Orthomolecular cancer therapy

 What is Orthomolecular cancer therapy, and how does it work? (it's just Holistic with science behind it...)

Orthomolecular biologic therapies help the immune system to function better by using substances that occur naturally in your body. The therapy may stimulate your body to make more of the substance, or the therapy may be a man-made version of that natural substance itself or the other way around.  Alternative names for Orthomolecular biologic therapies include biologic agents, biologics, biological response modifiers (BRMs), or immunotherapy. Orthomolecular therapy differs from chemotherapy because chemotherapy affects cancer cells directly whereas Orthomolecular therapy works with the immune system to fight cancer. 

The body's immune system helps to prevent disease, but it also plays a role in preventing cancer from developing or spreading. The goal of Orthomolecular therapy is to enhance this natural defense and its ability to fight cancer. Doctors do not completely understand how these therapies work to fight cancer, but the treatments are thought to stop or slow the growth of cancer cells, to make it easier for the immune system to destroy these cells, and to prevent cancer from spreading to other parts of the body.

Some biologics are used to help deal with the side effects of other treatments. For example, colony stimulating factors can help the body increase the production of white blood cells after chemotherapy and thereby decrease the risk of neutropenia, and in turn, infection. Just as there are many different ways of stimulating the immune system, there are different types of Orthomolecular therapies. 

How are biologic therapies given?

This varies depending on the particular type of Orthomolecular therapy being used. Therapies may be given by mouth. Therapies may also be given directly into a body cavity to treat a specific site.  Some of these therapies are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but many are still being tested in clinical trials. Depending on the type of cancer and how far it has spread, some patients may only need biologic therapy, while others may receive this in conjunction with other therapies (i.e. chemotherapy, surgery, or radiation therapy).

What are the side effects of biologic therapies?

Although some biologic therapies use substances that occur naturally in the body, side effects can occur as a result of either the greater production or the higher-than-normal doses administered. The most common side effects with biologic therapies are caused by the "revving up" and stimulation of the immune system. They may temporarily include fever, chills, body aches, nausea/vomiting, loss of appetite, and fatigue. Most side effects diminish at 24-48 hours after treatment, and for continuous regimens these side effects will lessen over time. Remember, every patient is different; some may develop all of the side effects, while others may have none or be somewhere in between. 

Hey, this stuff is working for Lucy! Just off the shelf health food store stuff in general!

I have used the above Orthomolecular cancer therapy concept and taken it simply to the max with the most diversity as possible in treatment. Diversity in treatment is the key.

Holistic Vet visits Lucy at home April 18, 2011

After much research, I find that her path to Quality of Life will not be radiation or chemotherapy. It buys so little time in a dogs life. Remember they age 7 times as fast, so cancers timeline path is 7 times as fast as humans. It MIGHT buy a few months to maybe 8 months *on average*, and your dog will not feel good and it will surely stress them out. Surgery cannot be done on nasal cancer so you cannot remove it and buy time like with some other cancers. Plus, not to sound harsh as I love her dearly, I breach the subject of cost to you of a few weeks of radiation can be thousands of dollars (as in $8K to $10K) and is not done just anywhere. Usually quite a drive to a treatment center usually (unless you live right in a large city or university) and has to be done for a few weeks. Stress and anesthesia(the dog must be verrrry still) for the dog for many days.


UPDATE
I will be going back and forth creating and editing posts previous to this post and some that follow because of my late start on creating this dog cancer blog discussion group. There is sooooo much research I have done, and, as of March, 2012, she is in remission. 12 months after nasal cancer diagnosis. Not only no symptoms at this point but also many months past her so called 'shelf life' expectancy. Wow is right.  I now really feel the need to help others by sharing the information. Information not usually given by regular vets, holistic vets, or it seems oncologists. Even Holistic vets don't use every trick in the book. Not my practitioners, nor many of the people who talked about their journeys I tearfully followed on the many support groups on the web.


I used E. All of the Above, except for of course radiation or chemo.


I wanted to work with a holistic vet because this was the sort of path we were taking and to also verify the hundreds of hours of research I did  trying to pull together all the information into some sort of summary dog cancer treatment from the hundreds of websites, discussion groups, dog cancer clinical trials, etc. on supplements and alternative treatments or even black box prescription medications (a med used for treatment of something not labeled or FDA approved for ).


The holistic vet came and felt I was giving too many supplements and wanted me to just give her 2 herbal formulas that cost $90 a bottle. Ack. Plus, not much confirmation on my research. But Linda at Gold Country Holistic Vet is great very nice vet. Please use her if you live in Nevada County. So after she left I researched the 2 Chinese herbal formulas that I didn't buy because I wanted to think about it. They were " Wei Qi Booster ", an immune system booster, and " Stasis Breaker ", a tumor 'buster'. Anecdotal evidence and testimonials about these were found and I researched each herb in the powdered formulas. Looked good. But I still was going to give Lucy EVERYTHING else. Not taking any chances.


There will be much more to come about Yunan Bai Yao to stop the bleeding itself, Low dose Naltrexone, Antioxidents and when to give them, immune boosters (why give chemo when it will also kill the immune system?), Budwig diet, dog food reviews that align with general cancer needs and more. Please Please stay tuned as I flesh this all out.