Are there alternatives to chemo?

karenf · New User Joined: 06 Feb 2010 Posts: 2

Hello,

My mother in law has been diagnosed with neuroendocryn non-small cell cancer and doesn't have much of a chance surviving the year. The doctors gave her a 2% chance but I have much more hope because chemo is not the only option. Currently she is in chemo therapy because she wanted to try one round before looking to alternatives but already she is regretting her decision. She is currently hospitalized because of pain and infections and is looking at having to take her second break from chemo because of all the side effects.

I have found some promising and non-experimental alternatives and would love to know if anyone has any experience with them and what the results were. The first is IPT. As most of you will know, chemo targets a specific cell division rate and kills all cells that divide at that rate. Since cancer cells divide just as fast as hair and blood cells, the chemo kills all of those cells as well. IPT uses an injection of insulin first which stimulates cell division in cancer cells because cancer cells have more insulin receptors than regular cells. After that a small dose of chemo (10%-15% normal does) is injected. Now that the cancer cells are dividing faster than any other cell, the chemo can target just those cells with the result that no healthy cells are effected hence none of the nasty side effects. A similar treatment is DPT which weakens the cell membrane allowing the chemo in more easily.

Another treatment is heat therapy which operates under the assumption that cancer cells can't survive as high of tempuratures as normal cells. So they induce a fever in the whole body or locally and the cancer cells die, again with no side effects or pain.

I would be interested to know if anyone has any experience with either of these treatments. Thank you.
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Mother in law diagnosed with neuroendocryn non-small cell lung cancer; has 2% chance of living through this year.

dano

Hello Karen; sorry hear of you mothers diagnose, I've never heard of her type of cancer before, Neuroendocrine Cancer, though I'm still reading about it. Is your mom going to try the IPT procedure? We would love to hear how that goes. I've looked up the IPT and have found that in over 70 years of of being Patented that no clinical studies have been done. So maybe you can let us know your personal experiences as you watch your mom go through them.
Good luck
Dan
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55 year old male, Diagnosed Nov. 9,2007 with NSCLC IV with Mets to the lymph's and brain
Had full brain radiation treatment in Jan 08 treatments now every 4 weeks with Alimta, stopped taking Lovenox for blood clots, Now working full time
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