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High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) for Pancreatic Cancer
High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) ablation might be a potentially effective and safe therapeutic option for the patients with unresectable LAPC.
High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound has come along way as a therapy for prostate cancrer.
According to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, pancreatic cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related death in the U.S. Seventy-one percent of patients will die within the first year of diagnosis. If your pancreatic cancer is caught early-enough you may be eligible for a potentially curative surgery called “The Whipple Procedure.”
Otherwise, you will be faced with a dismal prognosis. However, my oncologist told me that I was end-stage in 1997. Different cancer but the idea is that conventional oncology is…limited.
If you consider taking a “glass is half full” approach to a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, the fact that conventional oncology offers so few curative therapies might be a good thing. How, you ask? By forcing you think outside the box. For example, take the standard-of-care chemo regimen for pancreatic cancer, and then add those non-toxic therapies that may enhance the efficacy of these toxic chemotherapy regimens. Curcumin has been shown to enhance the efficacy of gemcitabine, for example. Keep in mind that curcumin is notoriously difficult for the body to absorb. Scroll down the page to read about the most bioavailable curcumin formulas.
Then add another, evidence-based, non-toxic therapy like High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound or HIFU. And you’ve cobbled together a pancreatic therapy plan that encompasses conventional stardard-of care, integrative and non-conventional therapies together.
To learn more about integrative therapies for Pancreatic Cancer, please watch the short video below:
To Learn More about Complementary, Integrative and Non-conventional Pancreatic Therapies- click now
Have you been diagnosed with unresectable pancreatic cancer?
Thank you,
David Emerson
- Cancer Survivor
- Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Recommended Reading:
- Chemo-induced Skin Rash in Pancreatic Cancer
- Pancreatic Cancer- Conventional, Integrative and Non-Conventional Therapies
- Highly-Focused Ultrasound- Palliative Therapy for Metastasized Prostate and Breast Cancer?
Response of patients with locally advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma to high-intensity focused ultrasound treatment: a single-center, prospective, case series in China
“Purpose: Patients with unresectable locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC) are still in dire need of effective therapies. We performed this cohort study in order to assess the efficacy and safety of high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) ablation in treating patients with unresectable LAPC.
Results: All the 87 patients received HIFU ablation successfully, and were included in the efficacy and safety analysis. With a median follow-up of 16 months, median OS was estimated to be 12.2 months, with 95 % CI of 11.1–12.7 months. The 6-month and 12-month survival rates were 94.25% (95% CI =86.74–97.57) and 50.85% (95% CI =38.17–62.21), respectively.
Tumor responses were observed in 32 (36.8%) of 87 patients and CA 19-9 response rate was 56.2%. Global health status, physical function, emotional function, and cognitive function of patients were significantly improved after HIFU treatment, and symptoms of fatigue and pain were significantly reduced. A total of 28.7% (25/87) of patients reported adverse events (AEs), mainly including fatigue (14/87), abdominal pain (7/87), fever (7/87), nausea (5/87), and rash (4/87). No severe AEs and HIFU-related deaths were reported.
Conclusion: HIFU ablation might be a potentially effective and safe therapeutic option for the patients with unresectable LAPC.
The Most BioAvailable Curcumin Formulas
“Based on a review of these studies, it is evident that better bioavailability of formulated curcumin (CU) products is mostly attributed to improved solubility, stability, and possibly low first-pass metabolism”
A search of the Pubmed database for the word curcumin yields 601 studies spaning health topics from multiple myeloma and colorectal cancer, to chemotherapies that synergizes with CU, to Alzheimer’s Disease, arthritis and more. Based on years of reading studies and personal accounts, I think it is safe to say that CU supplementation is safe and relatively inexpensive.
I have read about myeloma patients taking daily doses of CU from 400 milligrams to 8 grams (1000 milligrams = 1 gram). By almost any measure, CU is a safe, inexpensive wonder drug.
The only challenge is that CU is famously difficult to absorb in the body. In other words, a person has to mix curcumin with some sort of fat (coconut oil, chocolate, etc.) or take a brand of curcumin capsule that is already formulated to be more “bioavailable” in order to derive the full benefit of CU.
The study linked and exerpted below reviews different formulations of CU. The study itself lists the three most bioavailable formulation/brand of CU and I’ve added an excerpt from a further review from Consumerlab.com that lists four additional bioavailable brands of CU.
Recommended Reading:
- CU versus Turmeric as Cancer Therapy-What’s the Difference?
- CU Suppresses Colon Cancer, Enhances Chemotherapy
- Prostate Cancer: CU Curbs Prostate Cancer Metastases, Study Shows
- CU vs. cancer: The scientific evidence continues to pile up
Curcumin
“CU is a bright yellow chemical produced by some plants. It is the principal curcuminoid of turmeric (Curcuma longa), a member of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae. It is sold as an herbal supplement, cosmetics ingredient, food flavoring, and food coloring.[1]“
Bioavailable curcumin formulations: A review of pharmacokinetic studies in healthy volunteers.
“Curcumin is a widely studied natural compound which has shown tremendous in vitro therapeutic potential. Despite that, the clinical efficacy of the native CU is weak due to its low bioavailability and high metabolism in the gastrointestinal tract. During the last decade, researchers have come up with different formulations with a focus on improving the bioavailability of curcumin. As a result, a significant number of bioavailable curcumin-based formulations were introduced with the varying range of enhanced bioavailability.
The purpose of this review is to collate the published clinical studies of CU products with improved bioavailability over conventional (unformulated) CU. Based on the literature search, 11 curcumin formulations with available human bioavailability and pharmacokinetics data were included in this review. Further, the data on clinical study design, analytical method, pharmacokinetic parameters and other relevant details of each formulation were extracted.
Based on a review of these studies, it is evident that better bioavailability of formulated curcumin products is mostly attributed to improved solubility, stability, and possibly low first-pass metabolism. The review hopes to provide a quick reference guide for anyone looking information on these bioavailable curcumin formulations.
Based on the published reports,
exhibited over 100-fold higher bioavailability relative to reference unformulated CU. Suggested mechanisms accounting for improved bioavailability of the formulations and details on the bioanalysis methods are also discussed.”
According to Consumerlab.com:
“Novasol has the highest bioavailability (185 x compared to unforumulated CU), followed by Curcuwin (136 x), Longvida (100 x), Meriva (48 x), BCM-95 (27 x), Curcumin C3 Complex + Bioperene (20 x), and then Theracumin (16 x).”