Cancer Treatment Centers of America

I don't have this type of cancer, but I was successfully treated at CTCA in Philadelphia and it does seem too good to be true, but it's not!  It is a great place.  They don't promise to cure anyone, just treat you like a person instead of a number or a statistic.  I had stomach cancer and a lot of doctors basically wrote me off because they looked at the statistics for this type of cancer.  Most of which were for 60 year old men with a lot of other problems, I was just 38 and a woman with no underlying health problems.  CTCA ignores the statistics and just looks at you and what will help you.

Check out their website for all of the other things they help with, like hotel rooms for under $50, free meals in their cafeteria for the patient and one caregiver, they pay for your travel to and from their location, the smiling faces from the nurses, doctors, cafeteria cooks, orderlies.

If I haven't sold you yet, give me specific questions and I will do my best to answer them.

Andrea

On 8/1/2008 ANDI68 wrote:

I don't have this type of cancer, but I was successfully treated at CTCA in Philadelphia and it does seem too good to be true, but it's not!  It is a great place.  They don't promise to cure anyone, just treat you like a person instead of a number or a statistic.  I had stomach cancer and a lot of doctors basically wrote me off because they looked at the statistics for this type of cancer.  Most of which were for 60 year old men with a lot of other problems, I was just 38 and a woman with no underlying health problems.  CTCA ignores the statistics and just looks at you and what will help you.

Check out their website for all of the other things they help with, like hotel rooms for under $50, free meals in their cafeteria for the patient and one caregiver, they pay for your travel to and from their location, the smiling faces from the nurses, doctors, cafeteria cooks, orderlies.

If I haven't sold you yet, give me specific questions and I will do my best to answer them.

Andrea

Your experince at CTCA sounds wonderful.  My father very recently went to the center in Philly.  Can you tell me more about the things they help with, especially how my father needs to go about getting his travel to their facility paid for?  He lives in New Mexico.  Thanks for your time. 

stillamom and jacemae,

There are some things you should know about CTCA before making your decision.  There is some insurance they won't accept and they won't accept Medicare because it doesn't pay enough.  Also, they are for profit and other hospitals and institutions are not for profit so there services are more expensive than the usual hospital.  They have no silver bullet or secret cures that no one else has, no matter how they dress it up; they use the very same chemos and radiation that the hospital down the street is using.  So don't be fooled, there is no magic at CTCA, just higher costs, insurances and Medicare they won't accept and misleading ads suggesting they can cure cancers that no one else can.  Let the buyer beware.  You might also google CTCA and lawsuits against patients.

Good luck.

Joan L 

I replied to someone else who was considering CTCA.

I considered it for my daughter who died of breast cancer.

I was diagnosed yesterday with pancreatic cancer.

I found that the FTC indicted CTCA for misleading and false claims.

I am at the San Francisco VA, a SFSU teaching hospital.

Always use a teaching hospital if you can. The interns and residents are checked by department heads.

IraIke:

I am so very  very sorry about your daughter and now you. I just had to share my heartfelt wishes for a swift answer to your cancer.  False claims aside, CTCA seems like an honestly wonderful place. I just returned from a consult.

Yes they have the usual treatments, in addition to some nice adjunct therapies. They don't offer aggressive alternative means, for sure. Their surgeons and oncologists and radiologist seem excellent. So if you are going the conventional route anyway, but would like a swanky hotel, fantastic foods and compassionate people all around to help, CTCA is it. For not much more than you'd pay anyway, but let me get back to you when I get the bill!

Perhaps the misleading part surrounding the FTC is that they say they are curing cancer, or "winning the fight" every day. Well, they all tell you they are curing cancer. No one hears about the failures at any hospital, teaching or not, except in the obits.

I will say this: my sister had conventional treatment for breast cancer here in NY at a teaching hospital, with a renowned oncologist and surgeon. She would possibly have died from the chemo side effects had she not been monitored by her primary MD, who is also a licensed Naturopath. The oncologist just took a standard route and didn't  adjust or alleviate her treatments. The naturopath took my sister's bloodwork weekly, and had to send it to the oncologist before he believed how bad she was, and before he did anything different with her treatments. Same with the surgery itself; at the advice of the primary, my sis insisted on timing her surgery(and chemo) with her cycle, to optimize the success. The surgeon and oncologist threw a fit, but she was better off fighting for it this way.  Then the naturopath gave her herbal/alternative remedies for various symptoms, which always proved superior to what the oncologist prescribed for the same symptoms.

I offer this because CTCA has a naturopath MD and acupuncture/herbs available to you as part of your treatments. This means that you will most likely come through the same treatment feeling better and stronger than at the teaching hospital where alternative or complementary therapies are not offered. Likewise with the team approach to the timing and recovery of your surgery.

Finally, I know pancreatic cancer is a real scare. I wonder if you might try to get a hold of one of the people who have taken Reliv products(google reliv, I guess, or pm me)to put their cancer in remission. I know several people personally who have put a stage 4 cancer right to a stage 1 and then into remission by flooding their bodies with these shakes all day. SOme amazing stories....even  a few given months to live who are here years later, thanks to these "superfood" shakes.  I guess anything might be worth a try.  

I truly wish you the best.

MelaleucaMom