Metabolic treatment of cancer.

[estoud]

I would like an opinion on this article.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/245...

Thanks

[Darryl Partner]

What are your thoughts? What questions do you have from reading this?

[estoud]

I read about the patient in the article that has hormone independent prostate cancer who took it upon himself to use alpha lipoic acid and hydroxy citrate to regain sensitivity to anti androgen drugs. I was just wondering if the metabolic changes from anti androgen treatment could be reversed by these supplements.

[Tall_Allen in reply to estoud]

It was ONE patient who wasn't even among the selected group of 10 patients who had an estimated life expectancy of 2-6 months (NONE of whom benefited from the treatment. I would not draw ANY conclusions from this, as the authors do not..

[teamkv]

There are A LOT of studies done on cancer, inflammation and metabolic syndrome as well as how fasting increases the effectiveness of chemo and radiation. Some very interesting reading. There are other articles out there on metabolic treatment of cancer, so keep digging.

[cesanon]

"A randomized clinical trial is warranted"

I think their conclusion says it all. There's nothing useful here for us other than to wait for more research.

[Canoehead in reply to cesanon]

I wouldn’t be that dismissive. The metabolic component of all cancers is undeniable - based on logic and fairly basic biochemistry. If the are carcinogens, substances that tend to cause cancer, then there will surely be substances that tend to prevent cancer. You may wait for a long time for randomized clinical trials, because there is no money to be made studying common, inexpensive nutrients/supplements.

There is a wealth of written material on this subject, some well documented and persuasive, and some seemingly junk science. Certain themes emerge, however, from the totality of the literature, one of which, for example, is that there is a connection between inflammation and cancer. A second is the connection between serum glucose and cancer (although not so much for prostate cancer specifically).

While still relying on conventional treatments I choose to take the best from admittedly imperfect evidence and use that to increase my odds. So one patient reversing his castrate resistance with hydroxycitrate and ALA is not statusticly significant in any way, it still brings a smile to my face, because i’ve been taking hydroxycitrate since shortly after I was diagnosed.

[cesanon in reply to Canoehead]

I didn't mean to imply that there is no metabolic impact on cancer.

I am just saying that complex biological systems keep their logic to themselves. And the only way to understand cause and effect is to do clinical testing that includes a control group.

Logic is useful for forming a testable hypothesis, but not useful for informing treatment. For example, a supplement that is good for making your cells healthy may be good at helping the health of cancer cells as well.

And idiopathic testimonials are sort of useless. They are sort of useless even for short-term phenomena such as cessation of headaches. They are emphatically useless for long-term phenomena such as reducing the growth of cancer over months and years periods.

There is just no substitute for a statistically validated clinical trial with a control group. And even those can have varying reliability depending on their design.

So at this point, we can be reasonably certain about the effect of cigarette smoking on lung cancer. But the effect of anti-oxidants on prostate cancer, we can't be so certain about. Do they fight prostate cancer or do they protect prostate cancer cells from death? Nobel prize winner Thomas Watson believes the later. It is not knowable without some real-life clinical testing.

[billyboy3 in reply to cesanon]

wise words C

[Nachas613]

scholar.google.com/scholar?...

[Hidden]

My only comment. In 2004, I underwent a six month chemo trial, a trial which used known drugs in combination with cancer killing properties and the promotion of cell apoptosis, one of the restrictions was absolutely no anti-oxidents nor ant other supplement. I asked and received the following answer, that we are killing cells that rapidly multiply - not promoting these same cells to remain healthy. Cancer cells mutate and survive by rapidly multiplying or reproducing before they die. The trick is to get them to self destruct before they can mutate. It’s really a struggle for survival of the fittest. Note: Hair and finger/toe nails also have cells that rapidly multiply and grow and such, are also affected by treatment.

The drugs which I took with these characteristics are: Taxotere, Adriamycin, Estramustine, Ketoconzale, and Prednisone. And of course, Eligard/Lupron. Note: I also took Zofran for nausea and Dexamethasone the day before, of, and after the Taxotere infusion. While no walk in the park, all side effects were short lived. To me, it was a small price to pay in the quest for life.

I was struck by an additional comment by a man who who has spent his entire career in urologic cancer research, “We found out how to kill cancer in 1978, the trick is to how to kill the cancer without killing the patient first. I think that I am there.” Further, “Everyway I slice and slice that mouse, the cancer is dead.” I took this to mean that depending on body weight, size of the tumor burden, and the strength of the body, the poison used to kill rapidly multiplying cancer cells and the agents used, in combination, to promote mutated cellular self annilation, are key to a successful fight; and anything that guards these cells are counter productive.

We all have varying degrees of disease progression and as such, we are all different. I was most fortunate and my outcome is not typical of most results. They are many factors involved in kicking the bastard. Before one embarks on self medication, please discuss with your “pro” its merits first.

Gourd Dancer