Recently Diagnosed or Relapsed? Stop Looking For a Miracle Cure, and Use Evidence-Based Therapies To Enhance Your Treatment and Prolong Your Remission
Multiple Myeloma an incurable disease, but I have spent the last 25 years in remission using a blend of conventional oncology and evidence-based nutrition, supplementation, and lifestyle therapies from peer-reviewed studies that your oncologist probably hasn't told you about.
Click the orange button to the right to learn more about what you can start doing today.
“Resveratrol inhibited the proliferation of human multiple myeloma cell lines regardless…Curcumin induces apoptosis in cancerous cells and prevents Multidrug Resistance (MDR)…these studies demonstrate that EGCG is a potent suppressor of MM cell growth…”
I’m talking about chemosensitation in a general sense of the word. Could three different nutritional supplements, resveratrol, curcumin and green tea, chemosensitize a patient’s multiple myeloma?
I have researched and written about a host of nutritional supplements that have been shown to enhance the efficacy of specific chemo regimens for the treatment of myeloma.
The studies linked and excerpted below talk about two closely related ideas.
Curcumin’s chemosensitizing of cancer in general and specifically of monoclonal proteins.
Resveratrol’s chemosensitizing of cancer in general and of monoclonal proteins specifically.
Green tea (EGCG)’s chemosensitizing of cancer in general and of monoclonal proteins specifically.
I know what you’re thinking. “My oncologist told me not to take ——- with chemo.” And while many myeloma patients supplement with curcumin, resveratrol and/or green tea extract, they stop before they undergo chemotherapy.
My response to your oncologist poo-pooing nutritional supplementation is to wonder about the foundation of medicine- evidence-based medicine. By this I mean that there is “evidence” below to propose the idea of chemosensitizing myeloma.
But I don’t believe that your oncologist can show you a study that shows that curcumin or resveratrol or green tea promotes the growth of myeloma. I agree that there are studies that cite green tea reducing the efficacy of proteasome inhibitors (think velcade). I would take this into account.
For the record, I agree that there is risk in doing anything that is not studied and approved by the FDA. But remember that drug companies will never research curcumin, resveratrol, or green tea. Nor will the FDA. And remember that FDA approved “safe and effective” chemotherapy regimens for the treatment of multiple myeloma only buy you time. And come with short, long-term and late stage side effects.
In all honesty, if I were a newly diagnosed myeloma patient myself, I think I would undergo the standard-of-care therapies in hope of achieving a long first remission. I think all newly diagnosed myeloma patients should undergo a low-dose regimen of induction therapy in order to buy themselves several years and study all things multiple myeloma.
However, once I began running out of options I would start thinking outside the box…
Have you been diagnosed with multiple myeloma?
Hang in there,
David Emerson
MM Survivor
MM Cancer Coach
Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Consider integrative therapies to chemosensitize myeloma-
“Whether resveratrol, a component of red grapes, berries, and peanuts, could suppress the proliferation of multiple myeloma (MM) cells by interfering with NF-kappaB and STAT3 pathways, was investigated. Resveratrol inhibited the proliferation of human multiple myeloma cell lines regardless of whether they were sensitive or resistant to the conventional chemotherapy agents.
This stilbene also potentiated the apoptotic effects of bortezomib and thalidomide. Resveratrol induced apoptosis as indicated by accumulation of sub-G(1) population, increase in Bax release, and activation of caspase-3. This correlated with down-regulation of various proliferative and antiapoptotic gene products, including cyclin D1, cIAP-2, XIAP, survivin, Bcl-2, Bcl-xL, Bfl-1/A1, and TRAF2.
In addition, resveratrol down-regulated the constitutive activation of AKT. These effects of resveratrol are mediated through suppression of constitutively active NF-kappaB through inhibition of IkappaBalpha kinase and the phosphorylation of IkappaBalpha and of p65.
Resveratrol inhibited both the constitutive and the interleukin 6-induced activation of STAT3. When we examined CD138(+) plasma cells from patients with MM, resveratrol inhibited constitutive activation of both NF-kappaB and STAT3, leading to down-regulation of cell proliferation and potentiation of apoptosis induced by bortezomib and thalidomide. These mechanistic findings suggest that resveratrol may have a potential in the treatment of multiple myeloma…”
“Despite all enhancement and improvement in therapeutic strategies, MM is almost incurable, and patients suffering from this disease eventually relapse. Curcumin is an active and non-toxic phenolic compound, isolated from the rhizome of Curcuma longa L.
It has been widely studied and has a confirmed broad range of therapeutic properties, especially anti-cancer activity, and others, including
anti-proliferation,
anti-angiogenesis,
antioxidant and
anti-mutation activities.
Curcumin induces apoptosis in cancerous cells and prevents Multidrug Resistance (MDR). Growing evidence concerning the therapeutic properties of curcumin caused a pharmacological impact on MM. It is confirmed that curcumin interferes with various signaling pathways and cell cycle checkpoints, and with oncogenes…”
“In conclusion, these studies demonstrate that EGCG is a potent suppressor of MM cell growth with specificity provided by its interaction with LR1, a cell-surface receptor implicated in the interaction of myeloma cells with basement membrane. It leads to induction of multiple interrelated pathways implicated in growth arrest, providing a concerted activity leading to MM cell death both in vitro and in vivo.
These data, therefore, indicate that a natural product with antioxidant properties from green tea has a specific activity against MM, making it an ideal compound for therapy and possible chemoprevention of this disease…”
“Extensive research over the past few decades led to the development of diverse monotargeted therapies for the management of cancer. However, the mortality rate due to cancer persists very nearly the same.
Development of chemoresistance due to the modulation of different genes, proteins, and pathways stands as the major hindrance in the success of existing monotargeted cancer chemotherapy.
Curcumin, isolated from the Indian golden spice “turmeric”, on the other hand, exhibits the ability to modulate multiple targets via the regulation of diverse transcription factors, inflammatory cytokines, growth factors, different protein kinases, and various other enzymes.
Furthermore, safety and tolerability as evidenced by multiple clinical trials carried out thus far together with cost-effectiveness are some other added yet inevitable advantages offered by this agent.
Additionally, due to its enormous ability to modulate different cell signaling pathways and various signaling biomolecules, curcumin serves as an effective chemosensitizer for different chemotherapeutic agents such as
in different malignancies. The present chapter details the chemosensitizing potential of curcumin and the key molecular mechanisms involved based on the existing literature…
“Resistance to chemotherapy still remains a major challenge in the clinic, impairing the quality of life and survival rate of patients. The identification of unconventional chemosensitizing agents is therefore an interesting aspect of cancer research.
Resveratrol has emerged in the last decades as a fascinating molecule, able to modulate several cancer-related molecular mechanisms, suggesting a possible application as an adjuvant in cancer management.
This review goes deep into the existing literature concerning the possible chemosensitizing effect of resveratrol associated with the most conventional chemotherapeutic drugs. Despite the promising effects observed in different cancer types in in vitro studies, the clinical translation still presents strong limitations due to the low bioavailability of resveratrol…”
The use of EGCG could enhance the effect of conventional cancer therapies through additive or synergistic effects as well as through amelioration of deleterious side effects. Further research, especially at the clinical level, is needed to ascertain the potential role of EGCG as adjuvant in cancer therapy…”
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1 comment
Tania says
last year
I’m scared to take Maintenance Revlimid starting Feb1/23,
Because I’m doing so well in remission with no symptoms Ology in a little bone pain in one of my fractures and I don’t want any secondary effects I do take all the supplements including mistletoe, mushrooms, etc. should I take it?
My m-protein # this week was 3.6 and I’m scared of relapse!
