Loosing The Breast Cancer War - Part 2

By Chris Teo, Ph.D.
Case 1
Jean (not real name) is a 56-year-old female. Sometime in 2004, she felt a hard, flat lump in her right breast. A mastectomy was done in October 2004. The pathology report indicated infiltrating ductal carcinoma, Grade 3.
Jean underwent six cycles of chemotherapy with FEC (5-FU + Epirubicin + cyclophosphamide). In addition, she had twenty sessions of radiation treatment. All treatments were completed in June 2006.
Barely three months later Jean was told that the cancer had spread to her liver. On 4 September 2006, she underwent another cycle of chemotherapy. This time the treatment caused severe side effects. Jean decided to forgo the remaining five cycles of chemotherapy.
Case 2
Li is a forty-one-year-old lady. She was my student some years ago. After graduation from the university she became a science teacher. Sometime in 2004, Li felt three lumps in her left breast after being taught how to self-breast examination (SBE) by a nurse. She went to consult a doctor who then proceeded to do a lumpectomy to remove the lumps. The subsequent histopathological report confirmed malignant tumors. A few days later, Li had her entire left breast removed at a government hospital. After this mastectomy Li received eight cycles of chemotherapy and twenty sessions of radiation treatment. After the completion of these treatments, Li took tamoxifen for two years, until January 2007. At the same time as she was started on tamoxifen, Li was also asked to take Zoladex (goserelin acetate) -- a chemical way of destroying her ovaries to stop the production of females hormones. She was given Zoladex once a month, every month for a period of two years.
In mid-January 2007, Li started to have stomach discomforts and her abdomen became bloated and was hard. A CT scan showed a 4 mm nodule in the peripheral upper lobe of her right lung. There were multiple nodules in both lobes of her liver. There was also a local lytic lesion in her L2 vertebra. There was slight central disc protrusion at C5/6. These findings indicated that the caner had spread to her liver and bone. According to the radiologist, the lesion in her lung was probably a granuloma.
Li underwent another six cycles of chemotherapy. After the fourth chemo-cycle, a CT scan indicated that there was reduction of the size and number of liver lesions. However, at completion of the sixth chemo, this initial “success” proved shor-lived. The liver tumours had grown in size.
A CT san in May 2007 showed lytic lesion in the body of T12 and L2 in keeping with bony metastasis. The oncologist wrote: “In view of the increasing size of the liver metastases and the increasing bone metastasis, features are suggestive of progression of the disease.” The oncologist told Li that he had to change to new drugs. Li dared not go for more chemotherapy and was in a limbo. She came to seek my help. She presented with distended abdomen, swelling of her left arm and both legs.
Comments
The above episodes are real tragic -- again calling in question the effectiveness of the so-called “proven” therapies for breast cancer. Li received all the treatments available but within three years she ended up worse off that she started with. I would like to pose on question: If Li were to do nothing, would she suffer these metastases to the liver and bones? Over a decade of helping cancer patients, I have this to say: “No, Li might not have suffered such unfortunate fate. I know of many patients from Indonesia who relied on their “jamu” or traditional herbal medication, and they do generally do not suffer such severe metastasis within three years.”
Professor Hardin Jones, University of California, Berkeley was quoted to have said this: “My studies have proved conclusively that untreated cancer victims live up to four times longer than treated individuals. If one has cancer and opts to do nothing at all, he will live longer and feel better than if he undergoes radiation, chemotherapy or surgery.”