Vitamin A and Arsenic Effectively Treat Leukemia, Also Vitamin C

UPDATE: 27 March 2010 - In 1974 the US Cancer Institute presented scientific papers on the findings that Vitamin A was effective  in preventing cancer as well as preventing cellular proliferation.  Additionally, later in 1974 other scientific papers reported that vitamin A is definitively an anti-cancer supplement offering cellular protection and offers protection from malignant growth.  The scientist found that vitamin A reversed the cellular damage caused by the carcinogen and it helps your body's defense mechanism to destroy cancer cells.  This is definitely a substance that offers protection against and reversal of cancers according to the findings.

One must ask exactly what is behind the major effort against using nutritional supplements in the prevention and treatment of cancer today.

UPDATE: 31 March: Vitamin C for Leukemia

Get your copy of CHI's Vitamin C Healthy Handout with your tax deductible donation to learn how to do high dose vitamin C therapy at home.
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ORIGINALLY POSTED 17 FEB 09
This is a very interesting report because it offers an option that is less toxic than standard chemotherapy. It also shows that vitamins are effective and helpful in cancer care.

Leukemia patients treated with arsenic, vitamin A
"The treatment was effective ... and worked better than either drug given alone."
Mon Feb 16, 2009
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Doctors appear to have safely and successfully treated patients with cancer of the blood and bone marrow with a combination of arsenic and vitamin A, according to long-term study in China.

In an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the doctors said they prescribed the regimen to 85 patients and monitored them for an average of 70 months.

Of these, 80 patients went into complete remission and the researchers did not find any associated long-term problems in their heart or lungs and there was no development of secondary cancers.

"Two years after their treatment, the patients had arsenic blood and urine levels well below safety limits, and only slightly higher than controls," they wrote.

"The treatment was effective ... and worked better than either drug given alone."

The authors recommended that the treatment be given to patients with blood and bone marrow cancer, or acute promyelocytic Leukemia.

While vitamin A is regarded by some experts as a viable treatment, this is the first time that its use has been monitored for such an extended period of time.

Since the 18th century, arsenic compounds have been used as medicines to treat certain ailments. The US Food and Drug Administration approved it for the treatment of people with blood and bone marrow cancer in 2000.

(Reporting by Tan Ee Lyn; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Something Important to Remember

History has taught us that looking for cures for disease is not always medically nor economically effective. President Nixon's "War on Cancer" is a great example of the unproductive nature of this approach. In 1971, he signed the National Cancer Act legislating $1.6 billion expenditure to find a cure for cancer. That year, 335,000 Americans died of cancer. In 2008, 37 years later, this number has increased to 565,650 people — up by 69%!

Since 1971, the Federal Government, private foundations and companies have spent around $200 billion in a quest to cure cancer. This $200 billion generated 1.5 million scientific papers about the basic biology of cancer. For 37 years, the War on Cancer (the majority of the funding for cancer) has gone into research to eradicate malignant cells rather than to keep normal cells from becoming malignant in the first place.

The best way for prevention is to adopt a healthier way of eating and enjoying nutrient-rich foods, which have been found to contain many potent disease-fighting compounds that help prevent disease. Americans need to learn that the drugs used to treat today's chronic preventable diseases not only do not cure them, but would be rendered largely unnecessary.

Cancer: A Nutritional and Environmental Dis-Ease

This last sentence from the following story tells it all.

"One theory is that the change in caloric intake beefs up cell repair mechanisms against destructive agents called free radicals."

Since 1962 we have been told that cancer is a nutritional disease. Now we have the added and cumulative effect of environment, including vaccines. Even veterinarians are relating cancer in companion animals to the vaccines.

The use of the term "free radicals" also tells you that there is a very real reason why sound nutrition and vitamins are helpful in the process of recovering from cancer.

Articles like this make me wonder if any of the so called researchers know what they are doing, or even what they are saying.

If I look at just one cancer drug, 5 FU, a fluoride based long used chemo drug, I find that it depletes these nutrients -

NB:Limited test tube research occasionally does support the idea that an antioxidant can interfere with oxidative damage to cancer cells. However, most scientific research does not support this supposition.

Antioxidants*

Multiple nutrients* (malabsorption)
Taurine* reduces the likelihood and/or severity of a potential side effect caused by the medication.
Beta-carotene* (mouth sores)
Chamomile* (mouth sores)
Eleuthero* (Eleuthero (Eleutherococcus senticosus)
Russian research has looked at using eleuthero with chemotherapy. One study of patients with melanoma found that chemotherapy was less toxic when eleuthero was given simultaneously. Similarly, women with inoperable breast cancer given eleuthero were reported to tolerate more chemotherapy.45 Eleuthero treatment was also associated with improved immune function in women with breast cancer treated with chemotherapy and radiation.)
Ginger* (nausea)
Glutamine* (mouth sores)(intestinal toxicity)
Melatonin
N-acetyl cysteine* (NAC)
Probiotics (Lactobacillus GG)
Spleen peptide extract* (see text)
Thymus peptides* (see text)
Vitamin B6
Vitamin E*, topical (mouth sores)(also prevents hair loss)
Milk thistle*
PSK* (Coriolus versicolor)- The mushroom Coriolus versicolor contains an immune-stimulating substance called polysaccharide krestin, or PSK. PSK has been shown in several studies to help cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. One study involved women with estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer. PSK combined with chemotherapy significantly prolonged survival time compared with chemotherapy alone. Another study followed women with breast cancer who were given chemotherapy with or without PSK. The PSK-plus-chemotherapy group had a 25% better chance of survival after ten years compared with those taking chemotherapy without PSK. Another study investigated people who had surgically removed colon cancer. They were given chemotherapy with or without PSK. Those given PSK had a longer disease-free period and longer survival time. Three grams of PSK were taken orally each day in these studies.)

New clue on why cancer spread is linked to diet Mar 11, 2009
PARIS (AFP) – Investigators on Wednesday said there could be a clue to explain why dietary restriction succeeds or fails in braking the growth of cancer.

Scientists spotted a century ago the link between calorie intake and the progression of certain kinds of tumour.

But how this works at the molecular level has been unclear. In addition, tumours may remain puzzlingly immune to fasting among some individuals but not among others, which is partly why the practice has not been incorporated into cancer treatment.

Nada Kalaany and David Sabatini of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) looked at the impact of food curbs on six types of human cancers that had been grafted onto mice which had been genetically modified to lack immune resistance.

The mice were then split into two groups, with one batch able to tuck into a standard rodent diet for two to three weeks. The others received daily meals that amounted to a 40 percent reduction in calories compared to their counterparts, which led to a fall of between 20 and 30 percent in body weight.

The researchers conclude that tumours' sensitivity to fasting depends on a key pathway -- activation of an enzyme called phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase, also called PI3K, which plays an important role in the proliferation of cancer cells.

If the PI3K pathway is closed, tumours respond to dietary restriction, and vice versa.

The study is important because it helps drug designers who are working hard on prototype treatments that mimic the effects of dietary curbs on cancer.

As several cancer types carry mutations that could cause the PI3K mechanism to open up, the paper suggests that the approach will not work in certain cases.

The paper is published by the British-based journal Nature.

Previous research on lab rodents suggests that a calorie decrease of 10 to 50 percent leads to a reduction in the incidence of certain cancers and brakes the speed at which they spread.

One theory is that the change in caloric intake beefs up cell repair mechanisms against destructive agents called free radicals.

Green Tea Downside Possible

I am aware that there are many studies supporting the use of ECGC from green tea for cancer and other health concerns.

I am also aware of the many serious side effects of cancer drugs which commonly this information is not provided those patients receiving them. This distresses me more when dealing with recombinant pharmaceuticals known as genetically engineered drugs.

What most people who strongly stand behind the use of green tea do not know is that it has the potential to cause pancreatic cancer.

I am sure the FDA has not tested all the possible interactions between drugs and I am also fairly certain that the same goes for herbal products.

Probably a good study would be to show how herbs and other nutritional approaches to cancer do more good than harm. And how they often offer cure, without long term damaging side effects, when pharmaceuticals do not.

Green tea may block activity of common cancer drug

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Some components of green tea may counteract the beneficial effects of a widely used anti-cancer agent called Velcade, also known as bortezomib.

"We know that cancer patients look to green tea extracts among other natural supplements to complement their therapeutic regimens," Dr. Axel Schonthal, said in a statement. "We wanted to better understand how the compounds in green tea interact with a cytotoxic chemical therapy and how that may affect patient outcomes."

In lab studies, Schonthal, from the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, and colleagues evaluated the impact of green tea compounds on the efficacy of bortezomib against multiple myeloma, a blood cancer, and glioblastoma, a malignant brain tumor.

Bortezomib normally fights cancer by inducing tumor cell death. However, Schonthal and colleagues were surprised to find that some of the green tea polyphenols and other components actually prevented bortezomib from killing tumor cells.

"Our surprising results indicate that green tea polyphenols may have the potential to negate the therapeutic efficacy of bortezomib," Schonthal said.

"The current evidence," Schonthal said, "is sufficient enough to strongly urge patients undergoing bortezomib therapy to abstain from consuming green tea products, particularly the widely available, highly concentrated green tea and EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate) products that are sold in liquid or capsule form."

The findings of this study, the investigators emphasize, are specific for patients taking bortezomib as opposed to any other common cancer drug.

"Although the study has exposed detrimental effects of great tea in specific combination with Velcade, this should not minimize the previously reported potentially beneficial effect of this herb," Schonthal said. "Related studies with other types of cancer therapies are promising and green tea extract may actually improve the anticancer effects of other drugs."

SOURCE: Blood, online February 3, 2009.

Bone Loss Problematic, Bone Drugs Risky

In January 2008 the FDA issued warnings regarding the class of drugs developed to allegedly help people with osteopenia and osteoporosis.

Numerous problems are associated with these drugs, including bone frailty and increased fracture rates.

Now chemotherapy for cancer seems to be opening a new window to ply these drugs on patients who already are health compromised because of the cancer and chemotherapy drug treatments.

It is interesting to note that there does exist a safe and effective approach to maintaining storng, healthy and flexible bones with vitamins and other natural supplements.

Some other physicians express concern -"

Bisphosphonates, like Fosamax and Actonel, are taken up by osteoclasts with resulting loss of osteoclast activity and inhibition of bone resorption, and bone remodeling (link). Although DEXA scanning confirms increased bone density and studies such as the FIT suggest reduced fracture rate, Susan Ott, MD raises questions about the long term safety of bisphosphonates. Although the bisphosphonates appear to have short term benefits, she speculates that after 5 years of use, there is severe suppression of bone formation with negative effects such as microdamage and brittleness.

Jennifer P. Schneider, MD, PhD reports a 59-year old previously healthy woman on long-term alendronate. While on a subway train in New York City one morning, the train jolted, and the woman shifted all her weight to one leg, felt a bone snap, and fell to the floor, suffering a spontaneous mid -femur fracture (see image). In the months following, it became clear that the fracture was not uniting. Schneider speculates that increased bone density from the bisphosphonate drug does not necessarily equate with good bone quality. By decreasing osteoclast activity and bone resorption, and therefore bone formation as well, microdamage, and brittle bone may result in fractures.

Odvina reports on 9 cases of spontanous fracture while on alendonate. Five of the nine cases were spontaneous mid femur fractures. Two had bilateral mid femur fractures same as Toulouse Lautrec. Six cases had delayed or absent fracture healing. Histomorphometric analysis of the cancellous bone showed markedly suppressed bone formation, and Odvina raised the possibility that severe suppression of bone turnover could develop during long-term alendronate therapy, resulting in increased susceptibility to, and delayed healing of, nonspinal fractures.

Dimitrakopoulos reports on 11 patients presenting with necrosis of the jaw, claiming this to be a new complication of bisphosphonate therapy administration, i.e. osteonecrosis of jaws. He advised clinicians to reconsider the merits of the rampant use of bisphosphonates. Osteonecrosis of the jaw is a common finding in pycnodysostosis. The bisphosphonates recreate the same clinical p rofile of spontaneous mid femur fractures, failure of bone healing and jaw necrosis which tormented Toulouse Lautrec.

In spite of this well known information, there are four more drugs in clinical trials which are specifically designed to inhibit cathepsin K, the enzyme defect in Lautrec's genetic bone disease. FDA approval for use in osteoporosis treatment is expected. Excuse me here, but perhaps this thinking needs re-evaluation. In essence we are creating a population of women with Toulouse Lautrec's bone disease. Ironically, women who sustain fractures while on Fosamax are told by their docs that the fractures are due to the underlying osteoporosis, not the drug. "

Cancer Treatment May Result In Bone Loss, Study Finds

ScienceDaily (2008-11-17) -- A new cross-Canada study has found that breast and prostate cancer treatment can foster bone loss. Scientists explain how loss of bone mass might affect 46,000 people diagnosed with breast and prostate cancer each year and place them at increased risk for osteoporosis and fractures. ... > read full article

FDA Issues Alert on Bone Drugs
By Elizabeth Trotta
The FDA posted an alert on Monday regarding possible severe, sometimes incapacitating bone, joint, and/or muscle pain in patients taking a class of bone-density drugs called bisphosphonates.
The possibility of such pain is listed in the drugs' prescribing information, but the FDA warned that doctors may overlook it to the point that it's prolonged or results in impairment, possibly requiring analgesics. This pain can occur days, months or years after initial use, and the risk factors for and incidence of severe musculoskeletal pain associated with the class are still unknown, according to the agency.

"Healthcare professionals should consider whether bisphosphonate use might be responsible for severe musculoskeletal pain in patients who present with these symptoms and consider temporary or permanent discontinuation of the drug," noted the health regulator in a Med Watch post on Monday.

The class of bone drugs in question include:

Proctor & Gamble's(PG Quote - Cramer on PG - Stock Picks) Actonel, Actonel +Ca, and Didronel

Novartis'(NVS Quote - Cramer on NVS - Stock Picks) Aredia, Reclast and Zometa

Roche and GlaxoSmithKline's(GSK Quote - Cramer on GSK - Stock Picks) Boniva

Merck's(MRK Quote - Cramer on MRK - Stock Picks) Foxamax, Fosamax + D

Sanofi Aventis'(SNY Quote - Cramer on SNY - Stock Picks) Skelid.

Drug companies downplay risks of bone-strengthening drugs for women
18.01.2008 Source: URL: http://english.pravda.ru/science/103518-bone_strengthening_drugs -0

Drug companies exaggerate the benefits and downplay the risks of prescribing bone-strengthening drugs for women whose bones are weakened but who do not have osteoporosis, a new report claims.

Drugs such as alendronate and risedronate do reduce the risk of fractures of women with osteoporosis, according to the article in the Jan. 19 issue of BMJ.

Alendronate is a bisphosphonate drug used for osteoporosis and several other bone diseases. It is marketed alone as well as in combination with vitamin D (2,800 U and 5600 U, under the name Fosamax+D). Merck's U.S. patent on alendronate is set to expire in 2008 and Merck has lost a series of appeals to block a generic version of the drug from being certified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Risedronate sodium is a bisphosphonate used to strengthen bone, treat or prevent osteoporosis, and treat Paget's disease of bone. It is produced and marketed by Procter & Gamble and Sanofi-Aventis.

In January 2006 P&G and its marketing partner Sanofi-Aventis filed a Lanham Act false claims lawsuit against rival drugmakers Roche and GlaxoSmithKline claiming false advertising about Boniva. The manufacturers of Boniva, a rival bisphosphonate, were accused in the suit of causing a "serious public health risk" through misrepresentation of scientific findings. In a ruling on on September 7 2006 U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty rejected P&G's attempted injunction. P&G was criticized for attempting to "preserve its market share by denigrating Boniva". Judge Crotty wrote that "Roche was clearly entitled to respond with its own data, provided that the data was truthfully and accurately presented".

Source: «PRAVDA.Ru».

The American Cancer Society Has It All Wrong

A new news report from the American Cancer Society (ACS) cites The Physicians Health Study headed up by Howard Sesso of Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston as "proof" vitamin C and vitamin E don't protect doctors from cancer.

The ACS conclusion also promulgates the concept that diet is the best source of vitamins.

In the study vitamin E was offered at 400 international units every other day; vitamin C was 500 milligrams daily.

At this low level of supplementation it would be difficult to reach therapeutic dose levels. It is the therapeutic dose level that protects and prevents.

It certainly is a vested interest of the ACS to dissuade the public from using vitamins because their survival relies on the fraudulent "Race for the Cure", no support for prevention and little or no inclusion of natural therapies that may be better alone or better augment the current strategies. The current strategies are linked to drugs and radiation with little to show for true long term survival in significant numbers.

It is sad to say that a Harvard affiliated institution is so remiss in its research approach that it has failed to uncover well established research that shows the effectiveness of the two vitamins for cancer prevention (such as colon cancer and vitamin E) or preventing hair loss with vitamin E provided at therapeutic dose level two days preceding chemo treatments. The therapeutic dose level of vitamin E in the very famous Drs. Schute Brothers study showing it reversed cardiovascular disease was 800 IU daily.

We also do not know if The Doctors Study used soy based vitamin E or the synthetic dl form which makes it half as effective as natural vitamin E products.

We don't know the form of vitamin C utilized either, and to say the least, the real daily minimum dose of vitamin C for adult humans is 3000 mg. Its hard to believe that 500 mg a day would do much at all, but 500 mg daily is eight times more than the USDA RDA!

As far as food sources of vitamins, yes there are some. The higher amounts are found in organically grown food. Most people can't afford organic fruits and vegetables. Commercial products are usually heavily sprayed with herbicides, pesticides and fungicides that effectively eliminate most vitamin content.

Vitamin C for instance, in therapeutic doses, can bring about dramatic recovery for blood based cancer. It has great effectiveness for hepatitis C recovery as well.

I've taken therapeutic doses of vitamin C for decades. I take no prescription drugs, don't wear glasses, don't have arthritis, kidney or gall stones, and have mostly dark brown hair. I'm told I don't look any where close to my age. And I'm not the only one I know who is a supplement supporter with similar results.

Resources for a primer of supportive information on the benefits of E and C.

Of course the choice is yours, but recall that in the late 1970s a Seattle area doctor told me that people in his practice recovered from standard cancer treatment much faster and with less problem when using the vitamin-mineral protocol I provided for him.

Perhaps, had they taken the vitamins before the diagnosis, they might never have experienced cancer.