[exDemMom]

When some patients are fed only nourishing food and large amounts of deficient hormones, vitamins, etc, they stay well, no sickness, loss of strength, hair, or life, but instead live a full, long life sometimes with a present tumor or even losing it. But even with the breast cancer tumor being present, the patients live a great life, something like people with HIV do. Since this is happening more and more, these moneybags foundations should at least include more support for healthful treatment research rather than focusing only on the pitiable bald chemo patients.

While there is much value in eating nutritiously, there is no evidence that merely eating a healthy diet will slow the spread of cancer. Cancer cells benefit from good nutrition just like any other cells. Furthermore, they tend to grow faster and can be quite aggressive in making sure they get all the nutrients they need. I have used many kinds of cancer cells in research--they *love* good nutrition.

The purpose of chemo and radiotherapy is to kill rapidly growing cells, by interrupting a process like DNA synthesis which happens in growing cells. Unfortunately, some cells grow rapidly but are not cancer cells, which is why the treatments cause such bad side effects. Some current research is based on targeting the chemo drugs directly at the cancer cells, to minimize the number of non-cancer cells killed. Hopefully, those newer targeted therapies will transition to clinical use within the next few years.

What I'm saying is that in the event you ever get cancer (and I sincerely hope you never do), don't rely on diet to save you. You will still need treatment.

[Yaelle]

Thanks. Yes, there are necessary cancer treatments. But there are also some other alternative treatments than chemo. And there are some cancers that can be lived with as a controllable chronic condition. It is time to consider other paradigms than “killing cells.”