Posted on 03/29/2010 2:46:42 PM PDT by Maelstorm
Every once in a while, a piece of medical research crosses my desk that I feel has the potential to change how medicine is practiced.
Today is one of those days.
A recent medical article revealed that patients with end stage pancreatic cancer and treated with an antioxidant and narcotic-like medication lived longer than expected.
The pancreas is located in the abdomen, behind the stomach. It has multiple functions, including secreting enzymes that help digestion and regulating blood sugar levels by releasing insulin. Unfortunately, cancer can also begin in the pancreas. According to the National Institutes of Health, about 42,000 new cases of pancreatic cancer were diagnosed in 2009. Unfortunately, early stage pancreatic cancer rarely has symptoms and most cases are diagnosed at a late stage. As a result, the five-year survival rate is only 5 to 6 percent.
According to an article in the medical journal Integrative Cancer Therapies, a group of physicians in New Mexico used a powerful antioxidant (alpha-lipoic acid) and a medication used primarily for alcohol and drug dependence (naltrexone). Three patients with end-stage pancreatic cancer were treated intravenously and orally with alpha-lipoic acid and took naltrexone at night.
The patients improved significantly over the course of therapy. All had radiologic proof of the tumors getting smaller. All lived longer than expected.
Since most pancreatic cancers are found in a late stage, traditional medical approaches like surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy are less effective.
What is remarkable about the alpha-lipoic acid and naltrexone protocol is that it worked on patients with end-stage cancer. One patient is still alive 61/2 years after he was told that his "-prognosis was hopeless."
In cancer cells, both alpha-lipoic acid and naltrexone suppress a specific cancer cell protein, NF KB. It is one of the proteins that allows cancer cells to grow rapidly.
In the test tube, suppression of NF KB results in cancer cell death. From the clinical results above, it is possible that the combination of alpha-lipoic acid and naltrexone results in cancer cell death.
Of note, suppressing production of NF KB is also a hot area of cancer drug research. A new anti-cancer drug, bortezomib, is showing promise.
Are these clinical results a breakthrough in cancer treatment? It may too early to tell and I must stress that there is a big difference between a positive result with a few patients and a real clinical trial. However, medical breakthroughs often start with a positive result in a few patients.
Overall, there do not seem to be significant side effects and few contraindications for the alpha-lipoic acid and naltrexone therapy.
It is worthy of more research.
•Patrick B. Massey, M.D., Ph.D is medical director for complementary and alternative medicine for the Alexian Brothers Hospital Network.
Very interesting, Maelstrom, I lost my mother to this disease, 3 weeks after diagnosis.
I’ve lost others, also. This will be squelched by 0bamacare. Guarantee it.
Read for later
bfl
My daughter has had gastro problems. She doesn't know about my friend (who lived in Florida-We're in NY).
Made sure my daughter has had every test there is to make sure it's not pancreatic cancer.
“Very interesting, Maelstrom, I lost my mother to this disease, 3 weeks after diagnosis.”
Yes, it can be very quick. About twenty years ago I was headed for the far east for about a month over Thanksgiving and Christmas. Three days before Thanksgiving I met a friend I hadn’t seen in a while for lunch, age 49, he’d put on a few pounds with his new girlfriend’s cooking, he told me life was great.
I called him the day after my return, about three days before New Year’s. Someone else answered the phone, told me he’d died the week before of pancreatic cancer.
One of the most deadly killers among the cancers. And quick, too. Took Michael Landon, Jack Benny, Fred Gwynn, Bill Bixby, Donna Reed, and Patrick Swayze. among others. Just before he died, Landon appeared on Johnny Carson and joked that by the time you learned how to say its medical name (ductal adenocarcinoma), you were already dead.
I remember Landon talking about coffee enemas.
Yep, you’re exactly right. He did try coffee enemas, along with a variety of other naturalistic remedies — none of which, unfortunately, helped. Really liked that guy.
BTTT
An insidious disease that took my dad in 1990. A terrible way to go.
so do i. i lost my mom to pan-can in december 2009 just a bit over 3 months after diagnosis.
Obamacare will squelch all American innovation. Where is the incentive to innovate?
He hates America and Americans....so what would we expect.
I know that ALA has been used effectively to combat and even reverse liver disease. I’m just surprised its use is more widespread because the intravenous use seems to be therapeutic for a host of disease conditions. You can buy low dose oral versions otc but the recommended dosages are useless and the oral is only a fraction as effective as the injected versions have shown to be.
Prolonging the lives of cancer patients does not serve the needs of the state. If the cost of a diseased worker unit exceeds the revenue it generates, the unit must be recycled.
I lost a cousin to this horrible scourge.
Here’s praying that this research will end up benefiting a lot of victims.
I too lost my best friend to pancreatic cancer, 1st diagnosis, 4th stage. She lasted just under 3 months and died at age 36. Watching her suffer was horrific, and the last week of her life, she was in a drug induced coma.
I miss her every day.
MOgirl
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