ALTERNATIVE CANCER SOLUTION

 Cancer Therapy

Cancer Treatment and Alternative Therapy. The History of Vitamin C
Cancer Treatment at The Institute For Healthy Aging
Protocol for Vitamin C and other antioxidants at the Institute for Healthy Aging
Well documented cases of advanced cancers responding to intravenous vitamin C therapy (in accordance with the National Cancer Institute Best Case Series Guidelines)
Abstract
Intravenous Vitamin D2 Analogue
Hormonal Therapy
Carbogen and Vasodilation Therapy
Oral Supplements that Inhibit Cancer Growth
Mixed Mushroom Extract
Melatonin
Green Tea Extract

 

Cancer Treatment and Alternative Therapy.
The History of Vitamin C
In the 1970s, Linus Pauling and his colleagues administered high dose vitamin C (10 grams per day intravenously, followed by at least 10 grams orally) to terminal cancer patients. This therapy was helpful in increasing survival time and improving quality of life.

Subsequent to Pauling’s studies, two randomized placebo-controlled studies conducted at the Mayo clinic found no differences in outcome between terminal cancer patients receiving 10 grams per day orally or placebo. The obvious difference between the Mayo clinic studies and the Pauling studies, was that The Mayo clinic did not use intravenous vitamin C.

In the 1990s, Hugh Riordan, MD and colleagues demonstrated that most tumor cell types, when exposed to a vitamin C concentration of 400 mg/dl in a culture medium, quickly die, while normal cells remain unaffected. Concentrations such as listed above can only be achieved through intravenous administration.

In August of 2005, Mark Levine, MD and colleagues, from the National Institutes of Health, performed a study similar to that of Hugh Riordan. They took several different cancer cell lines as well as normal cells, and exposed them to vitamin C in a culture medium. Using vitamin C concentrations only achievable through intravenous administration, Dr. Levine found that 5 different cancer cell lines died, while normal cells were unaffected. The mechanism of death to cancer cells was high levels of intracellular hydrogen peroxide which were produced in response to the vitamin C.

Since the 1970s, many cancer patients have been treated with regular infusions of high dose intravenous vitamin C. Some patients have been reported to be cured, while some went on to live many years with their cancer. Unfortunately, there are no large randomized, placebo-controlled, double blind studies with IV vitamin C, as are done with all new FDA approved drugs. Most studies such as these are funded by large pharmaceutical companies. Vitamin C simply has not grabbed the attention of the pharmaceutical industry, because a patent cannot be obtained on vitamins. There is little money to be made from large investments in vitamin research. Many of us are hopeful, however, that the study performed by Dr. Levine with the NIH will inspire a new avenue of research.

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Cancer Treatment at The Institute For Healthy Aging
Is Our Treatment the Only Cancer Therapy You Should Seek?
At the Institute, we insist that all cancer patients receive a traditional cancer evaluation from the oncologists of their choice, prior to our evaluation. There will be times when the patient will best be served receiving chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and antioxidant therapy. It is not our intent to imply that our cancer therapy should function as a replacement for traditional cancer treatment. Rather, our therapy should serve as a complement to conventional therapy. We have found that our adjunctive therapy potentiates the effectiveness of chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy against cancer cells, while diminishing the negative effects to the healthy cells; this tends to result in less unwanted side effects.

Protocol for Vitamin C and other antioxidants at the Institute for Healthy Aging
Most cancer patients will require three intravenous infusions per week, at least for the first 1-2 months. This will require that you have an intravenous line placed (such as a PIC line or central line) that can remain for at least a few months.

Laboratory and imaging studies will have to be performed prior to initiation of therapy, as well as periodically, to follow the progression or regression of disease.

At the Institute, our intravenous infusions consist of not only vitamin C, but also other antioxidants such as intravenous vitamin E, glutathione, and alpha lipoic acid.  These antioxidants work synergistically and increase the effectiveness of vitamin C.  Oral supplementation, especially between infusion days, has been found to be a very helpful adjunct to the intravenous infusions.  The list of oral supplements can be significant and play an important role in successful cancer treatment.

Chemotherapy can be administered locally or through periodic visits to the oncologist of your choice.

Many Oncologists Recommend Avoiding Antioxidants during Chemotherapy or Radiation Therapy – Is there Validity to this Concern?
Radiation and many chemotherapy drugs kill cancer cells (and healthy cells) by causing oxidative stress, or free radicals. Antioxidants support the immune system by reducing free radicals. The concern that antioxidant therapy will undermine the effectiveness of chemo/radiation therapy is based on theory and conjecture rather than evidence. Interestingly, studies that have looked at the combination of therapies (chemotherapy and/or radiation in conjunction with antioxidants) reveal patients’ survival was either the same or better than with traditional therapy alone, yet with less negative side effects. If your oncologist remains concerned regarding combining the two therapies, we would be happy to email him/her the literature.

Well documented cases of advanced cancers responding to intravenous vitamin C therapy
Most cancer patients will require three intravenous infusions per week, at least for the first 1-2 months. This will require that you have an intravenous line placed (such as a PIC line or central line) that can remain for at least a few months.

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Abstract
Early clinical studies showed that high-dose vitamin C, given by intravenous and oral routes, may improve symptoms and prolong life in patients with terminal cancer. Double-blind placebo-controlled studies of oral vitamin C therapy showed no benefit. Recent evidence shows that oral administration of the maximum tolerated dose of vitamin C (18 g/d) produces peak plasma concentrations of only 220 µmol/L, whereas intravenous administration of the same dose produces plasma concentrations about 25-fold higher. Larger doses (50–100 g) given intravenously may result in plasma concentrations of about 14 000 µmol/L. At concentrations above 1000 µmol/L, vitamin C is toxic to some cancer cells but not to normal cells in vitro. We found 3 well-documented cases of advanced cancers, confirmed by histopathologic review, where patients had unexpectedly long survival times after receiving high-dose intravenous vitamin C therapy. We examined clinical details of each case in accordance with National Cancer Institute (NCI) Best Case Series guidelines. Tumour pathology was verified by pathologists at the NCI who were unaware of diagnosis or treatment. In light of recent clinical pharmacokinetic findings and in vitro evidence of anti-tumour mechanisms, these case reports indicate that the role of high-dose intravenous vitamin C therapy in cancer treatment should be reassessed.

Thirty years ago Cameron, Campbell and Pauling reported beneficial effects of high-dose vitamin C (ascorbic acid) therapy for patients with terminal cancer.1–4 Subsequent double-blind, randomized clinical trials at the Mayo Clinic failed to show any benefit,5,6 and the role of vitamin C in cancer treatment was discarded by mainstream oncologists.7,8 Vitamin C continues, however, to be used as an alternative cancer therapy9,10
A key distinction between conventional, science-based medicine and alternative therapy is the presence or absence of scientific plausibility.11In conventional medicine, the efficacy of treatment is proven by properly conducted clinical trials. Many treatments are still used if there is moderately good, albeit inconclusive evidence of efficacy ("clinical plausibility"), especially when treatment rationale agrees with biologic facts (conferring "biological plausibility").11 Vitamin C is an alternative cancer therapy because the results obtained in original studies that suggested clinical benefit were not confirmed by controlled clinical trials, and the notion that high-dose vitamin C was selectively toxic to cancer cells was biologically implausible.

New information is available pertaining to biological plausibility. Although similar doses of vitamin C were used in the Cameron–Pauling and Mayo Clinic studies, the Cameron–Pauling studies combined intravenous and oral administration whereas the Mayo Clinic studies used only oral administration.1,2,12–14 Recent pharmacokinetics modeling15indicates that with oral administration, even very large and frequent doses of vitamin C will increase plasma concentrations only modestly, from 70 µmol/L to a maximum of 220 µmol/L, whereas intravenous administration raises plasma concentrations as high as 14 000 µmol/L. Concentrations of 1000–5000 µmol/L are selectively cytotoxic to tumour cells in vitro,16–20and emerging evidence indicates that ascorbic acid at concentrations achieved only by the intravenous route may function as a pro-drug for hydrogen peroxide delivery to tissues.20 The in vitro biologic evidence and clinical pharmacokinetics data confer biological plausibility to the notion that vitamin C could affect cancer biology and may explain in part the negative results of the Mayo Clinic trials.13,15,21,22 Thus, sufficient evidence has accumulated, not to use vitamin C as cancer treatment, but to further explore the therapeutic concept. One way to increase the clinical plausibility of alternative cancer therapies is rigorous, well-documented case reporting, as laid out in the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) Best Case Series guidelines (http://www3.cancer.gov/occam/bestcase.html).23,24 Such case series might identify alternative therapies that merit further investigation.23,24.

Case reports of apparent responses by malignant disease to intravenous vitamin C therapy have appeared,25–30 including those of 2 of the 3 patients presented below.25,26 However, they were reported without sufficient detail or with incomplete follow-up for evaluation and without conforming to NCI Best Case Series guidelines. They also lacked objective pathologic confirmation, which is a pillar of NCI guidelines. In this article, we use NCI Best Case Series guidelines to report 3 cases of patients with usually progressive malignant disease who received intravenous vitamin C therapy as their only significant cancer therapy and whose clinical courses were unusually favourable. Original diagnostic material obtained before treatment with vitamin C was reviewed by pathologists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) who were unaware of the diagnoses and treatments4.

Patient 1

Patient 2

Patient 3

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Intravenous Vitamin D2 Analogue
At the Institute, at the completion of each antioxidant infusion, we inject a vitamin D2 analogue called “paricalcitol.”
Paricalcitol has been shown to inhibit proliferation of myeloid leukemia, myeloma, and colon cancer cell lines by modulating cell cycle progression, differentiation, and apoptosis, as well as inducing expression of several tumor suppressor genes including PTEN and E-cadherin. Paricalcitol inhibited the in vivo growth of human colon cancer xenografts in nude mice. Tumors in paricalcitol-treated animals were smaller (P=0.03) and weighed less (P<0.001) than tumors in control-treated mice.

In addition, treating prostate cancer cells with paricalcitol made these cells more susceptible to the destructive effects of radiation therapy, without harming normal cells.

Because paricalcitol has very little calcemic activity, it can be given at higher doses than vitamin D3 without toxicity, potentially leading to greater efficacy in the treatment of vitamin D3-sensitive cancers. Research has shown that paricalcitol may be affective for many types of solid tumors; Roswell Park Cancer Institute is currently recruiting patients for enrollment in a clinical trial treating various solid tumors, as well as multiple myeloma with paricalcitol.

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Hormonal Therapy
Mainstream medicine is accustomed to using hormonal therapy primarily to treat hormone receptor positive breast cancer and prostate cancer. At the Institute we use aromatase inhibitors, such as arimidex to treat lung cancer. Aromatase inhibitors inhibit the conversion of testosterone into estrogen. Estrogen has been shown to promote the growth of lung cancers, as revealed in the following article.
Click Here DECEMBER 15, 2005
Breast Cancer Drugs May Slow Growth of Lung Cancer

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Carbogen and Vasodilation Therapy
Carbogen is a mixture of oxygen and carbon dioxide. Many studies have shown that using a mixture of 95% oxygen with 5% carbon dioxide increases the blood flow to tumors, by dilating the tumor vessels. These studies have shown improved tumor uptake of chemotherapy as well as increased tumor responsiveness to radiation therapy while having the patients breathe carbogen.

One of the biggest, if not the primary obstacle to treating cancer is the fact that tumor blood flow is extremely poor. Intravenous chemotherapy will obviously be ineffective if the blood is not sufficiently perfusing the tumor. In addition, radiation therapy requires a well oxygenated tumor to have optimal destruction of tumor cells. Studies also reveal that poorly oxygenated tumors are more prone to metastasize, and are more prone to undergo angiogenesis (develop new blood vessels to feed itself). Several studies have also shown a positive correlation with the grade of the tumor and the oxygen status (the lower the partial pressure of oxygen in the tumor, the higher the grade off cancer).

In addition, certain drugs that cause tumor vessels to dilate have revealed improved tumor blood flow, and thereby increased responsiveness to treatment. One of the best dilators of tumor vessels is isosorbide dinitrate, a commonly used drug to treat angina.

At the Institute, we incorporate the use of both carbogen breathing and isosorbide dinitrate, while administering intravenous antioxidant therapy.

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Oral Supplements that Inhibit Cancer Growth
At the Institute, we offer oral pancreatic enzymes (sold under the brand name “Wobenzym”). Studies have shown pancreatic enzymes to be useful in treating many types of cancers.

Study Confirms Pancreatic Enzyme Cancer Treatment

A study published in the journal Pancreas suggests the effectiveness of pancreatic enzymes against cancer in mice. This form of nutritional cancer therapy has been used by Nicholas Gonzalez, M.D. in his medical practice in New York City. Gonzalez is one of the authors of the study, "Pancreatic Enzyme Extract Improves Survival in Murine Pancreatic Cancer" (Pancreas. 2004 May;28(4):401-12).

The study found that mice treated with pancreatic enzymes survived significantly longer than the control group. Tumors growth in the enzyme-treated group was significantly slowed compared to the control group).

In addition, while all mice in the control group showed the conditions steatorrhea, high glucose in the urine, high levels of bilirubin, and ketones in the urine at the early stages of tumor growth, only a few in the treated group showed some of these abnormalities at the final stage.

Five years ago, a pilot study of human cancer patients treated by Gonzalez and his associate was published in the journal Nutrition and Cancer. From there, Gonzalez received a $1.4 million NIH federal grant for a Phase III prospective clinical trial of people with pancreatic cancer. This multi-year study is ongoing.

This enzyme-based cancer treatment has been written about for nearly a century. In an article that appeared in the British Medical Journal in 1906, embyologist John Beard wrote that pancreatic enzymes are one of the body's defenses against cancer and would be useful as a cancer treatment. He later wrote a book entitled The Enzyme Treatment of Cancer A dentist names William Donald Kelley later expanded on this treatment.

The results of this study are promising because pancreatic cancer is difficult to treat and has a high mortality rate, due to difficulties in diagnosis, the aggressive nature of pancreatic cancer, and the few treatment options available. Pancreatic cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer deaths following breast cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, and prostate cancer.

Enzyme Therapy Inhibits Matastasis (Spread) of Cancer
For about 30 years, a number of work groups have concerned themselves with the influence of proteolytic enzymes on metastasis. In the 1960s, scientists were of the opinion that cancer cell stickiness resulting from a deficiency in enzymes was responsible for the frequent development of secondary tumors. This stickiness of the cancer cells was generally recognized to result from the excessive formation of fibrin.
The close relationship between fibrin deposits and other types of invasive tissue growth and metastasis is adequately described in international literature and is generally accepted. The discovery of substances, known as adhesion molecules, provided important new impulses for current scientific discussions.

Inflammation also plays a role in cancer spread. Since the endothelium of tissue with inflammatory alterations has a thicker layer of specific adhesion molecules, these are sites where metastasis are more likely to occur. The importance of chronic progression of inflammation in tumor growth and metastasis has been demonstrated in studies which verify the influence of anti-inflammatory therapy on inhibiting metastasis.

Formation of fibrin on the tumor cell membrane supports this adhesive process and serves as a protective barrier against tumor cell recognition by the immunological system. Proteolytic enzymes inhibit both excess fibrin deposition and inflammation, thus helping to prevent the spread of tumor cells.

Indeed, one of the most impressive features of clinical trials for patients with multiple myeloma, breast, stomach, colon and pancreatic cancers, is prolongation of survival time. This may reflect reduced tendency toward cancer spread.

Multiple Myeloma	Stomach Cancer	Colon Cancer	Pancreatic Cancer
Gynecological Cancers	Breast Cancer	Ovarian Cancer	Lymphoma

How Systemic Oral Enzymes Inhibit Cancer Spread.
Various mechanisms have been discussed as being active in the inhibition of metastasis by systemic enzyme therapy:

• Down regulation of metastatically relevant adhesion molecules.
• Reduction of fibrin-supported adhesion.
• Increase in the immunogenicity (mucin, fibrin, inhibitory substances) of the tumor cells.
• Regulation of inflammatory reactions.
• Down regulation of metastatically relevant adhesion molecules on the endothelium.
• Improvement in immunosurveillance.
• Numerous clinical reports and publications demonstrate a positive influence of systemic oral enzymes on the prophylaxis of metastasis and on the prevention of recurrency. For reports on systemic oral enzymes and cancer, visit www.freedompressonline.com

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Mixed Mushroom Extract
At the Institute, we offer mixed mushroom extracts as an adjunct to our cancer therapy. Mushrooms contain different beta glucans that have been found to inhibit the growth of cancer.

Beta glucans are sugar molecules (polysaccharides) that are found bound together as a sugar/protein complex. Certain plants and microorganisms are naturally high in this polysaccharide compound. The richest concentrated source is baker's yeast cell walls. It is present in lesser amounts in mushroom extracts and lentinen, barley, oat, etc. Sodium alginate is also an excellent source, but the high sodium content is a major drawback in the processing for supplemental use. An expensive research extract called Zymosan™ has been used for doing research for over 45 years. Much of the research has been in combining it with conventional approaches, such as chemotherapy, but it has been found to work well on its own.

What glucans seem to do is to stimulate/irritate your white blood cells called macrophages into action. There is actually beta glucan receptors displayed by immune cells that the lectin fits right into like a lock and key and switches on or activates the macrophage to do it's job...clean up. Increased macrophage activity triggers a whole cascade of immune events, which basically boost immune response, which improves Natural Host Resistance. It also stimulates the production of immune cells.

It is proven beneficial for conditions related to immunity. Here are a few of the abstract references available:

• Anti-Tumor Effects. Mediates Destruction of Malignant Cells (J. Nat'l. Cancer Inst. 54, No.3:571, 1975.
• Inhibits Tumor Growth & Enhances Survival Rates (Adv. Exp. Med. Biol. 121A: 269-290, 1980).
• Stimulates Tumor Cell Destruction (Scand.J.Immunol. 15:297-304 / Diss.Abst. Int.Sci. 48:1263, 1987).
• Inproved Host Resistance to all types of different infections (Trends in Pharm.Sciences, 433:344-347, 1983).
• Haults & Reverses Radiation Damage. (Radiation Research 117:59-69, 1989 / USAF Radiobioklogy Inst., Bethesda, MD) .
• Immunomodulation and anti-cancer activity of polysaccharide-proteincomplexes.
• Curr Med Chem 2000 Jul;7(7):715-29/ Ooi VE, Liu F./ Department of Biology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10702635&dopt=Abstract

In Japan, extracts containing various types of Beta glucan have been used to successfully assist in treating cancer patients for the last 20 years. See Aoki, T. Chapter 4, Lentinan. In: Modulation Agents and their Mechanism. Richard L. Fenichel (Ed), Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York and Basel, pp 63-77 (1984).
There appears to be a synergistic relationship between Beta-Glucan and Vitamin C, so many clinics combine both in their treatments. Some of the clinics who use it in their treatments include: Europa Clinic and many clinics in Japan.

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Melatonin
At the Institute, we suggest that all of our patients take 20 mg of melatonin at bedtime.

Melatonin is a hormone produced by the pineal gland in our brain, with neurotransmitter modulatory activity. Most of us are aware that melatonin is responsible for promoting sleep, but most are unaware that melatonin can directly kill many different types of cancer cells. It is a naturally produced cytotoxin, which can induce tumor cell death (apoptosis). In instances where the tumor has already established itself in the body, melatonin has been shown to inhibit the tumor’s growth rate. Melatonin exhibits natural oncostatic activity and inhibits cancer cell growth. In patients in whom cancer already has become a noticeable physical burden and produces overt symptoms, melatonin has been shown to alleviate numerous cancer symptoms and to inhibit development of new tumor blood vessels (tumor angiogenesis), which in turn inhibits the cancer from spreading further (metastasis). Melatonin can retard tumor metabolism and development by lowering the body temperature; it is a natural inducer of hypothermia. Furthermore, as an inducer of antioxidants and itself a weak preventive antioxidant, melatonin hinders tumor cells from participating in free radical damage to normal cells and consequently limits oxidative damage to DNA, lipids, amino acids, and proteins.

Summary of Studies Using Melatonin Lissoni’s Phase II Randomized Clinical Trial Results
				One-Year Survival
Tumor Type	Patient Number	Basic Therapy	Melatonin Dose	Melatonin	Placebo	Level Of Significance
Metastatic Non- Small-Cell Lung	100	Chemotherapy	20 mg	5-year survival 6%	5-year survival 0%	N/A
Metastatic Non- Small-Cell Lung	63	Supportive Care Only	10 mg	5-year survival 6%	Under 1%	<0.05
Glioblastoma	30	Conventional Radiotherapy	10 mg	43%	Under 1%	<0.05
Metastatic Breast	14	Tamoxifen	20 mg	64%	36%	<0.01
Brain Metastases	50	Conventional Radiotherapy	20 mg	38%	12%	<0.05
Metastatic Colorecta	50	IL-2	40 mg	36%	12%	<0.05<0.05
Metastatic Non- Small-Cell Lung	60	IL-2	40 mg	24%	19%	<0.05
Adapted from Life Extension (March 2002). Originally compiled by Cancer Treatment Centers of America.

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Green Tea Extract
Because green tea has shown to halt the progression of many tumor cell types, we encourage all of our patients to consume green tea extract in significant quantities.
Click Here Medical Studies/Trials - Published: Tuesday, 15-Feb-2005
Green tea extract has potential as an anti-cancer agent