There's a simple concept to managing cancer: starve the cancer cells by cutting off the blood they need to survive. Of course, the concept is what's simple; actually making this happen is quite difficult.
Cancer cells thrive and multiply when they prompt the body to create new blood vessels; a process called angiogenesis. When it was first conceived of more than 40 years ago, angiogenesis was dismissed as a farfetched idea. Today it's considered the future of mainstream cancer therapy.
Powerful drugs that inhibit angiogenesis are currently being developed and tested - and that's the piece of news I first planned to bring you today. But, drawing on some earlier research, I realized the shocking twist is that their effectiveness may be completely at odds with the most popular prescription drug on the market today - a drug that actually PROMOTES the creation of new blood vessels.
The research pioneer who first demonstrated cancer cell angiogenesis is Judah Folkman, M.D.; a professor at Harvard Medical School, and the director of Surgical Research at Children's Hospital in Boston. In a press conference last week at the American Association of Cancer Research annual meeting, Dr. Folkman stated that within the decade he believes that cancer will be as treatable and manageable as any chronic disease.
Dr. Folkman has devoted his professional life to developing angiogenesis-inhibiting cancer drugs, which recent trials have shown to be effective in extending the survival of advanced cancer patients by as much as five months. Dr. Folkman predicts that these drugs will become so sophisticated that survival will be extended far beyond a few months.
I can't argue with Dr. Folkman's motives. From what I've read about him, he's worked tirelessly in the pursuit of a cancer cure. But I can't help but wonder what great accomplishments he might have made if he had devoted his efforts to the prevention of angiogenesis rather than to treating the condition after it's well underway.
Here's an example of how Dr. Folkman's efforts might have gone in a different direction that could have devoted decades of research to natural prevention rather than a pharmaceutical cure.
Last year I received a newsletter from noted cancer researcher, Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D., in which he noted that in Sri Lanka the cancer mortality rate per 100,000 is 26.1 for females and 29.3 for males. The comparison of these numbers to America is unsettling: cancer mortality per 100,000 in the U.S. is 138.6 for women and an astounding 206.0 for men. He adds that this difference is probably not due to genetic or hereditary factors, for two reasons: 1) the population of Sri Lanka has a wide diversity of ethnic backgrounds, and 2) the cancer rates of emigres from Sri Lanka to North America and Europe rise considerably within just a generation or two.
In Sri Lanka a typical diet includes large amounts of turmeric - a spice that contains curcumin, used in curry powders. And Dr. Moss listed the following as three of the key benefits of curcumin intake: - Rich in antioxidants
- A natural anti-inflammatory
- Inhibits growth of new blood vessels in tumors
It seems that the citizens of Sri Lanka are centuries ahead of the Western world in taking advantage of the cancer-fighting benefits of an angiogenesis inhibitior.
At the beginning of this e-Alert, I told you there was a twist. And here it is:
As I mentioned in last week's e-Alert "Valentine in July" (7/17/03), there has been some research into the question of whether cholesterol-lowering statin drugs may promote cancer. Very few studies have been conducted in this area, and so far the results are conflicting, with at least one study indicating an association between cancer risk and statin use by older people.
One of the reasons that further studies need to explore the statin/cancer question is because statins have been shown to stimulate the growth of new blood vessels.
This is how modern mainstream medicine advances: with treatments colliding, at odds with one another because researchers focus on individual trees, without ever stepping back to take a look at the entire forest.
To Your Good Health (for as long as they let us),
Jenny Thompson
Health Sciences Institute
Sources:
"Expert: Cancer Treatable in 10 Years" Daniel DeNoon, WebMD Medical News, 7/16/03, webmd.com
"How Deadly Cancer may be Curbed" Prithi Yelaja, The Toronto Star, 10/26/01, gairdner.org "Value of 'Cholesterol Medicines' in Diabetes Questioned" Eddie Vos, Diabetes in Control, diabetesincontrol.com
"Curries and Cancer Rates" Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D., Newsletter #58, 10/23/02, WeeklyCancerDecisions.com |
