Treatment options - a must read
 

Re: Treatment options - a must read
 

Good article. Linda McCartney was a little like Jobs. She was strict vegetarian and wouldn't take drugs tested on animals which must have limited the oncs a great deal in treating her breast cancer.

Re: Treatment options - a must read
 

It is an interesting read Jackie however I feel in all of this we are all individuals and have the freedom to make our own choices and therefore deal with the consequences. At the end of the day Steve Jobs had pancreatic cancer - not very treatable for many and it is not known had he had conventional treatment up front whether his outcome would have been any different. I think it is quite a different scenario to having treatment with known cure rates.

I often reflect upon being told that I have incurable disease and wonder how much more of this often barbaric treatment that I can take and have wondered if I would be doing no more harm by trying a purely alternative route - afterall I have been using experimental drugs anyway.

At the end of the day there will always be science which relies on population based studies to determine efficacy. There will always also be anecdotal stories and miracles that not even science can explain. It is an individual's body and and individual's choice to make based upon what they believe and feel is truly right for them. I did laugh at the oncologist saying patients wasted what precious little time they had left on some of these quests - would he prefer they waste that precious little time bald, vomiting, fatigued? I peruse my current treatment because my quality of life is till good and so far I feel there is reasonable science behind continuing the current path - if that should change I am not sure I will spend my precious little time left with conventional medicine - I might just take that trip to the Black Forrest and give something extreme a go - maybe I will just drink essiac tea and meditate - maybe I will just go to the beach - my choice in the end.

I just want to put another perspective here.

Re: Treatment options - a must read
 

Jobs had refused his doctor's recommendation and spent 9 months using unproven method to 'self-treat'. By the time he realized it was futile and returned to his doctor, the cancer had spread like a wild fire inside his liver.

It's a very sad story, especially that the particular type of pancreatic cancer he had is the treatable type (only 5% of all pancreatic cancers fall into that category.)

Jobs is a super smart person. However, he did not go through the rigid training of an oncologist. What he should have done was to seek 2nd, third opinions and let experts explain to him why standard treatment should be his choice.

My feelings are that Jobs was overwhelmed by his cancer diagnosis and probably was suspecious of his oncologist's optimistic prognosis (that his cancer was the treatable type) Combined with the many misconceptions circulating on the Web (I'm pretty sure he did not check PubMed Database or other reputable medical information sources), he wasted valuable time ...

His story reminded me of my dear college basketball teammate who had passed away mid January after a courageous 5-month fight against cervial cancer. She was a biology professor and had many friends/old classmates who are practising physicians. With a super busy schedule, she tried to use her own expertise to explain her symptoms away...

Re: Treatment options - a must read
 

The earlier cancer is detected and the earlier treatment begins, the better the chance.

Now that's a fact!!!
Thank you Jackie for the post.

Re: Treatment options - a must read
 

I am currently researching alternative treatments for my Mom, Sheila because quite frankly chemo has gone as far as it can go. I have told Mom for years "there is going to come a time when medicine WILL fail you and you will have nothing to lose but your life if you don't try alternative treatment. My Mom like many of you put all of your faith in medical science and "standard treatments" i.e. herceptine, taxol, tdm-1, haloven, etc.... which all have 1 thing in common IT WON'T CURE YOU like it didn't cure my Mom.

Re: Treatment options - a must read
 

Dear Jen,
Unfortunately for all of us...there isn't a cure yet for cancer. The current drugs have changed the odds and women are living longer and surviving with cancer when just a few years ago surviving was not happening, especially with HER2. Our best hope is catching it early prior to spread of disease (which helps) yes some of us well spread even with treatment as our bodies will not work with the meds...but many many women are being treated as chronic for many years. Early stagers like myself are remaining NED (and will continue God willing).

These are ugly and difficult days for your Mom, you and your family. I am so sorry like all of us on the site that your Mom is not rebounding. Please know we are all here for you and our prayers continue.

Kindest Regards,
Jean

Re: Treatment options - a must read
 

Happened to come across this abstract while searching for another topic:

J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2012 Oct 17. [Epub ahead of print]
Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use and Breast Cancer Prognosis: A Pooled Analysis of Four Population-Based Studies of Breast Cancer Survivors.

Matsuno RK, Pagano IS, Maskarinec G, Issell BF, Gotay CC.
Source

1 University of Hawaii Cancer Center , 1236 Lauhala St, Honolulu, Hawaii.

Abstract

Abstract Background: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use is common among breast cancer survivors, but little is known about its impact on survival. Methods: We pooled data from four studies conducted in Hawaii in 1994-2003 and linked to the Hawaii Tumor Registry to obtain long-term follow-up information. The effect of CAM use on the risk of breast cancer-specific death was evaluated using Cox regression. Results: The analysis included 1443 women with a median follow-up of 11.8 years who had a primary diagnosis of in situ and invasive breast cancer.

The majority were Japanese American (36.4%), followed by white (26.9%), Native Hawaiian (15.9%), other (10.6%), and Filipino (10.3%). CAM use was highest in Native Hawaiians (60.7%) and lowest in Japanese American (47.8%) women.

Overall, any use of CAM was not associated with the risk of breast cancer-specific death (hazard ratio [HR] 1.47, confidence interval [CI] 0.91-2.36) or all-cause death (HR 0.82, 95% CI 0.63-1.06). However, energy medicine was associated with an increased risk of breast cancer-specific death (HR 3.19, 95% CI 1.06-8.52).

When evaluating CAM use within ethnic subgroups, Filipino women who used CAM were at increased risk of breast cancer death (HR 6.84, 95% CI 1.23-38.19).

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that, overall, CAM is not associated with breast cancer-specific death but that the effects of specific CAM modalities and possible differences by ethnicity should be considered in future studies.