Brain Cancer Treatment Options
With conventional therapies, patients with brain cancer are often left with very little hope for a successful and “back to normal” recovery. Because most brain cancers are aggressive and accompanied by a poor prognosis most individuals feel hopeless, and even give up. But the truth is, you DO have options!
At Sunridge, we approach brain cancer with aggressive treatments that increase the natural response of the body’s immune system to fight the cancer and tumors, while crossing the blood-brain barrier. Continued studies and new evidence show that targeting cancer with tumor-specific antigens may just be the most effective way to treat cancer without toxicity. These types of therapies, introduced systemically into the body, successfully localize to the cancerous tumors in the central nervous system, inducing the good cells or (T-Cells) to destroy the cancer without side effects or damage to the surrounding tissue.
Revolutionizing Alternative Brain Cancer Treatment
Standard medical protocol for treating brain cancer is usually brain surgery, and radiation followed by chemotherapy. Studies are showing that sometimes these treatments are responsible for permanent cognitive impairment with very little affect on the brain tumors themselves. Using PET/CT scans in the latest studies, researchers were able to assess changes to the brain’s metabolism after chemotherapy, providing more evidence that the phenomenon was linked to treatment.
The risks of undergoing surgery may also result in more severe cognitive impairment. Often doctors are unable to tell patients how much impairment will occur after surgery, presenting yet another reason individuals choose alternative treatments for fighting brain cancer.
Brain Cancer Treatment Options
Cancer Care Patients seek alternative Brain cancer treatment at every stage of their cancer journey. Some at the beginning, during or immediately following a Brain cancer diagnosis and when all conventional treatments have been exhausted. For over fifteen years, Sunridge Medical has treated patients with all types and stages of Brain cancer including Stage 4 Brain cancer and metastatic Brain cancer.
This devastating cancer diagnosis becomes rather clinical quickly when so many treatment options are offered including conventional and alternative Brain cancer treatment. Since there are many stages of Brain cancer with malignant to benign (non-cancerous) tumors, no one Brain cancer treatment plan is the same.
Hear From Our Patients
Jill tells how she was given only 3 months to live because of an astrocytoma. Doctors in Canada recommended brain surgery to remove her tumor. She instead chose alternative medicine to put her astrocytoma into remission.
The Sunridge Approach to Brain Cancer
The Sunridge approach to Brain Cancer treatment is to study the whole body, investigate the underlying cause of the cancer, understand the diagnosis and how cancer manifested, establish the overall wellness of the patient and their ability to respond to treatments; then based on these findings deliver the best treatments to stop the cancer and stave off additional disease.
Our combination of therapies of conventional and alternative Brain Cancer treatments provides patients with the most successful approach to treatment. Our cancer plan aims at attacking the cancer, and restoring the body’s natural defense and regulatory mechanisms, including the immune system and detoxification pathways. More importantly our strategy includes balancing hormones, cleaning up the gut and maintaining wellness to prevent cancer reoccurrence by building back what was missing in the body when illness was first detected.
At Sunridge Medical we offer a comprehensive immunobiological treatment aimed at attacking the cancer, and restoring the body’s natural defense and regulatory mechanisms, including the immune system and detoxification pathways. Our approach combines alternative and conventional therapies to provide patients with the most overall comprehensive Brain cancer treatment. Because successful cancer treatment is not a “one size fits all” approach, substantial time is spent with each patient to learn more about the details surrounding their illness as this is a necessary component to developing the right treatment. Cancer cells develop in every human being.
Cancer cells that form in a body with a healthy immune system are identified and destroyed before they become tumors by the body’s natural defense mechanism. Restoration of the natural defense system should be an important part of the cancer treatment otherwise a successful recovery, long term, could be difficult to achieve. Cancer is a complex disease that requires a serious approach. At Sunridge identifying all the factors which led up to the cancer diagnosis allows us to build a detailed battle plan to eradicate cancer and restore the body to optimum health.
Brain Cancer – A Second Opinion
We are ok being second, if we are the second opinion after a Brain cancer diagnosis. Alternative Brain cancer treatment can be a second choice for some when all other treatments have failed. It is true that Sunridge can help even if all other conventional treatments have failed and we are a last resort, but when Sunridge Medical is the second opinion at the beginning of a healing journey, we have an impressive impact on the cancer outcome. We look at cancer differently than the traditional oncologist who sees cancer as treating it traditionally with surgery, chemo, and radiation. Although sometimes that traditional treatment can be effective for an abbreviated time, it does not always eradicate cancer and stop its reappearance.
Naturopathic Oncology and Integrative Oncology
Patients receive care by more than just our doctors; Sunridge has an integrated cancer care team with access to an arsenal of treatments that gives us confidence to treat all stages and forms of Brain cancer.
Naturopathic oncology is a holistic process that looks at the entire system of a patient and aims to discover the cancer source. Integrative oncology is a newer trend in cancer care that looks at the most effective treatments alternative cancer care and conventional care offer and uses the best of each world. There is a stronger focus placed on the ability of alternative cancer care to build up the body than that conventional treatment which very often leaves permanent damage.
Combined as the Sunridge approach, this methodology makes our treatments powerful against the eradication of cancer. We use the most current research for cancer therapy treatments along with modalities that have a solid history of success. We offer our own state-of-the-art laboratory testing at Sunridge Medical along with our compounding and specialty pharmacy for individualized treatment plans that meet all our patients’ needs.
Understanding Brain Cancer
All bodies have cancer cells within them which can develop tumors but healthy bodies with intact immune systems typically identify and destroy these cells before they develop into serious health problems. Healthy cells should not be susceptible to alteration by a change in the environment from chemicals or toxins. Normal cells effectively fight off viruses and bacterial infections before they can cause permanent damage to a cell. Additionally, some genes we are born with can cause cells to fail to function properly and leave healthy cells vulnerable to disease.
The Cancer Cell in Brain Cancer
Learning about the initial stages of cancer is important because it helps us understand how to stop its progression and kill off this disease. It is easiest to recognize cancer when we fully see how cells work normally and what makes a cell fail and become cancer.
Almost one hundred years ago, a Nobel Prize was awarded for the discovery that cancer cells undergo aerobic glycolysis which is the conversion of glucose to lactate in the absence of oxygen in the cell, referred to as the “Warburg effect.” This effect was observed in a wide range of cancer cells with impaired mitochondria.
All cells have mitochondria or little power plants that create energy. In a healthy cell these power plants combine oxygen, making it an aerobic cell (just imagine a cell wearing leg warmers) and mix in glucose, also known as sugar which comes from our food.
The cell’s output of energy is triggered by insulin which makes energy units of ATP, thirty-six units of ATPs to be exact (you can think of ATPs as kilowatts). Depending on the type of cell, depends on the type of energy that is manufactured. A dermis cell grows skin, a liver cell detoxifies and so on and so forth, as each cell has a job and a target for its energy. When a healthy cell is working correctly it is an amazing thing to behold.
A Weakened Immune System and Cell Production
If the immune system is not strong enough to fight off infections or toxins which can come from chemicals or other substances in the air, food, or environment – there is interference with a cell, and it can become sick. Damage occurs in the cell’s mitochondria (power plants) and it can begin to malfunction. The power plants no longer use oxygen to make energy, and this converts them to non-oxygen using cells also known as anaerobic cells. The sick cell is only able to use sugar in its power plant to produce energy and starts giving off less ATP energy sometimes as little as 2 ATPs (kilowatts). This kilowatt output is so dim that the cell cannot survive as a normal cell, and it begins to make changes and look for a way to restore its energy output. The need to create energy opens increased areas of insulin to release into the cell so it can survive. This process continues to change the cell into a cancer cell.
The cancer cell morphs and as part of its change it is no longer welcome in the area it originally belonged. The cell loses its glue becoming a cell called a metastasis which can relocate to other places in the body. As an example, a morphed liver cell can now be found in the Brain as the cancer cell originated as liver cancer. A metastases Brain cell has moved to the Brain from mutated cancer cells in a Brain formed in a different area of the body and moved to the Brain.
Circulating Tumor Cells and Cancer Stem Cells
Often early in a diagnosis we find Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) which are morphed cells that have sloughed off a tumor as they lost their stickiness and are flowing throughout a cancer patient’s bloodstream. This shedding is part of the tumor metastasis and is used a factor in a “liquid biopsy” providing insight into the cancer staging and progression rate.
Cancer Stem Cell (CSCs) are cells that act like other stem cells being able to reproduce themselves and are resistant to conventional treatment which can cause relapses of cancer.
A healthy immune system will kill these cells. However, if a patient receives chemotherapy, their immune system is too damaged and so weak that it is unable to put up any defense to cancer cells. At Sunridge, we insure there is a strengthening of the immune system so the patient’s body can do its job and keep tumors from growing or cancer returning.
Stopping the Glucose Game
Cancer cells are very fond of glucose so to control the cells and put an end to the damage the cells are creating, we need to rid the body of as much glucose as possible. We encourage patients to control the intake of simple sugars because sick cells cannot survive on protein and healthy fats. We introduce a ketogenic diet. By focusing on healthy fats and proteins, this carbohydrate-lite eating plan begins to rob the cancer cells of their energy and ability to cause further damage.
For skeptics about the power of sugar to do damage in the body it may be interesting to note that a PET scan, which detects cancer within the body works with an injection of radioactive glucose which is tracked throughout the body. The scan detects how tissues react to glucose and oxygen. The areas of the PET scan with abnormally high absorption of glucose are determined to be cancer. Clearly there is a sugar connection.
At Sunridge, we also utilize ozone therapy which adds ozone gas into the blood by purifying the blood and introducing oxygen into under-served cells. Anerobic cancer cells hate oxygen and begin to die with the delivery of ozone.
Standard of Care for Brain Cancer
The “Standard of Care” in Brain cancer is surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Many patients diagnosed with Brain cancer are reluctant to undergo the suffering, toxic and caustic nature of chemotherapy. However, some conventional doctors refuse to participate in the treatment of a patient unless the conventional medical “Standard of Care” is followed. This can leave patients cut-off from traditional medical support when seeking naturopathic oncology.
Sunridge Medical physicians welcome working with a patient’s conventional physician but additionally we have an incredible network of some of the best-in-their-class surgeons and radiologists that can support any health protocol a patient chooses.
The Effects of Chemotherapy vs. Natural Chemicals in Brain Cancer
Chemotherapy is like pouring weed killer on a garden. The flowers get as damaged and die right along with the weeds, but then even more resistant weeds find their way to the surface. Chemotherapy attacks every cell in the body. Hair cells stop their ability to hold onto the hair follicle in many chemo treatments because the chemo has attacked a healthy cell. Neuropathy is induced because the chemo attacks healthy nerve cells. Organs such the heart and kidneys can be permanently damaged because chemotherapy indiscriminately attacks healthy cells and cancer cells.
To the contrary several natural chemicals can create a specific programmed cell death (apoptosis) of cancer cells by penetrating the cancer cell membrane. Apoptosis attaches a genetic message for a cell to self-destruct. Omega 3’s, Resveratrol, Vitamin C, pine tree bark and an exhaustive list of morphing substances found in nature can have this miraculous affect, especially when delivered directly into the bloodstream intravenously. It would not be fair to say that alternative cancer therapy is without side effects, but those effects in no way rank in the same caustic category of chemotherapies.
What Is Brain Cancer?
Brain cancer carries a wide variety of symptoms and consists of abnormal cell growth in the brain. Not all growths and brain tumors are cancerous, yet benign tumors can have similar symptoms. A benign tumor does not spread aggressively like a cancerous tumor does and is considered less serious than a cancerous tumor. Still, benign tumors can cause problems depending on their location within the body and especially in areas delicate and intricate such as the brain.
Symptoms of brain cancer or a brain tumor include behavioral changes, confusion, sleeplessness and seizures. The symptoms of primary and metastatic brain cancers are similar and a tumor pressing on or interfering on other parts of the brain can keep you from functioning normally.
The following symptoms are most common:
- Weakness
- Clumsiness
- Difficulty Walking
- Seizures
Other nonspecific symptoms and signs include the following:
- Altered mental status — changes in concentration, alertness, attention, or memory
- Vomiting, Nausea, — particularly early in the morning
- Difficulty with speech
- Abnormalities in vision
- Gradual changes in intellectual or emotional capacity
See your health care provider right away if you have any of the following symptoms:
- Unexplained, persistent vomiting
- Unexplained blurring of vision, especially one side
- Lethargy or increased sleepiness
- Seizures
- New type of headaches
References for Brain Cancer
Bairey O, Ruchlemer R, Shpilberg O. Non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas of the Brain. Isr Med Assoc J. 2006 Dec;8(12):832-5. PMID: 17214096. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17214096/
Cognitive Changes in Cancer Survivors, Hardy, Sara J., Krull, Kevin R., Wefel, Jeffrey S., Janelsins, Michelle, 2018/05/23, doi: 10.1200/EDBK_201179, 10.1200/EDBK_201179, American Society of Clinical Oncology Educational Book, SP – 795, EP – 806, IS – 38, American Society of Clinical Oncology, Advances in cancer treatments have led to substantially improved survival for patients with cancer. However, many patients experience changes in cognition as a side effect of both cancer and cancer treatment. This occurs with both central nervous system (CNS) tumors and non-CNS tumors and in both children and adults. Studies of patients with non-CNS cancer have shown that cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI), which can include changes in memory, executive function, attention, and processing speed, occurs in up to 30% of patients prior to any treatment and in up to 75% of patients during treatment. A subset of patients with non-CNS and CNS cancer appear to be at higher risk for CRCI, so much research has gone into identifying who is vulnerable. Risk factors for CRCI in adults include cognitive reserve, age, genetic factors, and ethnicity; risk factors for children include genetic factors, female sex, younger age at diagnosis, chemotherapy dose, and both dose and field size for radiation. Although the field has made substantial strides in understanding and treating CRCI, more research is still needed to improve outcomes for both pediatric and adult cancer survivors. SN – 1548-8748, M3 – doi: 10.1200/EDBK_201179, UR – https://doi.org/10.1200/EDBK_201179
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