It’s been estimated by some experts that by the year 2018, cancer will be the number one killer of us humans in North America. I can almost see the confused look on your face. If so much money is being poured into cancer research and so much progress being made, how can this be? Well, I imagine there’s much more money being made than progress when it comes to conventional cancer treatment. It’s obvious that some form of chemotherapy is the first choice of most doctors when it comes to treating your cancer. But is chemotherapy really safe?

Basically, when you have cancer and are prescribed chemotherapy, the drugs enter your bloodstream and destroy every rapidly dividing cell they can find. This means cancer cells. This means hair follicles. This means digestive tract cells, reproductive cells, and even bone marrow. This is why chemo patients become so violently ill and lose their hair during treatment. So, if your chemotherapy regimen kills your cancer before it kills you, then I guess it was a success. The cancer industry will shout about newer, gentler forms of chemo, but in order to be successful they all have to search and destroy.

According to a study published by Clinical Oncology in 2004, the average 5 year survival success rate of chemotherapy was just over 2% for all cancers. Pretty great odds, don’t you think?

Add to that the fact that many polls and questionnaires suggest that as many as 75% of doctors would refuse the very same chemotherapy treatments they’re prescribing for you! Can you believe that?

We live in a society where we’re able to make educated choices about these types of things. When it comes to chemotherapy, you should educate yourself before making any decisions. Chemotherapy is very questionable in its effectiveness and certainly unsafe. In the end, I just can’t see how something so utterly destructive can ultimately heal your body. There are many, many other options out there. You just have to take a look around.

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Chemotherapy is treatment that is generally used in the world to treat cancer. Chemotherapy pills are very effective for treating colorectal cancer as intravenous treatment. The new research tells that patient with advanced cancer need to accept this treatment than other drugs run through intravenously.

Oral chemotherapy gives fewer side effects than that of drugs receiving intravenously. Patient receiving oral chemotherapy may have better life than those receiving drugs intravenously. However, the intravenous drug 5-fluorouracil is the standard treatment whether it is used in combination or alone.

Chemotherapy treatment gives some side effects, whether it is used as intravenous treatment or oral. Capecitabine is the pill used to treat colon cancer, gives some fewer side effects. It is also known by the brand name Xeloda that causes tumor to shrink but causes many side effects also. Capecitabine converts into 5-FU after absorbing that help to minimize the tumors. Patients in IV regimen, receives dose of 5-fluorouracil in combination with leukovorin as a daily dose for five days in four week cycle.

The collective results proved that the patients taking Xeloda live longer for an average of 23.1 months while those who are receiving IV chemotherapy live for an average of 22.5 months. Xeloda in combination or alone is very effective it is used as IV5-FU/FA crosswise in different stages of colorectal cancer and other GI cancers. Xeloda is the standard care for CRC patients.

However, capecitabine is big attraction for patients because of its suitable use and fewer side effects. Because this, patients prefer to take the drug 5-FU in pill form rather than through an IV. It is intended to target tumor cells and is very active throughout the body.

Cancer patients who are taking oral chemotherapy respond more to treatment than standard chemotherapy and side effects such as diarrhea, nausea, hair loss and tract ulcers in gastrointestinal. These side effects found very less in patients who are taking the pill. This treatment is less toxic and more suitable than intravenous chemotherapy. However, it may cause side effects regarding to foot and hand problems such as redness and soreness.

Different types of chemotherapy pills composed of different types of chemical compound and acting on different chemical components of the cancer cell.

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Conventional medicine wants you to believe that surgery, radiation and chemotherapy is your only recourse against cancer. Maybe it’s because the average cancer patient represents a $500,000 payday for the cancer treatment system. Money is being made while your health is undergoing collateral damage. Never mind that most cancer patients will spend many months receiving chemo poison and radiation which shreds their body, including the immune system.

Go ask a person who has gone through the conventional chemo process and see if they wouldn’t mind going through it again if informed of the bad news that there was still cancer present. It will be like trying to find an athiest in a foxhole.

Did you know that 75% of the average oncologist’s “take home pay” is profit from the chemo drugs he gives to his patients. Your oncologist is just doing his job, working with information that’s been approved by our fabulously corrupt Food and Drug Administration and its overlords at the American Medical Association. Cancer therapy is big business which means huge dollars. we all want live in a world which is cancer free from the suffering which it brings, but the hypocrisy is amazing

Before you submit yourself to toxic tests and “therapies” that so often just increase your pain and suffering, doesn’t it make sense to know all of your options?

Recently, when one of the world’s largest cancer centers surveyed oncologists about how they would treat their own cancers, almost 90% said they would refuse chemotherapy. They said that chemotherapy drugs were non-neffective and have a high degree of toxicity.

The fact is that by shrinking tumors, chemo actually encourages stronger cancer cells to grow and multiply, becoming chemo-resistant. To top things off, there are the new cancers caused by chemotherapy, or secondary cancers. Somehow they forget to mention this life-threatening detail on the list of “side effects” in some drug company accompanying literature.

Sometimes people become statistics. The big-pharma and the other special interest groups which have an obvious conflict of interest due to huge profits that cancer reaps will present a different picture to continue to get the funds. They want you to be like sheep with a leash. The minute “sheeple” start to think for themselves and investigate other options, the leash gets a firm jerk and in some cases, an extreme jerk to let you know “who is boss”. Pretty soon, the sheep is content to go where his leader lets him.

The truth is, good health is a matter of common sense and having a healthy dose of cynicism about what the “authorities” have to say about what’s good for you, and what’s not. Too often society, in regard to cancer, will look to natural alternatives as a last resort. Some natural metabolic cancer treatments will include small amounts of chemo in the protocol, but it would be compared to adding a little seasoning with the food. Conventional cancer treatment is the other way around and it is big money which equal big profit.

Prevention is the key, but there are other options available for those that have been diagnosed than the conventional chemo and radiation package. Various cancer “awareness months” are in vogue and the spirit is all good, but I can’t help shaking my head knowing that any natural, non-pharmaceutical drug will not be considered in treating cancer.

Please consider that centuries ago some people thought that the earth was flat, and more recent, World War 1 would be the war to end all wars. we all know how these proclamations worked out and same is true that chemo is only way to beat cancer.

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Cost of chemotherapy is important factor of consideration when you decide to opt for chemotherapy treatment. Cost of chemotherapy treatment depends on many factors which include type of drugs used, amount of dose, duration of treatment and place of the treatment (hospital, clinic or home).

Some of the drugs such as 5 FU or leucovorin which are used in chemotherapy treatment are comparatively inexpensive. However, drugs which are recently available are quite expensive. Cost of chemotherapy increases more if these drugs are administered in combination which sound much expensive. Cost of chemotherapy using inexpensive therapy is around $ 100 to 300 while when expensive drugs are used cost might go to 20000 to 30000 $. These expenses include only drug cost and if you take combination of drug, cost of chemotherapy treatment may increase.

Many patients who are suffering from cancer can not afford such high cost of treatment. It becomes more difficult for extended treatment. Many patients get delay treatment or even skip it entirely just because of cost of chemotherapy. Though uninsured patients suffer the most due to cost of chemotherapy, patients with medical insurance are also affected considerably by the cost of treatment.

Chemotherapy treatment for cancer which improves survivals only by few months troubles not only to patients and their families but also to doctors, insures and society as whole. New chemotherapy drugs which are coming in market are very expensive. Their high cost leads to increase co pays and policy premiums which is not affordable to even for affluent person.

Since people can not afford effective chemotherapy treatment due to high cost, patient may suffer earlier death or disability. And no one provide adequate attention towards this issue.

There are insurance companies which cover part of total cost of chemotherapy treatment. However, some private insurance refuse to pay for some chemotherapy drugs even though this drugs are proven cancer therapies. Companies do this for the sake of reducing their cost.

When you are opting for chemotherapy treatment, make sure that clinical trial that you are going for is covered by your insurance. Consult with your medical team if you are denied payment. You can also ask hospitals, social service office or cancer centers for help regarding your payments. Last option that you can do is to sue insurance company to get money. Many times court takes decision in favor of patient and insurance company to pay for treatment.

Some pharmaceutical companies sponsor some programs related to cancer treatment to help needy patients. You can check whether such program suits your need of treatment.

Such companies sometimes provide treatment free of charge or they pay some part of treatment. Many communities have such programs to help patients suffering from cancer.

Chemotherapy treatment sounds very effective for treating cancer. Do not avoid your treatment because of its cost. Discuss the situation with your doctor, medical team and family and find a way out. Many insurance companies and other social organization are there to help the patients suffering from cancer.

About the Author:For more information on chemotherapy and cancer symptoms, please visit our resource sites.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – What is the Cost of Chemotherapy

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Vitamin C, cancer and chemotherapy treatment is either a good or bad combination, depending on the research that’s making news.

Since this essential vitamin is known to be an antioxidant, many experts suggest it may help in the fight against cancer. But when chemotherapy drugs are involved, vitamin C may not be the supplement to use, according to a team of New York scientists whose findings are soon to appear in the journal Cancer Research.

The work, conducted in the test tube and on live mice, showed that levels of vitamin C reduced the effectiveness of some cancer drugs. These drugs are known to produce oxygen free radicals that are meant to kill the cancer cells.

If you supplement with vitamin C while taking these medications, the vitamin C is suspected of soaking up the free radicals intended for the cancer cells – letting them continue to live and grow.

“What we found is that vitamin C blunted the effectiveness of all the chemotherapy drugs we studied,” says Mark Heaney, MD, PhD, associate attending physician at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the study’s lead author. “What vitamin C does is protect the cancer cells from the chemotherapy mainly by protecting their mitochondria [the cell's power sources],”

Chemotherapy medications are meant to damage the mitochondria in the cancer cells, signaling the cell to die.

Here’s how the research was done. The team pretreated some leukemia and lymphoma cells (and did not treat others) with the form vitamin C takes when it enters a cell. Both sets of cells were then exposed to a range of chemo drugs including Adriamycin, Platinol, Oncovin, methotrexate and Gleevec. The effects were then measured and a 30% to 70% cut in effectiveness was observed.

Chemotherapy just was not as effective.

Next, the cancer cells were implanted into mice. Here the tumors pretreated with vitamin C grew more quickly than those that had not been exposed to the vitamin.

It seems that just like healthy cells, cancer cells might be able to benefit from the protective effects of vitamin C. The team felt that the buildup of vitamin C levels in cells was similar to what would result if a patient took large doses of vitamin C supplements.

The idea that vitamin C could be used to treat cancer was first put forward in the 1970s by American scientist Linus Pauling, awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1954. Still the link wasn’t born out by three separate Mayo Clinic studies during the 1980s – all well designed, controlled, double blind experiments.

However, although the recent study seemed damning cancer expert, Balz Frei, PhD. the director and chair of the Linus Pauling Institute, looked at the work of the New York researchers, and mentioned some problems with the study:

- Doses of vitamin C used were very high.

- Mice produce vitamin C naturally, and even more when they are ill.

- Only leukemia and lymphoma cancers were studied.

- Only some chemotherapy agents were studied.

Frei continues to believe that very high concentrations of vitamin C, as the late Linus Pauling advocated, could well prove toxic to cancer cells. He does admit that vitamin C may be contra-indicated during some types of chemo. And while the New York researchers may discourage vitamin C supplements during chemotherapy, Frie believes that in daily doses up to 500mg it can be more helpful than harmful.

In the meantime, all sides agree that more study is needed. The recommended intake of vitamin C is 75 milligrams for women, 90 for men. Supplements come in many forms, but natural sources are always best… especially if you are undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer. If you’re using any of the drugs used in the study, talk with your own doctor about how much vitamin C is right for you.

About the Author:Over 14,000 people have joined Kirsten’s popular (and sometimes controversial) Daily Health Bulletin, so why not join them and stay up to date with effective chemotherapy treatment options and other health news daily. You also get 5 comprehensive health reports free when you join – giving you all you need to treat common ailments, lose weight, look younger and feel healthy.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Straight Talk on Vitamin C During Chemotherapy Treatment

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