Do alternative medicine really work?
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"Ben" benjamin....@rogers.com
Hello all, When my mom was sick, she was using a combination of western medicine and alternative medicine.
My mother saw a doctor who practised chinese medicine. He really hated western medicine(chemo, radiation therapy) he denouced western doctors and talked about how he could cure my mom. He charged insane prices, just to visit him for one session including the medicine we bought from him cost about $300 CDN a visit. My mother really believed in him, that doctor told my mom about how he cured a patient who was sufferring from leukemia, he even brought the patient in so we can meet her, then we find out the reason why she has been living for 10 years after being diagnosed is because she has Chronic leukemia my mother was suffering from Acute which is different.
Even then you can't ***ume what one treatment will work for someone is not going to have the same effect for someone else. What i want to know is that has there ever been any documented case where alternative works? and if so was it wise to let my mother used both methods western and alternative.
"Sharon" m...@privacy.net
I just wanted to add a personal comment here. I don't know about your Mom, but I make my own health related decisions. Not that I do not appreciate my son's interest in what is going on in my life. Your Mom made decisions based on her own needs, at the time.
I made all of my decisions on my cancer treatments. Along with that decision making process, I took responsibility for the fact that I was making choices that would affect the rest of my life. That is part of being a cancer patients. You get to make the tough decisions.
--
Take Care, Sharon Lane http://www.rare-cancer.org
J JawH...@example.org
Ben, the short answer is "no". If alternative medicines "worked" (as in "cure" or "remissions"), people could self-treat and oncologists could easily find other careers that paid them just as much or more. If you'd found this newsgroup earlier, we would have told you that. However, there's no certainty that your mother would have believed any of us. So there's little point in looking back or feeling guilty. When there's a loss of a loved one, many of us have regrets enough.
And there's too many possible combinations of ingredients in Chinese medicine to even begin to sort out whether taking them would have interfered with her treatments (or not). That would have been up to her to tell her treating doctors and ask them.
AML seems to be a very tough disease to fight. (based on other patients here last year).
http://www.cancer.gov/cancerinfo/pdq/treatment/adultAML/healthprofess... Approximately 60% to 70% of adults with AML can be expected to attain complete remission status following appropriate induction therapy. More than 15% of adults with AML (about 25% of those who attain complete remission) can be expected to survive 3 or more years and may be cured. [] There's also other factors http://www.cancer.gov/cancerinfo/pdq/treatment/adultAML Certain factors affect prognosis (chance of recovery) and treatment options.
The prognosis (chance of recovery) and treatment options depend on: The age of the patient.
The subtype of AML.
Whether the patient received chemotherapy in the past to treat a different cancer.
Whether there is a history of a blood disorder such as myelodysplastic syndrome.
Whether the cancer has spread to the central nervous system.
Whether the cancer has been treated before or recurred (come back).[end copied text] The outcome may have been the same, so don't be "beating yourself" (second-guessing yourself) over this, ok?
J
sph ...@TheWorld.com (SPHINX Technologies)
Ben, You can get some relatively authoritative information on alternative cancer therapies at the US National Institute of Health's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, at http://nccam.nih.gov There is at least one cancer remedy from traditional Chinese medicine that has been reported in peer-reviewed journal articles to have merit, namele PC-spes. As I recall it was found useful against prostate cancer, but my memory is a bit hazy on it so that may not be correct.
Also, it was reported in a recent PBS Nova program on prostate cancer that M D Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston, TX, which is a highly reputable mainstream oncology center, has an alternative medicine group which among other things sometimes recommends to its oncology patients the use of a vegetarian diet, basically the Gerson diet from the sound of it. One patient interviewed in the program reported that his PSA test score dropped from 15 to 7.5 after 3 months on this dietary regimen. Another patient reported no noticeable effect. However, just as with weight-loss diets, one has to consider the possibility that one patient was more strict with the dietary rules than the other.
The fact that MD Anderson recommends this diet to some patients suggests that they must think it has some merit. Personally I find it not unreasonable to think that if the very mainstream advice to eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables is now widely believed to be helpful in preventing cancer, just maybe taking it further and going on an all-out vegetarian diet might have some further effect, and might actually cause cancer to regress in some cases. However, that is conjecture on my part, only somewhat reinforced by the many reported cases in which that seems to have happened.
I would think that research into this possibility is warranted, but clearly such research will not be appealing to the pharmaceutical industry but must be funded by government agencies like the NCCAM.
In general it seems to me that more experimentation by cancer patients, when and where it does not seem risky for them to experiment, will generally result in the accumulation of more knowledge about what works and what does not. The dietary therapy counseling at Anderson is an excellent example.
-John S., Wellesley Hills, MA USA In article <gM00c.39460$ah.13...@twister01.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com>, In article <gM00c.39460$ah.13...@twister01.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com>,
J BirdOnAW...@example.org
ben's mother did not have prostate cancer - hormone-driven cancer She had leukemia J http://tinyurl.com/3eo63 American Cancer Society - "take another look" PC-SPES Other common name(s): None Scientific/medical name(s): None PC-SPES has been pulled from the market as of February, 2002 . The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a warning to stop using this product. This is because PC-SPES capsules have been found to contain other prescription drugs that could cause serious health problems.
DESCRIPTION PC-SPES is a formula consisting of a combination of eight herbs which contain a range of plant chemicals including flavonoids, alkanoids, polysaccharides, amino acids, and trace minerals such as selenium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, and copper (see Calcium, Copper, Selenium, and Zinc). The herbs include chrysanthemum, isatis, licorice, Ganoderma lucidum, Panax pseudo-ginseng, Rabdosia rubescens, saw palmetto, and skullcap (see Licorice and Saw Palmetto). "PC" stands for prostate cancer; "SPES" is the Latin word for hope.
OVERVIEW Recent studies have found that PC-SPES shows promise with patients whose cancer did not respond to conventional hormone therapy. Common side effects include breast enlargement and tenderness, hot flashes, and decreased libido. More research is needed to determine whether PC-SPES is an effective and safe treatment for prostate cancer.
How is it promoted for use?
PC-SPES is promoted primarily as a treatment for prostate cancer. Proponents claim that the herbal preparation may prevent or delay there recurrence of prostate cancer, inhibit the growth of prostate tumors, lengthen the survival time of prostate cancer patients, improve the effectiveness of conventional treatments, and delay the use of chemotherapy. Some also state that PC-SPES stimulates the immune system, prevents benign prostatic hyperplasia (enlargement of the prostate gland), neutralizes blood toxins, suppresses cancer-causing genes, reduces inflammation, and has antioxidant qualities.
What does it involve?
PC-SPES comes in capsules and is taken daily, in varying dosages. It is available in health food stores, from some nutritionists, and directly from manufacturers.
One study found that the potency of PC-SPES varies widely from batch to batch, so it can be difficult to know if the formula contains the correct amount of active ingredients.
What is the history behind it?
PC-SPES was developed in the early 1990s by a chemist named Sophie Chen, PhD, who claimed to have developed the formula by integrating modern science and ancient Chinese herbal wisdom (see Chinese Herbal Medicine). By the mid 1990s, the formula became widely promoted in the United States and was named PC-SPES.
What is the evidence?
PC-SPES shows some promise as a treatment for prostate cancer, but more research is needed before firm conclusions can be reached. Some investigators have found that PC-SPES lowers the level of prostate specific antigen (PSA), a protein secreted by cancerous prostate cells. A small study involving use of PC-SPES for at least 3 months in 9 patients with prostate cancer found that 5 of them responded to treatment as measured by an average decline in PSA levels of 62%. A decrease in PSA production often means that a prostate tumor is shrinking, but the study did not show that PC-SPES reduced tumor size or slowed the rate at which tumors spread. The study concluded that PC-SPES may prove to be useful in treating hormonally sensitive prostate cancer; but when used with conventional treatments, it may have mixed results.
Animal and laboratory studies have reported that PC-SPES had positive effects. A recent animal study found that PC-SPES reduced tumor incidence, rate of tumor growth, and metastasis. In one laboratory study, scientists found that PC-SPES appeared to inhibit the growth of certain types of prostate cancer cells, but concluded more research is necessary to evaluate the long-term effects. Animal and laboratory studies may show a certain remedy holds promise as a beneficial treatment, but further studies are necessary to determine if the results apply to humans.
Are there any possible problems or complications?
PC-SPES shows some promise as a treatment for prostate cancer, but more research, which is currently underway, is needed before firm conclusions can be reached.
Some recent clinical trials have found that PC-SPES may prove to be useful in treating prostate cancer when the disease does not respond to conventional hormone therapy. For patients who do respond to conventional hormone therapy, PC-SPES does not currently appear to offer any advantages. For example, it is not appropriate for men with early-stage prostate cancer who can be treated with surgery or radiation therapy.
Side effects ***ociated with the use of PC-SPES can be troubling. A recent laboratory study found that PC-SPES contains compounds that act like estrogen in the body. Such estrogen compounds can cause increased breast size and nipple tenderness in men taking PC-SPES. The estrogenic activity of PC-SPES appears to interfere with male hormones by lowering testosterone levels, which can reduce sex drive (libido). There is also an increased risk of developing blood clots, which are potentially fatal.
References De La Taille A, Hayek OR, Buttyan R, Bagiella E, Burchardt M, Katz AE. Effects of phytotherapeutic agent, PC-SPES, on prostate cancer: a preliminary investigation on human cell lines and patients. BJU Int. 1999;84:845-850.
DiPaola RS, Zhang H, Lambert GH, et al. Clinical and biologic activity of an estrogenic herbal combination (PC-SPES) in prostate cancer. N Engl J Med.
1998;339:785-791.
Hsieh T, Chen SS, Wang X, Wu JM. Regulation of androgen receptor (AR) and prostate specific antigen (PSA) expression in the androgen-responsive human prostate LNCaP cells by ethanolic extracts of the Chinese herbal preparation, PC-SPES. Biochem Mol Biol Int. 1997;42:535-544.
Tiwari RK, Geliebter J, Garikapaty VP, Yedavelli SP, Chen S, Mittelman A.
Anti-tumor effects of PC-SPES, an herbal formulation in prostate cancer. Int J Oncol. 1999;14:713-719.
Note: This information was reprinted from the American Cancer Society's Guide to Complementary and Alternative Methods. Copyright(c)2000, American Cancer Society.
This information may not cover all possible claims, uses, actions, precautions, side effects or interactions, is not intended as medical advice, and should not be relied upon as a substitute for consultation with your doctor who is familiar with your medical needs.
freight ...@aol.com (FreightMag)
Please read our story at...
www.cancerarmy.org God Bless You Ron
J UrsusArc...@invalid.nul
I did. She had surgery and chemo J
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