A naturopathic approach to breast cancer

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients,  June, 2003  by Serge Jurasunas

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Introduction

My experience is not as a research scientist, even if I have performed considerable studies in most venues linked with cancer research. My experience includes the 'Art and Science' of healing and for the past 33 years I have been deeply involved in its practice, treating a considerable number of cancer patients, using a wide range of alternative methods, including my own. Thus, I have reflected deeply on how to recognize the multiple pathways leading to cancer and how to approach breast cancer according to each individual.

Entering this new millennium, let me recall that the cure of breast cancer remains unsuccessful and that it is still the number one killer of women. We are far from the medical claim made over two decades ago with the promise that by the year 2000, cancer "will be definitively cured."

More than any other cancer, breast cancer is an emotional disease, which for women is a depressive condition, often demanding mutilation, followed by aggressive treatment, a long period of painful illness, of hope, recurrence and death.

Thus, I believe that there is a need for harmonization of diverse points of view and medical strategies. It is obvious that breast cancer requires an alternative approach to the historical treatment options of surgery, chemotherapy and irradiation.

The Local Disease

A surgeon can remove a primary tumor relatively easily or perform a mastectomy, but a cancer that has metastasized usually reaches so many places that cure by surgery becomes impossible. The bad news is that 100% of the tumor is never extracted and 0.1% of tumor tissue remains after surgery (106 cells). Silicone breast implants are responsible for functional immune impairment, serious infection and localization of new tumor growth.

Widespread evidence suggests that conventional tumor treatment by chemo/radiation may seriously damage healthy tissues, such as bone marrow, and increase oxidative stress leading to immunodeficiency, inducing secondary tumors and accelerating metastatic growth. Some tumors with a fast turnover may even grow during chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy reacts with the genetic material of the cell (DNA). The drugs produce cross-linking of bases in DNA strands, which blocks replication of nuclear DNA during mitosis (cell division). However, chemotherapy is very toxic, since it is nonselective and damages healthy cells in the same way it is supposed to kill tumor cells. It can also suppress and damage the immune system to the extent that patients can die from infections rather than the cancer. These treatments often provide only temporary improvement. Many patients are not aware that the disease is put into remission only to reappear in the future. However, conventional treatments with chemotherapy/radiation are frequently effective in helping breast cancer patients survive for the first four years following surgery.

The Local Disease and Conventional Therapy

* On first diagnosis, about 1/3 of breast cancer patients have metastases in lymph nodes, that further colonize the lung, bone, liver and brain.

* The spread of metastases is usually determined by the localization and size of the tumor and the number of invaded lymph nodes.

* Surgery is responsible for 70% of the metastasis risk.

"Surgery might actually lead to spread of cancer and increased death from breast cancer in younger women" (Lancet 2001, 357:1048).

* 40-60% of patients develop metastases during breast cancer treatment.

Kirby I. Bland, Edward M. Copeland. The Breast: Comprehensive Management of Benign and Malignant Diseases, 1996, Vol. 1, p. 1593.

Tumor is resistant to radiotherapy Goldstein L.J. 1995. Current Problems in Cancer 16.69.23.

Laurent Schwartz (cancer specialist) Metastasis: The truth on cancer. In 80% of breast cancer cases, the response to chemotherapy is only partial. 1998 p.79-81.

Biopsy can increase tumor growth. A textbook jointly published by the American Cancer Society and University of Rochester states: "biopsy of cancer tissue may lead to the spread of metastasis."

When radiation and chemotherapy were given together, the incidence of secondary tumors was approximately 25 times the expected rate. Ralph Moss, PhD, The Cancer Industry, 1996, P.73-78.

The Great Illusion of Chemotherapy: conference presentation by Ralph Moss at the German Society of Oncology, Baden Baden Oct. 28, 2000.

According to Gayle Page (Nursing School of Johns Hopkins University, USA), stress, such as surgery, favors tumor development by suppressing the activity of particular cells of the immune system.

Researcher at the National Health Institute -- Candice Pert, PhD. Investigation of the link between catecholamines, endorphins and other chemicals produced by the brain as they influence cancer.

Jean Achterberg, PhD demonstrates a clear link between the attitude of cancer patients and their quality of life (Imagery in Healing, New Sciences. Boston 1985).

In my own experience, radiation and chemotherapy appear to be of limited value. They may reduce a tumor over a limited time, but not only does it start to grow again, but the spread of metastases and appearance of secondary tumors developing at distant sites is precipitated.