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Lung Cancer- Academic Centers with Experience Performing your Procedure is the Key-

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“Hospital volume was significantly associated with 30-day mortality…”Overall survival with lung cancer may be improved by initial treatment at an academic center rather than a non-academic facility…”

The same can be said for every other procedure that I have researched- lumpectomies, mastectomies, prostatectomies, etc. The more experience that a doctor gets performing a procedure, the fewer mistakes he/she makes.

Image result for image of lung cancer surgery

If you have been diagnosed with lung cancer, no matter the stage, please ask your doctor how many pulmonary resections his/her hospital performs annually. Nothing personal, you are simply asking about experience. Further, academic centers have, on average, better overall survival statistics for lung cancer.

Finally, lung cancer patients can benefit from evidence-based, non-conventional therapies before, during and after their surgery. I am both a cancer survivor and cancer coach. I live in complete remission from my “incurable” cancer by living an anti-cancer lifestyle through nutrition, supplementation and other lifestyle therapies.

Have you been diagnosed with lung cancer? To learn more about evidence-based, non-toxic therapies, please scroll down the page, post a question or comment and I will reply to you ASAP.

Thank you,

David Emerson

  • Cancer Survivor
  • Cancer Coach
  • Director PeopleBeatingCancer

Ninety-day mortality after resection for lung cancer is nearly double 30-day mortality.

“OBJECTIVE:To evaluate 30-day and 90-day mortality after major pulmonary resection for lung cancer including the relationship to hospital volume...

There were 124,418 major pulmonary resections identified in 1233 facilities.

The 30-day mortality rate was 2.8%.

The 90-day mortality rate was 5.4%.

Hospital volume was significantly associated with 30-day mortality, with a mortality rate of 3.7% for volumes less than 10, and 1.7% for volumes of 90 or more. Other variables significantly associated with 30-day mortality include older age, male sex, higher stage, pneumonectomy, a previous primary cancer, and multiple comorbidities…

CONCLUSIONS: Mortality at 30 and 90 days and hospital volume should be monitored by institutions performing major pulmonary resection and benchmarked against hospitals performing at least 30 resections per year.

Initial Therapy at Academic Centers Linked to Prolonged Overall Survival in NSCLC

“Overall survival with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) may be improved by initial treatment at an academic center rather than a non-academic facility…

Researchers accessed and compiled the data from the National Cancer Database (NCDB) of 1,150,722 patients with NSCLC and separated them into 2 arms by receipt of initial treatment at an academic center (31.5%) and from a non-academic center (68.5%)…

 

 

 

 

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Where you Treat Your Lung Cancer Makes a Difference!

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Lung Cancer Patients treated at academic centers also had a lower risk of death;4-year Overall Survival rates were 25% and 19% among patients treated at academic and non-academic centers, respectively

Over the years I have learned that hospitals and oncologists often specialize in one or more cancers. While this may sound obvious, this idea didn’t occur to me when I was diagnosed with my own cancer in early 1994. I had an operation to remove a “growth,” was told that the “growth” was multiple myeloma and off I went. When my oncologist suggested I undergo an autologous stem cell transplant checking to see if my hospital, University Hospitals of Cleveland, was experienced at this complicated procedure never entered my mind.

Image result for image of lung cancer

If you have been diagnosed with lung cancer, at any stage, studies show that where you are treated can make a significant difference. According to the study linked and excerpted below, lung cancer patients can expect to live, on average, more than 25% longer if you are treated at an academic center rather than a non-academic center.

Further, there are a host of evidence-based, non-conventional therapies that research shows enhances lung cancer chemotherapy and radiation as well.

Have you been diagnosed with lung cancer? I am both a cancer survivor and cancer coach. To learn more about both conventional and non-conventional lung cancer therapies please scroll down the page, post a question or comment and I will reply to you ASAP.

thank you,

David Emerson

  • Cancer Survivor
  • Cancer Coach
  • Director PeopleBeatingCancer

Initial Therapy at Academic Centers Linked to Prolonged Overall Survival in NSCLC

“Researchers accessed and compiled the data from the National Cancer Database (NCDB) of 1,150,722 patients with NSCLC and separated them into 2 arms by receipt of initial treatment at an academic center (31.5%) and from a non-academic center (68.5%). Several baseline characteristics were different between the 2 groups, including age, race, comorbidity score, cancer stage, median income, course of treatment, and distance from treatment center…

Patients treated at academic centers also had a lower risk of death (hazard ratio [HR], 0.91; 95% CI, 0.906-0.919; P < .001); 4-year OS rates were 25% and 19% among patients treated at academic and non-academic centers, respectively (P < .001).

The authors concluded that “factors influencing treatment facility choice should be addressed for easier access to academic centers.”

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Better Overall Health Allows For Much Higher Chances Of Winning

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“The best habits to have are exercise at least every other day, eating healthy, and do not smoke or drink. Exercise doesn’t have to be strenuous, it can be as simple as a walk…”

It is important to have healthy habits, whether we are healthy or ill. When we are ill it is even more important to live healthily. The fact is that living healthy can help improve our overall health.

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Habits such as smoking and drinking are bad for all of us. It is even worse to pick up these habits or continue these habits when battling a disease as fierce as cancer. To have the best possible odds of defeating a malignancy, it is very important to keep our bodies healthy and free of toxins such as cigarette smoke and alcohol.

Even when we are healthy young adults, the toxins contained in cigarettes and in alcohol can stay in our bodies for a long time. While the question of  how long do alcohol stay in your system consists of a matter of hours, the effects of chronic dependency are long-term. The more often we take in these toxins into our bodies, the longer they linger and can negatively affect our overall health. Living healthy is the best option, especially when we are recovering from a terminal illness such as cancer, it is important to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

A healthy lifestyle gives our bodies the capabilities of recovering from illness more quickly. Perhaps it holds the key to recovering at all. While the words “recovery. terminal illness …” seem to conflict with one another, it’s indeed possible to recover from late-stage cancer and survive for years past expectations. Our entire immune system is much stronger when we exercise, eat healthily, and live healthily. Studies have shown that while undergoing any type of treatment for illnesses such as cancer, living healthy allowed the body to take to the treatment much better.

The reason may be because when we have toxins in our bodies, the body may be too busy trying to get rid of the toxins. Our body when we are ill is already delicate. In a sense, we are making our body work ten times harder to not only get healthy from illness, but to also get rid of any toxins we put into our bodies.

Living health can also increase our chances of being candidates for more medical treatments apart from someone that is unhealthy. A patient that is a non-smoker and non-drinker is viewed as having a higher chance of overcoming an illness, even overcoming a terminal illness. The healthier patient will be given more options of survival versus a patient that smokes or drinks because they may not have a chance to live as long as the other patient no matter what medical treatments they are offered. As harsh as that sounds, it is just one reality of having any type of illness.

These reasons and many more reasons are why we should live a healthier lifestyle. Not only when we are patients dealing with medical issues, but in the present. It is important to start living healthy now, so that down the road if we have to live a healthy lifestyle, it is easier to live it when the healthy habits are already in place. It is much more difficult to start from scratch and build these habits when ill than it is to continue the healthy habits we are already working on every single day.

The best habits to have are exercise at least every other day, eating healthy, and do not smoke or drink. Exercise doesn’t have to be strenuous, it can be as simple as a walk. Eating healthy can start out by just cutting out the junk and not having it every day. Seek medical help if one finds it difficult to stop smoking or drinking. The benefits of having these habits are obvious, and the earlier we start these habits the easier it is to keep living healthy.

Posted in nutrition

Multiple Myeloma: Car-T Cell Immunotherapy Update

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“Side effects (from CAR-T cell therapy) can be life-threatening, however. They include high fevers, crashing blood pressure, lung congestion and neurological problems. 

No one wants Car-T Cell therapy to live up to its promise more than I do. I am a long-term survivor of an incurable blood cancer called multiple myeloma. MM is a blood cancer like the cancers discussed below. Like all chemotherapy development however, the challenge is to figure out the risk/reward proposition for you or your loved one.

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In the study for car-t cell approval discussed in the NYTimes article linked and excerpted below the in addition to serious life threatening collateral damage car-t cell therapy caused two deaths.

My conclusions of the current state of car-t cell chemotherapy development for MM:

  1. Car-t cells are not available for multiple myeloma survivors yet. Great to start with blood cancers but nothing for MM yet.
  2. Once Car-T cells are available for MM patients it is clear that the short, long-term and late stage side effects can be severe.
  3. Car-t cell therapy appears to be incredibly expensive. It is difficult to know just how expensive it will be for MMers at this point.
  4. For the first time ever a drug company is discussing the possibility of drug pricing based on performance…

My experience as a long-term MM survivor is that car-t cell development is relatively young. Most if not all chemotherapy development involves challenges like the ones outlined below. I plan to blog about the ongoing development of this potential chemo breakthrough in the future.

Have you been diagnosed with multiple myeloma? What stage? What symptoms are you experiencing? Please watch the free webinar linked to the right of this page.

Thank you,

David Emerson

  • Cancer Survivor
  • Cancer Coach
  • Director PeopleBeatingCancer

F.D.A. Approves Second Gene-Altering Treatment for Cancer

“The new therapy, Yescarta, made by Kite Pharma, was approved for adults with aggressive forms of a blood cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, who have undergone two regimens of chemotherapy that failed…

About 3,500 people a year in the United States may be candidates for Yescarta. It is meant to be given once, infused into a vein, and must be manufactured individually for each patient. The cost will be $373,000…

Side effects can be life-threatening, however. They include high fevers, crashing blood pressure, lung congestion and neurological problems. In some cases, patients have required treatment in an intensive care unit. In the study that led to the approval, two patients died from side effects. Doctors have learned to manage them better, but it takes training and experience…

Novartis is expected to ask the F.D.A. to approve Kymriah for lymphoma and other blood cancers as well, and may vary its price depending on how well it works for those diseases…Kite also plans to seek approval for other blood cancers, but does not plan to vary Yescarta’s price, said Ms. Cassiano…

The company (Kite Pharma) also hopes that Yescarta will eventually be approved for earlier stages of lymphoma, rather than being limited to patients with advanced disease who have been debilitated by multiple types of chemotherapy that did not work…

The study that led to approval enrolled 111 patients at 22 hospitals; 101 of them received Yescarta. They had one of three diseases: diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma or transformed follicular lymphoma.

Initially, 54 percent had complete remissions, meaning that their tumors disappeared. Another 28 percent had partial remissions, in which tumors shrank or appeared less active on scans. After six months, 80 percent of the 101 were still alive.

With a median follow-up of 8.7 months, 39 percent of the 101 were still in complete remission — a much higher rate than achieved with earlier treatments — and 5 percent still had partial remissions…

Tina Bureau, a fifth-grade teacher from Queensbury, N.Y., was one of the lymphoma patients in the study. Previously, she’d had several types of chemotherapy…

Last spring, she had the T-cell treatment at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The side effects were ferocious.

“You don’t even recognize your family members,” Ms. Bureau said. “I had some bleeding on my brain, and had to be put in intensive care. The week it was happening, I don’t remember a lot. It was much more difficult for my family than me.”

Within a month, she had a complete remission, which has continued. She is back at work, full time.

“Yes, it can pose life-threatening problems,” Ms. Bureau said. “But when you’re in a situation where your life’s threatened anyway, I don’t feel you have anything to lose.”

 

Posted in Multiple Myeloma, side effects ID and prevention Tagged with:

Multiple Myeloma-Excessive body fat predictive factor for poor treatment response

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“excessive body fat of abdomen and pelvis might be a predictive factor for poor treatment response for multiple myeloma patients”

The thinking, according to research, is that excessive body fat causes inflammation. The more body fat the more inflammation. Chemotherapy and/or radiation also causes inflammation.

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The solution? Anti-inflammatory nutrition, supplementation, nutrition and lifestyle therapies. With or without chemotherapy. I’m serious when I say “with or without chemotherapy.” I’m only saying that early stage MMers (and certainly pre-MM) may not need chemotherapy at first.

I am a MM survivor and MM cancer coach. To learn more about evidence-based, non-toxic MM therapies please watch the free webinar linked to the right of the page. I think you will find the information helpful.

Thank you,

David Emerson

  • MM Survivor
  • MM Cancer Coach
  • Director PeopleBeatingCancer

Body fat composition as predictive factor for treatment response in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma – subgroup analysis of the prospective GMMG MM5 trial

“A subgroup of 108 patients from a single institution enrolled in the prospective GMMG-MM5 trial, who received a whole-body low-dose computed tomography (WBLDCT) before induction therapy, were included in this study. Body fat composition was measured in WBLDCT for each patient, divided in the compartments abdomen, pelvis, thigh and further categorized in subcutaneous (SAT) and visceral adipose tissue (VAT). The correlation of these parameters with disease activity (M protein, plasma cell count, LDH, CRAB-criteria), adverse cytogenetics, adverse events and treatment response were evaluated.

Results–Significant reciprocal correlation was found between adverse cytogenetics and VAT of the abdomen and pelvis, respectively No correlation of VAT or SAT with adverse events was observed. Significant reciprocal correlation was observed between abdominal  and pelvic VAT and treatment response…

Conclusion  Based on the clinically relevant difference in treatment outcome depending on VAT and SAT, excessive body fat of abdomen and pelvis might be a predictive factor for poor treatment response. Further influences in this context should be considered as well, e.g. chemotherapy dosing and body fat metabolism.”

Posted in Healthy Living Products, Multiple Myeloma, non-conventional therapies, nutrition Tagged with:

Breast Cancer Diet- Foods that Kill Breast Cancer

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“but a new study looked at how two specific compounds found in food could treat women who have the most fatal type of breast cancer”

Let me begin by stating that I am not talking about silver bullet cures for breast cancer. My experience as a long-term survivor of an “incurable” cancer is that cancer patients and survivors must practice a spectrum of therapies from conventional (FDA approved) to evidence-based nutrition, supplementation, lifestyle, etc. therapies in order to manage their cancer for their lifetime as well as minimize or prevent as much toxicity as humanly possible.

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The articles/studies linked and excerpted below are an excellent example of what I am talking about. Cancer patients in general and breast cancer patients specifically can weaken their breast cancer by consuming cruciferous vegetables and drinking green tea.

The real life aspect of this therapy is that you or I might not eat broccoli or drink green tea today. In order to cover my bases I supplement with a cruciferous veggie whole food supplement and green tea extract in capsule form. This capsule is equivalent to drinking ten cups of green tea.

Image result for image of green tea

I supplement with Standard Process Cruciferous Complete and Life Extension Mega Green Tea Extract.

Have you been diagnosed with breast cancer? To learn more about evidence-based, non-toxic therapies please scroll down the page, post a question or comment and I will reply to you ASAP.

Thank you,

David Emerson

  • Cancer Survivor
  • Cancer Coach
  • Director PeopleBeatingCancer

BREAST CANCER DIET: BROCCOLI AND GREEN TEA COULD MAKE DEADLY TUMORS TREATABLE

“In this wellness era brimming with kale smoothies, you don’t need a study to tell you why it’s a good idea to eat vegetables. Plant-based diets are attributed to better heart health, lower blood pressure, and now, making deadly breast cancer tumors treatable.

Plenty of studies have linked fruits and vegetables to a lower incidence of cancer, but a new study looked at how two specific compounds found in food could treat women who have the most fatal type of breast cancer…”

Combinatorial bioactive botanicals re-sensitize tamoxifen treatment in ER-negative breast cancer via epigenetic reactivation of ERα expression

“Our results showed that this combinatorial treatment re-sensitized ERα-dependent cellular inhibitory responses to an estrogen antagonist, tamoxifen (TAM), via at least in part, epigenetic reactivation of ERα expression in ERα-negative breast cancer cells…

Our studies indicate that combinatorial bioactive botanicals from GTPs and BSp are highly effective in inhibiting ERα-negative breast cancer due at least in part to epigenetic reactivation of ERα, which in turn increases TAM-dependent anti-estrogen chemosensitivity in vitro and in vivo…”

Natural Polyphenols for Prevention and Treatment of Cancer

“There is much epidemiological evidence that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables could lower the risk of certain cancers. The effect has been attributed, in part, to natural polyphenols. Besides, numerous studies have demonstrated that natural polyphenols could be used for the prevention and treatment of cancer. Potential mechanisms included antioxidant, anti-inflammation as well as the modulation of multiple molecular events involved in carcinogenesis. The current review summarized the anticancer efficacy of major polyphenol classes (flavonoids, phenolic acids, lignans and stilbenes) and discussed the potential mechanisms of action, which were based on epidemiological, in vitro, in vivo and clinical studies within the past five years…

Conclusions- The epidemiological studies about the relationship between dietary polyphenol consumption and cancer risks yielded different results…On the other hand, the vast majority of laboratory studies supported anticancer activities of natural polyphenols, such as anthocyanins, EGCG, resveratrol and curcumin…

The mechanisms of action mainly included modulation of molecular events and signaling pathways associated with cell survival, proliferation, differentiation, migration, angiogenesis, hormone activities, detoxification enzymes, immune responses, etc”

 


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Posted in Healthy Living Products, integrative therapy, non-conventional therapies, nutrition Tagged with:

Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease- Evidence-based, Inexpensive, Non-Toxic Therapies-

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Findings of the present proof-of-concept trial suggested improvement of different features of Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) after a short-term supplementation with curcumin…”

Millions of Americans suffer from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. As such NAFLD is a major health issue in the U.S. Because I am both a long-term cancer survivor and cancer coach I understand the need for inexpensive, non-toxic, evidence-based therapies for chronic diseases.

Image result for image of non alcoholic fatty liver diseaseCurcumin, according to the study linked below, is just such a therapy for NAFLD. As a cancer survivor who has studied curcumin I also understand that this antioxidant is notoriously difficult for the body to absorb. This is why I supplement with a formula that research has shown is more than seven times more bioavailable than ordinary curcumin.

I supplement with and recommend Life Extension Super Bio-Curcumin. I have been supplementing with this formula of curcumin for years because it has been evaluated and approved by Consumerlab.com.

If you would like to learn more about NAFLD please scroll down the page, post a question or comment and I will reply to you ASAP.

Thank you,

David Emerson

  • Cancer Survivor
  • Cancer Coach
  • Director PeopleBeatingCancer

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

“Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the types of fatty liver which occurs when fat is deposited (steatosis) in the liver due to causes other than excessive alcohol use. Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is the most extreme form of NAFLD.[1] NAFLD is the most common liver disorder in developed countries…

Up to 80% of obese people have the disease…About 12 to 25% of people in the United States have NAFLD…”

Treatment of Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease with Curcumin: A Randomized Placebo-controlled Trial.

“Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a global health problem. Although many aspects of NAFLD pathogenesis have been understood, there is a paucity of effective treatments to be used as the second line when lifestyle modification is insufficient.

Curcumin, a natural polyphenol from turmeric, has been shown to be effective against development of hepatic steatosis and its progression to steatohepatitis, yet these beneficial effects have not been explored in clinical practice…

Compared with placebo, curcumin was associated with a significant reduction in liver fat content (78.9% improvement in the curcumin vs 27.5% improvement in the placebo group).

There were also significant reductions in body mass index and serum levels of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, glucose, and glycated hemoglobin compared with the placebo group.

Curcumin was safe and well tolerated during the course of trial. Findings of the present proof-of-concept trial suggested improvement of different features of Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) after a short-term supplementation with curcumin…”


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Posted in chronic disease, Healthy Living Products, non-conventional therapies Tagged with:

Breast Cancer Survival and… Heart Disease???

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“It may seem like the ultimate insult, but having survived breast cancer can put you at higher risk of additional health problems later in life…

The two most important things that all newly diagnosed cancer patients must understand is that 1) toxic therapies (chemo and or radiation) kills cancer but it also damages your body and 2) chemo and or radiation is needed sometimes in order to kill your cancer.

I say this because as a long-term cancer survivor myself I have experienced and live with the short, long-term and late stage side effects caused by both chemo and radiation. The heart damage experienced by breast cancer survivors is well-documented and can be life-threatening.

The good news is that there are evidence-based, non-conventional therapies that research has show can reduce or eliminate the damage done by chemo and radiation.

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If you are a breast cancer patient about to undergo radiation anywhere near your heart please consider supplementing with resveritrol.   If you are about to undergo any of the chemotherapies that have been shown to cause heart damage (cytoxin, dox/adriamycin, etc.) please supplement with CoQ10.

Keep in mind that there are other lifestyle and nutritional therapies shown to help keep your heart healthy while you undergo toxic therapies.

I have chemotherapy-induced A-Fib. I make an effort to keep my heart healthy. I supplement with and recommend Life Extension Optimized Resveritrol and Life Extension CoQ10.

Have you been diagnosed with breast cancer? If you would like to learn more about evidence-based non-toxic therapies please scroll down the page, post a question or comment and I will reply to you ASAP.

thank you,

David Emerson

  • Cancer Survivor
  • Cancer Coach
  • Director PeopleBeatingCancer

What’s the Connection Between Heart Disease and Breast Cancer?

“It may seem like the ultimate insult, but having survived breast cancer can put you at higher risk of additional health problems later in life…

However, some patients who’ve had radiation treatment and chemotherapy may be at higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease in what’s called a late side effect of treatment for breast cancer. This means that the heart problem may not surface for months or years after the conclusion of treatment…

According to a report in the journal EJC Supplements, an open access companion journal to the European Journal of Cancer, cardiovascular disease is already the leading cause of death “accounting for 30 to 50 percent of all deaths in most developed countries. Because of this high background rate, even a minor increase in risk of CVD [resulting from cancer treatment] will have an important impact on morbidity and mortality...”

According to a 2016 article in the Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine, ischemic heart disease (a reduction in blood supply to the heart) is the most common cause of death after radiation treatments…

“Overall, compared with nonirradiated patients, patients who have undergone chest radiotherapy have a 2 percent higher absolute risk of cardiac morbidity and death at five years and a 23 percent increased absolute risk after 20 years,”

But [radiation can] also cause some damage to any healthy tissue” nearby. She says this is particularly true for patients having radiation treatments on the left breast, as the heart sits under that breast and is therefore closer to radiation beams in some cases…

Certain chemotherapies including anthracycline drugs and certain drugs within the Herceptin family of HER2 agonists have also been linked with an increased rate of cardiovascular disease in some breast cancer patients..

If this cardiac toxicity is noted early, “you can put people on heart medicines that help the heart recover in a certain proportion of patients.” But a change in cardiac health won’t always be obvious early on, she says. “Sometimes you’ll have an asymptomatic decline in your cardiac function – the squeezing of the heart muscle – and it only manifests when the person comes up with symptoms, which can be a several-year lag.”

 

 


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Cancer Coaching-Curing Cancer isn’t Always the Goal

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Cancer Coaching-“Sometimes patients and their doctors can manage cancer so successfully that it may seem to go away. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. And it could still go rogue at any time…”

Please understand the point of the article linked and excerpted below. If conventional oncology could cure cancer it would. In most cases, conventional oncology cannot  cure your cancer. Or a cure might cost a host of deadly potential side effects and going for the cure would not be a risk you should take.

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Conventional oncology considers my cancer, multiple myeloma, to be incurable. I have lived with my incurable cancer since early ’94. I do so by living an evidence-based, non-conventional, non-toxic, anti-MM lifestyle, Most if not all cancers have identified similar therapies.

Unfortunately conventional oncology scoffs at these therapies.

I am both a cancer survivor and cancer coach. To learn more about these therapies please scroll down the page, post a question or comment and I will reply to you ASAP.

Thank you,

David Emerson

  • Cancer Survivor
  • Cancer Coach
  • Director PeopleBeatingCancer

Curing cancer isn’t always the goal. Sometimes you just want it to be a manageable chronic disease

“If you can’t beat ’em, manage ’em….Millions of patients live by that rule every day — patients with chronic conditions that can’t be cured but can be kept under control with the right combination of medication, diet and lifestyle choices…

Sometimes patients and their doctors can manage cancer so successfully that it may seem to go away. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. And it could still go rogue at any time. But in the meantime, treating cancer like a chronic illness can often reduce both the financial cost and the physical risks of intensive treatment…

Consider prostate cancer. Traditionally, the recommended treatment has been radiation or removal of the prostate. Both approaches offer a good chance of a cure; regrettably, they also come with sizable risks, including impotence and incontinence…

But it’s now possible for many patients to avoid these risks, says Dr. Inderbir Gill, executive director of the USC Institute of Urology, because doctors have learned to distinguish between more and less dangerous prostate cancers. In many cases, patients with less dangerous varieties can safely opt for localized treatment, or even no treatment at all.

Not treating prostate cancer isn’t the same as doing nothing. Doctors keep very close tabs on the cancer using “active surveillance.” Then they take action if — and only if — it’s needed…

Posted in chronic disease, non-conventional therapies, nutrition Tagged with:

New Chemo May or May Not Extend Overall Survival in Multiple Myeloma

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Carfilzomib improved PFS, OR and less peripheral neuropathy in R/R multiple myeloma but “Grade 3 or worse adverse events (AE)”

As per usual, it is important for multiple myeloma patients and survivors to thoroughly understand what can be expected from new chemotherapy regimens for their disease. First and foremost, carfilzmib offers hope to relapsed and refractory (RR) myeloma patients. However, it is important to note the differences in short, long-term and late stage side effect compared with bortezomib.

I understand that if a MMer has relapsed he/she often will to anything to manage his/her MM. I too ignored the threat of side effects. That was a mistake.

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Peripheral neuropathy (PN) is an excellent example of a long-term side effect that will make your life miserable as it progresses. And more importantly, there are a host of complementary and integrative therapies shown to reduce or eliminate this painful side effect.

I am a long-term MM survivor and MM cancer coach. Please watch the free webinar linked on the right of the page. My experience is that MMers need the best of both conventional and non-conventional therapies to manage their MM and their quality of life.

thank you,

David Emerson

  • MM Survivor
  • MM Cancer Coach
  • Director PeopleBeatingCancer

Carfilzomib Improves Overall Survival in Relapsed/Refractory Multiple Myeloma

“Carfilzomib may significantly improve overall survival (OS) compared with bortezomib in patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) multiple myeloma, according to a study published in the Lancet Oncology…

The first interim analysis of ENDEAVOR demonstrated the superiority of carfilzomib over bortezomib in multiple outcomes, such as progression-free survival, objective response, and median duration of response.  At the time of the first interim analysis however, OS data was not available as the median follow-up was set to approximately 12 months…

Grade 3 or worse adverse events (AE), such as anemia, hypertension, dyspnea, and decreased lymphocyte count were more frequently reported by the carfilzomib group than the bortezomib group. There were similar rates of pneumonia, thrombocytopenia, and fatigue. The frequency of grade 2 or worse peripheral neuropathy was significantly lower in the carfilzomib group…”

 

Posted in Multiple Myeloma, side effects ID and prevention Tagged with:

You Can Take Control of Your Multiple Myeloma

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