An introduction to the alternative approach to treating cancer
About 11% of medical interventions produce proven benefits as shown in Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs). So it is important not to accept at face value most claims of benefits of treatments from medical authorities. Randomised controlled clinical trials are the backbone of Evidence Based Medicine.
In view of this situation a person with cancer should ask their doctor three question:
- What are my options (including doing nothing)?
- What are the expected outcomes for these options (including survival and side effects)?
- What’s the likelihood of each of those outcomes (including the % of people who survive 5 years after treatment and the % of people who experience the different side effects)?
If your doctor cannot answer these questions he or she is not practising evidence based medicine and you could benefit from changing your doctor or getting a second opinion.
The figure for proven benefits for medical interventions for cancer is closer to 3% increase in 5 year survival with another 7% with possible temporary benefits. So it is even more important to question the claims of benefits, especially considering that most interventions for cancer, mainly surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy can be very harmful and many can accelerate death. Most of the 3% proven increased survival benefit comes from chemotherapy, with surgery and radiotherapy only of proven benefit in immediately life-threatening situations.
For this reason decisions made about what to do when diagnosed with cancer need to be based on sound evidence of what works, what doesn’t work and what causes harm.
Another major problem with cancer is that although most people don’t die from their cancer, it is not easy to pick which cancers are life-threatening and which are not. So most doctors feel compelled to intervene just in case, to avoid being accused of not doing enough. This results in a very high level of overdiagnosis and overtreatment. Because most interventions cause harm, and produce little benefit, there is a large amount of harm that can be avoided by the practice of evidence based medicine.
Most treatments for cancer are based on an unproven theory (or paradigm) of what cancer is: a disease that starts locally and often later spreads throughout the body – so-called metastasis.
In contrast with this, most alternative cancer treatments are based on an alternative theory of what cancer is: a systemic disease cause by a gradual breakdown of the body’s systems producing tumours as late stage symptoms. Metastases are instead not viewed as tumours that have spread from a “primary” tumour, but rather as the same cancer process producing another tumour in the next most susceptible tissue. This paradigm would predict no benefit from efforts to eliminate the primary tumour, unless the tumour were immediately life-threatening, such as obstructing the bowel or pressing on the brain. The lack of proven benefits from intervention supports this alternative paradigm.
Evaluation of therapies based on the alternative cancer paradigm has identified several therapies shown in RCTs to produce benefits in both increased survival and reduced mortality and with few if any side effects. These results are far better than anything that can be achieved with surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy.
There are other alternative cancer therapies that have been shown to produce good survival results, but not in RCTs. Analysing the principles underlying the therapies in these two areas has resulted in an alternative cancer protocol or rationale for treatment.
Alternative cancer therapies
If you look at the evidence from RCTs the most effective therapies for controlling cancer are particular types of psychotherapy and particular types of immunotherapy – both systemic therapies. The most effective psychotherapy appears to be Creative Novation Behaviour Therapy developed by Ronald Grossarth-Maticek. This suggests the existence of a cancer prone personality that can be changed to a healthy autonomous one. The most effective immunotherapy is Issels’ Wholebody Therapy developed in the 1950s by Josef Issels in Germany and Iscador, an extract of mistletoe developed in Switzerland.
Based on this evidence an alternative hypothesis of cancer causation is that the cancer prone personality determines who gets cancer. Treatment should be wholistic and systemic; focus on identifying the important causative factors in the particular person’s personality; and use a range of psychotherapies and other techniques to remove or minimise these factors.
Immunotherapy is the second main evidence-based approach, so Iscador can be used to slow down the cancer process to enable enough time to deal with the emotional causes of cancer. This requires the services of a doctor willing to provide the necessary injections.
A third approach using particular supplements selected for the particular person with cancer will further help to strengthen the body’s system and thereby hasten recovery. The work by Patrick Kingsley provides a useful guide for this third approach. Other therapies in this third area include anti-cancer diets, such as the Gerson Diet and the Budwig Diet. Although these are not based on the results of RCTs there is credible evidence that those who have used these approaches, including those with late stage cancer, have a significantly increase survival and an improved quality of life.
There are also many single therapies that can slow down the cancer process, eg Hydrazine Sulphate. This is a self-help therapy based on the theory that, as 40% of people who die of cancer die from cachexia – a wasting away disease – survival can therefore be increased for most cancers by interrupting this degenerative process. Cachexia is claimed to be caused by the tumour taking much of the energy required by the body to power the body’s cells – in the form of glucose. Hydrazine sulphate was found to provide a cheap and simple way if interrupting the conversion of lactic acid to glucose in the liver, thus starving the tumour. Many clinical trials, mainly in Russia, have confirmed the benefits of hydrazine sulphate with many types of cancer. Hydrazine Sulphate is a prohibited import in Australia.
Particular homeopathic remedies have also been found to slow down or control cancer growth, particularly in association with individualised herbal therapies. Brain tumours, particularly childhood brain tumours, appear to be fairly receptive to this type of treatment.
These are described as providing the physical or physiological approach to cancer treatment.
The second area of treatment involves the mental approach that works with the conscious mind, with therapies such as relaxation, meditation, and visualisation and imagery techniques.
The third area of treatment involves the emotional or psychological approach that works with the sub-conscious or unconscious mind, with therapies such as behaviour therapy, such as that described above. This is designed to identify and remove the emotional causes of cancer that are specific to the individual. Once the causes are identified there are many techniques available to remove their detrimental effects on the body’s systems, especially the immune system. These include Psych-K, Reiki, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), Theta Healing and other so called energy based therapies.
Recent research has identified evidence suggesting that chronic stress, particularly at the subconscious level can suppress the immune system, increase harmful cell oxidation and shorten the cells’ telomeres, resulting in increased mortality, especially due to cancer and heart disease.
The fourth area of treatment involves spiritual healing. For those with a religious faith this can become a useful adjunct to healing. For the non-religious this can be seen as a method of reconnecting with a wider intelligence. Several books have explored the possible mechanism behind this healing approach including Rupert Sheldrake’s book “Morphic Resonance: The Nature of Formative Causation” or Bruce Lipton’s book “Spontaneous Evolution: Our Positive Future and a Way to Get There from Here” and Lynne McTaggart’s book “The power of eight: Harnessing the Miraculous Energies of a Small Group to Heal Others, Your Life, and the World”.
People with cancer who join CISS are provided with information to help them choose what is right for them out of these four main areas. When they have chosen we help them with further information about how to get access to the various therapies, that are mainly self-help therapies.
CISS’ main principles are:
- The therapy should do no harm;
- The therapy should be wholistic, ie include the body, the mind, the emotions and the spirit;
- The person with cancer needs to learn how to take back control of their own health.
We have a list of stories about people who have joined CISS and reversed their late-stage cancers and outlived their survival prognosis by between 5 and 40 years. These include people diagnosed with lung cancer (prognosis 6-12 months – survived 12 years with a good quality of life); mesothelioma (prognosis about 12 months – still alive and well 20 years later); bowel cancer (prognosis 6-12 months – one survived 40 years, then died of melanoma; another still alive and well 25 years later); pancreatic cancer (prognosis 12 months – still alive after 5 years); Stage IV melanoma (prognosis 3-6 months – currently cancer free 4 years later); Prostate cancer (prognosis 6-12 months if no surgical treatment – currently alive and free of prostate cancer without surgery after 5 years).
We welcome you to join us to learn how to discover your own innate healing powers.
