Doctors & Hospitals

doctor consultationConsultations with doctors and other clinicians take on critical importance as you gather your facts to make informed treatment decisions. But, there is a problem. During these sessions people are stressed and emotional. Yet, it is at this very same time that you must be calm and decisive. You have to be at your best when you are feeling at your worst. These tips were designed to help.

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Spontaneous remissions and curesSpontaneous Remissions – when cancer seemingly goes away by itself, is an important phenomenon because it suggests that the body can heal itself of this disease. The technical definition of spontaneous remission of cancer (SR) is “a complete or partial, temporary or permanent disappearance of all or at least some relevant parameters of a soundly diagnosed malignant disease without any medical treatment or with treatment that is considered inadequate to produce the resulting regression.”(1)

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chemotherapy how is success measuredIn this article, we discuss how chemotherapy is measured and how it often gives a false sense of success.  We will see that the seeds of this bias were sowed back in the early days of chemotherapy when doctor such as Sidney Farber tried to put a positive spin on what was otherwise questionable success.  This history and method to measure “success” are seldom discussed.

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Immune SystemIn past issues of CancerWire we have explored the divide that exists between holistic approaches and conventional cytoxic (cell-killing) therapies when it comes to the treatment of cancer. In general, orthodox medicine believes that a cancer must be poisoned or cut out because the body is incapable of managing or eliminating the disease without outside intervention. In contrast, holistic approaches believe that the body is the best defense against cancer and steps should be taken to strengthen the body’s own innate abilities to control this disease. The orthodox world of providing external interventions and the holistic world of facilitating internal defenses share common ground on the subject of immune therapy.

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Genes and EpigeneticsHyped by biotech, Wall Street and the media, gene therapy became another cancer buzz word in the 1990’s. This new space-age modality was supposed to garner breakthroughs in the treatment of various debilitating and deadly disease especially cancer. Today, there is no FDA approved gene therapy for cancer or any other disease. What happened? In this article we will take a look at the failed promise of gene therapy and focus on a related modality of greater potential – epigene therapy.

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Mernie Siegel, MDBernie Siegel, MD is one of the worlds foremost physicians, authors, motivational speakers and advocates for individuals facing the challenges of chronic illnesses. He is the founder of Exceptional Cancer Patients (ECaP) and the author of Love, Medicine and Miracles, Peace, Love and Healing, How to Live Between Office Visits, and many other books and articles.

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There are over 2,000 cancer therapies in clinical trials.1 Some are better than others, but how is that determined? How are the results of these trials weighed and scored? How is one treatment deemed to be superior to another? In this article we examine how oncologists assess their therapies so that patients can make more informed treatment decisions with their doctor.

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These tests can determine which drug or drug combination will or will not work for your cancer
Note:

  • Most of the following information was provided by Larry M. Weisenthal, M.D., Ph.D..
  • None of the information presented about assays should be used to select a cancer treatment without consulting with your licensed medical professional. But, as discussed below, be advised that some physicians are more supportive of these assays than are others.

What are these tests?

These tests or “assays” can be performed on pieces of tumors taken directly from patients. They provide information on the likelihood that different types of chemotherapy will provide clinical benefit to the patient.

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