A new study has found that women recovering from breast cancer stand an increased risk of recurrence even after five years of post-surgery chemotherapy and hormone treatment. The study, out of the Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, followed 2,838 women who were cancer-free after undergoing surgery and radiation and who underwent up to five years of additional chemo and treatment with tamoxifen thereafter to avoid a recurrence. Unfortunately, within ten years of completing the additional treatment, one out of five of the women experienced a return of the cancer.
The research team concluded that new treatment options are necessary beyond the five- year window. As Dr. Abenaa M. Brewster, one of the study authors, said, “[These numbers] highlight the need for new [therapeutic] options for women who have completed five years of treatment.”
Oh, really?
The news here is that this study made news at all. It makes perfect sense that five years of chemo debilitates a body enough to make it ripe for a return of cancer. After all, chemotherapy drugs are known carcinogens. While they might target and kill a particular cancer, they simultaneously increase the odds of getting another cancer later on. For instance, research shows that tamoxifen, which had been commonly prescribed to breast cancer patients during the years of this study, promotes liver, endometrial, and uterine cancers, as well as blood clots in the lungs, deep vein thrombosis, vision loss, memory loss and “brain fog,” and osteoporosis. While tamoxifen largely has been replaced these days with a new class of estrogen-inhibiting drugs known as aromatase inhibitors, these drugs also have toxic effects (notably severe joint pain and bone loss) so significant as to cause 30 percent of women who start treatment to discontinue it.
As I made clear in “Chemotherapy, an Interesting Choice,” chemotherapy works by poisoning rapidly dividing cells. The theory is that cancer cells divide more quickly than other cells and so the chemo drugs will target them, but in fact, chemo drugs also destroy other healthy, dividing cells while they’re on a killing spree. Certain fast-dividing immune system cells are particularly vulnerable, as well as blood-producing bone marrow cells, cells in the digestive tract, and hair follicle cells — which is why hair falls out during chemo treatment. As the chemo drug kills healthy cells, you become more and more debilitated. In other words, the cells needed to maintain healthy functioning and to ward off disease are compromised and destroyed, and your system is set up perfectly for developing new cancers and other diseases — again, in addition to the fact that chemotherapy drugs are known carcinogens.
I’m not saying that chemotherapy is never warranted. In a small percentage of cases, chemotherapy absolutely can help — which is not to say that other approaches wouldn’t work as well, or better. In fact, the benefits of chemo vary widely from cancer to cancer — sometimes improving “short-term” survivability by as much as 50%; but also, in many cases, by 1% or less. For example, the statistical chances of chemotherapy being helpful with lung cancer are less than one in 100, and yet doctors often pressure their patients into utilizing what is in this case a non-effective and debilitating treatment. And on top of everything else, the success rate for chemotherapy is highly age dependent. It is much more likely to be effective with the young who have strong immune systems, dropping to about 50/50 by age 50. And by 50/50, I don’t mean that it’s effective 50% of the time, but rather that it’s a 50/50 call as to whether doing chemo or nothing at all is the better option in terms of survivability. And by age 55, you’re statistically better off doing nothing rather than subjecting yourself to chemo. And once again, we’re only talking short term survivability here. Long term, even for the very young, chemo has significant consequences — 1, 2.
Even more importantly, whatever else you can say about chemotherapy, no one can claim it addresses the underlying cause of cancer. It merely attacks symptoms. No one, not even the most jaded doctors in the world, claim that people get cancer because they’re suffering from a chemotherapy deficiency. Is it any wonder, then, that cancer returns after chemotherapy? It does nothing to address the cause of the initial cancer, it debilitates the body, and it’s a known carcinogen promoting the growth of future cancers.
The only remarkable thing about the study in question is that doctors seem surprised by the results.
:hc
Hi Jon, longtime reader here. Someone close to me has been dx with Stage 3 Malignant Melanoma, and we have NO idea what to do. Everything contradicts everything, it seems! His doctors told him he has two choices – ALL or NOTHING. Sit back and wait, see if the cancer spreads, or go whole hog with chemo, radiation, etc.
Can you recommend some sites that objectively present cancer treatment options? He’s had the mole removed, and several lymphnodes at the same time.
Thanks for your time.
Hi,
Interesting article. Its really sad that more doctors don’t educate their patients of the effects of chemo, and promote natural alternatives. There “”are”” other methods available to attack cancer, methods that western medicine often reject, it seems, because it threatens their multi trillion dollar industry.
Hi Jon.
The reason the ‘fight’ on breast cancer, or ANY other cancer is not being won is, that it is a Significant Biological Special PROGRAM of Nature, initiated by ones psyche, impacting on the brain (which is verifiable by a CT-scan of the brain) and manifested on the organ level, to help improve a perceived condition of threat to life and limb! As such, the PROGRAM is continuing to run, as long as the CAUSE has not been resolved. Please go to: http://germannewmedicine.ca/documents/sbsintro.html . and click on ‘Breast SBS’, and while you are at it, on all the other SBSs!
Please educate yourself, lest you continue to make a fool of yourself, when it comes to discussing ‘cancer’!
Good Day!
Harald Tilgner, Chilliwack, BC, Canada.
I have a 5 year old who was diagnosed with Stage 4 Neuroblastoma at age 3. She has completed some of the most strenuous chemotherapies and bone marrow transplant and is well today. Chemotherapy was a significant part of her survival; however our actions as parents and taking control of what the medical community did I believe brought her here today. For example, I delayed each treatment, trusting my gut and not the fear of the medical community, and gave her immune system a chance to recover. I observed that the medical community will make decisions based on fear – of the disease and of their own liability.
A different definition of
A different definition of holistic is that the disease is a result of physical, emotional, spiritual, social and environmental imbalance. Holistic health focuses on all facets of human functioning, which involves us taking responsibility for maintaining all aspect of our well-being.
http://www.holistichealthpractitioners.org/
I admire what you have done
I admire what you have done here. I like the part where you say you are doing this to give back but I would assume by all the comments that this is working for you as well. Thanks
Marijuana: The Forbidden Cure
Marijuana: The Forbidden Cure for Cancer
There are allot of folks out there being cured of cancer, even terminal cancer with marijuana. Skin Cancer, Lung Cancer, Breast Cancer, Prostrate Cancer, Brain Cancer, and others are being cured with a natural marijuana medicine. The website below links into research and video on the subject. There is even a film there on how to make the medicine and even dosages. You can avoid having your body poisoned with Chemotherapy and Radiation. The medicine from marijuana is natural. Check it out for yourself.
http://marijuanaplanet.us/The_Forbidden_Cure_For_Cancer.htm
Another great post, I
Another great post, I appreciate all the work you put into this site, helping out others with your fun and creative works.