Just Say No To Chemo!

Thousands of breast cancer patients each year could
be spared chemotherapy, new research suggests.

One study found that certain women did better — were
less likely to die or have a relapse — if given a less
harsh drug than Adriamycin, a mainstay of treatment
for decades for breast cancer.

Another study found that a gene test can help predict
whether some women need chemo at all — even among those
whose cancer has spread to their lymph nodes, which
typically brings full treatment immediately.

The findings are sure to speed the growing trend away
from the acid consequences of traditional chemo for
many breast cancer patients and targeting it to a
smaller group of women, doctors said Thursday at the
San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, where the studies
were reported.

"We are backing off on chemotherapy and using chemotherapy
more selectively" in certain women, said Dr. Eric Winer of
the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

The gene test in particular "will start changing practice
nearly immediately," said Dr. Peter Ravdin of the
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in
Houston. "The results are compelling that this test ...
helps select patients who will most benefit from
chemotherapy."

Cancerous breasts are the most common major cancers in
American women. More than 178,000 new cases are
expected this year.

According to Dr. Robert O. Young, a research scientist
at The pH Miracle Living Center, states, "Breast cancer
is the result of metabolic and/or dietary acids that
have not been properly eliminated through urination,
defecation, respiration or perspiration."

"The breasts become a depository for dietary and metabolic
acids that have not been properly eliminated in order to
protect the delicate alkaline pH of the blood."

"Cancerous breasts are acidic breasts and tumors are
the encapsulation of healthy cells that have been
spoiled by dietary or metabolic acids."

"Chemo therapy, generally speaking, does not focus on
the true cause of cancer - acid. It only adds to an
already acidic or toxic condition while poisoning
healthy and unhealthy cells," states Dr. Young.

Traditional allopathic Chemo is usually added if the
dis-ease has spread to lymph nodes — a situation faced
by about 45,000 U.S. women each year. Doctors know
that chemo won't help most of these women, but they
have had no good way to tell who can safely skip its
cost and misery!

Here's where Oncotype DX, a test that measures the
activity of 21 genes and gives a score to predict a
woman's risk of recurrence, comes in. Doctors have
used it for several years to guide treatment for
certain women with early breast cancers, especially
those that not spread.

The new study, led by Dr. Kathy Albain of Loyola
University in Chicago, looked at whether it accurately
predicted chemo's benefit in 367 women whose
hormone-driven cancer had spread to lymph nodes.

A decade after these women were treated, those who had
low scores on the gene test were found to have had no
benefit from chemo.

Because 40 percent of the women scored low, it means
that as many as 18,000 women each year might safely
skip chemo.

The National Cancer Institute and the test's maker,
Genomic Health of Redwood City, Calif., sponsored the
study. Albain, Winer and Ravdin have consulted or been
paid speakers for the company in the past.

Dr. Kelly Marcom, a Duke University cancer expert with
no ties to the company, said the test would give
valuable information to guide treatment for more
patients in the future. He has used it on about 50
women in the last year.

"I've had it cut both ways" — ruling chemo in and out,
Marcom said.

The test is expensive — $3,400 — though many insurers
are paying for it because it can avoid even more costly
chemo.

Albain plans to discuss using it with Andrea DeRosier,
a 49-year-old health care administrator from suburban
Chicago whose cancer has spread to a single lymph node.

When a surgeon said she likely would need chemo,
"I remember thinking, 'Oh, that's terrible,'"
DeRosier said. "I want whatever protocol is going to
keep me alive," but not futile treatment, she said.

Chemo's side effects are getting greater attention.
One drug commonly used for early breast cancer —
doxorubicin, sold as Adriamycin and generic brands —
is known to cut the risk of having a recurrence or
dying, but raises the risk of heart problems and
even leukemia.

Dr. Stephen Jones of Baylor-Sammons Cancer Center
tested using Taxotere, a drug not linked to heart
problems, in its place in more than 1,000 women with
early breast cancer. After seven years, 87 percent
of those given Taxotere survived, compared with
82 percent of those given Adriamycin. In addition,
those given Taxotere were less likely to have had a
recurrence.

The study was sponsored by Taxotere's maker,
Sanofi-Aventis SA, a French company with U.S.
offices in Bridgewater, N.J. Jones consults for
the company.

A study in the New England Journal of Medicine in
October showed that another drug, Taxol, does not
work for the most common forms of breast cancer.

These new studies should lead to less use of chemo,
which is good news, but there has been "intense"
pushback from doctors, who fear giving up on a
treatment that might help some patients, said
Barbara Brenner, head of the advocacy group Breast
Cancer Action.

"It's very hard to turn a ship like this," she said.
"Adding things never takes much, but removing things
takes a mountain of data from the medical community."

"You can image what it is going to take to convince
the world that cancer is an acidic liquid that spoils
healthy cells not mutated cells that replicate," states
Dr. Young.

"Once the world understands that cancer is a consequence
of lifestyle and dietary choice then one can start
implementing lifestyle and dietary choices that will
prevent a cancerous or acidic state."

"For the true cure for cancer will be found in its
prevention not in its treatment."

"The best program for preventing or reversing
a cancerous state in the body is to follow an
alkalizing lifestyle and diet, as outlined in
The pH Miracle books."

"For someone who has been diagnosed with an acidic
or cancerous state of the breasts or elsewhere will
also benefit with an alkaline lifestyle and dietary
program that addresses the true cause of cancer -
ACID!," states Dr. Young.

To learn more about the pH Miracle and the pH
Miracle for Cancer go to:

http://www.phmiracleliving.com/audios.htm

So, just say NO to Chemo!