Alternative Cancer Treatments - Cancer

Alternative Cancer Treatments

Holistic physicians regard cancer as the manifestation of an unhealthy body whose defenses can no longer destroy or repair cells that turn cancerous. Holistic treatments therefore focus on strengthening the immune system of the cancer patient using physiological and psychological therapies. The therapies summarized in the following sections have either proven effective for some types of cancer or offer promise for further investigation. Patients with cancer should discuss all of the available proven treatments for specific cancers with their physician or health professional and together choose the most appropriate treatment (or combination of treatments).

Nutritional Therapies.     There is mounting evidence that diet can play an important adjunctive role in treatment. Cancer specialist Dr. Keith Block believes that the foods people eat make a significant difference in the body's ability to resist disease and maintain health. His diet for cancer patients consists of whole grain cereals, vegetables, legumes, fruits, nuts and seeds, soy foods, fish, and free-range poultry. Restricted or eliminated food include most dairy products, eggs, red meat, refined sugar, caffeinated or alcoholic drinks, processed foods, some less healthy oils, and some vegetables in the nightshade family such as eggplant and green peppers. Block individualizes the diet based on patients’ physical condition, cultural background and tastes, climate and geographical condition, and activity level and physical needs, with extensive exchange lists making it easy for patients to “trade” different food or drinks from the same list. The Block diet provides 50–60% of nutrients in complex carbohydrates, and restricts fat intake to between 12 and 25% (primarily from vegetable sources), while the remainder of calories are derived from protein.

The Block diet is very similar to the diets the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, the American Academy of Sciences, and the American Heart Association have endorsed as having some preventive value in protecting against cancer and coronary disease.

Vitamin Therapies.     Vitamin B ₆ is one of the most promising B vitamins for cancer treatment. Hans Ladner and Richard Salkeld conducted a clinical trial treating cancer patients with vitamin B ₆ in addition to radiotherapy. As cited in L. Poirier's Essential Nutrients in Carcinogenesis , B ₆ was given to 105 endometrial cancer patients, aged 45 to 65, over a seven-week period. These patients had a 15% improvement in five-year survival rates compared to 105 patients who did not receive the B ₆ supplements. No side effects from the B ₆ supplementation were observed.

Ladner and Salkeld also confirmed the beneficial effects of B ₆ on radiation-induced symptoms (nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea) in gynecological patients treated with high-energy radiation. They subsequently gave B ₆ to 6,300 patients with cervical, uterine, endometrial, ovarian, and breast cancers, and concluded that both quality of life and survival rates significantly improved with B ₆ supplementation.

Vitamin B ₆ has also proved effective in inhibiting melanoma cancer cells. One research team, as cited in Esssential Nutrients in Carcinogenesis , developed a topical B ₆ pyridoxal that “produced a significant reduction in the size of subcutaneous cancer nodules and complete regression of cutaneous papules.” While the results were considered preliminary, they may lead to a more successful topical B ₆ treatment for several forms of skin cancer.

Folic Acid.     Folic acid supplementation has been successfully used to regress precancerous cells in patients with cervical dysplasia. Cervical dysplasia is an abnormal condition of the cells of the cervix, which is usually regarded as a pre-cancerous lesion. When treated with folic acid, the regression-to-normal rate was observed to be 20% in one study and 100% in another, according to Essential Nutrients in Carcinogenesis .

Folic acid supplements may also decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease, colon cancer, and cervical cancer. The FDA currently restricts dosage of folic acid pills to 800 micrograms.

A high dietary folate intake also protects against colorectal adenoma, a pre-cancerous condition that can lead to colon cancer. Low folate intake also increases risk for cervical dysplasia. Although cervical cancer appears to be caused by a sexually transmitted virus, folate deficiency also appears to be a factor.

Unfortunately, few Americans consume enough fresh fruits and vegetables, the primary dietary source of folic acid. One study cited by Fugh-Berman found that 13–15% of American women 20–44 years of age showed biochemical evidence of folate deficiency.

Antioxidant Treatments.     Combined antioxidant treatments may also extend survival times of cancer patients treated with chemotherapy or radiation. Twenty lung cancer patients in one study, reported in the May/June 1992 issue of AntiCancer Research , received antioxidant treatments of vitamins, trace elements, and fatty acids in combination with chemotherapy and/or irradiation at regular intervals. The average survival time for the entire group was 505 days. Fourteen (77%) survived for more than 12 months, and six patients (33%) for more than two years. One patient survived more than five years. Eight patients (44%) were still alive with a survival time of 32 months at the end of the study. Patients receiving antioxidants were also able to tolerate chemotherapy and radiation treatment well.

Vitamin E and Chemotherapy.     Patients receiving chemotherapy often develop ulcers in the mouth or other parts of the digestive tract. In a controlled trial of 18 cancer patients, six out of nine receiving vitamin E oil experienced reversal of their ulcers within five days, compared to only one out of nine subjects receiving a placebo.

Botanical Therapies.     As noted in Chapter 5, shiitake mushrooms (Lentinus edodes) have been successfully used by Japanese physicians to shrink several different types of tumors by as much as 80%. Nutritionist Dr. Donald Brown writes in the April 1994 Townsend Letter for Doctors that an extract of Lentinus edodes has been shown to suppress viral oncogenesis, and prevent cancer recurrence after surgery. Results of clinical trials indicate that shiitake mushrooms prolong the lifespan of patients with advanced and recurrent stomach, colorectal, and breast cancer with minimal side effects. The active ingredient, lentinan, appears to increase production of T-lymphocyte (natural killer) cells.

Maitake Mushrooms.     Maitake mushrooms may also help treat cancer. Anthony Cichoke, writing in the May 1994 Townsend Letter for Doctors , claims that the compounds contained in maitake mushrooms stimulate immune function and inhibit tumor growth. Currently research is being conducted by Dr. Dennis Miller of the Cancer Treatment Centers of America on their effect in stabilizing tumors. Cichoke notes that Dr. Abram Ber, a homeopathic physician practicing in Phoenix, Arizona, has used maitake mushroom tablets to treat 12 patients with prostatic cancer. Not only were their symptoms ameliorated, but the patients reported improved urinary flow and a decreased need to urinate.

Shark Cartilage.     Shark cartilage may also be an effective secondary cancer treatment. One reason tumors spread is because they develop their own blood supply–a process known as angiogenesis. Cartilage, a tough, elastic, connective tissue found in sharks and humans, does not develop a blood supply because it contains an “anti-angiogenic” substance that stops the blood supply from developing. Shark cartilage therapy is based on the premise that if the blood supply to tumors can be interrupted, they will stop growing and eventually die.

Dr. William Lane of New Jersey reports in Sharks Don't Get Cancer that the first study documenting the effectiveness of shark cartilage was conducted at the Hospital Ernesto Contreras in Tijuana, Mexico. The eight patients chosen for the study suffered from a variety of cancers, including cervical, colon, and breast, and all had life expectancies of three to six months. Shark cartilage, administered via retention enemas, was the only form of cancer treatment the patients received. After one month of therapy, seven of the eight patients experienced tumor reductions ranging from 30–100%. Symptomatic improvement was observed in all eight patients, including weight gain, improved energy, and pain control.

In a Cuban clinical trial reported by D. Williams in the February 1993 issue of Alternatives Newsletter , 19 terminal cancer patients experienced shrinking of their tumors after 16 weeks of shark cartilage therapy, with rates varying between 15 and 58%. No toxic side effects were reported.

Simone monitored 20 patients with advanced cancers using shark cartilage as a food supplement. He reported to the June 24, 1993 U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Appropriations Special Hearing on Alternative Medicine that after eight weeks, tumors were completely eliminated in four patients, and reduced in three others.

Shark Liver Oil.     Shark liver oil is one of the best natural sources of alkoxyglycerols, natural alcohols that promote a generalized antibody response which may shrink cancer tumors. Judith Hooper, writing in the July 13, 1993 issue of Your Health , cites a study in Holland in which cervical cancer patients pretreated with shark liver oil before receiving radiation had far better survival rates than patients not receiving the treatment. In many cases, tumors shrank significantly before radiation began, thereby rendering the radiation more effective.

Hooper also claims that shark fin supplements inhibit angiogenesis, the development of tiny blood vessels, or capillaries, through which tumors spread. She cites studies conducted at several Boston hospitals associated with Harvard Medical School in which shark fin soup effectively inhibited the angiogenesis of several types of tumors.

Mistletoe.     An extract of mistletoe (Iscador) has been used for 30 years in Europe as a potential anticancer agent. As reported by E. Kovacs in a 1991 issue of the European Journal of Cancer , Swiss scientists gave Iscador to 14 patients with advanced breast cancer. Twelve out of the 14 patients showed an improvement of DNA repair 2.7 times higher than before Iscador was administered.

Carnivora.     According to Hooper's Your Health article, carnivora, an extract of the meat-eating Venus flytrap plant ( Dionaea muscipula ), has been used on more than 2,000 patients since 1981 to treat cancer, AIDS, and other immune-suppressed diseases. In an initial clinical study conducted by German physician Dr. Helmut Keller of 210 patients with a variety of cancers, all of whom had undergone unsuccessful chemotherapy or radiation, 40% were stabilized by carnivora treatment and 16% went into remission. According to Keller: “Carnivora proved to be extremely nontoxic and non-mutagenic,” and its effects included cytostatis (destruction of cancer cells), immune enhancement, mitotic (cancer-cell division) inhibition, viricidal (virus-killing) effects, and pain relief.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).     Chinese physicians regard cancer as an imbalance of chi, and treat the whole person rather than just the specific disorder. They claim that treating the whole person avoids the phobia surrounding a diagnosis of cancer, and focuses on returning the patient to optimal health once the cancer has been stabilized or reversed. Chinese physicians report having successfully treated cancer with acupuncture, herbs, nutritional therapies, meditation, and exercise therapies such as qi gong.

However, it is difficult for Western scientists to evaluate the effectiveness of these therapies because clinical trials in China are not randomized or controlled. Given these reservations, J. Han, writing in a 1988 issue of the Journal of Ethnopharmacology , states that TCM has already yielded a significant number of anti-cancer botanical therapies, including indirubin (from dang gui lu hui wan), irisquinone (from iris Lactea pallasii ), and zhuling polysaccharide (from polyporous umbellata). A study by Eric J. Lien at the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy, published in 1985, concluded that Chinese herbs and plants from more than 120 species (belonging to 60 different families) have been used to successfully treat cancer.

Jnzentaihoto (or JT-48, or JTT).     Juzentaihoto (or JT-48, or JTT) appears to be one of the most promising Chinese herbs for treating cancer. It has traditionally been used to relieve anemia, anorexia, extreme exhaustion, and fatigue. In November 1988, G. Wang reported to the First Shanghai Symposium on Gastrointestinal Cancer that patients given this herbal remedy had 3–10 year survival rates “significantly higher than commonly anticipated.”

Herbal therapy using JTT in combination with chemotherapy and hormonal therapy has been shown to extend the life (and improve the quality of life) for metastatic breast cancer patients. A 1989 article by I. Adachi in the Japanese Journal of Cancer and Chemotherapy reported a controlled clinical trial at the National Cancer Center Hospital in Tokyo in which 119 advanced metastatic breast cancer patients were given either chemotherapy and endocrine therapy alone or in combination with JTT. After 38 months, the survival rate was significantly higher in the group receiving the herbal remedy. Quality of life was also better for those receiving JTT, including physical condition, appetite, and coldness of hands and feet. In addition, herbally treated patients were protected from the bone marrow suppression associated with chemotherapy.

The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported at a Special Hearing on Alternative Medicine convened by the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Appropriations on June 24, 1993 that a Chinese herbal therapy called Fu Zheng doubles the life expectancy of patients with rapidly advancing cancers when combined with Western treatment. The therapy, which consists of ginseng and astragalus, doubled the survival rate of patients with nasopharyngeal (nasal passage and pharynx) cancer from 24% to 53%.

Antineoplaston Therapy.     Antineoplaston therapy was developed by Stanislaw Burzynski, a Polish physician who began practicing in the late 1960s in Houston, Texas, where he currently oversees the Burzynski Research Institute, a cancer treatment clinic. In an article entitled “Synthetic Antineoplastons and Analogs” appearing in a 1986 issue of Drugs of the Future , Burzynski explains that his cancer treatment is based on his theory that the body has a parallel biochemical defense system (BDS) independent of the immune system which helps reprogram defective cancer cells so that they begin to function normally. According to Burzynski, the BDS consists of short-chain amino acids, known as polypeptides, that are able to inhibit the growth of cancer cells.

Burzynski claims that the body of a cancer patient has only about two or three percent of the amount of antineoplastons contained in a healthy person. As a result, the BDS becomes deficient against chemical and physical carcinogens, viruses, and other cancer-causing agents. To rebuild the BDS, Burzynski has given synthetic antineoplastons to more than 2,000 patients (most of them diagnosed with advanced or terminal cancer). According to Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide , the majority of patients have benefited from antineoplaston therapy, experiencing complete or partial remission, or stabilization of their conditions. In addition, few side effects have been observed. The range of cancers he has treated include lymphoma, leukemia, and cancers of the breast, bone, prostate, lung, and bladder.

From 1988 to 1990, Burzynski conducted clinical trials investigating different forms of antineoplaston treatment, such as capsules or injections, in groups of 15–35 patients diagnosed with specific types of cancer. The first trial involved patients with astrocytoma, a highly malignant form of brain tumor. Most of the patients had already been unsuccessfully treated with surgery, radiation therapy, and/or chemotherapy. According to Burzynski, the majority of patients improved rapidly, and some of the adults were even able to resume working part-time after only six weeks of treatment. Eighty percent experienced “objective response,” which Burzynski defines as complete or partial remission, or stabilization of their tumors. The National Cancer Institute subsequently issued its approval for Burzynski to undertake outside clinical trials involving various forms of brain tumors.

Livingston Therapy.     In the 1940s, an American physician named Virginia Livingston discovered a bacterium, Progenitor cryptocides , which caused cancer in experimental animal studies. She contended it was present in virtually all human and animal cancers, and subsequently developed a vaccine derived from a culture of the patient's own bacteria–either from the tumor, urine, blood, or pleura (lung fluid). She also used the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine, a mild tuburculin vaccine which stimulates white blood cells of the immune system to kill cancer cells. And, as Livingston believed that certain foods such as beef, chicken, eggs, and milk can be contaminated with Progenitor cryptocides (thereby providing a basis for the infectious transmission of cancer), her therapy to restore the immune system includes a primarily vegetarian whole-foods diet, along with nutritional supplements.

In her book, Conquest of Cancer: Vaccines and Diet , Livingston analyzed the effectiveness of her combined vaccine and nutritional therapies for 62 patients (17 of them diagnosed as terminal) with breast, lung, uterine, ovarian, colon, prostate, kidney, pancreatic, pelvic, esophageal, and larynx cancer. Other patients were suffering from melanoma or skin basal cell cancer. According to Livingston, the success rate of therapy was 82%. However, as she did not conduct controlled clinical trails, her therapy has not been officially endorsed by the National Cancer Institute.

In another book, Physician's Handbook: The Livingston-Wheeler Medical Clinic , Livingston outlined her nutritional therapy which included individualized dosages of vitamins A, B ₆ , B ₁₂ , C, and E, liver supplements, organic iodine (which she felt was essential to the metabolism of thyroid, the oxidative hormone), additional thyroid supplements (whenever tolerated), and hydrochloric acid.

Livingston's diet emphasized raw or lightly cooked fresh vegetables, fresh vegetable juices, whole grain breads and cereals, fresh fruits, nuts, baked or boiled potatoes, salads, and homemade soups. No sugar, refined flours, processed or high-sodium foods were allowed, and few–if any–animal foods because of the likelihood of their being contaminated with Progenitor cryptocides. Smoking, alcohol, and coffee were also prohibited.

Livingston's patients were also given frequent baths in a hot tub with one cup of white vinegar to help eliminate toxins through the skin, along with purging and enemas. Her primary focus was instituting immunization, especially if patients were undergoing chemotherapy, because she believed patients could only survive cancer if they restrengthened their immune systems.

Hydrazine Sulfate.     Dr. Joseph Gold, director of the Syracuse Cancer Research Institute in Syracuse, New York, began research in the late 1960s focusing on controlling the weight loss (cachexia) that often accompanies cancer. He discovered that the chemical hydrazine sulfate could reverse cachexia, providing the body with extra strength to fight cancer. In addition to weight gain, the benefit of this therapy according to Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide is the documented ability of hydrazine sulfate to shrink tumors, and even cause them to disappear completely. It has been particularly effective in treating cancers of the rectum, colon, ovaries, prostate, thyroid, breast, and lung, as well as for Hodgkin's disease, melanoma, and lymphoma.

Although Gold's experiments in the U.S. were controversial, Soviet scientists at the Petrov Research Institute of Oncology in Leningrad began testing the effectiveness of hydrazine sulfate therapy in 1976. Dr. V. Filov subsequently reported in a 1990 issue of Voprosy Onkologii that 740 terminal cancer patients with a broad range of tumors were treated with hydrazine sulfate over a 15-year period. According to Filov, approximately 50% of patients saw an improvement in their cachexia, 14% saw pronounced benefits, and all experienced a stabilization of the disease process.

Dr. Rowan T. Chlebowski of the University of California Los Angeles, writing in the January 1990 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology , reported hydrazine sulfate, used in conjunction with the best available conventional chemotherapeutic treatment, had significantly increased the survival rate in a controlled clinical trial of 65 patients with advanced inoperable, non-small-cell lung cancer (one of the most difficult of all cancers). Hydrazine therapy extended life to a median of 328 days, compared to a median of 209 days for patients who received chemotherapy alone.

Hydrogen Peroxide Therapy.     Dr. Kurt W. Donsbach, in Wholistic Cancer Therapy , reports that food-grade hydrogen peroxide is also useful for reversing some cases of cancer. He believes that cancer cells are less virulent and may even be destroyed by the presence of a high oxygen environment. Hydrogen peroxide given orally and by transfusion has the ability to increase the oxygen content of the blood stream, which increases the oxygen environment of the cancer cell.

Donsbach states that he has helped hundreds of cancer patients using hydrogen peroxide therapy at his Hospital Santa Monica in Mexico. Approximately 70% of his patients, he adds, are alive three years after their first visit to his facility. In addition to hydrogen peroxide, Donsbach uses mineral therapies and hyperthermia and dimethly sulfoxide, DMSO, a solvent which facilitates the absorption of medicines through the skin.

Ozone Therapy.     In a 1980 Science magazine article, Dr. Frederick Sweet of Washington University School of Medicine found that ozone therapy inhibited the growth of lung, breast, and uterine cancer cells when administered to patients over a period of eight days. Exposure to ozone at 0.8 parts per million inhibited cancer cell growth more than 90% and controlled cell growth to less than 50%. Sweet also observed that there was no growth inhibition of normal cells, which he states was due to the fact that “cancer cells are less able to compensate for the oxidative burden of ozone than normal cells.”

Visualization.     Dr. Carl Simonton and Stephanie Matthews-Simonton were the first to develop imagery therapy with the goal of physically reversing the development of cancer. In their best-selling book, Getting Well Again , they describe common mental images that can help cancer patients in their visualizations:

• The cancer treatment (either radiation or chemotherapy) is strong and powerful.
• The cancer cells are weak and confused.
• The healthy cells can repair any slight damage the treatment might do.
• The army of white blood cells is vast and destroys the cancer cells.
• The white blood cells are aggressive and quick to find the cancer cells and destroy them.
• The dead cancer cells are flushed from the body naturally.
• I am healthy and free of cancer.
• I still have many goals in life and reasons to live.

The Simontons varied their image visualizations to accommodate the belief systems of their cancer patients, and also encouraged the use of meditation, biofeedback, and hypnosis. The most important factor, the Simontons state, was whether patients visualized themselves returning to a healthy life. If they had positive reasons to live, patients usually were able to visualize themselves as being free of cancer.

The Simonton's imagery may not work for everyone and remains controversial. Many clinicians, including Bernie Siegel, suggest that symbolic imagery may be more powerful than the anatomically accurate visualizations used by the Simontons. Siegel states that the key factor in recovery is ending the imagery session by focusing clearly and powerfully on a healing image which is relevant, understandable, and powerful.

Hypnosis.     Hypnosis has been found more effective than support groups for treating the pain that accompanies breast cancer. One study of 67 cancer patients undergoing bone marrow transplants compared hypnosis, cognitive behavioral skills, contact with a psychologist, and no treatment. Hypnosis proved to be effective in reducing oral pain associated with the cancer treatment, though nothing seemed to help nausea, vomiting, or the need to use painkillers.

In 49 children and adolescents with cancer, hypnosis with imagery proved more effective than nonhypnotic behavioral techniques (deep breathing, distraction, and practice sessions) in reducing pain and the anxiety connected with spinal taps and bone marrow biopsies.

Hypnosis and Chemotherapy.     More than a quarter of patients undergoing chemotherapy develop such adverse reactions that they get nauseated or start vomiting even before the drugs are administered. There are many cases in which this problem–called anticipatory vomiting–has been relieved by hypnosis, as has been confirmed by two studies.

In one small study, three cancer patients were treated with hypnosis before some sessions of chemotherapy (but not before others), while three others were treated before all their sessions. Although none of the patients vomited after hypnosis, all vomited when they did not receive it. In another trial of 60 patients, hypnosis also significantly reduced anticipatory vomiting.

Positive Mental Attitudes and Social Support.     A number of studies have now shown that positive mental states affect the outcome of cancer therapy, can assist the physician in making treatment more effective, minimize the negative side effects of medical treatments such as chemotherapy, and may even facilitate cures. As Siegel states in his best-selling book, Love, Medicine & Miracles , “We don't yet understand all the ways in which brain chemicals are related to emotions and thoughts, but the salient point is that our state of mind has an immediate and direct effect on our state of body. We can change the body by dealing with how we feel. If we ignore our despair, the body receives a ‘die’ message. If we deal with our pain and seek help, then the message is ‘living is difficult but desirable,’ and the immune system works to keep us alive.”

The therapy group founded by Siegel, called Exceptional Cancer Patients (ECaP), is designed to help people mobilize their full resources–mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual–against their disease. Through regular group support meetings, nutritional counseling, exercise, meditation, visualization, and a trusting relationship with their physician (in which both take part in the decision-making process), patients “are accorded the conviction they can get well, no matter what the odds,” Siegel explains. “If a person can turn from predicting illness to anticipating recovery,” he continues, “the foundation for cure is laid.”

Siegel, 1988 president of the American Holistic Medical Association, recommends that patients should not reject standard medical techniques such as radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery–at least as one option. “Drugs and surgery buy time, and may cure, while patients work to change their lives. The most important thing is to pick a therapy you believe in and proceed with a positive attitude,” viewing therapy as energy that can heal.

Spiegel, a psychiatrist at the Stanford University Hospital, has also shown that psychosocial support can be of great benefit in coping with cancer. In a study of metastatic breast cancer patients cited in the October 14, 1989 issue of Lancet , women were randomly allocated into a control group that received standard medical therapy alone, or into one that attended weekly group therapy meetings and was taught self-hypnosis for pain. The patients who received therapy and learned hypnosis lived twice as long as the patients in the control group (36.6 months versus 18.9 months), and three of the women who received group therapy were still alive 10 years later.

Cancer patients are now offered a wide range of services to help them deal with the emotional and psychological aspects of the disease. Virtually every hospital serving cancer patients offers some form of psychosocial support, and many independent groups provide counseling, psychotherapy, and instruction in meditation, relaxation, and guided imagery or visualization. Biofeedback, hypnosis, and audio cassettes are other techniques. The common belief underlying these approaches is that patients’ efforts to promote their emotional and spiritual well-being may also affect biological states and help restore them to wellness.

Expressing the negative emotions experienced by cancer patients is another important component in tipping the balance toward recovery. Psychologist Leonard Derogatis, in a study of 35 women with metastatic breast cancer, found that the long-term survivors had poor relationships with their physicians–as judged by the physicians. The survivors consistently questioned their doctors and expressed their emotions freely. Conversely, those dying within a year had relied heavily on repression, denial, and other psychological defenses.

National Cancer Institute psychologist Sandra Levy has further shown that seriously ill breast-cancer patients who expressed high levels of depression, anxiety, and hostility survived longer than those who showed little distress. As she reports in the September/October 1988 issue of Psychosomatic Medicine , Levy and other researchers have also found that aggressive “bad” patients tend to have more killer T cells–white cells that seek and destroy cancer cells–than docile “good” patients.

A group of London researchers under Keith Pettingale also reported a 10-year survival rate of 75% among cancer patients reacting to the diagnosis with a “fighting spirit,” compared with a 22% survival rate among those who responded with “stoic acceptance” or feelings of helplessness or hopelessness.

Siegel agrees that “patients must be encouraged to express all their angers, resentments, hatreds, and fears. These emotions are signs that we care to the utmost when our lives are threatened. Time after time, research has shown that people who give vent to their negative emotions survive adversity better than those who are emotionally constricted. Unexpressed feelings depress your immune system,” he claims.

The social support provided by family members helps cancer patients strengthen their immune system while undergoing treatment. In a study of cancer patients between the ages of 25 and 70, reported by Levy in the January/February 1985 issue of Psychosomatic Medicine , patients receiving high emotional support from a spouse or an intimate other had higher levels of natural killer (NK) cell activity. Perceived support from the patient's physician, and actively seeking social support as a major copying strategy, also increased NK activity.

Dr. Keith Block's Integrated Cancer Therapy.     Dr. Keith Block of Evanston, Illinois, has developed a multifaceted cancer care program at Edgewater Medical Center in Chicago. The therapy, described in a November 1988 monograph prepared by Block for the Office of Technology Assessment (which was updated in 1990), is based on medical caritas , from the Latin meaning “compassionate caring for others.” He says, “at the heart of the model is a carefully developed, very special doctor-patient relationship. The primary care physician seeks not only to understand and treat the patient's illness, but also to identify the patient's psychological, biomechanical, nutritional and physiological resources. In addition, the physician functions as a coordinator of medical care for patients.”

Block's program is based on using the most effective, least invasive procedures first, before adopting more invasive prodcedures as, and if, they become necessary. He also uses innovative diagnostic and therapeutic tools which are noninvasive or low-invasive. One of Block's fundamental premises is that his model of compassionate caring focuses not only on the diagnosis of a physical disease, such as cancer, but also “on a deep understanding of that patient's total psychosocial-cultural gestalt. Without a clear recognition of what is deeply important to the patient–e.g., prestige, libido, safety needs, control issues–the physician may propose a treatment that the patient cannot psychologically, culturally or socially accept. As many physicians have found to their dismay, treatment urged on a frightened or unwilling paient often compounds the problem rather than alleviating it.”

Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth and proliferation. The holistic approach focuses on prevention, early detection, and treatment with a variety of therapies which restrengthen the immune system to stabilize malignant tumor cells and eliminate them from the body.

Human healing systems are both complex and varied, and the most effective treatments combine nutritional vitamin and mineral supplements, botanicals, and psychoimmunological therapies. The optimal therapeutic strategy will vary from patient to patient and from therapist to therapist.

Both holistic and conventional therapies, when given sufficient time to work, have helped people become healthier cancer patients–physically, emotionally, and mentally. Healthier cancer patients often do better with conventional therapies because their outlook makes them more resilient to both treatment and in some instances to the disease itself. Holistic approaches to cancer can make an enormous difference in life extension. The holistic psychoimmunological therapies developed by Siegel and others can help cancer patients achieve physical recovery. Conversely, long-term chronic depression, hopelessness, and cynicism tend to diminish resilience and increase physical vulnerability.

In summarizing the factors that lead to the onset of cancer and the most successful methods of treating it, Siegel concludes in Peace, Love & Healing : “Although there's no question that environment and genes play a significant role in our vulnerability to cancer and other diseases, the emotional environment that we create within our bodies can activate mechanisms of destruction or repair.”