Patient Surived Metastatic Cancer For 4 Decades, Killed By Chemotherapy

haidut

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Ray wrote ones that cancer is best left alone, and that the only reason we are seeing so many deaths and so few survivals from this disease is probably because the medical industry is so keen on cutting, poisoning or burning the tumors. Forum user burtlancast asked a few months ago for a study comparing cancer survival on chemotherapy vs. no chemotherapy. I know this is just a case study, but I think it illustrates the point rather well. The woman had no treatment for 22 years, then took aromatase inhibitors for another 14 years, and finally was done in by the cardiotoxic and immune-suppressive drug capecitabine. Without that poison, given the slowly developing cancer at her advanced age, she may have lived to 100 and beyond.

Surviving metastatic breast cancer for 18 years: a case report and review of the literature. - PubMed - NCBI

"...We report a case of a 93-year-old woman who was diagnosed with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive, progesterone receptor-positive, T2N0M0 (stage I) breast cancer (BC) at the age of 45. Twenty-two years later, she was diagnosed with metastatic lesions to the lungs consistent with the breast primary. Her disease was stable on tamoxifen, anastrozole, and exemestane for 14 years. Subsequently, she was found to have metastatic lesions to thoracic spine as well as progressively increasing bilateral pleural effusions. At that time, she was deemed not to be a good candidate for chemotherapy and therapy was changed to fulvestrant. Two years later (38 years after initial diagnosis of BC), she was diagnosed with new metastatic liver lesions; although her pulmonary and bone metastases remained stable. Therefore, she was started on palliative chemotherapy with single-agent capecitabine. The treatment was discontinued after the second cycle upon the patient's request owing to grade 2 hand and foot syndrome. She expired 2 years later after fighting BC for four decades. She survived for 18 years after the diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer (MBC) while maintaining a good quality of life. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first reported case in the literature with the longest overall survival in a patient with MBC. We provide a detailed clinical analysis in conjunction with a brief literature review.
 

Giraffe

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ps; mods, if you don't think this is relevant here, please move or delete it. gracias
Dear moderator, if you have managed to read this lengthy post to the end, feel free to delete it! :lol:

Welcome to the forum, Dragon. Glad your wife's tumor is regressing.
 

tankasnowgod

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Nice find. It makes all of zero sense to me that the current treatment for cancer is to blast these patients with potent carcinogens. Beyond any survival rates, there is also the quality of life issue. The people I've seen go the traditional treatment route all have rapidly degrading quality of life. Doing no treatment whatsoever seems superior. If you add things like aspirin, thyroid, biotin or iron reduction, side effects are minimal.

In addition to the case study, there is this article from the New York Times- http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/magazine/the-island-where-people-forget-to-die.html?_r=0
 

i8bs

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In addition to the case study, there is this article from the New York Times- http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/magazine/the-island-where-people-forget-to-die.html?_r=0

...low intake of saturated fats from meat and dairy was associated with lower risk of heart disease; olive oil — especially unheated — reduced bad cholesterol and raised good cholesterol. Goat’s milk contained serotonin-boosting tryptophan and was easily digestible for older people. Some wild greens had 10 times as many antioxidants as red wine. Wine — in moderation — had been shown to be good for you if consumed as part of a Mediterranean diet, because it prompts the body to absorb more flavonoids, a type of antioxidant. And coffee, once said to stunt growth, was now associated with lower rates of diabetes, heart disease and, for some, Parkinson’s. Local sourdough bread might actually reduce a meal’s glycemic load. You could even argue that potatoes contributed heart-healthy potassium, vitamin B6 and fiber to the Ikarian diet. Another health factor at work might be the unprocessed nature of the food they consume: as Trichopoulou observed, because islanders eat greens from their gardens and fields, they consume fewer pesticides and more nutrients.
 

tankasnowgod

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...low intake of saturated fats from meat and dairy was associated with lower risk of heart disease; olive oil — especially unheated — reduced bad cholesterol and raised good cholesterol. Goat’s milk contained serotonin-boosting tryptophan and was easily digestible for older people. Some wild greens had 10 times as many antioxidants as red wine. Wine — in moderation — had been shown to be good for you if consumed as part of a Mediterranean diet, because it prompts the body to absorb more flavonoids, a type of antioxidant. And coffee, once said to stunt growth, was now associated with lower rates of diabetes, heart disease and, for some, Parkinson’s. Local sourdough bread might actually reduce a meal’s glycemic load. You could even argue that potatoes contributed heart-healthy potassium, vitamin B6 and fiber to the Ikarian diet. Another health factor at work might be the unprocessed nature of the food they consume: as Trichopoulou observed, because islanders eat greens from their gardens and fields, they consume fewer pesticides and more nutrients.

While I think the story is good overall, I do think the nutritional breakdown is a bit dubious. First, pretty much any protein source (other than isolated amino acids and gelatin) will contain some tryptophan. And while the author harps on "good" and "bad" cholesterol (and the lipid hypothesis only focuses on heart disease, not cancer), all the foods mentioned play more into the iron hypothesis (and iron is in itself a potent carcinogen).

Olive Oil, wine and coffee all inhibit iron absorption. Goat Milk contains a lot of calcium and iron binding components like lactoferrin, which will inhibit absorbtion, and maybe chelate iron from the body. Greece and Ikaria do not fortify their bread with iron (while the U.S. has since the 1940's), so the Sourdough there is going to be much better in general than bread in America.

Anyway, I think the non-dietary differences likely play a much bigger role in the longevity of the island anyway.
 

charlie

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managing

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Any thoughts on lactoferrin? Seems like taking it with meat might inhibit iron adsorption. I see claims that it is a "chelator" which I don't think people really understand what that means anyway. But it does look like it may, nonetheless be an iron "regulator" in that it plays a role in movement of iron in/out of cells (although i haven't dug deeply enough to figure out how).
 

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