The Great British Bake Off (Stand Up 2 Cancer)

Okay, heres the thing what the fuck are they doing promoting cake making in raising funds for cancer research. Apparently obesity causes cancer (or so they say) it begs belief that if they believe the media hype then why oh why would you make cakes to help fight it. Its ridiculous, don't get me wrong the celebrities that are doing this are trying to help and I applaud them in doing so, but there has to be a better way than baking flipping cakes!

Personally I do not believe obesity causes cancer, I was a slim size 8 had been my whole life when I was dx its only since I got dx that I put on weight and ironically put on most of the weight whilst living a super healthy lifestyle, no meat or diary just green juicing everyday. Obesity does not cause cancer, we still do not know what causes cancer and until we do we wont find a cure. Making those with cancer feel guilty that they in some way have contributed to them getting cancer is just plain evil.

Blushwood Berry and EBC-46

Over the years I've come across loads of supposed cancer cures, most of which are proved not to cure cancer, so I was kind of sceptical when I chanced across this its a tree called Blushwood from Queensland, Australia. Scientists have extracted a component from the berry of the tree which they have named EBC-46 which has been proven to kill cancer tumours. So far they have tested it successfully on animals and have just started using it in clinical trials on humans. The cancers that have responded to this drug or skin, colon, breast, head and neck. It works by making the white blood cells within the body react to the tumour and kill it. Here's a couple of links and info I've found out on this, I have to say from what I've read online it seems very promising certainly brings hope. In fact in Australia people have been trying to extract there own cancer fighting drug from the plant and stories are circulating that they have been poisoning themselves!  to which I have to chime in with isn't chemo a poison? and doesn't chemo derive from a plant?

Big pharmaceutical companies won't like that a berry could potentially blow them out of the water leaving them high and dry and not making the billions they do out of cancer treatments, that don't work. Just saying....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqCNMzFGc8k

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/oct/08/cancer-tumours-destroyed-by-berry-queensland-rainforest

More than just a pretty flower.........

Today's post is about the abundant woodland flower the Bluebell and the potential they have to heal and possibly cure cancer, TB and HIV.  Here's some links to articles that explain it in more detail. Certainly is more than just a pretty flower of course all lots of drugs are derived from plants even the breast cancer drug Taxol is derived from the Yew tree. So its not that way out there to believe in the power of the wild flowers that surrounds us and in the ancient belief of healing with herbs, plants and spices.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/bluebells-the-natural-way-to-fight-aids-and-cancer-1138910.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/47711.stm
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/sep/16/timradford

The best news ever.....

Wanted to share my unbelievable amazing news with you all. Saw my onc today he told me that " the lung mets have disappeared" and my lungs are now clear. I sat there in total shock and can't believe how lucky I am, it appears that something is working at getting rid of the bad cells. All the drugs ie: hereceptin/tamoxifen, jucing, hemp oil (early days), the supplements and the weekly spiritual healing are all worth while, obviously we can't say exactly what it was that obliterated them but the important thing to remember is that something did work. 

There was only one grey area and thats on my liver there is a mass there but they still cannot define exactly what it is it could be cancer that is stable or it could be fatty tissue, my onc is writing to the radiologist to ascertain what tests we can do to find out exactly what it is that shows up on the scans whatever it is has been static and non moving now for quite a long time and he wasn't overly worried about it although he did say we are going to keep an eye on it with 3 monthly scans. 

As for the subcut herceptin I'm to have my first 2 lots in the hospital so thats all booked in and I've decided not to give up on my hospital just yet.

Apologies to you all for not coming on sooner and posting but up until yesterday I was on  a huge downer and needed something positive to give me a boost, this is the best possible outcome I could of wanted. I feel like I can start my life all over again, I feel like I've been given a second chance. I am so utterly grateful to still be here.

Sending you all love and light
Sarah xxx

Incredible story.......

Follow this link to a story about a young woman with breast cancer that healed herself via faith and juicing enjoy http://www.chrisbeatcancer.com/ashlies-breast-cancer-miracle/

Whole Body Photodynamic Therapy.....Amazing Results......

Found this post on the BCC forum informing of a new therapy called Photodynamic (PDT) the peice is so well written and describes exactly what the treatment is, does and more importantly how it works.  and believe this would benefit anyone faced with advanced stage IV cancer who has given up hope I'm also posting this here so that I can find it again if I need to. It seems like a lot to read but its so worth it, utterly amazing.

The treatment is called whole body photodynamic therapy (PDT) and it’s pretty amazing. For most people it is painless, non-intrusive, has no side effects, and can be repeated as many times as necessary until the cancer is gone with no reduction in effectiveness. It seems to work on all types of cancer, is used as a first line treatment for primary cancers as well as on very advanced cancers, and for many patients it even initiates an immune response that can help the body to start fighting the cancer itself. Results have been astonishing, with many stage 4 patients experiencing complete remission – it’s too early to tell whether it is a cure for advanced cancers, but I’ve talked to oncologists working in the field who believe it is.

To explain how it works, I need to back up a little.Conventional localised (ie not wholebody) PDT has been available for over a hundred years, has a success rate of 98%, and is widely used for skin and oesophageal cancers. The inventor got a Nobel Prize for his work. It works by introducing a Photosensitising Agent (PA) into the tumour, which as the name suggests makes the cells sensitive to light in a specific spectrum. Most PAs are based on chlorophyll from plants, so are totally harmless to normal cells. The PA enters the cancer cells, and when exposed to light of a certain wavelength a chemical reaction occurs, which produces singlet oxygen. If the light source is strong it produces enough singlet oxygen to literally pop the cancer cell and destroy it immediately - the process takes 45 seconds. If the light source is weaker, it can damage the cell enough that it will eventually die. The limitation of this treatment has been that it can only be used on cancers very close to the skin or where a light probe can reach them like the throat, because the light wavelength used only travels a cm or so into the body. Also the PA can leave the area treated sensitive to light for many months, so patients have to stay inside or buy a burka! The huge new development is that the Russians and Chinese, after over 20 years and billions of pounds worth of research, have developed PDT into a system that can be used to treat the whole body in the way that chemo does, but without damaging healthy cells, hence no side effects. This is pretty much the Holy Grail of cancer therapy.

The system available in China (http://www.nextgenerationpdt.com/ )uses a PA based on spirulina. You ingest the PA by drinking a foul green liquid, and also breathing it in through a nebuliser. The PA has been chemically engineered to lodge in all cancer cells, but to leave healthy cells after 10 hours – it will also cross the blood/brain barrier to work on brain tumours. As the PA leaves healthy cells so quickly, there is no issue with leaving the body sensitive to light – I was sunbathing by the hotel pool immediately after treatment! So the day after ingesting the PA, when it has left all healthy cells, the whole body is exposed to a light source in the near infra-red spectrum that can travel up to 10cms into the body. You lie a lightbed similar to a sunbed, with LED light directed from every angle. The 10cm light penetration is enough to get to every area of the body for a normal sized person, and to kill individual cancer cells circulating in the bloodstream. In addition, areas of concern or known tumours can be treated with strong localised lasers. Large or deep seated tumours can be treated with an interstitial light probe directly into the tumour.

The protocol for treatment depends on the severity of the cancer – I just had the lightbed and lasers, so it was painless and non-intrusive, with no side-effects. The interstitial probes can be uncomfortable for a few seconds, and large tumours will swell as they break up which can cause discomfort and some feel feverish for a few days – this is the start of the immune system recognising the cancer. A single course lasts 8 days, with 4 light treatments. The recommendation for advanced cancer is 3 courses of 8 days each, with a two week gap in between each course.

There are some limitations to the treatment, for example if a tumour is situated where the swelling could be dangerous (ie too near the heart), or if it is wrapped around a major blood vessel that could rupture as the tumour disintegrates, it would be too dangerous to treat. They also specify a minimum life expectancy of 3 months as the treatment can take time to work on very large tumours – people for whom it has been unsuccessful are generally those where the cancer was advancing faster than the PDT could work. Bone tumours are also harder to treat than soft tissue as light can’t travel as far through bone.

I was treated at a clinic in Guangzhou called Next Generation Photo Dynamic Therapy (NGPDT), which is owned and operated by an Australian/ Chinese company. They are a private clinic with patients coming from all over the world, and are planning a major expansion into 63 countries – they hope to be in the UK within 2 years. A similar but not identical system is available in Chinese hospitals for locals. A recent trial of NGPDT in Beijing on advanced lung cancer patients, who usually have a very poor prognosis, had 1 and 2 year survival rates of 94% and 71% respectively, compared to 68% and 32% for the control chemo and rads group. The NGPDT patients had complete remission in 56% of cases, and partial remission in a further 21%. Details here:http://meetinglibrary.asco.org/content/113379-132. A second trial in Australia on prostate and bladder cancers is in phase 2, and when complete should satisfy the regulatory requirements to bring the treatment to the UK.

When I was in China I met people being treated for a large range of cancers, most were very sick and had exhausted all other treatment options other than palliative care (I was not their typical patient, having a very light cancer load). These are the hardest cases to treat, weakened by years of chemo, but even so, everyone I met seemed to be responding. An Australian woman with a large inoperable brain tumour had a 60% reduction in tumour volume after 2 courses of treatment, and was regaining speech and balance. An Irish guy with lung cancer that had spread pretty much everywhere (he described his PET scan as lighting up like a Christmas tree) had cancer in only 1 lymph node after 3 courses. An American guy with large lung tumours described having an interstitial probe and being able to hear the tumours fizzing as they dissolved, and an immediate relief from the pain they were causing. I could go on and on – but you can see some of these people yourself being interviewed on Youtube.

As for me, I had no active tumours big enough to show up on a scan when I was treated, so there is no way of knowing how successful it has been – I will have to wait and see. Although I am currently NED having successfully treated bone and liver mets, I know my cancer will recur at some stage, so this treatment was an attempt to prevent that. I went with the blessing of my onc, who had wanted me to have a course of chemo following my liver ablation. I declined the chemo and had NGPDT instead. I have decided never to have chemo or rads again. I only had one course of NGPDT treatment – not the 3 they recommended. But if I need to go back for more I will be on the next plane to China. My hope is that one course will be enough to keep me well for a couple years, and by that time I’m hoping NGPDT will be available in London. In China, the worried well are having NGPDT to prevent cancer – it’s no more onerous than using a sunbed for half an hour!

Also found these links on the subject http://www.uclh.nhs.uk/OURSERVICES/SERVICEA-Z/CANCER/CANCERTREATMENTS/PDT/Pages/OtherPDTworkatUCLH.aspx
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1773165/
http://www.patient.co.uk/support/PDT-For-Cancer-Cure-Ltd.htm
http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Cancerinformation/Cancertreatment/Treatmenttypes/Othertreatments/Photodynamictherapy.aspx
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Therapy/photodynamic
http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-help/about-cancer/treatment/other/photodynamic-therapy-pdt
http://www.killingcancer.co.uk/home.asp
http://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatmentsandsideeffects/treatmenttypes/photodynamic-therapy

Interesting Lymphedema approach....

Just a quickie to post a link to Polly Noble's page on how she cured her Lymphedema I also suffer with this most annoying of ailments caused by having my lymph nodes removed from my mastectomy site and under my arm its supposed to be an incurable condition and its sometimes painful here's the link to what she did to cure herself by the way I do practice nearly all of the things on her list anyway except for the coffee enema which I have been thinking of trying.
http://pollynoble.com/2013/02/the-10-things-i-did-to-heal-my-lymphedema/

Curcumin/turmeric is the spice of life.....

"No cancer has been found that is NOT affected by curcumin" (MD Anderson Cancer Center, Texas)

That is a hell of a statement and one not too be ignored. I already take Turmeric supplements daily (I buy a good make by http://www.bio-health.co.uk/turmeric_rhizome.html) and had heard about this wonder spice here's a link to read a more in depth explanation from the fabulous Chris Woollams website Canceractive http://www.canceractive.com/cancer-active-page-link.aspx?n=1571. If you don't want to take supplements then cook a curry or simply add it too your food. If you have had or are living with cancer please read this link it could save your life. 

A true miracle..

I came across this lady Anita Moorjani by accident and wanted to share her story, to me it represents a miracle and gives me inspiration and hope.  http://anitamoorjani.com/?page_id=159 and http://youtu.be/nV8L6UMjeaQ http://youtu.be/4jUmbGbRgGA

The Magic of Mushroom power......

During all of my research I have come across plenty of interesting articles about the wonders of the mushroom, particular mushrooms of importance are Shitake, Reishi, Maitake, Turkey Tail, Dong Chong Xia Cao, and Chaga here are some links that you might find interesting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuL_faveAnw
http://cancerhelp.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancer-questions/mushrooms-in-cancer-treatment
http://www.nhs.uk/news/2009/11November/Pages/anti-cancer-mushroom-research.aspx
http://www.phellinus-research.com/weblink/phellinus-linteus-cancer-research.com/index.htm

Ganoderma Reishi Mushroom – “The mushroom of immortality”
The benefits listed are backed by clinical studies conducted by the Japanese. Here is a list of some of them: Migraine headaches, Blood pressure – can lower blood pressure, so be careful if you are already taking a BP medication, anti inflamatory, asthma, improves kidney function, regulates immune system. Many cancer related benefits – also used to help chemotherapy patients. Cardiovascular problems, allergies, insomnia, menstrual problems, constipation, haemorrhoids. Improves energy level – general feeling of well being.

Shiitake – The black forest tree mushroom
Indigenous to China, Japan and other Asian countries. Shiitake mushrooms have also been cultivated for their medicinal properties since pre-historic times. These miracle mushrooms are known to have anti-fungal, anti-tumor and anti-viral properties. Lentinan, an active compound found in shiitake mushrooms, helps boost the immune system, enhancing your ability to fight infection and disease.

Maitake – The cloud mushroom
http://the-maitake-mushroom.blogspot.co.uk
Maitake mushroom extract is most widely known for its use as a cancer-fighting agent. Maitake mushroom contains polysaccharides and polysaccharide-protein complexes that the body uses to build the immune system. The extract's content of beta-glucan in particular serves as a healthy defense system to promote important immune system actions. The glucan effectively activates white blood cells that fight off the microorganisms that produce disease, including cancer. Maitake mushroom extract boosts the activity of these various cells to induce the production of interleukins and other lymphokines that have chemoprotective effects, slow tumor growth, and help to inhibit the spread of cancer.

Chaga – The black tree fungus. Helps stimulate the immune system to fight infection, cancer, and immune diseases. These miracle mushrooms grow on birch trees and look like a large slab of burnt charcoal. You can find it in China, Japan, Korea, Russia, East European countries, America and Canada. It's been found that Chaga contains anti-mutagenic compounds, that inhibit mutations, which are changes in DNA and RNA sequences. A compound found in both birch tree and Chaga called betulinic acid shows anti-cancer properties in laboratory studies. Chaga absorbs betulinic acid from the birch tree. Amongst the many claims of this mushroom is that it can inhibit tumour growth, kill's cancer cells, and stimulates the immune system to fight cancer. 

Chaga Mushroom growing on Birch Tree

If your serious about getting to know your fungi better then here's a link to a website that provides some gorgeous recipes all mushroom related. Enjoy.

http://www.moretomushrooms.com/mushroom-recipes/

New and now tested 'Smart Bomb' for cancer...

An article I grabbed from the news on the new and now tested 'Smart Bomb' for curing cancer.

Scientists have successfully tested a capillary "smart bomb" that simultaneously attacks cancer and boosts the immune system. The tiny hollow spheres become trapped in leaky tumour blood vessels, where they unleash an anti-cancer drug. At the same time the spheres, called nanolipogels (NLGs), release a protein that rallies the body's own defences. Researchers tested the spheres in mice on melanoma skin cancer that had spread to the lungs. Tumour growth was significantly delayed and the survival of the mice increased. The new technology overcomes a problem with cancer treatment that has been difficult to tackle using conventional therapies, say the scientists. Cancer tumours are known to secrete chemicals that confuse the immune system. But attempts to boost patient immunity while at the same time neutralising the cancer's chemical arsenal rarely work. The NLGs, described in the journal Nature Materials, package together two completely different kinds of molecule. One is designed to overcome a potent cancer defence weapon called TGF-beta, which stunts the local immune system. The other, an interleukin signalling molecule, boosts immune system activity. Researcher Dr Stephen Wrzesinski, from Yale University School of Medicine in the US, said: "One problem with current metastatic (spreading) melanoma immunotherapies is the difficulty managing autoimmune toxicities when the treatment agents are administered throughout the body. "The novel nanolipogel delivery system we used will hopefully bypass systemic toxicities while providing support to enable the body to fight off the tumour at the tumour bed itself."Each NLG is small enough to travel through the bloodstream, but large enough to get entrapped in leaky cancer blood vessels. Once trapped, they biodegrade to release their cargo.

Hope to heal

I've found these films on cancer and present quite a case see what you think:

http://youtu.be/GXg0D9jBsCM

This one is by Bernie Siegel the writer of Love, Medicine and Miracles worth a watch:

http://youtu.be/GXg0D9jBsCM

10 different subtypes of Breast Cancer

Here's a copy of an article explaining the new findings, also well worth checking out is this link http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2012/04/18/increasing-the-resolution-on-breast-cancer-the-metabric-study/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cancerresearchuk%2FSHhE+%28Cancer+Research+UK+-+Science+Update%29 

Breast cancer stems from 10 genetic subtypes, not four as previously thought, according to a study published today in the journal Nature.

The findings by researchers in the U.K. and Canada will eventually enable doctors to better predict survival times in women with the disease and tailor the most appropriate treatment to their type of tumor, said Carlos Caldas, one of the authors and the chairman of cancer medicine at the University of Cambridge in England.

Tests to diagnose the new subtypes will probably be developed and in routine use in three to five years, which may not immediately affect how doctors work with patients, “but it’s surely going to change the way we do clinical trials,” Caldas said at a press conference in London yesterday. “It will lead to better treatments and more targeted treatments.”

Breast malignancies are diagnosed in 1.4 million women a year worldwide and are the most common cancers in women, according to Cancer Research UK. Survival rates after five years have increased to more than 80 percent from 50 percent in the late 1970s, according to the London-based charity.

The study by Cancer Research UK’s Cambridge Research Institute and the BC Cancer Agency in Vancouver looked at 2,000 frozen tumor samples from patients diagnosed with the disease at five hospitals. Scientists analyzed genetic material in the cancer cells for mutations and other changes and grouped them into 10 subtypes with common genetic features that correlated with long-term survival times.

‘Landmark’ Finding

The project was the largest global gene study of breast cancer, according to Cancer Research UK, which partly funded it. The charity’s chief executive, Harpal Kumar, said it represents a “landmark” in work on the disease. The current practice of diagnosing and treating women with breast cancer involves testing tumor samples for the presence of genetic markers for two hormone receptors, known as ER and HER- 2, Caldas said.

The outcome of that test determines which of four existing subtypes of breast cancer a woman has, and influences the treatment she receives and her prognosis, he said. The most common form is ER-positive and HER-2 negative breast cancer, which affects 70 percent of women with the disease, Caldas said. Another 15 percent have HER-2 positive tumors and can receive Roche Holding AG (ROG)’s targeted medicine Herceptin, which costs 30,000 pounds ($48,000) a year and carries a risk of heart damage.

Personalized Medicines

Identifying the 10 subtypes means patients in the future will know more exactly which type of breast cancer they have and, as more targeted drugs are developed, they should receive more effective or personalized medicines, said Julia Wilson, head of research information at Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

“This is a massive step in the right direction for our understanding of what breast cancer is,” said Wilson, whose organization helped in the study by providing samples, data and analysis as well as one of the report’s authors. “It’s really helping us to make sure each patient gets the right treatment at the right time. And it’s really sparing them from grueling treatment if it’s not going to work.”

The new subtypes of breast cancer include seven that were defined as ER-positive and HER-2 negative, Caldas said. Survival times for each of the seven subtypes range from 80 percent after 15 years from diagnosis to less than 40 percent after 15 years, considered a wide variation, he said.

‘Quest’ for Detection

“We’ve been in a quest for finding better markers in that particular subgroup for the last 15 or 20 years,” he said. “This is much more discriminatory and informative.”

The study results should spur drugmakers to develop more drugs targeting tyrosine kinases, phosphatases and chromatin modifiers as possible treatments for the newly identified subtypes of breast cancer, Caldas said.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK)’s Tykerb is a kinase inhibitor already approved for treating HER-2 positive breast cancer.

The findings may prompt drugmakers to take another look at existing compounds they had previously overlooked for the disease, said Karol Sikora, an oncologist at Hammersmith Hospital in London.

“It’s likely that a lot of drugs have been thrown out by pharmaceutical companies that would benefit small groups of patients,” Sikora said. “We call them ‘trash-can drugs’ in the business. Almost certainly in the junkyards of pharmaceutical companies are drugs that are active” against breast cancer.

Newly Discovered Genes

The study also identified several new genes that contribute to the disease, Caldas said. One of the subtypes has genetic markers that are associated with poor outcomes for patients, yet some patients with the subtype do well and defy predictions of their long-term survival. The immune system would appear to be “enriched” in women with this subtype and further understanding why might lead to new treatments, he said.

“It looks in this subset the immune system is playing a very active role in improving the prognoses of these women,” he said.

The breast-cancer study may also influence research on solid tumors affecting other organs, such as prostate, lung and colorectal cancers, Caldas said.

Cancer Research UK is funding a study that tests experimental treatments in 3,000 colorectal cancer patients with seven biomarkers, said Kate Law, director of clinical and population research at the charity. That study will begin in a few months, she said.

Fansinating study and encouraging for those of us with this disease I beleive we are are the road to finding a cure and instead of it being in the far away future its going to happen within my lifetime, amazing science.

Plant Power Rules

The power of nature to triumph over adversity has yet again proved itself to me, I have always had an affinity with nature, instinctually I love all nature from animals to plants, it is ironic that chemotherapy is developed from plants or from trees like the very poisonous yew tree, or mistletoe. Just watched a documentary on the Himalayas (check it out on the iplayer or BBC 4) at the end of the documentary they discussed the importance of the native plants of that region mainly plants from the Peony and Rhododendron families that have long been used by the local people as healing aids, a scientist from the millennium seed bank at kew spoke of how these plants are being studied in the use of healing and curing of such diseases like Alzheimer's, Diabetes's and Cancer to make the plants the pharmaceutical's of the future, these plants are in danger of extinction due to climate change with global warming proving to be a real threat, thankfully kew are collecting and storing seeds all the time to help avoid extinctions of this kind. I believe the key to finding a cure for cancer is in nature and plants and that we are tantalizingly on the cusp of finding the cure, until that time drinking green juice and smoothies will help in some way to prolong life for those of us afflicted with this terrible disease, I hope and pray it is long enough to find the cure for this blight of society.

The documentary was so beautiful and thought provoking, I think it must of been one of those 'thin places' (I mentioned in previous post) as I could not contain the tears, intuitively I know this is a very special spiritual place.