16 Mar 2009, Written by Monica Bologna-Huerta in politics,society

Shopping for Treatment

With all the money spent on cancer research in America, you would think that we would be winning the war on cancer. Yet similar to the War on Drugs or the War on Terror, with 564,800 Americans expected to die of cancer this year, the US again is clearly not winning. With all the advanced treatment facilities and drugs with unpronounceable names, cancer is still spreading like wildfire in America. The question that arises is: if these traditional treatments are not working, why aren’t cancer patients told about alternative cancer treatments known around the world in their oncologist’s office?

One alternative treatment that has been dubbed as quackery by the FDA is a fever therapy used in Germany that raises the body temperature and directs it towards the source of the cancer. These treatments are known as Hyperthermia, thermal therapy, thermotherapy, or fever therapy. On the Center for Hypothermia Hanover website they explain further:

Increasingly in the research of cancer cells, attention is being focused upon the escape mechanisms of these cells. Escape phenomenons occur when cells succeed in hiding themselves, in becoming invisible or when they send out messenger substances, which suppress the human immune system. Against these escape phenomenon’s, traditional medicine using radiation therapy and chemotherapy has proved rather ineffective, because the body’s degenerated cells are also able to defend themselves against radiation therapy and chemotherapy during treatment. Specifically active fever therapy, by inducing the fever phases, changes the surface of cancer cells, activates many messenger substances which stimulate the immune system to detect the cancer cells and to destroy them. There are also a number of highly potent medications, which change the information about messenger substances on the cancer cells to such an extent that they are exposed, detected and destroyed.

Our very own former president Ronald Reagan traveled to Germany to cure his cancer this way in 1985. When asked about whether or not he opted for German cancer treatments there wasn’t exactly screaming from the rooftops since the treatment was not allowed in the US.

Dr. Hans Neiper who was considered to be one of the best cancer doctors in the world treated Reagan along with other famous faces like: Princess Caroline of Monaco, Anthony Quinn, John Wayne, Nancy Sinatra, Red Buttons and Yul Brynner.  After Ronald Reagan’s treatment, he went on to live another 19 years and his death was not related to cancer.

In Andrew Scholberg’s book German Cancer Breakthrough , he writes that this treatment costs a tenth of what typical chemotherapy costs and is free of harmful side effects. In the book he gives a guide to all the treatment centers in Germany. Of course, this revolutionary treatment has been banned in the United States. That didn’t stop celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor, Suzanne Somers, or Cher from seeking out alternative treatments in Germany to cure their cancer. Why would the FDA deny Americans this type of treatment? If it is good enough for Ronny Reagan why isn’t it good enough for us?

The answer may lie in the hands of an organization many see as immune to scrutiny, the American Cancer Society. Doctor Samuel Epstein the former head of a Congressional committee on cancer has been a long time critic of the American Cancer Society. Epstein claims that the ACS’ “longstanding conflicts of interest with a wide range of industries, coupled with a systematic discrediting of evidence of avoidable causes of cancer preclude many powerful life-saving initiatives.”

The American Cancer Societies 22-member board was created in 1990 to gather corporate contributors. Natural news writes that board members include Gordon Binder, who is the CEO of Amgen, a biotechnology company that sells chemotherapy products. Another board member, David R. Bethune, is president of Lederle Laboratories, a multinational pharmaceutical company and a division of American Cyanamid Company.

With these board members representing their own financial interests, chances are that alternative medicines that cut costs and increase cures are going to look pretty unappetizing. Although unable to find an exact number of how much money chemotherapy generates per year, the word billions is well within the realm of possibility.

In a 2005 debate, Dr. Michael Thun of the American Cancer Society did not exactly deny corporate interests: “The American Cancer Society views relationships with corporations as a source of revenue for cancer prevention. That can be construed as an inherent conflict of interest, or it can be construed as a pragmatic way to get funding to support cancer control.”

It is no wonder that barely any funding is spent on the prevention of cancer since all the money to be made lies in the treatment of cancer. The problem is that the go-to treatment, chemotherapy, is toxic on the human body. According to the Stanford Cancer Center, some of the side effects of Chemotherapy drugs for various types of cancers include: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hair loss, decrease in blood cell counts, allergic reaction, rashes, hearing loss, kidney damage, bladder damage, fertility impairment, lung or heart damage, secondary malignancies, mouth ulcers, weakness, loss of appetite, and loss of reflexes. Those are just a few of the symptoms they list but anyone who has known a person who has endured Chemo can tell you that.  Chemotherapy can be effective for a small number of cancers, like leukemia. Yet in relation to most cancer cases, why would we destroy our entire house if we had a few roaches inside it knowing our house may not be able to be rebuilt? Chemotherapy, instead of killing just the cancer cells, kills healthy cells as well and many times kill the cancer patient. Many doctors have tried to tell the public the truth about chemotherapy, the truth being that (except for a few types of cancers) it does more harm to the body than good. One of these doctors is Dr. Ralph Moss who has said: “If cancer specialists were to admit publicly that chemotherapy is of limited usefulness and is often dangerous, the public might demand a radical change in direction-possibly toward unorthodox and nontoxic methods, and toward cancer prevention.”

If interested in the alternative German Cancer treatments, the Center for Hypothermia Hanover is one centers that use the same method as Dr. Neiper. Not all Cancer centers in Germany have these alternative treatments so it is important to find out before making the trek.

What does FDA approved mean anymore in America and has it really meant a whole lot in the past? The fact is that The American Cancer Society, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Cancer Institute, and the American Medical Association as well as all the drug companies out there generate enormous profits from our misguided wallets. Our health care is being run by businessmen and not by doctors. At this point it is up to us to be advocates of our own health and first take the steps toward healthy living to avoid dealing with the business of cancer.

Monica Bologna-Huerta , a native of Cincinnati Ohio, is finishing up her BA in Fiction Writing at Columbia College Chicago. After graduation she plans to travel the world teaching English and perfect her (now intermediate level) Spanish.

View all articles by Monica Bologna-Huerta.