cancerwife

I'm starting to look into this "alternative" modality. It's widely touted by alternative doctors as beneficial for cancer and even a possible "cure". I haven't formed an opinion on it yet.

About Coley's Toxins

I'm not going to re-invent the wheel here. I'm going to refer you to the most palatable introduction to Coley's Toxins for the layman—a paid report written by Ralph Moss on his website (www.cancerdecisions.com). It's a 100 page report but is quite inexpensive. For those of you who don't have the patience or time to read through that long report, you can check out Dr. Moss' shorter description of Coley's Toxins for free .

Telomerase is an enzyme that cells use to divide. Most normal adult human cells have near to zero telomerase activity. However, cancer cells retain that ability and use it to multiply infinitely. Over 90% of cancers have inappropriate activity levels of telomerase. Telomerase therefore is a primary target for anti-cancer drugs. Now, scientists have made progress in understanding the active region of telomerase. "The study elucidates the active region of telomerase and provides the first full-length view of the telomerase molecule's critical protein component.

This newscientist article talks about how a cancer patient's macrophages can be transformed from tumor feeders into tumor killers. It seems this is done by inhibition of NF-kB. Of interest is to note that Curcumin is widely known to do exactly that. Could it be that this is one mode of action for Curcumin's anti-cancer properties?

This is an interesting article that shows mice that were starved before being administered a single dose of chemo had far greater survival (presumedly from chemo toxicity, not tumor kill):-

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/cancer/dn13564-starving-befor...

Of interest is that there will be a clinical trial starting with 20 patients.

More links:

• http://www.cancercompass.com/message-board/message/all,22614,0.htm

Looks like there's a new cancer vaccine technique that may be used to target synovial sarcomas:-

• Phase II Trial of Curcumin in Patients with Advanced Pancreatic Cancer
  Two patients (out of 25) showed clinical biological activity. One had ongoing stable disease for >18 months; interestingly, one additional patient had a brief, but marked, tumor regression (73%) accompanied by significant increases (4- to 35-fold) in serum cytokine levels.
   
• http://www.goodhealth.nu/News_Articles/050111-curcumin-anti-cancer-US.htm

Capsaicin has been shown to trigger apoptosis in prostate cancer cells without harming normal cells: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-03/aafc-pch031306.php. the dose of pepper extract fed orally to the mice was equivalent to giving 400 milligrams of capsaicin three times a week to a 200 pound man.

I originally started looking into CoQ10 to help protect my wife's heart from doxorubicin toxicity. Go to any knowledgeable health practitioner (ND, nutritionist, alternative doctor) and they will insist that you take CoQ10 to protect against doxorubicin toxicity. My wife, being a cell biologist did some research by Kenneth Conklin and thought that it made sense.

That said, I am now seeing small studies and anecdotes claiming that "high-dose" CoQ10 can even reverse cancer. There is also evidence that CoQ10 levels are lower in cancer patients.