cancer site to other parts of the body. When cancer spreads through the body, it becomes difficult to treat, making metastasis a leading cause of cancer death.

Metastatic tumor cells produce proteins that encourage tumor growth and attract feeder blood vessels wherever they attach in other organs. Non-metastatic tumors produce a protein called prosaposin that stimulates the production of p53 in surrounding connective tissue. P53 suppresses the production of blood vessels needed to support tumors.

High levels of prosuposin are secreted by non-metastatic, localized prostate and breast tumors while very little of the protein is produced by metastatic ones.

By injecting prosuposin into mice with highly metastatic tumor cells, the researchers reported that lung metastases were reduced by 80% and lymph node metastases disappeared altogether. The treated mice lived 30% longer than those who did not receive the injections.

The results indicate that prosuposin, or derivatives that stimulate p53 activity may be an effective way to inhibit the metastatic process in humans, halting the spread of a cancer.

The study was released online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In a study run over the last two years, it was determined that ginger (zingber officinalis) can reduce nausea in chemotherapy patients. Having been close to two people going through chemotherapy, I know how the nausea and vomiting can reduce a patient’s quality of life.

Those who know me know that I am not a strong advocate of chemotherapy. If it does end up being the treatment chosen, anything which reduces the side effects should be implemented. I have already written about fasting to reduce chemo related damage.

Dr. Julie Ryan, Ph.D., of the University of Rochester medical Center in Rochester, New York led the study on 644 cancer patients, most of whom had breast cancer. All complained of nausea early on and were treated with standard 5-HT3 receptor antagonist antiemetics (anti-nausea drugs).

These patients were divided into four groups, one each taking 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 grams of ginger daily, and the fourth group taking a placebo. All doses were administered as capsules.

Four times a day the patients recorded their levels of nausea on a seven point scale, from no nausea to extremely nauseous. While all patients reported high levels of nausea immediately after chemotherapy, the three groups taking ginger reported within hours feeling 40% less nauseated than those taking the placebo. Interestingly, the lower doses appeared to be more effective than the highest dose.

Results were presented to the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

An 8 to 12 year study has determined that women with non-Hodgekins

lymphoma who drink wine on a regular basis are less likely to suffer a relapse or death.

Xuesong Han, a doctoral candidate in cancer epidemiology

at the Yale School of Public Health, led the study which analyzed 546 women with non-Hodgekins lymphoma. The results were presented at the 100th annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.

The longer a woman drank, the lower her chances of a relapse or death. Those who drank for at least 25 years prior to diagnosis were 26 percent less likely to relapse or to develop secondary cancers and 33 percent less likely to die than those who did not drink wine.

76 percent of women who drank at least 12 glasses of wine over their lifetime were alive five years after diagnosis versus 68 percent of those who drank none.

The best outcomes were found among patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. These women had a 40 to 50 percent reduced risk of death which rose to 60 percent if they had drunk wine the previous 25 years.

Other alcoholic beverages such as beer or liquor had no effect on lymphoma risk, relapse, or secondary cancer.

More and more evidence suggests wine contains chemicals that promote good health.