1

Marion Medical Supportive Nutritional Medicine

Marion Medical Supportive Nutritional Medicine Co-Treatment Program for Cancer Patients:

We need to be clear that at Marion Medical, we insist that all cancer patients receive a traditional cancer evaluation from the oncologist of their choice.  This occurs prior to our evaluation. There will be times when the patient will best be served receiving chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery, AND certain types of complementary therapy.

It is not our intent to imply that our cancer therapy should function as a replacement for traditional cancer treatment.  Rather, our therapy should serve as a complement to conventional therapy.  Cancer is considered to be the "ultimate cellular terrorist".  Approximately 1.2 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer this year.

Informed patients who have been diagnosed with cancer are now seeking out evidence-based, scientific forms of supportive, complementary medicine treatments to be used in conjunction with their treatments recommended by their oncologist.  Finding clinics/doctors who are well versed in these appropriate complementary treatments is difficult and problematic due to the unfortunate fact that there are practitioners who may not provide (or simply do not know) the latest research and supportive documentation that allows for appropriate complementary, nutritional medicine recommendations.

Twenty years of research and providing these natural, complementary nutritional medicine therapies have proven to potentiate the effectiveness of chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy against cancer cells, while diminishing the negative effects to the healthy cells; this tends to result in less, unwanted side-effects and a more active patient with an increased sense of well-being.  There are, however, oncologists that may not be aware of the scientific literature and may be hesitant to allow for "co-treatment" of the patient with targeted nutritional medicines.

We now know that according to Dr. Kedar N. Prasad, PhD and his scientific research team after reviewing 71 scientific papers, that they found no evidence that antioxidants (nutritional medicines) interfered with the therapeutic effect of chemotherapy and, on the contrary, suggest the hypothesis that it would increase the efficacy. He is properly cautious, but anyone reading his paper knows that it is clear the probability that these antioxidants prevent the therapeutic activity of chemotherapy is very low, and the probability that they do the opposite, i.e enhance the action of these toxic drugs, is relatively high.

A treatment schedule with high-dose antioxidants is very important in order to produce a differential effect on normal and cancer cells.  Treatment time of at least 24 hours or more is needed to observe a significant reduction in proliferation.  Therefore, it is essential that high doses of antioxidants and their derivatives are administered before standard therapy (chemo and/or radiation) and every day during the entire treatment period."  [Prosad KN.  Antioxidants in Cancer Care: When and How to Use Them as an Adjunct to Standard and Experimental Therapies.  Expert Rev. Anticancer Ther. 2003 Dec:3(6):903 - 15.  PMID: 14686711]

Others are stating a similar mantra.  " Discouraging antioxidants is not scientifically valid ", suggests a study that was co-authored by Robert Newman, PhD of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and Keith Block, MD that reviewed 1500 patients and found that taking antioxidant supplements with chemotherapy actually might increase survival rates, tumor shrinkage, and the patient's ability to tolerate chemotherapy.

Additional individuals are now stating that antioxidants during orthodox cancer therapy is not contraindicated including Kenneth A. Conklin, MD, PhD, UCLA; Jeanne Drisko, MD, KU Medical Center; Abram Hoffer, MD, Phd, FRCP(C); Leanna Standish, ND, Phd, Bastyr University, Seattle; and Ralph W. Moss, PhD.

The anti-oxidant co-treatment may include a sophisticated oral nutritional medicine protocol as well as high-dose, intravenous ascorbates (an injectable form of vitamin C).  Most cancer patients will require three intravenous infusions per week, at least for the first 1-2 months.  Oral supplementation, especially between infusion days, has been found to be a very helpful adjunct to the intravenous infusions. The list of oral supplements can be significant and play an important role in successful cancer treatment.

Within the context of nutritional medicine co-treatment of the cancer patient, there are technical, biomolecular mechanisms and pro-cancer events that may be addressed with nutritional medicine, including:  1)  Oxidation-reduction Reactions (REDOX) // 2)  DNA Stability/Repair/Expression // 3)  Mutations // 4)  Apoptosis // 5)  Differentiation // 6)  Immune System Stimulation // 7)  Anti-angiogenesis // 8)  Cell-to-Cell Communication // 9)  Gap Junctions // 10) CAM (Cellular Adhesion Molecules) // 11) Cell (Protein) Signaling for Proliferation & Abnormal Gene Expression / Protein Kinase C (PKC) / Protein Tyrosine Kinases (PTK) / Ras Protein / PI Kinase // 12) Extracellular Memebrane Integrity // 13) Metastasis, Invasion, Migration // 14) Oncogenes and Tumor Suppressor Genes // 15) Inflammation // 16) Heavy Metals / VOC's // 17) Adjuvants to Chemo and Radiation Therapy

It is important to note that even in those cases whereby the cancerous condition is not "cured" or sent into "long-term remission" that one's cancer "may" be managed as a chronic disease which could allow the individual to coexist with their existing cancer; the cancer should be stabilized so there is virtually no progression and fewer, if any symptoms. The management of HIV is an excellent analogy. There was a time when HIV was an automatic death sentence. Now, HIV is often managed as a chronic disease; individuals may live with this diagnosis, symptom free, for decades.

The availability of these evidence-based, scientific forms of co-treatment using appropriate nutritional medicines (orally and intravenously) may be a consideration for you as a cancer patient.  Get the most out of your immune system and start to feel better.  Schedule a consultation today.

ps:  A number of cancer patients develop peripheral neuropathy in their feet/legs and possibly their hands as a consequence of the chemotherapy treatments.  We have a natural, efficacious treatment program that reduces the symptoms associated with type of peripheral neuropathy.  Give us a call.