Scientists from the Seattle based Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have stumbled upon a very inconvenient truth.
Chemotherapy is so damaging to the healthy cells surrounding a tumor that it changes their DNA, causing fibroblasts, those cells involved in wound healing and maintaining connective tissue, to produce a molecule called WNT16B that actually encourages prostate tumors to grow and invade neighboring cells.
The researchers also confirmed these findings for breast and ovarian cancer tumors.
The unsettling findings reported by the journal Nature Medicine in August 2012, helps explain why cancer patients sometimes derive little to no benefit from chemo treatments, essentially enduring the worse than death side effects for naught.
Peter Nelson, the study co-author said, “The increase in WNT16B was completely unexpected”.
It also sheds light on why tumors might shrink from an initial round of chemo only to regrow later becoming resistant to further rounds of the devastating treatment. Peter Nelson confirms the eventual resistance tumors develop to chemo adding:
“WNT16B, when secreted, would interact with nearby tumour cells and cause them to grow, invade, and importantly, resist subsequent therapy“.
Professor Fran Balkwill, a UK based expert on the tumor microenvironment commented that these findings are in line with other research which has demonstrated that “cancer treatments don’t just affect cancer cells, but can also target cells in and around tumors”.
Researchers seem unfazed by these disquieting results that, though unexpected, did not seem to give them any pause whatsoever in questioning chemo as a valid tumor treatment for the long term.
Instead, they chose to stick their heads further into the sand suggesting that drugs to inhibit the production of WNT16B were in order for “new and improved” chemo treatments.
If one drug doesn’t work, let’s just add another, then another, then another ….
Apparently, “chemo brain” affects cancer researchers too.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
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My dad would be dead right now if it wasn’t for chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
I understand where you’re coming from, I have relatives that survived treatment and are in “remission”. It seems to work for some. What we can’t know is what would have happened had they taken a different route. We absolutely can’t know that they would be dead! An anti-cancer diet and lifestyle regimen may well have cured them, without the side effects of medicinal treatment.
I agree.
Inspirational lecture by a father who brought his son back from a deadly condition plus debilitating chemo treatments:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6JsCXjS8lg&feature=relmfu
(part one)
The sad thing is radiation and chemotherapy are only temporary fixes if they work at all. And the side effects can be permanent as well.
So what are people with cancer supposed to do?
There are many holistic treatments out there that are helping people beat cancer without the cut, poison, burn approach. I’ve been reading about and have friends with excellent results from German New Medicine. Dr. Tom Cowan MD in San Francisco is an excellent resource as well. He does phone consults too.
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist\’s last post: Researchers Accidentally Discover Chemo Helps Tumors Grow
Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez MD in NYC is another option for a holistic treatment protocol. Long distance treatment but an initial visit to his office would be required i believe. I don’t think he takes folks who have already had chemo though as it messes people up too much.
I read recently a transcript of an interview with Dr. Gonzales at the Healing Cancer Summit and in some cases he suggests they do chemo first for very fast growing tumors to give them time to get in to see him and start treatment. I found this on the Discussing Nourishing Traditions Yahoo Group under “files”, “cancer docs”, “Healing Cancer Summit #1″. His explanation of why cancer tumors form and why his treatment works if a very interesting read!
We know someone that was healed by Dr. Gonzales. Get this: stage IV pancreatic cancer.
Read Suzanne Summer’s book called “Knockout”. She talks about Doctors such as Nicholas Gonzalez, and others. She also provides ways to build your immune system if you already decided to go with chemotherapy. Great read.
This IS disturbing but I am grateful to be a 13 yr survivor of ovarian cancer after receiving my chemo treatments, with lots of prayer from friends and family too. This article does not address what to do in place of the chemo, just scaring the wits out of people who need treatments.
This is what to keep in mind “The unsettling findings reported by the journal Nature Medicine in August 2012, helps explain why cancer patients sometimes derive little to no benefit from chemo treatments, essentially enduring the worse than death side effects for naught.” SOMETIMES is the operative word ….
Sue in CA\’s last post: Re: Halloween borders
What are the alternatives? I have heard off all natural juicing of organic fruits and vegetables?
They say the body can heal itself if it has what it needs. And I’ve considered this and given it a lot of thought…my brother died from cancer…but fasting and juicing, trying to reverse the damage, to me is way better than conventional treatments. I had a dog that had a tumor the size of a grapefruit on her hip and took her off all dog food (high glycemic from grains) and gave her motrin and the tumor went away after the veterinarian told me she wouldn’t make it. Digestion is the most important factor in health, that and blood sugar, imo…and digestion affects the immune system.. Read Gaps Diet
That is the problem with these articles … they create fear and give no alternatives.
I believe that cancers feed off sugar and carbs that turn to sugar. So follow a healthy low carb no/low sugar lifestyle. IMHO juicing has too many sugars in one serving, even tho they are natural ‘healthy’ sugars, the body still perceives them as SUGAR. Many years ago before technology gave us grocery stores, refrigerators etc, people only ate the fruits and vegetables that were in season limiting their intake of these foods.
Cancers do NOT like hot foods, like peppers with capsaicin, hot pepper seeds and that kind of thing. I add crushed red pepper flakes routinely during the day to my foods equaling 1.5 tsps or more, and I use hot pepper sauces.
Obviously, education, research and talking with your doctors will guide you in a direction to follow to avoid cancers.
Sue in CA\’s last post: Re: Recieved Melody’s and Deb’s P Lotto cards Today! Attn: Lynn
The point of this article is to MOTIVATE people to look beyond the cut, poison, burn approach and seek answers elsewhere .. and there are many beneficial protocols that are helping folks tremendously. It is beyond the scope of this article to list them all for the many types of cancer out there. If people choose to do nothing and just be scared by this research, that is too bad. I choose to believe that many will read it and be motivated to look elsewhere for their healing.
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist\’s last post: Researchers Accidentally Discover Chemo Helps Tumors Grow
I agree again !
Sue, all cancer protocol diets call for you to juice your VEGGIES and eat your fruit (in moderation), There’s not a single, reputable cancer diet that calls for you to juice the fruit.
Another important fact is to NOT eat regular grocery store meat. It MUST be truly pastured, healthy animal meat and even then, for cancer, in moderation as it uses up an enormous amount of digestive enzymes to break it down. These enzymes are critical to help fight the cancer. That’s why many of these cancer diets recommend a vegan diet to start and adding milk, but only raw, and pastured eggs later.
Turmeric is also a fantastic spice to add as it helps with cancer cell apoptosis (cell death) and has wonderful antioxident value.
Sorry, I disagree. Not all cancer protocols call for you to juice. There are far too many protocols to be listed here. Personally, juicing would never be a fundamental part of my personal approach.
@ Joanie: I agree. I would never use juices as a protocol either. Neither would I use flax seeds since they are mostly rancid from the get-go, unless they’re beyond fresh. Never buy pre-ground flax seeds, for sure, but I try to avoid flax in any form – rancidity being key to the reason why.. I use chia seeds – much more stable. I use them because I like them and they have health benefits. I don’t have cancer, I have an auto-immune condition which I’ve managed to treat nutritionally for the past 10 years with pretty decent success. Juices were never a part of the protocol I’ve been using, except I do occasionally make myself a carrot juice and fresh, raw cream cocktail with a little sea salt in it, as mentioned in Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions Cookbook. It is just delicious and is good for my eyes and a whole bunch of other things!
I wanted to suggest to anyone interested in alternative therapies to read Suzanne Somers’ book “Knockout.” If you haven’t read any of her books, you are in for a real treat. She is well informed and is well connected in the medical community. Don’t picture her as the ding-dong form “Three’s Company.” I put off reading her books because of this pre-conceived notion and by a few pages in, I was hooked. I’ve read all of her health books.
Anyway, in “Knockout” she interviews several doctors who are using alternative treatments quite successfully. It is loaded with info. But one thing comes to mind from all of her books and quoted by many docs that she has interviewed: Curcumin (turmeric). It is a critical cancer fighter. One doc (although I don’t remember which book of hers I read it from) said he believed we could fight off all cancer if we were allowed to give IV’s of curcumin instead of chemo. Of course that will never happen because they can’t make money off of it. We take it daily at my house. Whether you know someone with cancer or not, you should have this book on hand for if the time comes.
I have, in reference to sarah’s post today, heard many. many times people say, “It was the chemo that killed my dad, mom, sister, cousin, whatever.” After watching “Cut, Poison, Burn” and reading Suzane’s books, I feel that just may be true.
The platinum IV chemo saved my dad, but the oral chemo the idiot dr. put him on after all signs disappeared except for a shadow in the liver is what killed him.
What a lot of people don’t realize is that drugs like methotrexate are nothing more than chemotherapy in a pill. So even if they’re not actively using IV Chemotherapy agents, it doesn’t mean they aren’t still using them in some form if they are taking other drugs. I’ve lost two sisters to the system in the past six years and they both died of brain tumors after having been on a regimine of methotrexate, prednisone, humira, nexium (for the related digestive issues) and a host of other drugs over the years. But enormously profitable drugs seem to be all doctors have to offer, because they understand nothing at all about nutrition and the benefits proper eating, as well as a modified exercise program, can have on illnesses and cancers. And just because chemo is starting to lose face with the public (who, really, can only be fooled for about so long) that doesn’t mean the medical industry will put it to bed – EVER. “Modern” cancer therapies like chemo, radiation and surgeries will someday be regarded with the same type of horror as bloodletting from days past. Ignorance plays a big role in unnecessary treatments of cancer (and many other diseases for that matter) – and I don’t mean ignorance on the part of the patient.
D – so sorry to hear about your sisters. One of mine is on the same regime for an auto-immune illness. I think this is her third year. If I ever mention any alternatives, she and her husband respond how dare I think I know better than the Drs. at their big university hospital.
How long did your sisters do their treatments and how long did it take until the tumors
showed up?
@ Helen: One sister died in 2006 after having been diagnosed with RA in 1998, and the other one died just in January of this year (2012) only having been diagnosed in 2010. The one who died in 2006 was just 60 y/o and the one who died this year had turned 69 in December of 2011. Both of them were pretty much on the same medications at some point so I am almost positive those drugs did much more harm than good. The sister who died in 2006 wasn’t interested in ANYTHING alternative (she wouldn’t even try celery seed tea for a diuretic and certainly wouldn’t think of using fish oil or turmeric), and my older sister was interested, but there just wasn’t time to help her too much because she didn’t even tell me about all of this right away (she was a very private person) and also she lived 1,600 miles away from me. She was in the hospital for a hysterectomy (of which I heartily disapproved and tried to convince her was not necessary because she did not have cancer) and after that things went right down hill. They each died within days of their doctors telling the families about the tumors, although I don’t know how long the doctors actually realized the tumors were present. But it couldn’t have been long, maybe talking in terms of days, not weeks – and certainly not months. Time grew short in a hurry.
D – I really appreciate you responding: thanks…..and I’m so sorry for your losses.
My sister has : Dermatomyositis (DM) is a connective-tissue disease related to polymyositis (PM) that is characterized by inflammation of the muscles and the skin. While DM most frequently affects the skin and muscles, it is a systemic disorder that may also affect the joints, the esophagus, the lungs, and, less commonly, the heart.
(from Wikipedia)
So few people are diagnosed with this a year, she was called in more than once at the Barnes teaching hospital in St. Louis where she is also being treated as a teaching patient.
She also saw a top specialist in Pittsburgh for the myositis diseases (more than one kind). Her drug protocol sounds EXACTLY like your sisters’.
There is a doctor that Mercola recommends for this: Dr. Burt Berkson in New Mexico.
His protocol includes low dose Naltrexone and alpha limpoic acid. You’re suppose to
start seeing an improvement in two months. The # of times I’ve run this by my sister – with no interest at all, even though Dr. Berkson lectures at USC! Why is it that people can’t think outside the box? They go FIRST for the most deadly and harmful therapies instead of last!
@ Helen T: Sounds like your sister has a combo of scleroderma and sarcoiditis, which is probably exactly what she has and they had to call it something else! If I were you, and this is just my opinion after doing a bunch of research on this type of stuff, I would encourage your sister to place herself as far away from a teaching hospital situation as possible. And I’m as serious as a heart attack about that. Conventional thinking tells us that a teaching hospital is wonderful. Not so. If you want your sister to be treated like a lab experiment, then a teaching hospital is designed specifically for her. Otherwise, no. Infection rates at teaching hospitals are ginormous. This is just a HUGE subject (too big to go into here) but either do some online research about it (don’t take advice from dot gov sites or wiki sites or dot edu sites, as a rule) or head to the local library and read about it. If I remember correctly, Dr. Robert Mendelsohn had a section in one of his books about teaching situations – he highly DIDN’T recommend it for reasons seen by a doctor. I highly don’t recommend it because of reasons seen by me – and a bit of research! I don’t know anything about this Dr. Berkson you mentioned (I don’t read much at Mercola these days) but maybe he’s utilizing your sister in a different way. And maybe she’s not actually a “patient” admitted there, just seen as an out-patient? That might make some difference. But I’d sure look into that if you really want to help her from a critical standpoint. Does he perform integrative medicine procedures?
I tried Naltrexone and noticed nothing at all. But other people are getting results with it, from what I understand. Also, did you mean ALA (Alpha lipoic acid)? ALA is wonderful stuff, as is the turmeric I suggested. I buy loose turmeric at my health food store (organic) and put it into capsules myself. I take it along with D3 and Vitamin K every single day. I use a few other things too, but it’s too complicated, again, to go into here. I wish there was some way I could let you know my email address without having to post it publicly. I don’t do facebook (not in this lifetime!). We could discuss this further without having to tie up Sarah’s forum! Oh well.
I’m done with bringing up anything with her, her huband or children. For them, things one reads on the net have no credibility. Frankly, it’s not pretty when I do, so I’m backing off. She had the biopsy for the muscle problem: there’s a host of myositis conditions. It came back positive. I’ll look up the conditions you listed.
Dr. Berkson combines the two: Naltrexone with ALA. Dr. Berkson has a website and is also featured on Mercola’s site, interviews, etc.
And, good luck with your health and path you’re taking & thanks for your responses.
@ Helen T.
You’re welcome and I wish your sister good luck.
Actually, I don’t remember where, but I know that I read probably 15 years ago that chemo damages the enzyme that the body naturally produces to shrink tumors which leads to the tumors exploding in growth shortly after chemo finishes.
So this is not new information, researchers have known about the negative effects of chemo for many years. “Accidentally” discovered it? Either these researchers are more uneducated and intellectually isolated than one can believe – or they simply recognize that the plug will get pulled on their funding if they don’t pretend it was an accidental discovery and profess that the solution will be more chemo.
@ Joanie: Turmeric is one of the best tumor shrinkers around! It has a reputation of being able to shrink tumors quickly, too. This is kind of a funky web site, but his information, although brief, is good. I think Dr. Mercola had a segment on Turmeric shrinking tumors, as well as GreenMedInfo.com (Sayer Ji) but I can’t find either of them right off hand.
Medicine, in general, has known about the uselessness of chemo, not to mention the dangers, for a long long long time. I always wonder why, after 60+ years of “research” from our medical industry, they have only produced three items – which they seem reluctant to give up – and that is chemo, radiation or surgery. That’s it – after all the research money they’ve had at their disposal in 60 years??? No. We need to find our own answers because the medical industry wouldn’t dare find an answer, and doesn’t want anyone else to either, as can be witnessed by the treatment afforded to Dr. Stanislaw Brazinsky (sp?) and his son for their efforts with their Houston, TX clinic and their work with antineoplastons. Shameful behavior on the part of our medical industrial complex towards these men, which only goes to show the AMA, the ACA and all the other cancer related folks don’t WANT an answer. Their profits go out the door if an answer is found.
@ Joanie: Oops – I forgot to add the link to the web site I referred to in my post above. Sorry!
http://newresearchfindingstwo.blogspot.com/2011/10/october-31-2011-tumeric-and-brain.html
A friend of mine was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year. She is not yet 30.
She chose to avoid chemo and radiation at all costs. Enough that she chose a double mastectomy to remove ALL possible cancer cells, and then began taking fish oil, flax seed oil, cottage cheese (from the Budwig Diet), low-grain diet, and pretty much every other natural treatment she could find.
She’s recovering well and has less than a 7% chance of recurrence at this time.
There ARE other ways. And frankly if you or a family member have been diagnosed with cancer, you can’t afford NOT to look into every possible treatment avenue. Chemo is “standard” but more and more evidence is coming out that it isn’t often the best option. It kills as many people as it “saves,” if not more; it also causes more cancer down the road, which is resistant to drugs (as noted above). It may seem scary to walk away from conventional treatments but you have to break out of the mindset that doctors know everything and that their way is the best or only way. Simply false.
Kate @ Modern Alternative Mama\’s last post: Improve Your Mental Health – Declutter
Let’s make one thing perfectly clear, conventional (western) medicine does an outstanding job with medical emergencies. When it comes to trauma and (extreme) life-saving intervention techniques or surgical procedures – modern medicine is often times heroic. But, many health experts would agree, when it comes to the treatment of cancer (and other chronic illnesses) conventional medicine has proven to be inadequate. chemotherapy is medical fraud. Rather than boosting the immune
response of patients, it harms the immune system, causing tumors to
grow back.
Ohhhh Dave I like how you put this ! So true!
This article is very interesting. As a nurse, I’ve seen patients die from chemotherapy and radiation side effects. I know it’s super hard on the body because it kills off not only the cancer cells but also the good cells.
Since then, I’ve completely changed my mind about holistic treatment. There are alternative treatments out there! You just have to find it.
Here’s a story that I have to share:
My friend’s grandma had stage I liver cancer. She’s in her 80s and was not a candidate for chemotherapy or radiation. She turned to alternative therapy. She started taking supplement that causes apotosis (programmed cell death). These supplement were able to selectively target unhealthy cells (in this case cancer cells) and cause their cell death and leave the healthy cells alone. Every time she went back to the doctor office, her liver enzyme kept going down. Today, she is cancer free.
This is just awesome!
Angel, do you know what supplements she took?
Yes, I asked my friend for the list. Feel free to email me at
(take out all the 4 in the following email to get my actual email, I did this so that I don’t get random spams)
angel4star4tenshi4@gmail.com
@ SoCalGT: I’m not Angel but here are some suggestions for foods/supplements which cause apoptosis, if that’s what you were interested in knowing.
Blueberries, blackberries, prunes, purple grapes
Omega 3′s (from fish and chia seeds, etc.)
Carrots
Green Tea
Turmeric
Citrus fruits (particularly oranges)
Basically, antioxidants and polyphenols are what help to cause the apoptosis come into play.
Thank you D!
Edward Howell, MD wrote “Enzyme Nutrition” and made a strong case for the use of food enzymes to heal chronic diseases like cancer. The best source of food enzymes are raw *animal* proteins and fats. (Raw plant foods do contain enzymes but not as rich in quality or quantity as animal foods.). In particular, raw organ meats are especially a rich source of enzymes, especially raw liver and raw pancreas.
“Enzyme Nutrition” is a good adjunct to Weston A. Price’s “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration”. They both use anthropological evidence to support their nutrition claims.
My sentiments exactly: ooops!
Very interesting read!
I’d wager that this is just a minor setback for the cancer industry. They will cover their mess as usual.
Yeah, by not telling the news media!
The mainstream news media, I meant to say.
Wow
Sarah have you heard of the book The Germ That Causes Cancer by Doug Kaufmann? He has a show called Know The Cause on TV…fascinating! He believes a lot of modern diseases are fungal/mycotoxin based and medical schools don’t teach mycology! He has a diet protocol and supplements to follow but he’s very WAP friendly, recommends grass fed meats, coconut oil, organic veggies.
Another really good book is: Cancr is Not a Disease It’s a Survival Mechanism by Andreas Moritz. I just finished it. It gives a very different view of cancer that really makes sense, Ans he tells how to correct the problem that caused it in the first place. A very interesting read and it gives control to the people. We can beat it and we don’t need “medical professionals” to tell us what to do. We have the control. WE CAN HEAL OURSELVES!
Thanks for the info!
Wow…. just say NO to DRUGS!
had to share, I have been saying this for years, no one listens
I am sharing this article.
I am desperately trying to help a family in Chicago find a lawyer. The Jay Mathew’s family experienced the medical kidnapping of their 8 year old daughter, Selena. They got bullied from he get-go for trying alternative therapies first. They went in to the ER for some unusual swelling and wound up losing custody of their daughter from DCFS and forced chemo has begun. The details are even worse. The Dad is a pharmacist and read on the package inserts that NOT ONE of the agents in chemo they are using on his daughter is APPROVED for use in pediatrics by the FDA. Of course, yes, chemo causes more illness…always.
That is just tragic. There must be plenty of lawyers in Chicago. Maybe they could talk to the WAPF chapter leaders in the area and poll their members for suggestions?
Jeanmarie\’s last post: National Heirloom Exhibition
Many drugs used in pediatrics are used off label because adult trials of the size the FDA wants are much easier to conduct. Just because a drug lacks an FDA indication for pediatric use does not mean that the physician is acting inappropriately. They are probably following the protocol from a smaller study published in a specialized journal.
Not surprised at all
If they get a good lawyer, he can use this new information to fight for them. Isn’t there a Cancer treatment Center of America out there? They use alternative therapies…
Chemo originated from the toxic mustard gas used in the WWl and was discovered to be useful in shrinking tumors around the 1950s. However, researchers knew that it was all a fraud due to the way chemo destroyed the immune system and actually made later tumors worst. While there have been people “cured” by chemo, but you rarely hear the other side of the story where it only came back worst than before and the deadly side affects affect quality of life forever. Read “Questioning Chemotherapy” by Ralph W. Moss PhD. He’s a pioneer in investigating alternative cancer treatments.
There is a new book out called “The Cancer Killers the cause is the cure” written by Dr. Charles Majors and Ben Lerner. It is a MUST read for everyone. It explains what cancer REALLY is and how you can cure it naturally even providing protocals and successful treatment center options.It also talks about PREVENTION and how not to get cancer. Dr. Majors gives his account of being diagnosed with weeks to live to cured and in remission. It absolutely can be done without “cut, poison, burn”
they knew all along I’m sure!!
Oh that must have been a surprise!!! Not!
This is an interesting take on the world of chemotherapy and why it’s such a fraud.
http://www.mnwelldir.org/docs/fraud/chemo.htm
So true; glad I did all alternatives to heal my cancer naturally.
Cancer treatments are not evaluated by WNT16B levels at the end of therapy. They are evaluated by how swiftly the cancer progresses, and survival. I don’t know about you, but I know which one I’d care about as a patient.
This info is nice to have and will hopefully lead to improved therapies and outcomes, but it does not negate the fact that people can live longer on chemotherapy. That’s not to say that all chemotherapy is worth doing. Living longer on a poison IV is not always better than a shorter life without it. Unfortunately, some drugs will be approved by extending life my a few months, but there are certainly some that can make a difference of years or decades.
And cancer is, what – - – just a quaint side effect of chemo?
Other than insulin, I cannot think of another drug which is “necessary” to extend life. Not. Even. One.
There are plenty. Consider cystic fibrosis patients. What has medicine done for them? from cff.org:
“In 2009, the median predicted age of survival was in the mid-30s. The median predicted age of survival is the age by which half of the current CF Patient Registry population would be expected to survive, given the ages of the patients in the registry and the distribution of deaths in 2009.
The steady rise of the median predicted age of survival suggests how improvements in treatment and care are advancing the lives of those with CF. In 1955, children with CF were not expected to live long enough to attend grade school. Today, thanks to continued Foundation-supported research and specialized care, an increasing number of people with cystic fibrosis are living into adulthood and leading healthier lives that include careers, marriage and families of their own.”
I’m curious if to know if you actually read the Nature article as you provided pulls up the abstract onlyh – you must either subscribe to the journal or purchase the article to read it. The other article you linked did not review the study design at all (ie patient numbers, treatment type, etc.) I reviewed the tables and listings for the Nature article (these are available at no cost) and it appears that this was primarily an animal study, specifically mice. With only the little information I was able to find (via your links) I would be very hesitant to conclude that this applies to humans as well. Did you read the full Nature article or merely the abstract?
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