First, I would like to thank all who have replied to my post about my brother, Mark. Mark has been battling colon cancer for nearly four years. He has had surgeries and chemo treatments, yet the cancer is now in his abdomen, liver, lymph nodes, and we believe a tumor in his rectum is pressing on his kidney. He was on his third week of a Stage I clinical trial, which I understand is just after animal studies, through USC and became terribly sick. He was vomitting continously, slurring speech, falling down. He went back to USC and they rehydrated him. The doctor told him that he had gone longer than any other person on this treatment. He wanted Mark to have an MRI of his brain and an ultra sound of his kidney, and then finish the fourth week of the treatment. Feeling that the USC doctor would continue him on it for the sake of the study and not for Mark's good, Mark returned to his original oncologist. She talked to him about all he'd been through and where he is now and it was decided that now was the time for him to step back, stop the chemo, stop the tests, and take time for disability from work. He didn't have to do anything he did not want to do.
Mark has an appointment with an immunologist named Fereshteh Akbarpour MD at Orange County Immune Institute in Huntington Beach, CA. A few months ago, I had emailed Patrick Quillen, author of the book "Beating Cancer With Nutrition." He replied with a recommendation of going to her for another opinion. Part of her approach is the alternative of Vitamin C and supplements to detoxify and build up the immune system. We hope that even if Mark can not beat the cancer, at least he could regain some of what he lost from the chemo, and feel better. Any thoughts?