It isn't proven to do anything.
The only thing it will feed is the manufacturer, the only thing it will
hobble is your wallet.....

Hello Richy,
How's your father doing?
Keep in touch and let us know.
My best to you and your father
J

Hi Richi

I have just posted a message on another thread in answer to Steph and
about alternative treatment, asking him if alternative cures could help
when you have nothing left. And if you read on here, I have good reasons
for asking. Read on even if it is long...

My husband had 5.5 cm intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma in September 2001.
At first he was told he had 3 months to live. Then a surgeon decided to
operate and did a major right hepatectomy. Then he had 6 cycles of Gemzar
and Eloxatin. He was just fine for 2 years. During this time he took loads
of silymarin and desmodium and various other supplements (but avoiding
vitamin b12) and herbal remedies.  We do not know whether the herbs helped
him survive all this time, we like to think so because he had absolutely
no secondary effect from the chemo, carried on doing heavy work. Then in
September 2003, the doctors found recurring cancer in peritoneum with
ascites. He started again chemo, same regimen, and then he was not so
good, chemo was changed, and he became badly ill. The doctors gave him up
for dead and he was dying...

Except that the diagnosis was partly wrong, two hospitals, one a small
local one, the other one of the best in Europe, failed to see that in fact
he had peritonitis and scepticemia and it does not look like the cancer in
the peritoneum was the root cause of this, but that the last chemo lowered
his wihte blood cells, his platelets, on top of weak intestines, and that
made it burst inside the ascites and gave him horrendous infection. Now
the new doctors in Switzerland have saved him, they say he can have a few
months remission before the cancer flares up and he dies. After surgery
twice for the peritonitis, he had pneumonia and the doctors gave up saying
it would be 2 days, he was too weak to be given any other medicine. With
the permission of the doctors, I stepped in with my essential oils and
herb teas. I gave him grandmother's remedies and within 4 days the
pneumonia was gone... (as seen from his physical shape, X-rays and
CT-scans). Now he eats normally, he breathes normally, walks 5 lengths of
the hospital corridor every day, eats at the table. The peritoneal drains
and derivations from the abdominal cavity give less and less pus.

The doctors say there is nothing they can do anymore for him with respect
to his cancer.  They will send him home to enjoy a few weeks with us until
the cancer kills him.

I believe that the 2 year complete remission was helped with all the herbs
and supplements I gave him, if nothing else for his quality of life.
Statistics are nasty for this type of cancer, even when one can have
surgery. I believe that without the herbs he would not have had so long.

Now, I am asking others, what about this recurrence. Can herbs/supplements
give him a bit more time - say a few weeks until his kids go thru their
school examinations? Can they give him back some of the quality of life he
had during the remission?  Which recommendations can be given? I have
digged everywhere to give him more appropriate alternative supplements
than before, but now I am at loss to find better than what I had before. I
am running out of alternative knowledge. So any ideas are welcome.

Dear Richy, cholangiocarcinoma is a very rare tumor, many doctors do not
understand what it is, although it seems you are getting the best chemo
combination. If that does not work, they probably will try leucovorin and
5-FU, possibly CPT11 or epirubicin. Do get as much info as you can in the
medical litterature. The site www.pubmed.com has loads of scientific
abstracts including those which are about the effect of herbs and various
cancers. There's not much and too few statistics for intrahepatic
cholangiocarcinoma, most are meta-analyses and retrospective series.
That's because not only is the cancer rare, but it is so nasty that few
survive with a long enough remission.  For my husband's recurrence as a
peritoneal thickening, I found only one study because that type is so rare
with this primary cancer, there are no studies.

Go to the biggest hospitals you can find where you are, and speak to the
TOP surgeons/oncologists, not their assistants. Use your intuition.  You
need to trust your guts about the doctors.  We questioned everything, we
changed doctors.  The three times when we decided to give the benefit of
the doubt to the doctors and continued to trust them despite our gut
feeling that something was amiss, we made a mistake.  Doctors will only
find what they search, and they will only search for what they know.
There is a limit to anyone's competence, and once this limit is reached,
you need to go higher. Most doctors will not admit ignorance, will not try
and get more competent opinions than theirs. You cannot have a doctor that
knows it all, a surgeon is not an oncologist. A surgeon skilled in liver
cancer is not skilled in peritonitis... etc... so trust your gut feeling.
Use their skill up to their limit, then search higher. Take notes, write
down what they say, go with your wife/friend. Check every single item they
tell you in the medical litterature. If you get a decent remission, get
yourself onto clinical trials. The only one for which my husband was
eligible, he refused because he was frightened he would die abroad - it
was a 60/40 chance of dying with the trial, but now it's a 100% chance he
will die anyway and it's too late to go to this clinical trial, he is too
weak. So don't wait to be weak to enrol for a trial, like he did.

If any help, you can go see my husband's web site, although I have not
completed it lately as I was spending time at my husband's bed in the
clinic. Here's the address - http://adorphuye.com/scans/. I have
absolutely no commercial interest and this testimony is the truth and
nothing else.

Best wishes

sissi
26 April 2004