unresectable tumour - alternative treatments

Hi,

My father has just come out of a Whipple procedure where the surgeon could not remove the head of the pancreas due to vessel involement. He did a bypass instead to improve the quality of life.. but obviously the prognosis is that it is just a matter of time. Even if the growth shrinks it will not be resectable due to its location, which was not visible prior to opening.

The news was crushing, he is only 53 and while I was aware of the risks and reputation of cancer in this region, having the surgery and adj. therapy afterwards had given me hope. Now my mother and I feel more desparate and lost than ever.

We hope to regain momentum and fight this with any alternative therapies available. He is a fighter and we are ready to spend all of our energy praying and hoping for a miracle but if there are practical things we can do it would also help! I am reading all the info on this forum and elsewhere on the web but any information you could give me on your experiences of therapies (chemo/rad/alternative/whatever) would help and support my thoughts.

Thanks,

Dan. 

First of all, don't give up hope. My 76 year old mother was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic non-operable pc on July 7, 2006.  We were told 3-6 months without chemo or possibly a year with. It was a hard decision for my mother because she had sworn never to take chemo if there wasn't a chance for a cure because she wanted quality of life over quantity.  The doctor said she thought she could still offer quality with chemo.  Mom was put on 150mg of Tarceva daily and Gemzar weekly (she's never been given a week off either!). She started the first week of August and is still on it, but we hope to be soon off of everything. Her CA19-9 has dropped from over 38,000 down to 44 this past week.  The oncologist believes with a couple of more weeks of chemo and she will be in remission.  The CT scan shows that the mets to the liver are gone and then lymph nodes are back to normal size, the tumor has shrunk.  We don't know how long this remission is for, maybe permanently. We are just putting it in the hands of the Lord since He's brought us this far.

Thank you for replying. That's wonderful news about your mother!!

It helps me to know that there is hope! Did you use any special diets or unconventional healing?

No, no special diets or alternative treatments. Just lots of prayer!

Yes, there are a lot of alternative treatements. My father (67) is currently under one of them, so called The Budwig Diet (check this on the internet). He was diagnosed advanced inoperable pancreatic cancer a couple of months ago and it was already too late for both chemo or radiation treatment. The only "drug" he got from his doctor was Pro Sure (meal replacement full of vitamins and minerals against weight loss).

Every day he's taking 6 tablespoons of flaxseed oil mixed with 1,5 cup of cottage cheese and he's taking care of his diet (he very reduced eating meat and other fats). He's doing some easy excersises and he walks a lot every day. He feels better then before treatment and recent blood check showed all values in recommended range. He has some pains for time to time but less then before. My opinion is that this metod can cure cancer and I think it's worth to try.

I hope this helps !

 

thanks again for replying. the diet sounds like something worth considering. my current plan is to go for a blend of different treatments with chemo, diet  and hope on top of the list and more creative alternatives as an added bit of help! it's hard to stay positive but apart from some lapses I am doing the best I can....

 My personal opinion is that no diet is capable of curing cancer; however you must be very careful that the patient is taking in sufficient nutrients as PC is notorious for weight loss.  There are enzymes available to help process the food that is taken in.  Frequently if chemo and radiation are given the tumor will shrink enough fir the Whipple to be performed by a very capable surgeon.  These capable surgeons are found at hospitals that do lots of Whipples every year and they have lots of experience; they will do procedures that lesser surgeons at a local, community hospital would not mattempt due to complexity.   Suggest you contact PanCan who can suggest specialist surgeons and oncologists.

On 1/25/2007 Danail wrote:

thanks again for replying. the diet sounds like something worth considering. my current plan is to go for a blend of different treatments with chemo, diet  and hope on top of the list and more creative alternatives as an added bit of help! it's hard to stay positive but apart from some lapses I am doing the best I can....

 

My 75 year old spouse in 12/06 had Whipple with resection of portion of portal vein; when one surgeon tells you it's unresectable, another who is an excellent, aggressive surgeon with lots of experience will do the surgery.   Did you go to a local, community hospital where they don't do a lot of Whipples?  If so, you might want to try a surgeon and hospital known for treatment of PC.  Your father is too young at 53 to give up so easily.  Suggest you do some reading on the Johns Hopkins support board.  Peace. 

Unfortunately the tumor seems to really be unresectable. The surgeon who did the procedure said it encases the SMV and some of its tributaries, which makes it an impossible surgery. I confirmed this with Johns Hopkins, who also said that even if the tumor responds well to chemoradiation it is unlikely to become resectable. 

So without the surgical option, I really am left with chemo+diets+faith as alternatives.Of course, I hope that plenty of all of those will make a difference..  

My focus at the moment is to find all the information on diets. There seems to be a lot of material regarding this, mostly it is poorly substantiated by scientific trials but at the moment I cannot be too picky.. Any information of personal experience of the things like the Dr.Gonzales / Budwig Diet / Max Gerson's Research or other similar things would be much appreciated! 

Thanks for your support! 

I have just found thiss link, maybe it can be helpfull

regards

 

http://www.beating-cancer-gently.com/treatment-options.html