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-   -   Methadone as a new cancer treatment drug (https://her2support.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=62089)

annettchen 11-03-2014 07:24 AM

Methadone as a new cancer treatment drug
 
There's some research going on in Germany (with clinical trials planned to start soon) based on research that has shown that Methadone has a number of beneficial effects in cancer treatment. As far as I know it can be used as a replacement for Opioids in pain treatment, but they found that when you combine methadone with chemotherapy, even previously resistant tumor cells start responding to chemotherapy again. It induces apoptosis. Furthermore, they have seen that - in vitro at least - this even works with cancer stem cells.

I have not found a lot of literature in English on it, but here's an article detailing the latest findings.
http://www.bio-pro.de/standort/5_bio...937/index.html

annettchen 11-30-2014 08:31 PM

Re: Methadone as a new cancer treatment drug
 
Bumping this up - has anyone heard / seen anything about this in North America?

I am on a German forum, where some ladies contacted the researcher directly, who in turn helped them to get access to the drug. They now regulary update the forum with how they are doing. And so far, their feedback is just amazing. All the ladies that started taking it are doing very VERY much better than they did before they started. Almost all of them (except one) were on parenteral nutrition - not any more, they're all off it, and gaining weight eating normally! Their posts are just amazing - one of them recently said it's like a miracle.

It's early yet, but apparently Methadone seems to reinforce / increase the efficiency of chemo, in particular in women that had developed resistance to chemo. Some of the ladies will start new chemo regimes shortly - I so hope for them it works!

And even if it's only temporary - at the point where you would be treated with it, the gain in quality of life alone seems to be worth it...

Catia 12-01-2014 08:21 PM

Re: Methadone as a new cancer treatment drug
 
Annette,
thanks for sharing this info,..it looks very promising. What is the web address for that German forum you mentioned?

annettchen 12-01-2014 08:38 PM

Re: Methadone as a new cancer treatment drug
 
Hi Catia,

it's http://www.krebs-kompass.de/index.php.
There's a separate thread on methadone, as well as a general advanced stage / stage 4 thread that has the posts of the ladies that have been taking the methadone.

annettchen 12-02-2014 11:38 AM

Re: Methadone as a new cancer treatment drug
 
Hi all,

one of the ladies that's using Methadone has created a website (sorry, German only at this point), where she documents her personal experience, as well as collects research / publications and so on.
The website address is: http://www.krebs-methadon-nora.de/
In case anyone's interested, I can help translate.

annettchen 12-07-2014 08:59 PM

Methadone as supporting drug to conventional cancer therapy
 
I have to share this with you.

Some women I got to know via a German breast cancer forum have over the last month or so started being treated with Methadone. They were all in very bad shape, not being able to eat any more on their own, or walk much, or even spend much time awake. They were all on strong pain killers (i.e. opioids).

They decided to start Methadone as a replacement drug for other opioids in conjunction with chemotherapy. Initially, they all found that their qulity of life went up noticeably. They started being able to eat again. They had more energy and started participating in their family life again. One of the ladies had a wheelchair; she recently retired her walker in the basement. Secondly, one of the ladies had her scan early last week. All metastases (lung, bone mets sternum, clavicle) are noticeably smaller. The other two women also feel much better, but will only be re-staged in January.

Having seen all this, I decided to contact the researcher today. I spoke with her for 2 hours. She explained to me that they have seen marked improvement in ALL of the almost 4000 cancer patients they know have been treated with Methadone. Not all of them had breast cancer; as a matter of fact Methadone seems to be effective for many cancer types, among those lung, colon, breast, leukemia, glioblastoma and others. Clinical trials are in preparation, but will take time. It is also under discussion whether a comparison trial where half of the patients would not receive the medication is ethical, given the incidental results observed in the 4000 patients treated so far.

I'm not trying to raise undue hopes or anything. This is not a wonder cure for metastasized breast or any other cancer. But it looks like it might help overcome resistance to chemotherapy or other treatments. And it looks like it has some positive effects on it's own such as inducing apoptosis. I'm not a doctor or chemist, or pharmacist, so I don’t understand the details of how / why this might work. I only read what other women posted, and then followed up with the researcher that's working on the issue. Having done that, I felt like the word needs to be spread.

Currently, based on what I heard, only women that already receive Opioids as pain medication would be eligible to try this, as Methadone is not yet approved as anything but pain medication. But I felt like I have to speak up. Having seen the effects it had on 3 other women I know of, I think every cancer patient who is terminally ill or in a stage of their illness where they are on strong pain medication should have the right to decide for themselves whether they want to try this.

Here's more literature (in English) on the topic:

2014 (Glioblastoma): http://science.gov/scigov/link.html?...ubmed/24626197

2013 (Leukemia): http://www.impactjournals.com/oncota...path%5B%5D=952

http://www.yourcancertoday.com/Cance...age=1&searchQ=

rhondalea 12-08-2014 06:24 AM

Re: Methadone as a new cancer treatment drug
 
On a technical note, Google Chrome will translate the page automatically if you have translation checked in settings. (This is the default in Chrome.)

There are a couple of Google translators for Firefox; the most highly rated plugin is here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...dl-mostpopular

IE also has a Google translator; it's the third one down on this page:
http://www.iegallery.com/Search?q=translate

Sometimes the translations come up a wee bit garbled, so it's good you're here to translate, Annette. For casual reading, though, this should help some.

annettchen 12-08-2014 07:35 AM

Re: Methadone as a new cancer treatment drug
 
Thanks Rhondalea, I agree they have gotten pretty good with the online translators - I am absolutely willing to help out if stuff comes out garbled, though...


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