This isn’t mission difficult, it’s mission impossible.
–Anthony Hopkins to Tom Cruise, Mission: Impossible II (2000)
In doing research for this book, I came across a set of facts that are absolutely earth-shattering. It turns out that what happens in the body in response to surgical removal of the primary tumor is a significant cause of metastasis in patients for whom surgery is not curative. In other words, surgery can spread cancer!
The good news is that a wide variety of methods have been identified to protect against surgery-induced recurrence and metastasis. Armed with this knowledge, cancer patients can follow simple steps ahead of time to dramatically improve their odds of a cure.
You would think that cancer surgeons would figure this out themselves. After all, everything I discovered is based on what is already published in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. Sadly, the assembly-line mentality of conventional doctors too often results in these novel methods being overlooked. As I have learned, it is critical that the right choices be made both before and after surgery in order to protect against cancer cells spreading to other parts of the body.
Bill Faloon is the director and cofounder of the Life Extension Foundation. He knows what those choices should be. He is a passionate layperson who fights for what is right, and fights for the truth, sometimes at great personal sacrifice and even danger. His investigations have enabled people to access medical information not available elsewhere through the database supplied by the Life Extension advisory board.
Cancer is a frightening and debilitating diagnosis. For most of us it is our biggest fear. For many people, alternative approaches are just not an option. Mainstream oncologists often offer only one option, and if a patient has not done investigative research on all avenues of healing, then going against orthodox treatments is just too big a leap.
Choice of treatment is very personal and one that I respect. For that reason I have asked Bill Faloon to give me information on how to best utilize traditional treatment. How can a person maximize the benefits of chemo and survive harsh chemical poisoning? How can a patient find treatment that fits his particular cancer, rather than the present guessing game? As I have said throughout this book, traditional cancer treatment would no longer be my choice, even though my first time around with breast cancer I did resort to a modified conventional treatment. Although I refused chemotherapy, I did utilize surgery and radiation. But since that time my feelings have changed regarding treatment protocols and now I always choose alternative medicine first as my personal approach to health care. I do acknowledge that pharmaceuticals and Western medicine have their place, particularly where it involves pain, infection, or mental illness. I also realize that when it comes to cancer, many people are not comfortable with alternative choices. I understand and respect any decision a patient chooses to make for themselves regarding their personal health. The purpose of this chapter is to inform you of ways to maximize your success if you do choose to go mainstream.
Some do survive traditional treatment. But building up the body before and during treatment and being sure to work with new advances just makes sense and gives the patient the best shot.
Knowledge is power. Just making the correct choice is no longer enough. Misdiagnosis (such as what I experienced) and medical ignorance are both factors in survival. As patients, we need to be informed and knowledgeable about what is available and what is best for us individually. This interview with Bill Faloon will inform you and enable you to better approach the treatment course you have personally chosen.
Do not allow yourself to give power over your life and health to anyone else. It is always your choice. It is my hope that after reading this book, you come away feeling that you are now an informed patient, and that now you can direct your disease treatment and feel that you have some power over this horrible invader.
Shockingly in many cases mainstream oncologists are overlooking proven methods to better treat their patients. The doctors and scientists at Life Extension offer their subscribers consultations for cancer patients. And this team will introduce you to FDA-approved treatments that are routinely denied to patients because apathetic oncologists seem to prefer to place their patients on highly profitable assembly lines. That is the sad fact. According to Bill Faloon, “The second biggest killer in America is medical ignorance and it is the number one reason people die.”
Life Extension has uncovered numerous therapies that can greatly improve a cancer patient’s chances of long-term survival or cure. They feel many mainstream oncologists don’t even consider the scientifically documented nontoxic approaches to saving their patients’ lives, and this is a tragedy. The beginning of this interview discusses a wide range of non-toxic approaches to saving patients’ lives and this is critical information if you are choosing traditional “standard of care” treatment. If ever you or a loved one find yourself in the vulnerable position of a cancer diagnosis, you will be helped by knowing this valuable information.
SS: Hello, Bill. Life Extension offers your members a unique consultation service. When a patient calls for information or referrals, what is the first question you ask after they reveal they’ve been newly diagnosed with cancer?
BF: We ask if they have undergone any conventional treatments, including surgery. SS: Why is that?
BF: Because cancer patients often call us right before they are about to undergo surgery or some other conventional therapy. We inform them of what we feel are necessary steps to reduce the risk of a recurrence of the primary tumor and the emergence of metastatic disease.
SS: Are you saying there are steps cancer patients can take even before surgery to improve their odds?
BF: Absolutely. The rationale for surgical removal is that you can get rid of the cancer by removing it from the body. This approach does not take into account that after surgery the cancer will frequently metastasize to different organs. Startling scientific findings reveal that cancer surgery can increase the risk of metastasis. This flies in the face of conventional medical thinking, but the facts are undeniable.
SS: How does surgery increase metastatic risk?
BF: During the surgical procedure, natural barriers that contain the tumor to a region on the body are breached, enabling cancer cells to escape their original confinement and spread to other parts of the body. Surgery also induces immune suppression while initiating an inflammatory cascade that provides cancer cells with biological fuel to propagate. Surgery inflicts a wound on the body that requires healing. The body secretes growth factors to facilitate healing. Unfortunately, these same growth factors also stimulate tumor cell growth. Unless the proper steps are taken before surgery, cancer cells can spill into the bloodstream from the surgical margins and establish metastatic colonies in other parts of the body.
SS: What happens after the cancer cells enter the bloodstream?
BF: In some cases, turbulence from the fast-moving blood destroys the cancer cells. Cancer cells must also avoid detection and destruction from immune cells circulating in the bloodstream. This is why it is so important to boost a patient’s immune system before surgery, so that cancer cells that escape during the surgery are killed by activated immune cells.
SS: What happens if cancer cells are not destroyed?
BF: Rogue cancer cells that survive in the blood can adhere to the lining of the blood vessel and burrow through to invade an organ. These malignant cells can then multiply and become a new metastatic cancer. This is why it is so important to take steps before surgery, so that cancer cells that escape during the surgery are killed by activated immune cells.
SS: How long have scientists known that surgery itself can cause metastasis?
BF: Life Extension uncovered data back in 1985 indicating that surgery increased metastatic risk, and we identified methods to counteract the adverse effects of cancer surgery. Just this year, 2009, in the medical journal Annals of Surgery, researchers reported that cancer surgery itself can create an environment in the body that greatly lessens the obstacles to metastasis. Another article in the British Journal of Cancer in 2001 stated that “primary tumor removal may result in sudden acceleration of metastatic process.” This corroborates observations that relatively soon after surgery, metastatic lesions quickly emerge that were not necessarily evident prior to the surgical procedure.
SS: You are saying these reports indicate that the surgery itself could cause the cancer to spread. So what can those undergoing surgery do to protect themselves against increased risk?
BF: They need to circumvent all the mechanisms that cancer cells utilize to establish metastatic colonies.
SS: Give me an example.
BF: Cancer cells must be able to clump together and form colonies that can expand and grow. It is unlikely that a single cancer cell will form a metastatic tumor, just as one person is unlikely to form a thriving community. Cancer cells use adhesion molecules to facilitate their ability to clump together. Present on the surface of cancer cells, these molecules act like Velcro by allowing freestanding cancer cells to adhere to each other. The adherence of circulating tumor cells to the blood vessel walls is an essential step for the process of metastasis. Cancer surgery increases tumor cell adhesion. In one experiment that mimicked surgical conditions, scientists reported that the binding of cancer cells to the blood vessel walls was increased by 250 percent! Therefore, it is critically important for a person undergoing cancer surgery to take measures that can help to neutralize the surgery-induced increase in cancer cell adhesion. Fortunately, a natural supplement called modified citrus pectin can do just that.
SS: What makes this different from regular citrus pectin?
BF: Citrus pectin—a type of dietary fiber—is not absorbed from the intestine. However, modified citrus pectin has been altered so that it can be absorbed into the blood and exert its anticancer effects.
SS: How does it prevent cancer cell adhesion?
BF: By binding to adhesion molecules on the surface of cancer cells, thereby preventing cancer cells from sticking together and forming a cluster. It also inhibits circulating tumor cells from latching onto the lining of blood vessels. This was demonstrated by an experiment in which modified citrus pectin blocked an adhesion molecule’s activity in the lining of blood vessels by an astounding 95 percent. Modified citrus pectin also substantially decreased the adhesion of breast cancer cells to the blood vessel walls.
SS: Does it protect against other kinds of cancer cells?
BF: In a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, a group of mice were given it and then injected with prostate cancer cells. A group of mice not receiving the pectin served as the control group. Lung metastasis was noted in 93 percent of the control group, whereas only 50 percent of the pectin group experienced lung metastasis. Even more noteworthy was the finding that the citrus pectin group had an 89 percent reduction in the size of the metastatic colonies compared with the control group. In a similar experiment, mice injected with melanoma cancer cells experienced a greater than 90 percent reduction in lung metastases compared with the control group.
SS: This is impressive, but I’m sure many will wonder, does this work in humans? Are there human studies?
BF: Human studies have been done on very advanced patients with modest benefits. In one trial, ten men with recurrent prostate cancer received 14.4 grams per day. After one year, a considerable improvement in cancer progression was noted, as determined by a reduction of the rate at which the PSA increased. This was followed by a study in which forty-nine men with advanced prostate cancer were given modified citrus pectin for a four-week cycle. After two cycles of treatment, 21 percent of the men experienced a stabilization of their disease or improved quality of life; 12 percent had stable disease for more than twenty-four weeks. Please remember that these prostate cancer study subjects already suffered from advanced disease. It would appear more logical if these patients had initiated supplementation before surgical procedures to prevent metastatic colonies from being established, as was done in the successful laboratory studies. This is why we at Life Extension try to encourage cancer patients to call us before surgery, so we can suggest supplements like this before metastatic colonies have already formed.
SS: What else can cancer patients take to inhibit cancer cell adhesion?
BF: Cimetidine is a drug historically used to alleviate heartburn. Cimetidine also possesses potent anticancer activity. You can purchase this over the counter, and cimetidine inhibits cancer cell adhesion by blocking the expression of an adhesive molecule called E-selectin, which is on the surface of cells lining blood vessels. Cancer cells latch onto E-selectin in order to adhere to the lining of blood vessels. By preventing the expression of E-selectin, cimetidine significantly limits the ability of cancer cell adherence to the blood vessel walls. This effect is analogous to removing the Velcro from the blood vessel walls that would normally enable circulating tumor cells to bind.
SS: How do we know this?
BF: In a study published in the British Journal of Cancer in 2002, sixty-four colon cancer patients received standard therapy with or without cimetidine (800 milligrams per day) for one year. The ten-year survival for the cimetidine group was 84.6 percent. This is in stark contrast to the control group, which had a ten-year survival of only 49.8 percent. Remarkably, for those patients with a more aggressive form of colon cancer, the ten-year survival was 85 percent in those treated with cimetidine compared with a dismal 23 percent in the control group. These findings were supported by another study with colorectal cancer patients whereby cimetidine given for just seven days at the time of surgery increased three-year survival from 59 percent to 93 percent! The Life Extension Foundation first recommended cimetidine to cancer patients in 1985. It is absurd to think that virtually no oncologists prescribe it today, despite its efficacy being demonstrated against a wide range of cancers.
SS: What dosages does Life Extension recommend for cimetidine and modified citrus pectin?
BF: The published scientific data provide a compelling case for cancer patients to take, five days prior to surgery, 14 grams of modified citrus pectin and 800 milligrams of cimetidine daily. This combination regimen may be followed for a year or longer to reduce metastatic risk.
SS: What about immune function?
BF: As I mentioned earlier, the surgical procedure suppresses immune function. It is also important for cancer patients to optimize lifelong immune surveillance to reduce the risk of a recurrence, so taking the proper immune-boosting drugs, hormones, and supplements is vitally important.
SS: What types of immune cells are suppressed in cancer patients?
BF: Research has shown that natural killer cells spontaneously recognize and kill a variety of cancer cells. To illustrate the importance of NK cell activity in fighting cancer, a study published in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment examined NK cell activity in women shortly after surgery for breast cancer. The researchers reported that low levels of NK cell activity were associated with an increased risk of death from breast cancer. In fact, reduced NK cell activity was a better predictor of survival than the stage of the cancer. In another alarming study, individuals with reduced NK cell activity before surgery for colon cancer had a 350 percent increased risk of metastasis during the following thirty-one months.
SS: Does surgery itself really suppress immunity?
BF: Yes. Numerous studies document that cancer surgery results in a substantial reduction in natural killer cell activity. In an investigation having ominous implications, NK cell activity in women having surgery for breast cancer was reduced by over 50 percent on the first day after surgery. In light of this mounting evidence, a group of researchers stated that even transitory immune dysfunction after surgery may permit cancers to form sizable metastases. This surgically induced NK impairment could not happen at a worse possible time. It is right after surgery that activated immune cells are most needed to fight metastasis.
SS: So what should cancer patients do?
BF: Fortunately, there are nutraceutical and pharmaceutical interventions known to enhance natural killer cell activity in cancer patients. One natural supplement that can increase NK cell activity is called PSK, a specially prepared extract from the mushroom Coriolus. PSK has been shown to enhance NK cell activity in multiple studies. PSK’s ability to enhance NK cell activity helps to explain why it has been shown to dramatically improve survival in cancer patients. For example, 225 patients with lung cancer received radiation therapy with or without PSK (3 grams per day). For those with more advanced stage III cancers, more than three times as many individuals taking PSK were alive after five years (26 percent), compared with those not taking PSK (8 percent). PSK also more than doubled five-year survival in those individuals with less advanced stage I or II disease (39 percent versus 17 percent). SS: Does PSK work against other cancers?
BF: Yes. A group of colon cancer patients was randomized to receive standard therapy alone or standard therapy plus PSK, which was taken for two years. The group receiving PSK had an exceptional ten-year survival of 82 percent. Sadly, the group receiving the conventional standard therapy alone had a ten-year survival of only 51 percent. In a similar trial reported in the British Journal of Cancer in 2004, colon cancer patients received standard therapy alone or combined with PSK (3 grams per day) for two years. In the group with a more dangerous stage III colon cancer, the five-year survival was 75 percent in the PSK group. This compared with a five-year survival of only 46 percent in the group receiving standard therapy alone. Research has confirmed that PSK also improves survival in cancers of the breast, stomach, esophagus, and uterus/cervix.
SS: What else can help?
BF: Garlic, glutamine, IP6 [inositol hexaphosphate], AHCC [active hexose correlated compound], and lactoferrin all help boost NK activity. One experiment in mice with breast cancer found that glutamine supplementation resulted in a 40 percent decrease in tumor growth paired with a 2.5-fold increase in NK cell activity. Your readers are welcome to receive a free copy of the latest dosing recommendations for these immune-boosting nutrients and drugs by going to your website, www.suzannesomers.com, and clicking on Life Extension.
SS: What about mistletoe extract? I feel that has worked very well for me.
BF: Scientists in Germany explored the effects of mistletoe extract on NK cell activity in sixty-two patients undergoing surgery for colon cancer. The participants were randomized to receive an intravenous infusion of mistletoe extract immediately before they were given general anesthesia, or were given general anesthesia alone. Measurements of NK cell activity were taken before, and twenty-four hours after, surgery. As expected, the group that did not receive mistletoe experienced a 44 percent reduction in NK cell activity twenty-four hours after surgery. The group receiving mistletoe did not experience a significant decrease in NK cell activity after surgery. The scientists concluded infusion of mistletoe extracts before surgery can prevent a suppression of NK cell activity in cancer patients.
SS: What about drugs?
BF: Yes. There are drugs proven to work, but most oncologists fail to utilize them properly. Pharmaceuticals used to increase NK cell activity include interferon-alpha and granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor. These drugs are shown to prevent surgery-induced immune suppression when given prior to surgery, yet most oncologists wait until white blood cells drop precipitously before prescribing these immune-boosting drugs. Another immune-boosting drug for cancer patients to consider for preventing or treating metastatic disease is interleukin-2. If your readers have any questions about these immune-boosting drugs, they can go to your website, click on Life Extension, and scroll down to a group called International Strategic Cancer Alliance; or call 1-800-327-9009 twenty-four hours a day.
SS: Are cancer vaccines really working?
BF: Yes, they are, and it is too bad the FDA keeps delaying their approval. In a study conducted in 2005, 567 individuals with colon cancer were randomized to receive surgery alone, or surgery combined with vaccines derived from their own cancer cells. The median survival for the cancer vaccine group was over seven years, compared with the median survival of four and a half years for the group receiving surgery alone. The five-year survival was 66.5 percent in the cancer vaccine group, which dwarfed the 45.5 percent five-year survival for the group receiving surgery alone. This glaring difference in five-year survival clearly displays the power of individually tailored cancer vaccines to focus a person’s own immunity to target and attack residual metastatic cancer cells. There are vaccines to combat prostate, melanoma, and other cancers, but the FDA mandates that patients fail toxic conventional therapies before being allowed to try these vaccines. At these late stages, when the patient’s immune function has been decimated by radiation and chemotherapy, these vaccines do not work nearly as well as they could if given earlier in the treatment process.
SS: I know that the formation of new blood vessels enables cancer cells to rapidly grow. Can you tell my readers more about this and why it’s important?
BF: The formation of new blood vessels (angiogenesis) supplying the tumor is a requirement for successful metastasis, since tumors cannot grow beyond the size of a pinhead without expanding their blood supply. It might be surprising to learn that the presence of the primary tumor serves to inhibit the growth of metastatic cancer elsewhere in the body. The primary tumor produces antiangiogenic factors which restrict the growth of their metastatic offspring. Regrettably, the surgical removal of the primary cancer results in the removal of these antiangiogenic factors, and the growth of metastases is no longer inhibited. That is why it is so important to incorporate antiangiogenesis therapies prior to and immediately after surgery.
After surgery, levels of growth factors that increase angiogenesis are elevated, such as vascular endothelial growth factor [VEGF]. This can result in an increased formation of new blood vessels supplying areas of metastatic cancer, including dormant micrometastatic colonies.
SS: What can be done to suppress VEGF?
BF: Various nutrients have been shown to inhibit VEGF. These include soy isoflavones (genistein), silibinin (a component of milk thistle), green tea (EGCG), and curcumin. In one experiment, EGCG—the active constituent of green tea—was administered to mice with stomach cancer. The results demonstrated that green tea reduced the tumor mass by 60 percent, while also reducing the concentration of blood vessels feeding the tumor by 38 percent. Remarkably, EGCG decreased the expression of VEGF in cancer cells by an astounding 80 percent! The authors of the study concluded that EGCG “is a promising candidate for antiangiogenic treatment of gastric cancer.”
SS: Let’s talk about curcumin. How does it interfere with angiogenesis?
BF: Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine noted that curcumin is a direct inhibitor of angiogenesis that functions by down-regulating VEGF. The cell adhesion molecules we discussed earlier that facilitate metastasis are up-regulated in active angiogenesis. Curcumin can also block this effect.
SS: Is there a best method for taking these?
BF: Five days prior to surgery, the patient may consider supplementing with standardized green tea extract, curcumin, soy genistein extract, and other nutrients that suppress VEGF—and thus help protect against angiogenesis. Even if a person is fighting cancer that has already metastasized, these same nutrients can help suppress tumor angiogenesis that permits further tumor growth. For the latest dosing recommendations for these nutrients, readers can go to your website and click on Life Extension.
SS: What else can cancer surgery patients do to improve their odds of a cure?
BF: The conventional approach is to use general anesthesia during surgery, followed by intravenous morphine after surgery for pain control. The conventional approach, however, may not be the optimal way to prevent surgery-induced metastasis. The use of morphine directly after surgery poses significant problems. At a time when immune function is already suppressed, morphine further weakens the immune system by diminishing NK cell activity. One study found that morphine increased angiogenesis and stimulated the growth of breast cancer in mice. The researchers concluded that the clinical use of morphine could potentially be harmful in patients with angiogenesis-dependent cancers. Surgical anesthesia has also been shown to weaken NK cell activity.
SS: What should cancer surgery patients ask their doctors to do?
BF: Given the problems associated with morphine and anesthesia, researchers have explored other approaches to surgical anesthesia and pain control. One novel approach is the use of conventional general anesthesia combined with regional anesthesia, which refers to anesthesia that only affects a specific part of the body. The benefits achieved with this approach are twofold: the use of regional anesthesia reduces the amount of general anesthesia required during surgery, as well as decreasing the amount of morphine needed after surgery for pain control.
SS: If their doctors ask, what scientific studies support this?
BF: In one experiment, cancerous mice received surgery with general anesthesia alone or combined with regional anesthesia. The scientists reported that the addition of regional anesthesia to general anesthesia markedly attenuates the promotion of metastasis by surgery. In this study, regional anesthesia reversed 70 percent of the metastasis-promoting effects of surgery caused by general anesthesia alone. Doctors at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine compared NK cell activity in patients receiving general or regional anesthesia for abdominal surgery. NK cell activity dropped substantially in the general anesthesia group, while NK cell activity was preserved at preoperative levels in the group that received regional anesthesia. In another study, fifty women having breast cancer surgery with general anesthesia combined with regional anesthesia were compared with seventy-nine women who received general anesthesia during their breast cancer surgery followed by morphine for pain control. After a follow-up period of three years, dramatic differences were noted between the two groups. Only 6 percent of patients who received regional anesthesia were diagnosed with liver, lung, or bone metastasis compared with a 24 percent risk of metastatic recurrence in the group that did receive regional anesthesia. Stated differently, women who received regional and general anesthesia had a 75 percent decreased risk for metastatic cancer. Furthermore, the women who did not receive regional anesthesia had almost a sevenfold greater risk of lymph node metastasis compared with the women who received regional anesthesia.
SS: These are startling survival improvements. What about managing chronic pain after surgery?
BF: Our research shows patients requiring morphine for pain control after surgery can consider asking their doctor for a medication called tramadol instead. Unlike morphine, tramadol does not suppress immune function. On the contrary, tramadol has been shown to stimulate NK cell activity. In one experiment, tramadol blocked the formation of lung metastasis induced by surgery in rats. Tramadol also prevented the surgery-induced suppression of NK cell activity.
SS: Are there other methods to reduce the risk of metastasis?
BF: Yes, there are. There is considerable evidence showing that surgeries that are less invasive—and therefore less traumatic—pose less risk of metastasis, compared with more invasive and traumatic surgery. Laparoscopic surgery is one type of minimally invasive surgery, in which operations in the abdomen, pelvis, and other regions are performed through small incisions, as compared to the much larger incisions needed in traditional “open” surgeries.
SS: Again, for a patient’s doctor, what human studies are there?
BF: A study published in the Lancet compared laparoscopic with open surgery in patients with colon cancer. In contrast to the group receiving traditional open surgery, the laparoscopic surgery group had a 61 percent decreased risk of cancer recurrence coupled with a 62 percent decreased risk of death from colon cancer. A similar study reported a 56 percent decreased risk of death from colon cancer for laparoscopic surgery as compared with traditional open surgery. Minimally invasive surgery has produced substantial improvements in survival for those with lung cancer. Video-assisted thoracic surgery, a minimally invasive surgery, was compared with traditional open surgery. The five-year survival from lung cancer was 97 percent in the video-assisted thoracic surgery group. This greatly contrasts with the 79 percent five-year survival in the open surgery group. Laparoscopic surgery results in faster healing and reduces surgical complications along with pain and discomfort.
SS: You mentioned earlier that the inflammation process caused by surgery facilitates metastasis. How does this happen?
BF: Surgery causes an increased production of inflammatory chemicals, such as interleukin-1 and interleukin-10. These chemicals increase the activity of cyclooxygenase-2 [COX-2], a potent inflammatory enzyme. COX-2 promotes cancer growth and metastasis. SS: Can you tell us a little more?
BF: An article appearing in the journal Cancer Research found levels of COX-2 in pancreatic cancer cells to be sixty times greater than in normal pancreatic cells. Levels of COX-2 were one hundred fifty times higher in cancer cells from individuals with head and neck cancers as compared to healthy volunteers. COX-2 fuels cancer growth by stimulating the formation of new blood vessels feeding the tumor. COX-2 increases cancer cell adhesion to the blood vessel walls. COX-2 also enhances the ability of cancer cells to metastasize, as experiments with mice revealed that colon cancer cells expressing high levels of COX-2 metastasized freely to the liver, while colon cancer cells expressing low levels of COX-2 did not metastasize to the liver.
SS: This is startling information. How long have we known about this?
BF: The Life Extension Foundation incorporated COX-2-inhibiting compounds into its cancer treatment protocols back in 1996, but it was not until much later that cancer researchers began to understand the important role it plays in promoting cancer growth. In a study published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research in 2004, 288 individuals undergoing surgery for colon cancer had their tumors examined for the presence of COX-2. The findings were alarming—the group whose cancers tested positive for the presence of COX-2 had a 311 percent greater risk of death compared to the group whose cancers did not express COX-2. A subsequent study in lung cancer patients found that those with high tumor levels of COX-2 had a median survival of only fifteen months, whereas those with low tumor levels of COX-2 had a median survival of forty months.
SS: Walk me through what happens when cancer patients are treated with COX-2 inhibitors.
BF: There are some rather dramatic results against certain cancers. For example, 134 patients with advanced lung cancer were treated with chemotherapy alone or combined with Celebrex (a COX-2 inhibitor). For those individuals with cancers expressing higher amounts of COX-2, treatment with Celebrex resulted in a 66 percent reduced risk of death as compared to those who did not receive Celebrex. Treatment with Celebrex also slowed cancer progression in men with recurrent prostate cancer. Perhaps the most impressive display of the antimetastatic effects of COX-2 inhibitor drugs was presented at the annual conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in 2008. In this study, the incidence of bone metastases in breast cancer patients who had taken a COX-2 inhibitor for at least six months following the diagnosis of breast cancer was compared to the incidence of bone metastases in breast cancer patients who had not taken a COX-2 inhibitor. Remarkably, those who were treated with a COX-2 inhibitor were 90 percent less likely to develop bone metastases than those who were not treated with a COX-2 inhibitor.
SS: Are there nondrug approaches that have some of the same benefits?
BF: Yes, there are. Nutrients known to inhibit COX-2 include curcumin, resveratrol, vitamin E, soy isoflavones (genistein), green tea (EGCG), quercetin, fish oil, feverfew, and silymarin (from milk thistle). Scientists at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York experimentally induced a fourfold increase in COX-2 activity in human breast cells, which was completely prevented by resveratrol. Resveratrol blocked the production of COX-2 within the cell, as well as blocking COX-2 enzyme activity.
SS: With all these choices, how can my readers learn what doses of nutrients and drugs they should take?
BF: As we speak, Suzanne, a dedicated team of clinical oncologists and researchers at the International Strategic Cancer Alliance are preparing a meticulous report on the optimal doses of nutrients and drugs that a cancer patient should consider during the pre- and postoperative period. As with the other information we’ve discussed, your readers can obtain a free copy of this report by visiting www.suzannesomers.com and clicking on Life Extension.
SS: What about patients whose cancer has already metastasized?
BF: At that point, Suzanne, the patient has to undergo meticulous testing to determine which survival genes in their particular tumor have enabled it to escape eradication by conventional therapy. For example, mutations in one of the genes encoding the ras proteins are associated with up-regulated cell proliferation. These ras mutations are found in an estimated 30 to 40 percent of all human cancers. A mutated ras protein gene behaves like a switch stuck in the “on” position, continuously misinforming the cell, instructing it to divide when the cycle should be turned off. Fortunately, a number of readily available compounds can turn off the cell-proliferating effects of mutated ras oncogenes. Among these are fish oil, garlic, and green tea. The temporary use of high-dose statin drugs can also effectively turn off ras oncogene expression.
SS: How do we know this?
BF: Patients with primary liver cancer were treated with either the standard therapy or a combination of standard therapy and 40 milligrams per day of pravastatin. Median survival increased from nine months among patients treated with only standard therapy to eighteen months when using pravastatin plus standard therapy. When one considers the other in-tegrative therapies available to treat primary liver cancer, the use of compounds that suppress ras oncogene expression offers tremendous potential.
SS: What else can we do to protect ourselves?
BF: As a result of normal aging, the loss of bone mineral density results in the release of a compound that can fuel tumor cell propagation; it’s called transforming growth factor. This problem is especially insidious in breast and prostate cancer patients, where tumor cells have a proclivity to invade healthy bones, degrade them, and cause the release of even higher amounts of transforming growth factor. All cancer patients should take extraordinary steps to maintain their bone density, including consuming lots of vitamin D3, vitamin K2, and minerals such as boron, magnesium, and calcium. Cancer patients with evidence of circulating tumor cells should also consider an injection of a bisphosphonate drug called Zometa to reduce the ability of tumor cells to bind to bone. Remember, the release of growth factors from bone into the bloodstream can fuel cancer cell growth, so it is important for cancer patients to be especially vigilant in maintaining their bone structure. This is another critical area of cancer treatment so often overlooked by mainstream oncologists.
SS: Wow. There’s a lot of incredible information here. Is there anyplace where cancer patients can access your full menu of recommended treatments?
BF: There is, Suzanne. If your readers visit your website and click on Life Extension, they can review an in-depth article we maintain, titled “Cancer Treatment: The Critical Factors.” We also maintain at this site our cancer surgery protocol, along with articles that describe the best ways to optimize all cancer treatments.
SS: What about patients with advanced stages of cancer who have failed toxic conventional treatments because they did not know to call Life Extension first?
BF: We have helped quite a few patients drive advanced disease into remission and even attain outright cure.
SS: How have you done that?
BF: Through the International Strategic Cancer Alliance. This group consists of a dedicated team of clinical oncologists and researchers who think way outside the box to deliver evidence-based therapies that are light-years ahead of conventional oncology. Their track record to date is nothing short of earth-shattering. Patients routinely call Life Extension thanking us for referring them to this organization.
SS: What got you so interested in cancer treatment?
BF: Back in the 1970s, I joined a small group of people seeking ways to prevent disease and slow aging. There were only about three hundred of us back then. When our friends or family members were diagnosed with cancer, we reviewed what their oncologists were doing. Some members of the group would then go to a university medical library (this was before the Internet, of course) and see what was being published in the scientific literature. To our astonishment, in each and every case, we would identify therapies that had demonstrated efficacy in published studies but were not being utilized by the treating oncologist. That experience ignited an intense personal interest to educate cancer patients about better ways of treating their disease.
SS: Is that why you cofounded Life Extension?
BF: That is one reason why our nonprofit was formed. Not just for cancer, but for every age-related disorder. We are routinely uncovering scientifically validated methods of preventing and treating diseases that are overlooked by hurried physicians. I have authored hundreds of articles documenting safer and more effective ways of protecting against disease, yet the medical establishment seldom pays attention.
SS: I read your articles every month in Life Extension magazine and find them fascinating. I think my readers will be as impressed as I am with the lifesaving information you bring out each month. And I love that you provide free copies, so readers can see for themselves whether they think it’s valuable.
BF: Thank you, Suzanne, for enlightening the world to these scientific advances. Since virtually none of what we have just discussed is patented, you won’t see these therapies advertised on TV by drug companies, and pharmaceutical reps are not going to promote them to practicing oncologists.
SS: Thank you, Bill. I very much admire the work you are doing.
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