Allow me to blow off some steam. I am angry. As a physician whose life has been dedicated to helping the sick, the suffering, and those who need help the most, I naturally must spread the word that cancer can be successfully treated and even cured, even the worst types, like Pancreatic and Glioblastoma, and no thanks to mainstream Medicine.
Yes, I am enraged. I spent my twenties in college, med school, and residency to become a doctor. And I succeeded. I specialized and became board-certified in my field. And I even taught. I interviewed new medical school applicants. And I graded some down for not being compassionate enough. Those applicants who had the best grades and board scores but lacked empathy and caring were graded down.
But I digress. What makes a good physician is caring. And I care. But what I found when my friend contracted Glioblastoma turned my stomach. What I found would turn any caring person’s stomach. Because what I found when I went all out to save my friend was that Organized Medicine doesn’t care about the patient. I found that the Medical Establishment that trained me and your physician is corrupted. And they are corrupted to the extent that most Stage IV cancer patients will die with the conventional treatment – radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery – while they know better. It is not the physicians but the Medical Establishment.
So yes, I found treatment for my friend and colleague that has helped him survive a brain cancer that should have taken his life in one year, yet he has survived four – and no thanks to his mainstream oncology team that did not recommend this. I did.
But it would be different if he did something unexpected or unproven. Something that was only anecdotal. But what he did was proven. It was massively described in the medical literature. And not only was it well proven and described, but it was also published for all doctors to read.
Yet almost no one follows it. And virtually no oncologists provide adequate informed consent to their patients.
Because full informed consent would read as follows:
“We will administer chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery to your tumor. However, you should be aware that these three items can stimulate cancer stem cells and thus make it more likely cancer will recur in a more resistant form that could cause relapse and even death.”
This danger is well-known and highly published; however, no cancer patients are informed. They are led to believe that by following these three common, expensive, and highly toxic treatments, they will have the best chance of surviving cancer that modern Medicine has to offer.
Pardon me while I gag.
So, today, I am ecstatic that my friend and colleague has survived his GBM for four years and is going strong when only 1 % make it beyond two. However, that fact doesn’t change my dad’s death from Pancreatic Cancer a decade ago. That fact doesn’t help my patient June who turned yellow and died of Pancreatic Cancer last Christmas. And that fact doesn’t bring back my patient, Patricia, the nurse who trained at Harvard’s Massachusett’s General Hospital and spoke with a thick Boston accent. She died one year before June, also of Pancreatic Cancer.
While Dr. Mukherjee wrote The Emperor of All Maladies and described the unknowable riddle to solve in curing this disease, the fact is that cancer is eminently treatable and survivable. However, it is not effectively treated with the model Medicine is currently using.
When you scan the books on Amazon that describe all these patients who have beat their “unsurvivable” cancers, perhaps your logic should alert you to the fact that all should not have survived if the solution was the enigma medicine claims it to be.
But it isn’t. The answer is written all over the medical literature. However, most practicing physicians do not read it. I did not until I was motivated to save my friend’s life. But if I had never looked, I never would have found. And I would not have saved my friend, who would have died after one year, and I would not be writing this rant today.
The running joke told by Dr. Ryan Cole is that the best way to hide a $100 bill from a surgeon is – to hide it in a textbook – because the surgeon will never read it – after graduation from school. And that is the sad fact. Your doctors may read continuing education courses tailor-made by Big Pharma who sells chemotherapy. But odds are they will never read anything about what can truly save your life from advanced cancer – unless they are Integrative Practitioners.
And odds are, they will never realize how standard treatment like chemo, radiation, and surgery worsens Stage IV cancer and stimulates the cancer stem cells to metastasize and come back resistant and kill you later.
So where is this vast repository of PubMed information that explains how cancer stem cells are stimulated with standard-fare oncology treatment that is right under our noses?
Start by searching “CSC and chemoresistance and PubMed.” Today PubMed produced 932 hits.
A representative “study” written for doctors explains how chemotherapy only is effective against the highly dividing cells and misses the cancer stem cells. This sets the patient up for resistance, relapse, metastasis, and death.
“Unfortunately, follow-up chemotherapy that attempted to destroy refractory cancer cells has been mostly unsuccessful and was associated with a decrease in survival rates of treated cancer patients [5,6]. Due to their slow rate of division, CSCs mediate chemoresistance and recurrence following chemotherapy.”
However, the PubMed literature is equally clear on which non-toxic compounds and repurposed drugs can be used to effectively block CSCs which can result in the patient being cured or experiencing long-term survival.
For example, a PubMed search of curcumin and CSC yields 69 results, with the Number 1 hit entitled, “The “Big Five” Phytochemicals Targeting Cancer Stem Cells: Curcumin, EGCG, Sulforaphane, Resveratrol, and Genistein.”
The article reports in black and white legible letters, “Certain phytochemicals, in particular curcumin, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), sulforaphane, resveratrol and genistein have been shown to interfere with these intrinsic CSC pathways in vitro and in human xenograft mice, leading to the elimination of CSCs. Moreover, recent clinical trials have demonstrated the therapeutic efficacy of five phytochemicals, alone or in combination with modern cancer therapeutics, and in various types of cancer. “
These are natural supplements found in plants and vegetables like Broccoli, Brussel Sprouts, Cauliflower, grapes, turmeric, etc. And yet patients are told to eat what they want and that foods won’t make a difference. This fact makes our oncology community appear irresponsible, and Dr. Paul Marik and I feel it rises to malpractice. Consider the case of Robert Miller, who suddenly developed Stage IV Pancreatic Cancer at age 53.
Following the “good life” and Robert’s indulgences in fine food, alcohol, and restaurants, he found himself with a cholesterol of 350, overweight, and the onset of jaundice and chest pain. Tests revealed metastatic Pancreatic Cancer, leading to Whipple Surgery where parts of his pancreas, small intestine, stomach, and gall bladder were removed [07:20].
He asked the surgeon what he should eat or not eat, and the surgeon told him it did not make any difference [11:04].
Robert had just read a book entitled Beating Cancer with Nutrition authored by Dr. Patrick Quillin, Vice President for Nutrition at Cancer Treatment Centers of America. Quillin is an internationally recognized PhD and Fellow of the American College of Nutrition.
Robert could not believe his ears when the surgeon dismissed nutrition so cavalierly [10:48].
“He said it doesn’t make any difference. Eat what you want. And I’m thinking to myself it’s one of two things here. He’s either terribly ignorant as far as nutrition is concerned – or he knows I’m going to die, so why create a problem for me – so let me enjoy the last bit of time I have and eat whatever I want [11:22].”
“I told him, I told my oncologist, I told the radiologist – I said I’m going on a plant-based diet, and I am taking supplements, and I gave them a list of the supplements I was taking. I kind of felt that I got in the game, and I was part of the team [11:57].”
Miller, who is now a 20+ year survivor of his cancer was charitable in his interpretation of his doctors’ ignorance of the effects of nutrition. This is his advice for other cancer patients:
“[13:01] You need to read as much as you can. Get your hands on as much information as you can and find out everything you can about your specific type of cancer. Ask the doctor questions.”
And I would add that you must ask your oncologist what effect the chemo, radiation, and surgery will have on the cancer and what they think about blocking Cancer Stem Cells with repurposed drugs and supplements. You will find out quickly whether they have kept up on their studies or not.
“[13:15] Don’t be afraid to say, well, I’m going to take this supplement. Will this interfere with what I’m doing? Will it strengthen my immune system? What do you know about it? And if they can’t answer you, don’t hold it against them – continue reading. Unfortunately, I feel that in the medical community today, there’s not enough information from the doctors’ perspective on what nutrition will do to help you.”
I highly recommend reading Robert Miller’s uplifting and informative book about his journey in defeating Stage IV Pancreatic Cancer. To do this requires more than the standard of care. And Robert writes his story with the perfect balance of humor, grace, and humility. It is an easy afternoon read.
Many of the Stage IV cancer survivor stories I read adopted the addition of plant-based foods and supplements that also suppress cancer stem cells based upon hundreds of PubMed studies. I wrote a book about this and helped my friend survive his Glioblastoma. Dr. Paul Marik of the FLCCC is now completing a Cancer Monograph detailing the top 20 repurposed drugs, supplements, and metabolic interventions that can help patients survive their cancers. He ranks them in the order of importance and scientific literature support. Dr. Marik will soon publish the completed Monograph on the FLCCC site and in book form. He lists some 700 scientific references. Here is his Top 20 list:
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