| After mastectomy, women are sent to see the | | | | Australian doctors: Graeme Morgan, Robyn Ward |
| oncologists, and they are often told to go for | | | | & Michael Baton noted that in Australia, of the |
| chemotherapy. This treatment is like an "insurance" | | | | 10,661 people who had breast cancer only 164 people |
| against future problems. Chemotherapy can kill all the | | | | survived five years due to chemotherapy. This |
| remaining cancer cells in the body. In this way the | | | | works out to 1.5% contribution of chemotherapy to |
| cancer can be cured. Chemotherapy can also stop | | | | survival. In their paper, they concluded that "overall |
| cancer from spreading to other parts of the body. Or | | | | contribution of curative and adjuvant chemotherapy |
| at the very least it slows the cancer growth. To the | | | | to five-year survival in adults was estimated to be |
| oncologists, chemotherapy is the proven way to go, | | | | 2.3% in Australia and 2.1% in the USA." |
| other ways are hocus pocus! | | | | Professor Michael Boyer, head of Medical Oncology of |
| These points are often well taken by women in | | | | the Sydney Cancer Centre, Royal Prince Alfred |
| general. The fear of recurrence is sufficient enough | | | | Hospital disputed this 2% figure. He said: "It's not |
| to make women go through chemotherapy. To | | | | correct for a number of reasons. The 2% figure is |
| them, the sufferings of the treatment are worth | | | | achieved by including a whole series of diseases in |
| enduring for the promise of cure at the end of the | | | | which chemotherapy would never be used." To the |
| adventure. What some oncologists don't tell their | | | | professor the more "correct" figures should be 5% |
| patients is that not all the cancer cells are killed by | | | | or 6%. Okay, let us accept that new figures -- how |
| the treatment. There is no way that a hundred | | | | do women feel about it -- going for chemotherapy to |
| percent of the cancer cells can be wiped by | | | | achieve a five to six percent success? |
| chemotherapy. Add to that, even the good healthy | | | | In the editorial of the Australian Prescriber (2006. |
| cells are killed and the immune system destroyed. | | | | 29:2-3), Eva Segelov wrote: "Chemotherapy has been |
| Patients, on the other hand don't ask these | | | | oversold. Chemotherapy has improved survival by |
| questions: Will there truly be a cure? If indeed the | | | | less than 3% in adults with cancer." |
| promise of cure is real, can we put it in terms of real | | | | Veroort et al. from the Netherlands (British J. Cancer. |
| numbers or percentage? To put it bluntly, how | | | | 2004. 91: 242-247) in their study on the role of |
| effective is chemotherapy for breast cancer? I | | | | tamoxifen and chemotherapy for breast cancer |
| wonder how many women ask their oncologists | | | | concluded that "breast cancer mortality reduction |
| these questions, and if they do, what would the | | | | caused by present-day practice of adjuvant |
| answers be like?a) Without chemotherapy what | | | | tamoxifen and chemotherapy is 7%. Tamoxifen |
| percentage of people died or would die from breast | | | | contributes most to the mortality reduction. The |
| cancer?b) With chemotherapy what percentage of | | | | overall effect of chemotherapy on mortality is very |
| people are cured or would be cured?c) What is | | | | small." Take note that the contribution of |
| meant by cure? | | | | chemotherapy to breast cancer survival is very small |
| Try and search the answers from the internet and | | | | - what is very small? To be sure it has to be much, |
| see if you can get anything. There is a great chance | | | | much less than 7%. |
| that you will go on a merry go round trip! I | | | | Guy Faguet, after spending numerous years of |
| experienced exactly just that and was terribly | | | | research on cancer, came to this startling conclusion |
| disappointed. Thousands of articles are written about | | | | (The War on Cancer: An anatomy of failure, a |
| breast cancer but I fail to find the clear-cut answers | | | | blueprint for the future. Springer, 2005): "An objective |
| to the above questions. Perhaps they are not | | | | analysis of cancer chemotherapy outcomes over the |
| important? Or something that women do not need | | | | last three decades reveals that, despite vast human |
| to know before they embark on their treatment? | | | | and financial expenditures, the cell-killing paradigm had |
| Women just need to have full faith and trust in the | | | | failed to achieve its objective ... the conquest of |
| experts and everything would turn out fine. Few | | | | cancer remains a distant and elusive goal." |
| women realize that such attitude may just be the | | | | Chemotherapy for cancer is based on "flawed |
| beginning of more problems to come. | | | | premises with an unattainable goal, cytotoxic |
| Let me try to share what I have gathered from the | | | | chemotherapy in its present form will neither |
| medical literature. | | | | eradicate cancer not alleviate suffering." |
| Karin Stabiner in her book (To dance with the devil) | | | | Cured of Breast Cancer? |
| wrote: "Breast cancer takes the life of an American | | | | In a study of 1,547 breast cancer patients at the |
| woman every twelve minutes. There is no sure cure | | | | University of Chicago Hospital, USA, from 1945 to |
| for the disease, no known way to prevent it and no | | | | 1987, Theodore Karrison et al. (J. Nat. Cancer Inst. |
| means of predicting." With all the advances in science | | | | 1999. 91:80-85) observed that for patients who |
| and technology, may I ask, how could this be? Why | | | | underwent mastectomy but without chemotherapy |
| such high degree of uncertainty? | | | | or radiotherapy, most recurrences occurred within |
| Chantal Bernard-Marty, Fatima Cardoso, Martine J. | | | | the first ten years after mastectomy. Recurrences |
| Piccart of Jules Bordet Institute, Brussels, Belgium | | | | were rare after 20 to 25 years. Patients surviving to |
| (The Oncologist 9: 617-632, Nov. 2004) wrote: | | | | this time without evidence of recurrence are |
| "20%-85% of patients ... who are diagnosed with | | | | probably cured. |
| early breast cancer will later develop recurrent and/or | | | | Women are often told that if they survive five years |
| metastatic disease. Despite more than 3 decades of | | | | after their diagnosis of breast cancer, they are |
| research, metastatic breast cancer remains essentially | | | | considered cured of breast cancer. Based on the |
| incurable." Women are told that "catching" breast | | | | work of Karrison et al. this assumption is |
| cancer early is a sure way of saving life. But how is it | | | | presumptuous and is not true at all. Women perhaps |
| that even after early detection, twenty to | | | | need to be reminded of what Guy Faguet wrote: |
| eighty-five percent of patients still go on to develop | | | | "We must recognize that "cure" is not an absolute |
| more serious cancer that is incurable? Has the | | | | term because minimal residual or slowly recurrent |
| treatment protocols got anything to do with such | | | | disease that causes no symptoms can persist and |
| failures? | | | | remain undetected for years." Take note, the cancer |
| How effective is chemotherapy? | | | | can remain dormant in the body for years not just |
| Writing in Clinical Oncology (2004. 16: 549-560), three | | | | five years! |