Cancer is a notoriously tricky disease to tame … but here are some of the varieties that curcumin has been shown to fight best.

There are more than 100 types of cancer, commonly named for the organs where they originate. More than 2,000 studies of curcumin show that it’s effective against at least these common cancers:

• Breast
• Prostate
• Liver
• Colon
• Lung
• Pancreas
• Bowel
• Stomach
• Skin
• Pancreas
• Brain
• Esophagus

How to measure curcumin’s effects

Let me begin by saying, at this point, curcumin is not a replacement for conventional cancer therapies. But it does a fantastic job of helping to prevent cancer … and it can help enhance the effectiveness of chemo and radiation therapy.

Like I said, cancer is a tricky beast. It’s always best to work with your doctors and explore all of your treatment options.

That said, without overstating the power of curcumin, let’s say there’s a “spectrum of efficacy,” a progression of different outcomes that curcumin can help achieve.

One of the most effective interventions is prevention — keeping cancer from taking hold and spreading.

Next, is slowing the growth of cancer already present.

Next, is halting the growth.

After that, eliminating all signs and symptoms — curing cancer so it never recurs.

Unfortunately, there are too many variables to predict a given outcome for each form of cancer. But let me share what we do know.

Curcumin 101

Let’s cover some curcumin basics — its uncanny ability to do the many things it does.

Curcumin can:

• Reduce inflammation, the origin point of nearly every disease, including cancer.
• Help your body destroy cancer cells.
• Inhibit the transformation of cells from normal to tumorous.
• Inhibit the proliferation of tumor cells and their pathways to other organs — an antimetastatic property.
• Help prevent the development of additional blood supply necessary for tumor growth (angiogenesis).
• Chemosensitize and radiosensitize cancer cells, making them more receptive to chemotherapy and radiation interventions.

All of these properties come into play, one way or another, whenever curcumin meets cancer head on.

In a study of 80 men and women, for example, with colorectal, gastric, and breast cancer tumors being treated with chemotherapy, 40 were given curcumin and 40 were given a placebo for 8 weeks.

Results? Significant benefits in the curcumin group.

The presence of the mysteriously named Substance P, a neurotransmitter that boosts tumor cells’ worst behavior — unchecked growth and invasion of nearby healthy tissues — was greatly reduced in the curcumin group, but unchanged in the placebo group.

And overall, the quality of Life (QoL) metric — how people reported how they feel — improved to a much greater extent in the curcumin group than the placebo group.

Sounds good to me, and it should sound good to you (and your doctor).

Breast cancer and curcumin

Taken as part of a daily health regimen long before any hint of cancer, curcumin is one of the best breast cancer preventions you could ask for. It helps keep healthy tissue healthy. (That’s why I recommend all my patients use it, no matter what their health.)

Curcumin prevents the post-treatment recurrence of breast cancer that often follows chemo and radiation by slowing tumor growth.

It helps ease breast cancer symptoms: inflammation, redness, swelling, pain, and discharges.

It regulates the activity of a hormone that tells cells when they should self-destruct — the process called apoptosis. This is an essential function; what makes cancer a cancer is that it doesn’t stop replicating itself unless forced.

Curcumin also activates genes specific to breast tumors that cause cancer cell death, which leads to tumor death. In short, cancer is eliminated — cured.

In one study, researchers looked at 60 mice with breast cancer and taking curcumin, and at 60 mice with breast cancer not taking curcumin. They found that there were fewer cases of progression to lung cancer among the curcumin-treated mice.

It’s also a potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant, preventing or quelling damage to breast tissue, heading off the likelihood of damaged tissue becoming cancerous.

In addition to its efficacy against breast cancer on its own, curcumin has those chemo- and radio-sensitizing properties I mentioned that protect healthy cells against damage from conventional interventions, making those therapies more effective and less harmful.

In one study, lab mice with breast cancer were divided into four groups:

• No treatment
• Treatment with curcumin
• Treatment with Taxol, a cancer drug
• Treatment with curcumin plus Taxol

In the curcumin-only group, cancer spread to the lungs of half the mice. In the curcumin/Taxol group, it spread to the lungs of 22 percent.

In the other groups, the outcome was miserable:

• 75 percent of the Taxol-only mice developed lung tumors.
• In the no-treatment group, cancer spread to the lungs of 95 percent of the mice.

Lung cancer and curcumin

As I mentioned, cancers have sub-cancers. Curcumin’s anti-metastatic capabilities are especially important in fighting a virulent form of lung cancer called small cell lung cancer, which grows and spreads to other organs quickly. And, if not detected until it’s in full fury, it usually leads to death within 2-4 months.

Curcumin gets in small cell cancer’s way at every step.

It keeps individual small cell lung cancer cells from joining together to form tumors.

If the cells have already grown into small masses, curcumin inhibits their ability to adhere to each other as a larger mass.

If the mass has grown into a tumor, curcumin interferes with its ability to invade surrounding healthy tissues.

If the tumor has already spread into nearby healthy tissue, curcumin keeps the tumor from creating the separate blood supply it requires.

Small cell lung cancer cells respond well to chemotherapy and radiation, making them go-to interventions. Curcumin’s ability to chemo-and radio-sensitize cancer cells, while protecting healthy cells from destruction, also makes it an invaluable partner.

Prostate cancer and curcumin

Curcumin is great news for men. It offers protection against getting prostate cancer in the first place and control or reversal of existing prostate cancer.

All or most of the properties we’ve already covered work their wonders here also.

As with breast cancer, which shares several clinical similarities with prostate cancer, curcumin increased the number of dead cancer cells in living, lab-based cancer cells. And the higher the curcumin dose, the more dead cells.

To me, that says “This works.”

Other studies confirm that curcumin can play a positive preventive role, keeping random prostate cancer cells from massing together to form a tumor. If a tumor is already present, curcumin, as it does with other cancers, can keep it from spreading to other organs.

But curcumin can help even against full-blown prostate cancer that’s being treated with chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Studies show that supplementing curcumin can alleviate the harsh side- and after-effects — nausea, dizziness, pain, and so on — as well as protecting healthy cells that chemo and radiation take down along with cancer cells.

Indeed, as curcumin makes cancer cells more vulnerable to radiation and chemo, it means the intensity of those harsh treatments can be dialed down with no loss of efficacy.

If this isn’t enough to cheer about, curcumin comes with some welcome bonus benefits as it fights prostate cancer: less frequent, less urgent, and a complete urination — and improved sexual capabilities.

As with any changes in your diet, meds, or lifestyle, first consult with your doctor (and in this case, your wife).

Push back against pushback

As usual, the mainstream medical/FDA community, influenced by Big Pharma, expresses doubt and withholds approval of curcumin-based treatments. Big Pharma can’t make billions from a treatment that uses a safe, affordable substance that’s easy to grow in so many places.

Profit over patient. Business as usual.

I see “More research is needed” far too often. More research is always great, but it’s not needed here.

To me, the research already available tells me that curcumin can spare millions of people the misery of cancer and its harsh conventional treatments — and save millions of lives.

Take 600 mg/day and make sure it’s specially formulated for enhanced absorption and bioavailability. That’s taking good care.

The post Curcumin can achieve a ‘spectrum of efficacy’ appeared first on Cancer Tutor.

As a result, I spent time sifting through medical research on breast cancer. Here are 12 suggestions that I believe can help keep you stay cancer-free. (Gentlemen, please don’t feel left out of this discussion. Breast cancer affects men, too, with more than 2,000 cases being diagnosed annually.)

And remember, many of the lifestyle changes I outline here can reduce not only your risk of breast cancer but of cancer in general. So please read on and do your best to actually act on my advice. You don’t want to wait until it’s too late to improve your health habits.

1) Keep your bedroom as dark as possible

Your body releases the hormone melatonin, which protects against breast cancer, only in darkness. So turn off all nightlights and television while sleeping.

Melatonin is a powerful antioxidant with a wide range of health benefits, including protection against neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, improved outcomes for cancer patients, and even reduced the occurrence of migraines.

Since production of melatonin in the body slows after age 40, this is one supplement I frequently recommend to women who are concerned about breast cancer.

2) Get regular daily exercise

Studies have shown people who exercise for a total of four hours each week have a significantly lower risk of developing breast cancer. Exercise also helps with weight management, which is widely known to have a positive impact on countless aspects of your health.

3) Limit your alcohol intake

Or consider giving it up altogether. Consuming more than four servings of alcohol each week raises the risk of breast cancer.

For those who want to be on the safe side, just say no to alcohol. But for those who don’t want to abstain or who want the benefits afforded by health-promoting antioxidants in wine, limit yourself to no more than one glass four times per week. Or get those antioxidants without the alcohol by consuming some red grapes or a glass of grape juice instead.

Also, please take a Vitamin B complex supplement afterward, to protect delicate breast tissue from the damage alcohol can cause.

4) Spend at least 20 minutes each day in the sun

This helps increase your levels of Vitamin D, also known as “the sunshine vitamin.” Research shows that postmenopausal women with the highest levels of Vitamin D had a lower risk of developing breast cancer when compared to those with the lowest levels.

I recommend 1,500 IUs of Vitamin D3 daily, unless your levels are low, in which case you will likely need a higher dose. A simple blood test can tell you if you need more Vitamin D3. If that turns out to be the case, your doctor can suggest appropriate dosage.

5) Skip toxic household cleaning products, pesticides

These products contain chemicals that disrupt our hormones and act as carcinogens (cancer-causing agents) on mammary glands.

6) Take a daily dose of iodine

Supplemental iodine has been shown to eliminate abnormal cells that are destined to become cancerous, as well as early cancer cells. I often recommend i-Throid, which should be available in health food stores. Just follow the dosage instructions on the supplements.

7) Build up your good bacteria with a probiotic supplement

Probiotics provide a long list of health benefits, including helping with the proper breakdown of estrogen, a hormone implicated in breast cancer.

8) Reduce stress with meditation

Stress raises levels of the stress hormone known as cortisol, which is linked to some serious health issues, including anxiety, weight gain, and cancer. Meditation reduces cortisol while boosting levels of the “feel-good” hormone, serotonin, and supporting healthy immunity — another important element for fighting cancer.

9) Stop drinking water from plastic bottles

I have written about the health complications caused by BPA (bisphenol A), a hormone-disruptive substance that’s been linked to cancer.

BPA is found in many plastics and the linings of most canned foods. If you’re drinking the recommended amount of water from plastic bottles, please invest in glass or non-BPA bottles and an efficient water filter.

10) Dry-brush your skin

Before bathing, use a natural bristle brush to gently stroke your dry skin. I suggest starting at your feet and brushing up toward your heart, then continue brushing your legs, arms, and chest.

The whole process can take as little as five minutes, or you can continue for up to 20 minutes. Remember to be gentle, so your skin isn’t scratched or abraded.

This process not only feels good, but it also stimulates lymphatic drainage, which removes toxins from the body.

11) Do not wear a bra with underwires

The wires prevent good lymphatic drainage in the breasts, which could contribute to an elevated risk of cancer. For the same reasons, do not sleep in a bra.

12) Eat at least two cups of broccoli each week

Broccoli contains a substance known as indol-3 carbinol (I3C), which supports healthy estrogen balance throughout your body and protects breast cells. Cauliflower and Brussels sprouts also contain significant amounts of I3C.

If you’ve never been diagnosed with breast cancer, making these changes could help you stay cancer-free, especially when combined with regular self-exams and thermography (a safer, radiation-free alternative to mammograms).

If you’ve had the disease already, the lifestyle alterations I’m recommending can be powerful allies in preventing a recurrence. If the list seems overwhelming, simply tackle one change per week for the next few months, and, before you know it, you’ll be healthier than ever!

The post Breast Cancer Prevention Tips appeared first on Cancer Tutor.

Odds, sadly, are very good that you or someone you know has had a scare, sickness, or untimely death due to this pernicious killer.

But fear doesn’t always lead to the best medicine. Indeed, when it comes to breast cancer, some of the things we’re doing may cause more harm than good.

And a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) just highlighted one of the most common overtreatments we suffer from — and why it is so dangerous.

Sometimes a lesion is just a lesion

Today, 20 percent of all new breast cancer cases aren’t actually cancer at all. They are lesions called ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS for short. These lesions can lead to breast cancer. But there’s no clear evidence as to how often that happens.

Yet, until recently, every case of DCIS was going under the knife. And that should worry you.

In the new study, researchers found that it’s not the DCIS that matters — it’s the cells that make up these lesions. Specifically, pathologists looked at the cells of more than 57,000 women who had DCIS. Most had surgery, while only a small percentage didn’t.

Ten years out, those with low-risk pathologies had absolutely no difference in survival rate, whether they had the surgery or not.

There was a slight difference if you had intermediate-grade risk cells: 98.6 percent of those who had the surgery survived breast cancer 10 years out, compared with 94.6 percent of those who didn’t have the surgery.

The gap grows when you look at high-risk cells: 98.4 percent of those who had surgery survived breast cancer after 10 years, compared with only 90.4 percent of those who didn’t.

So it’s clear that the riskier the DCIS cells, the bigger the difference pre-emptive surgery makes.

Or at least that’s the initial conclusion. Because, during the time period examined, surgery was always recommended, we aren’t dealing with controlled groups. Those who didn’t receive the surgery usually skipped it due to frail health, making them much more susceptible to problems later.

So the gap may not be as big as advertised.

But still — if getting a lumpectomy or mastectomy early leads to over 98 percent survival, we all should do it, right? Not so fast. It’s worth bearing in mind, the surgery itself carries risk.

Of course, there’s the general risk associated with anesthesia and going under the knife. But surgery also weakens your systems for an extended period of time. The trauma of surgery can have a cascade effect.

And a botched surgery can do more harm than good. If a lumpectomy doesn’t get all the pre-cancerous cells, it can actually spread them around during all that cutting, seeding the abnormal cells much farther and wider than if you’d done nothing.

And that’s to say nothing of other forms of treatment. Both radiation and chemo cause cell damage that can lead to cancer! They should never be attempted until necessary—but some doctors recommend them anyway.

Cautious observation, followed by swift action

So what’s the best way to handle DCIS? Know exactly what you’re dealing with, and go from there.

I had one 37-year old patient who came to me for a pre-surgery screening. She had DCIS, and her physician recommended cutting it out. I wanted to know if she was at risk. But her pathologist didn’t even know! The truth is, we don’t do a very good job of screening DCIS cells, in most cases.

On the other hand, I had a different patient who presented with some worrying blood markers. I told her to get checked out, but she put it off. A year later, she had full-blown cancer.

So what should you do if you have a DCIS?

First, get as many preliminary tests done as possible. There are blood markers that can indicate pathology, if not point directly to cancer. Read in context with a DCIS, good doctors can draw reasonable conclusions of danger.

Second, get more than one opinion. Leaving a high-risk DCIS in place isn’t the solution. But neither is treating a benign growth. More and more women are getting biopsies and insisting on an individualized study. They aren’t immediately leaping to surgery.

That’s the right thing to do. In most cases, vigilance is required first. After that, you can leap to surgery if necessary.

And third, take a good long breath. Remember, even with those women who had the most virulent cells and did nothing, over 90% survived. In all other cases, an even higher percentage made it out fine.

If you do have a virulent pathology, you should do something preemptive. But don’t panic, overreact, or over-treat.

Automatically reaching for the scalpel can do more harm than good.

The post DCIS is a lesion — not breast cancer appeared first on Cancer Tutor.

There’s mastectomy — entire removal of one or both breasts — or there’s less invasive breast-conserving surgery (BCS), which aims to remove only the cancerous cells.

A recent survey found that mastectomies increased by 36 percent from 2005 to 2013 — from 66 per 100,000 women to 90 per 100,000. The increase was driven mainly by women choosing to have double mastectomies.

That’s a significant jump for a serious intervention.

I needed to know why.

Troubling details

I wasn’t surprised that most women who chose a double mastectomy had been diagnosed with cancer. But the rate of women without a cancer diagnosis, who chose a double mastectomy to prevent a feared future cancer, more than doubled.

Why?

Let’s look at another trend in women’s’ treatment choices and see if there’s a match.

Some 45 percent of women choosing mastectomies had the procedure done as an outpatient procedure, aka a “drive-by.” Major surgery, in-and-out, same day? That can’t be right. But that’s double the 22 percent outpatient rate 10 years ago.

Again — why?

Patient advocates are concerned. We all should be. You don’t need an MD to understand that a mastectomy is a physically and emotionally traumatic procedure. For hospital-based inpatient mastectomies, a postoperative stay of just over two days is the norm. Advocate groups have supported a minimum two-day stay for years.

A key premise here, sadly — and maddeningly — is that insurance companies are driving the trend toward drive-by mastectomies. The finger of blame has pointed that way for years.

Indeed, some 10 years ago, patient advocates in 20 states successfully lobbied their local legislators to make it illegal for insurers to impose rates that force women out of the hospital less than 48 hours after breast surgery. (Many attempts to pass similar federal legislation have failed. Way to put care before profit, insurers.)

I’m sure this has something to do with the drive-by increase.

But now comes the billion-dollar question.

Are these major procedures really necessary?

No.

Hundreds of thousands of women (and some men) who will be diagnosed with breast cancer don’t need harmful, costly, and sometimes disfiguring interventions.

Why? Because up to 30 percent of all breast cancer diagnoses are for premalignant conditions. Prime examples are ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) and lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS).

These abnormal cells were undetectable until a few years ago. Today’s technology finds them easily. The problem is that many doctors order a biopsy, as well as treatment and removal, just to be safe.

But wait. What are the chances of DCIS becoming cancer at its worst? About 20 percent. And LCIS? It’s also non-malignant and ranked 0 on a 0-to-4 threat scale.

But many doctors throw the book at these conditions anyway. Right up to prescribing a completely unnecessary mastectomy.

You know what’s less safe? The biopsies and surgery that can spread cancer cells elsewhere in the body, the radiation treatments that are known to cause cancer, and the wipe-out chemo that kills both helpful and harmful cells.

Watch their language

Many doctors agree with me that DCIS and LCIS, at least, should not be called “cancerous” or even “pre-cancerous.” Those words scare the heck out of people — in these cases, without justification.

Just as important, with DCIS, LCIS, and many other conditions, no intervention is indicated, let alone required.

It’s enough to keep a careful eye on those cells and to make lifestyle changes that reduce your risk of future trouble.

If your diagnosis is early stage breast cancer, make sure your doctor isn’t using the C-word for DCIS or LCIS. If that’s not an issue, get a second opinion anyway.

Remember that even if DCIS and LCIS have been ruled out, your diagnosis is still not bulletproof. No single test is enough to launch an intervention as drastic as a biopsy, surgery, radiation, or chemo. Mammograms, for example, miss up to 20 percent of pathology warnings. So insist on having every additional test and consultation available:

• Thermography
• Ultrasound
• Full blood sugar panel
• Thyroid function
• Vitamin D sufficiency
• Vitamin A sufficiency
• Digestive system (biome) health and diet — consult with a qualified nutritionist

If all evidence indicates early stage breast cancer, it’s essential that you talk seriously with your doctor about the possible interventions, their possible or likely side effects, and what your best treatment options are, including possibly a lumpectomy — targeted surgical removal of affected or vulnerable cells. This procedure has been proven as effective as mastectomy in preventing the spread of early-stage cancer.

Work on being your own intervention

These aren’t going to prevent all cancers, but here are a few things you can do to lower your risk of cancer and other medical maladies:

• Get yourself on the Mediterranean diet, a proven cancer deterrent. Learn about it online, or your doctor or a nutritionist can advise. And add extra olive oil — women on the traditional Mediterranean diet who did so had a 68 percent lower risk of breast cancer.
• If you’re already physically active, ramp it up. If not, get active, even if it’s just a daily walk around the block.
• Be or remain socially and intellectually active. Good company and good conversation are the best medicine.

Take good care.

The post Breast cancer? You can avoid unnecessary mastectomies appeared first on Cancer Tutor.

Cancer has been a growing concern since President Richard Nixon declared war on cancer in 1971. According to the American Cancer Society, more than 8 million people die from cancer every year and that number has been projected to increase to 13 million by the year 2030 worldwide. [2] Of those deaths, more than 90 percent are the result of cancer metastasis. [3]

In order to treat cancer, most physicians bombard the patient with various drugs using different treatment methods. The most common conventional cancer treatments include chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. Cytotoxic chemotherapy is a form of cell cycle dependent therapy that kills cancer cells by interfering with different phases of the cell cycle. In fact, most chemotherapy agents affect the M-phase of the cell cycle by inhibiting microtubule function, DNA synthesis, or protein function. [5]

Although these treatments may be beneficial, they are hardly cancer cell specific. Chemotherapy agents can also bind to healthy cells and induce apoptosis. One of the most common side effects of chemotherapy is hair loss, which is caused by the interruption of cell division in hair cells.Radiation is another form of cancer treatment that eliminates cancer cells through exposure to strong electromagnetic wave particles. The wave particles disrupt the genetic makeup of cells and inhibit their growth and division processes. [1]

Radiation is another form of cancer treatment that eliminates cancer cells through exposure to strong electromagnetic wave particles. The wave particles disrupt the genetic makeup of cells and inhibit their growth and division processes. [1]

Lastly, surgery is a form of treatment that surgically extracts cancer cells them from the primary cancer site. Although these procedures are usually successful in removing initial cancer, ultimately, these methods do not prevent cancer reoccurrence and metastasis. [12]

Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs), Circulating Stem Cells (CSCs)

One of the least studied aspects of cancer is Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs). CTCs are cancer cells that are shed from the primary tumor and enter the circulatory system through the blood stream. Thomas Ashworth, an Australian pathologist, first proposed the concept of CTCs in the 19th century. At the time, Ashworth successfully discovered CTCs in a man who was diagnosed with metastatic cancer.

From this identification, Ashworth was able to hypothesize that mobilized cancer cells can play a significant role in cancer metastasis. In other words, cells that shed off from the original cancer site can travel into the bloodstream and cause the same tumor to be formed elsewhere in the body. These findings largely alarmed the scientific community; however, limitations in medical technology hindered the ability to confirm the presence of these cells. [7] More than 140 years later, research in the field has finally been able to confirm what Ashworth proposed more than a century ago.

CTCs often are overlooked in cancer detection process because they are small microscopic cells that are extremely hard to detect. Without the proper medical technology, CTCs and CSCs might as well be scientifically non-existent. Most physicians spend a majority of the time ordering MRIs, PET scans, CT scans, and tumor markers.

Although, these types of tests are effective in detecting tumors, they do not detect circulating cancer cells. R.G.C.C., a research laboratory in Greece, specializes in the detection of circulating tumor cells in the blood. CTCs can be observed in the peripheral blood of cancer patients at relatively low concentrations. Because these cells are found at a much smaller ratio, in comparison to the size of a tumor, highly sensitive and specific technology is required for the detection of CTCs.

The general biological mechanism behind the differentiation of CTCs and CSCs can be seen. Like almost all stem cells, CSCs must receive a signal to undergo cell differentiation. Once the cancer cell has been differentiated, it can grow and proliferate to produce even more cancer cells. [4] The mechanism of cancer stem cell differentiation what leads to tumor formation.

• More information on the R.G.C.C.

How to detect CTCs and CSCs

The detection of circulating tumor cells in the blood can be highly beneficial in preventing cancer onset, reoccurrence, and metastasis. Currently, the most common types of CTC detection technology include immunocytochemistry, reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and flow cytometry. [8]

At our medical facility, Cancer Center for Healing, we use CTC to monitor treatment progression in cancer patients. Blood samples are sent directly to R.G.C.C., where researchers are able to identify the number of cancerous cells present in 1 mL of blood. As of recently, only a CTC reading of zero has been associated with being in a state of remission or being cancer free. [4]

Chemotherapy misconceptions

A common misconception with CTC readings is that treatments like chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation are able to lower CTC counts and cure the patient of cancer; however, chemotherapy has actually been shown to increase CTC counts. [5] Although chemotherapy is an effective agent to initially reduce tumor size, ultimately, residual CTCs and CSCs can regenerate and cause tumor regeneration. The regeneration of cancer cells after remission is known as cancer relapse.

Just as bacteria have been evolving to develop antibiotic immunity, cancer cells have been evolving to become chemotherapy resistant. Although chemotherapy agents are administered at extremely high doses, there is no guarantee that all cancer cells are eliminated after multiple rounds of treatment.

Remaining CTCs and CSCs can become dormant for long periods of time, but ultimately resurface with a vengeance. New chemo-resistant cancer cells thrive in immunosuppressed environments and travel through the blood with ease to initiate cancer cell metastasis. [5]

Treatments that effectively eliminate CTCs and CSCs

Patients with high CTC values are viable candidates for Supportive Oligonucleotide Technique (SOT) treatment; however, in order to use this treatment, their tumor burden must be relatively low. SOT therapy uses splice variants from different cancer-associated pre-mRNAs and uses them to induce antagonistic effects that lead to cancer cell apoptosis.

However, these treatments are only effective when the burden of cancer cells is relatively low. SOT treatment is individualized for each patient’s genetic makeup and treatments vary based on the type of cancer. Patients who have been successful in SOT treatment have been able to decrease their CTC values significantly; one patient in particular, who was treated at our facility, was able to decrease his CTC count by 82.8 percent in less than eight months.

The second form of natural treatment includes natural chemotherapy agents, which induce cancer cell apoptosis naturally. Some of these treatments include homeopathy, Vitamin C, ozone therapy, and targeted nutraceuticals. Homeopathy and the Banerji method have shown to be successful in eliminating CTCs and CSCs.

Studies conducted in India show regressions between 22 and 32 percent in the reduction of CTCs. These improvements have been seen in patients with lung, brain, and esophageal cancer in India. Vitamin C is another type of treatment that is converted into hydrogen peroxide, which can be a harmful agent for cancer cells.

Cancer cells also have been shown to thrive in anaerobic environments. Treatments like ozone therapy negatively affect cancer cells by oxygenating them. By doing so, cancer cells are no longer capable of performing anaerobic functions, which ultimately leads to cell death. [5] R.G.C.C. performs a natural sensitivity panel that Dr. Connealy highly recommends to her patients.

The third way in which individuals can fight their cancers naturally is by improving eating habits. Foods like leafy greens, ginger, turmeric, blueberries, Genistein, cruciferous vegetables, grapefruit, lavender, etc. contain an abundance of enzymes that aid the body’s ability to combat cancer cells.

• 25 common Cancer Stem Cell Killing foods

The triple threat

• Toxic Environment
• Toxic Body
• Toxic Mind

The human species has thrived and survived for thousands of centuries by using its innate ability to heal itself. Today, that process has been hindered by the increased amount of exposure to toxic chemicals in the environment.

Electromagnetic radiation, genetically modified food, and air pollution are some of the many ways our bodies have been put under increased environmental stress. Epigenetics plays a large role in gene modification.

A review of a study published in the Oxford Journal states that global environmental changes and changes in the epigenetic landscape are hallmarks of cancer. Epigenetic changes include DNA methylation, histone modification, nucleosome positioning, and the addition of non-coding RNAs. Any of these genetic modifications can be detrimental to the normal function of the cell cycle. [11]

As discussed earlier, deregulation of the cell cycle is what ultimately causes cancer. Signs of elevated CTCs and even cancer are signs that your body is suffering from a much greater illness or chemical imbalance. Increased sugar intake, bad eating habits, increased stress, irregular sleep cycles, and increased depression or emotional trauma, are all exposures that increase the risk of developing cancer.

Individuals must learn to view their bodies as one entity, not separate parts that make up a whole. One must learn to find the root of the problem and treat the symptoms from the inside out. For example, if a patient is experiencing chronic inflammation in the intestines it would be counterproductive to only look at gastrointestinal tract. In fact, by only treating the symptoms doctors are completely avoiding the greater “underlying” issue.

A knowledgeable physician would look at the patient’s eating habits, stress levels, nutritional deficiencies, etc. It is only when you have all pieces of the tapestry that you are able to put together the pieces and look at the product as a whole. A similar analogy can be applied to cancer; it would be ineffective to bombard the tumor with multiple rounds of chemotherapy and not check for remaining circulating tumor cells in the bloodstream.

Without checking remaining CTCs, cancer could very easily metastasize to multiple regions of the body and leave the patient completely helpless. A good physician is a wise physician. Therefore, physicians must learn to make wise choices if they truly want to earn the faith, trust, and hope of their patients.

The discovery of circulating tumor cells has revolutionized the field of cancer medicine. With this discovery, physicians and researchers are able to diagnose the possible presence of cancer before evidence of a tumor, prevent cancer metastasis, and confirm cancer cure and remission. Simply put, cancer can now be detected through the simplicity of a single blood test and cancer remission is possible with CTC monitoring and targeted treatments.

• For more information on the Cancer Center for Healing and Dr. Leigh Erin Connealy, please visit their website.

The post CTC monitoring, targeted therapy can lead to remission appeared first on Cancer Tutor.