Just curious as to people thoughts on this page and the suggestions ?
The main difference between standard treatments and alternative treatments is that standard treatments have had their effectiveness demonstrated in clinical trials while alternative haven't. For a drug to be approved after a clinical trial, it does not have to work for 100% of the patients. But if it works for only one patient, it won't get approved. So you can actually consider yourself a guinea pig each time you start a new drug. Indeed a clinical trial result will never be able to tell you whether the drug will benefit YOU.
Some of the alternative treatments mentioned in the website were studied in vitro or in mice. You can search pubmed if such study exists:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
Remember though that many drugs have first been tried successfully in vitro or in mice before going to clinical trials but very few are successful in clinical trials. Some even turn out to be counterproductive (spur tumor growth instead). There is no reason why it should be any different for alternative treatments...
It's not a good idea to try alternative treatments at the same time as standard treatment unless your oncologist is aware of it. An alternative treatment has the potential to render a standard treatment ineffective...
Thanks for that Elodie. I'm sure the medical model is the best hope but I also have had experience with the Gerson Therapy because my first wife used it after being discharged from hospital with bowel cancer back in the 80's because there was nothing more they could do for her. These cells had metastasised to the liver (and before treating such by removing and then freezing same killing the ca cells and putting it back again had come into vogue), and which finally killed her 3 months later. A rather intense regime of squeezed juices including fresh calf liver every morning, shots of liver extract and caffeine enemas administered 5 x daily, etc etc (all to keep the liver functioning apparently). This was in collaboration with a doc we had then and who said that the therapy had actually kept her very well but the ca had in the end elevated her cholesterol levels to such an extent that she actually died from a heart attack. Altho' when she did pass it was the most peaceful death. This was back in '89
If you do decide to try one of the alternative therapy, please do let us know how it goes. Individual's experiences are more valuable than statistics :-)
I’M having a CTA to see if I can try embolization. Has anyone tried embolization
Trying embolization of pelvic sarcoma next week. Had two resections and now need a third but surgeon doesn’t want to operate “only if he has to” Radiation shrunk tumor but it has now started to grow again. Will keep this group up to date on progress.
Good luck with you treatment … I am starting chemotherapy soon for synovial sarcoma. Anything I learn I will share. Keep you head up… hope burns eternal.