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Neural Stem Cells and cancer

August 13, 2014

Scientists Use Neural Stem Cells To Treat Triple Negative Breast Cancer

Neural Stem CellsBreast cancer has caused lots of fear in women throughout the world. It is one of the most common cancers that are sending our ladies back into their early graves earlier than they ought to. This is a type of cancer that has continued to depopulate the world and rob us of our mothers and sisters leaving behind orphans and widowers.  There is another type of breast cancer that is not known to many but it is the most dangerous than the breast cancer many people are aware of. This breast cancer is known as Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). Triple negative breast cancer is the most difficult cancer to treat as these cancer cells are very resistant to drugs. These cancer cells do not have the characteristic receptors for estrogen, progesterone and Her2/neu that are normally targeted by most cancer treatment alternatives. Even the conventional cancer treatments like chemotherapy only serve to make the cancer cells more and more resistant. This makes it very hard to treat a patient with Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) as most treatments especially the conventional cancer treatments target these receptors that are missing in the cells. Without these receptors such treatments do not work completely and this only result in making the situation worse as chemotherapy will only lead to increased levels of free radicals in the body of the patient. The treatments must target receptors to work well. For instance Tamoxifen targets estrogen receptors, in absence of estrogen receptors Tamoxifen cannot work in cancer treatment. For this reason, TNBC is considered the most aggressive, the most likely to be treated with less-targeted (and therefore more toxic) forms of chemotherapy, and the soonest to return when treatment fails. This therefore means that other alternatives must be used to ensure that the Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is treated so that ladies are not condemned to death when they are diagnosed with this disease.

Effective in treatment of TNBC

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) has put doctors on endless pursuit of its cure. However most of the doctors have proposed the use natural herbs, vegetables and fruits as they are rich in anti-cancer properties that can help to fight Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) more effectively. One of the treatments methods that researchers have proposed is the use of neural stem cells.

Karen Aboody, M.D built a platform at city of hope that is now being used by Mooney, Ph.D. who is a postdoctoral CIRM Scholar and a colleague in Aboody’s laboratory to find out how these stem cells can be used to ferry chemotherapy drugs into the breast cells to curb metastasis of the breast cancer. The platform that these doctors are using involves the use of neural stem cells that naturally reach the cancer tumors in the body. In fact cancer stem cells play a vital role in cancer, metastasis. Their approach to killing the cancer cells involves modifying these neural stem cells to secrete an enzyme that activates a benign substance that powerfully works as a cancer killing agent in the tumors.

The use of neural stem cells in fighting the cancerous cells is good ideas as the stem cells will obvious make even the most resistant breast cancer cells to be destroyed. In this pursuit for better cancer treatment by use of the neural stem cells Dr. Mooney is working together withJacob Berlin, PhD to make this platform a cancer targeting delivery systems for nanoparticles which are essentially plastic containers that are ten thousands times smaller than the width of a single human hair. The doctors are using these plastic transporters to ferry the chemo drugs by filling them with the chemotherapy drugs and having them attached to the neural stem cells that thereafter transports them to the tumor sites. This treatment is very effective since the neural stem cells even pass through the blood -brain barrier reaching even tumors that might have spread to the brain. As the neural stem cells reach the tumor they release the chemotherapy drugs that are packed in the plastic vessels which kill the tumors.

The research on the use of the neural stem cells in fighting cancer has been promising so much that Mooney was awarded two-year postdoctoral cancer research fellowship awarded by the Ladies Auxiliary to the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States to focus specifically on breast cancer metastases. This shows that this treatment is effective and may soon be the best option recommendable to breast cancer patients.

“Cancer cells are very dynamic and elusive, mutating so quickly our current drugs cannot find or fight them, by using a living cell to deliver drugs, it can respond to environmental signals in the body – like inflammation – to track the tumors.” said Mooney. She earned her doctorate from the University of Colorado at Boulder and is studying business at Keck Graduate Institute.

Neural Stem CellsThe builder of this platform; Aboody has shown that the neural stem cell are very effective in treatment of some types of brain cancer such as glioma which is characterized by rapid growth and metastasis. This discovery is yet to make the treatment of Triple negative breast cancer more effective.

Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) is an experienced integrative cancer doctor that has helped many cancer patients in their fight against the disease. She has worked hard not only in treating the disease but also in availing informational support to cancer patients at Awaremed which has become a place called home for many cancer patients. Call on her now and get help on cancer.

Scientists Use Neural Stem Cells To Treat Triple Negative Breast Cancer

 

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Cannabis and Cancer

August 12, 2014

Safe Use of Cannabis In Cancer Treatment

CannabisNature has always given the best of cancer treatments that are often safe to the users. Integrative cancer doctors, cancer researchers and other nutritionists have recommended the use of natures given herbs and fruits to help in cancer treatment as they are free from chemicals that may cause collateral damage. Most greens are packed with antioxidants that are useful in fighting cancer. Most of the greens are also very good in boosting the immune system and help in fighting disease causing pathogens. Some of the proposed cancer treatment alternatives are not very welcomed by many states and even the cancer patients are afraid to try them. But cancer is a disease that can render anyone helpless and even ready to try the formidable. Use of narcotics in cancer treatments has been met with lots of controversy. It is not only narcotics that have been met with controversy in cancer treatments but even the safe use of marijuana in cancer treatment has been attracting lots of controversy. This is because in most federal states the use of marijuana has been prohibited- even for medical purposes.

Marijuana also known as Cannabis sativa is plant that grows widely in warm tropical climates. This plant has been used in the past for its medicinal value. Due to its ready market and wide use for non medical purposes, this plant has been produced in large scale for commercial purposes. There are 66 biologically active components of marijuana that has been identified by doctors. These are called cannabinoids. However the most noted component as potent is known as the delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol often shortened as THC. The potency of this delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol has been discovered to be useful in fighting cancer.

However potent these components are, there has been lots of problems with research on marijuana as the legislators classified marijuana as a narcotic drug denying access to marijuana even for medicinal purpose. This restriction came in 1970 thereby barring reasonable research to be done on the medicinal abilities of this plant.

The use of marijuana in cancer treatment began long ago even before most states allowed it to be used strictly for medicinal purposes. In a research that was done by Harvard Medical School in 1991discovered that nearly 50 percent of doctors in the United States recommended cannabis sativa to their cancer patients as a means of easing their pain and to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy and other conventional cancer therapies.

Use marijuana in cancer treatment got a thumb up after the favorable review of the Institute of medicine that stated that marijuana can be used effectively as an alternative to conventional cancer treatments. . The review reasoned that in some cancer patients that are already experiencing such side effects as nausea and vomiting swallowing pills becomes a problem thereby making it hard to continue with medication.

The release of the Institute of Medicine report seemingly opened ways for many research works to be published on the effectiveness of marijuana as an alternative cancer treatment. A review of clinical studies that was conducted in several states in 2001 found out that in 768 cancer patients marijuana was very effective anti-emetic in chemotherapy. Other studies that have also been done on the effectiveness of cannabis as cancer treatment found that the biologically active components in marijuana helped in preventing nausea, vomiting and pain in cancer patients. These studies also found that it helped improved the appetite of cancer patients.

Through numerous laboratory tests, scientists have been able to prove the tumor-fighting properties of cannabinoids. Researchers have discovered that the cannabinoids inhibit growth of tumors in animal models by modulating key cell-signaling pathways. However there have never been tests on humans. The researchers also reported that the cannabinoids are very well tolerated by the patients and their use do not produce the life threatening side effects that conventional cancer treatments are known for.

Today several studies have revealed that the active components of marijuana inhibit the growth of cancer cells and promote apoptosis; which is the programmed cell death in tumors. These components are able to accomplish all this by inhibiting angiogenesis. Without angiogenesis it becomes impossible for cancer metastasis. Researchers also noticed that unlike the haphazard chemotherapy that works by producing toxic free radicals, the active marijuana components work better by targeting the cancerous cells thereby evading the grave side effects.

Possible Danger

Cannabis is a drug that when used without observation of a qualified doctor can result in serious health problems. Smoking cannabis can result in such problems as irritating throat while increased exposure to such smoke can result in development of many cancers. To avoid the danger of smoke other ingestion methods such as capsules, food products and tinctures should be used.

CannabisMarijuana also increases the rate of heart beat which may beckon other diseases. Other complications that may arise from unsafe use of cannabis include; mental confusion, lack of concentration, anxiety, paranoia, panic, fear of loss of control, alienation or detachment, dry mouth, and reddened eyes. Excessive use of marijuana may also cause loss of memory and other grave complications. It is therefore advisable that no patient should try using marijuana as an alternative cancer treatment without the help of a doctor.

Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) is an experienced integrative cancer doctor that has helped many cancer patients in their fight against the disease. She has worked hard not only in treating the disease but also in availing informational support to cancer patients at Awaremed which has become a place called home for many cancer patients. Call on her now and get help on cancer.

Safe Use of Cannabis In Cancer Treatment

 

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Enzyme Therapy and Cancer

August 7, 2014

Enzyme Therapy As Used In Cancer Treatment

EnzymeCancer treatments are known for quite severe side effects on the patients. Known treatment like chemotherapy and radiation therapy not only kill the cancerous cells I the cancer patient but also kill the healthy cells. This will lead to the patient’s getting more deteriorated as time goes by and may eventually lead to loss of weight, skin becoming darker and even hair loss. Pain associated with these methods of treatments cannot be underestimated.  Researchers and doctors have been involved in lots of research work in a bid to get the best cancer treatment that is devoid of the disadvantages the conventional cancer treatment methods are known for.

Today, there are various ways through which cancer patients can be treated but your doctor may be helpful in identifying the best treatment you can get depending on whether the cancer is prostate, breast, mouth or even lung cancer. The doctor may also monitor your reaction to a specific treatment and decide whether to continue with it or adopt a better treatment for the disease. These discoveries are a breakthrough not only to cancer doctors but also to cancer patients have been seeking alternative treatment to the disease and the enzymatic therapy is one of the alternatives that the patients are trying their hands on.

Enzyme therapy as an alternative cancer treatment involves the patient taking supplements of enzymes. Enzymes are natural proteins which are very important as they stimulate and accelerate most biological reactions in the body. Digestive enzymes, which are mostly produced by the pancreas help in digestion as they break down food and help with the absorption of nutrients into the blood. Metabolic enzymes build new cells and repair damaged ones in the blood, tissues, and organs. The metabolic enzymes so are important for optimum cellular functions.

The history behind the enzyme therapy

Enzyme therapy is synonymous to John Beard. John Beard, who was a Scottish scientist, was the first person to use the pancreatic enzymes in cancer treatment in 1902. After this discovery the enzyme therapy was used by doctors in treatment of other diseases. Doctors in Germany are said to have used the enzyme therapy in treatment of such diseases as multiple sclerosis, cancer, and viral infections. The use of enzyme therapy has not stopped as some enzyme mixtures are still being used in other European countries.

The enzyme therapy was introduced in the United States in the 1920s by Dr. Edward Howell. Dr. Howell opined that by eating raw meat, people created an enzyme surplus in the body, which resulted in better health and increased resistance to disease. The doctor reasoned that the more the enzymes a person has in his body the efficient the normal bodily functions as well as the stronger immunity. Since the enzyme therapy was introduced in the United States, very many doctors have advocated its use especially as a part of the broader metabolic therapy regimen. Today there is an enzyme preparation that is being studied in the United States for possibility of being used alongside chemotherapy drugs in treating cancer patients.

Despite the fact that the enzyme therapy is widely used in treatment of cancer and other diseases, any well-designed studies showing that enzyme supplements are effective in treating cancer is not yet available. The major question that everybody asks and has kept enzyme therapy as an alternative cancer treatment quite controversial is that; enzymes when taken by mouth are broken down to amino acids before they are absorbed into the bloodstream, so how do they reach the tumors when taken by mouth?

The studies that have been done to verify the effects of the enzyme therapy on the cancer patients have borne different results. A study that was done in India found that taking enzymes helped to mitigate the side effects of the radiation therapy. Researchers however argue that the patients were not blinded, they knew they were taking enzyme supplements and so the results could have been achieved as a result of the patients’ expectations. Another study was done in Germany, in this study the patients were blinded as they did not know that they were taking enzyme supplements. This study did not show any positive effect of the enzyme therapy on the cancer patients.

There are other researchers in Eastern Europe who have tried to find out if this therapy is effective in cancer treatment. The general finding of these research works have showed that enzyme supplements may improve the quality of life and may generally have other benefits. Most of these studies sought to find out if enzyme therapy could be used in mainstream cancer treatments. These findings however were disputed on the basis that the patients were not blinded.

EnzymeDr. Nicholas Gonzalez did another study that involved pancreatic cancer patients. The findings of this research were published in Nutrition and Cancer in 1999. The study found that patients who were treated with pancreatic enzymes survived longer than patients with pancreatic cancer who were not under enzyme therapy. However an expert oncologist recently disapproved of the findings.”The study was small and obviously prone to several biases. Not only is the comparison with national averages unadjusted for confounders, but the principal results are based on patient selection; twelve patients who did not comply with treatment were excluded from analysis.”  The expert oncologist’s review stated.

Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) is an experienced integrative cancer doctor that has helped many cancer patients in their fight against the disease. She has worked hard not only in treating the disease but also in availing informational support to cancer patients at Awaremed which has become a place called home for many cancer patients. Call on her now and get help on cancer.

Enzyme Therapy As Used In Cancer Treatment

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Off-label Drugs and Cancer

August 3, 2014

Use of off-label Drugs in Cancer Treatment

off-labelIn the past, there was a belief that when you had gone for cancer diagnosis then the only options of treatment you had were only chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery. This belief seemingly has refused to leave the minds of very many people even after medical researchers and other oncologists have done lots of work to avail various alternatives to cancer treatments. The researchers are giving us better ways of treating cancer everyday and all we ought to do is find an integrative cancer doctor who can make the best out of the discovered cancer treatment alternatives. The reason to why so many alternatives to cancer treatment are sought everyday is not because there is no cancer cure, no cancer unlike HIV has known cures all the doctors and researcher are trying to do is to find us a better cancer treatment that is free from all the severe and life threatening side effects that cancer patients have to embrace while undergoing the conventional cancer treatments. Some of these alternatives also work better when used alongside conventional cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation therapy. They also increase the effectiveness of the chemotherapy treatment as they induce the cancer cells to consume poisoned food particles, an example of this is the Insulin potentiation therapy that has been used to effectively target the cancer cells, killing them without causing any severe hurt to the healthy body cells. Other alternative cancer treatments have also proved their effectiveness in fighting cancer and so it is time to shift this belief in conventional cancer treatments and accept the new inventions that can help cancer patients to get better treatments. There are very many alternatives to cancer treatments and that is one of the reasons why AwareMed exists; to let you know of all the available options that you can utilize in case you become a victim of this dreaded disease. Here is one of the alternatives.

Use of Off-label Drugs

The off label use of drugs is to use medicine for another reason other than the intended purpose for which it was approved by the United States FDA or any other regulatory body. It is the use of drug for the purpose that is not on the official label, hence “off-label”. There are very many drugs that are meant to treat other diseases but can work very well in cancer treatment. The utilization of these off-label drugs is not something unusual, though they are not as common as they ought to be. The regulatory bodies have not supported the use of drugs approved for treatment of a particular disease to be used in treatment of another disease and this may explain why the use of off-label drugs is not that common. Cancer is a disease that is caused by many factors and so is it treatment facilitated by many factors. There are conditions that cancer shares with other diseases and so the treatment that works in those other diseases will work rather perfectly in cancer treatment. The integrative doctors knows the relationship between cancer and other diseases and whether the off-label drugs can work better in suppressing the tumor growth and restore the health of the cancer patient. Experienced integrative cancer doctors like Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) can help personalize the use of off-label drugs to help in healing the cancer patient better.

The off-label drugs can work in different ways to help in fighting the cancer. The avenues through which the off-label drugs work to treat cancer are numerous and are based on the common features that cancer shares with the said diseases. It is not strange to hear that diabetes drugs are used for cancer.

Diabetes Drugs for cancer

One of the great oncologist; Otto Warburg showed the dependence of cancer cells on glucose. In his experiments he proved that cancer cells depended solely on sugar sources of energy to survive and metastasize. Without sugar the cancer cell will be starved to death as they will not access the necessary nutrient supplies. Diabetes drugs are used to suppress the sugar level in the blood. These drugs work in favor of cancer treatment as they tend to reduce the amount of energy that is available for the cancer cells to survive on. An integrated oncologist may decide to use a diabetic drug to suppress the sugar level in a cancer patient and hasten the death of cancer cells out of starvation. As the cancer cell will be dying the healthy body cells will be using other sources of energy like fats to survive.

Apart from diabetes drugs, there are other medications that are useful in cancer treatment. Drugs used in enhancing immunity can be used to stimulate the white blood cells to fight cancer cells. Antibiotics that are not mentioned as cancer drugs may help in fighting cancer by inhibiting the enzymes that the cancer cells are dependent on.

Noscapine has also been found to be very effective in fighting cancer as it helps in cancer by preventing the division of cancer cells.

off-labelSome of the drugs used as anti-HIV can also be used in cancer treatment. Examples are ritonavir, nelfinavir and saquinavir. A test that was done by Dr. Phillip Dennis found that these drugs have an effect on the growth of cancer as they were found to kill cancer cells through apoptosis, necrosis and autophagy.

Dr. Dalal Akoury is an experienced integrative cancer doctor who has seen very many cancer patients journey to victory in their fight against cancer. She is available for consultations. Just call her now and begin your journey to victory against cancer.

Use of off-label Drugs in Cancer Treatment

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Funding Cancer Treatment

July 28, 2014

How to Fund Your Cancer Treatment without a Loan
cancerCancer is not only a dangerous disease but it is also one of the most expensive diseases to treat. Cancer patients in most cases have to rely on insurance that in most cases do not support alternative cancer treatments; even the most effective alternative cancer treatments are not supported by these insurance covers. These insurance covers are often approved by state officials who in most cases are corrupt to the use of this money in other treatments that will not benefit them. Needless to mention some of the insurance covers that cancer patients have do not settle the entire treatment cost but just settles a percentage of the entire cost leaving the cancer  patient with another burden of looking for other financial sources to complete the treatment.

The financial crisis is something cancer patients are familiar with, patients face financial problems at different times in the course of the treatment. Some will need to look for the funds even before beginning the treatment, some will be broke in the middle of the training while some will lack money to take them through the remission period. Conventional cancer treatment methods are even the most expensive and an assumption that the United States has enough resources that can enable the citizens to treat cancer without financial problem is a lie. Americans just like any other cancer patient in the third world country feels the pinch when it comes to cancer treatment.

Financial crisis has caused many cancer patients to lose their lives as they were not able to complete the treatment. This is a problem that is still with us as the medical insurance is not helping the cancer patients in paying for the treatment and so the patients are forced to seek loans to help them pay for their treatment and this causes stress which is not good for cancer. This stress may affect the treatment.

However there is a financial product which can help the cancer patients to afford their treatment without taking a loan. In fact it allows the patient to access alternative cancer treatment that the insurance policy could not cover. This financial product was put in place to those people who were terminally ill not only from cancer but also other seriously expensive diseases to treat. Initially, this financial product was designed to help these people to enjoy there last days with a peace of mind. It was to allow them to quit their full time jobs and concentrate on other facets of their lives like having good time for the family, travelling and doing all other things that they could not afford to do before they die. However, this product can now be used by cancer patients to help them settle treatment bills.

Presents a better option to cancer patients.

In this option the patient’s whole life policy or term life policy or Group policy or FEGLI policy or Universal life policy and other types of life insurance policies that can be converted into whole life are sold to corporations with the highest bid. The corporations may buy the policy at a percentage of the whole life value at that time.

This allows the patient to obtain a given percentage of his whole life insurance policy in cash. He can then use this money to seek other alternative cancer treatments that are more effective than the conventional cancer treatments that the insurance could have paid for. Most people use this money for home treatment as they get quality time with their loved ones.

The patient will not have to sell all of his life insurance policies, he will only sell those policies that will give him enough money to spend on travel and treatment expenses. This money can help those patients who may have tried the conventional cancer treatments but did not succeed. It will help them settle bills for alternative cancer treatments. This money also give them a peace of mind, reduces their stress levels which is good for cancer recovery.

How to get the money

For the patient to benefit from this money, firstly his family will look for a broker who will be able to link them with the companies that buy the insurance policy. After the broker is contacted, he will look for the companies that can buy the insurance policy at the best price. He will let the family know of which company is ready to buy the policy at the highest price. The family will analyze the offer of the company, they are free to accept or decline the offer.

This money is very helpful as it allows the patient to heal faster. Most people do not always die from the effects of the disease but rather from the stress that is induced by the fact that they lack enough money to cater for their treatment.

CancerAfter the family has obtained this money, the best thing to do is to seek an integrative cancer doctor who will be able to handle the patient well by incorporating all the treatment methods that can work better for the patient. This money is a valid alternative source of fund for cancer treatment especially for patients who could not afford it otherwise.

You need to learn on ways to prevent the disease. You need reliable information to help you do this. Contact Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) for more information on health matters and be empowered to take good care of your life. Check her website for more information

How to Fund Your Cancer Treatment without a Loan

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