Chemo only works on 20% of lung cancer patients
By Yamalad · Today at 1:49 pm · 11 replies
In Non-small cell lung cancer - General
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Had my CT scan follow up yesterday with my Oncologist. She still thinks I have a cancerous lymph node under my left arm pit but says unless I let her biopsy it ( which I won't ) she can't be certain as it may also be inflammation. She said however that it's been stable now for 10 months ( I actually shrunk it over 50% with Cantron and Paw Paw ) and since everything else is good, my immune system seems to have it in check. Course, I've just spent the last 2 years building up my immune system since they destroyed it with chemo and she said, she wouldn't want me to go onto chemo as it compromises the immune system which in my case is obviously working.
She then floored me by saying, besides, chemo only works on 20% of lung cancer patients. We give it to everyone hoping that you're in that 20% ! Unfortunately we don't know until after we've given it to you.
That pretty much ended the meeting. I'm good now for another 6 months.
Reply # - January 24, 2013, 02:00 PM
Reply To: Chemo only works on 20% of lung cancer patients????
Sorry I posted this before I had a chance to ask what Dr. West thinks about what this Dr. Said? Also what do Oncologists think of this Paw Paw? Just curious!
Reply # - January 24, 2013, 08:16 PM
Reply To: Chemo only works on 20% of lung cancer patients????
What this Dr. is probably speaking to is the response rate, which is the proportion of patient who have a significant tumor shrinkage, which is somewhere in the range of 25-35%. But that's really an underestimate of the benefit, since a very large proportion of the patients who have stable disease live longer because of that. Overall, I think that's a rather stupid comment that isn't reflective of reality.
Paw paw is one of many treatments that has been said to be a miraculous treatment for a very long time but doesn't have evidence to support it. Yes, there are some people who say that they're doing well and happen to be on Paw Paw, but there's no good evidence it's beneficial, and I would say that very few oncologists (perhaps none -- I don't know) are impressed that it's an effective treatment.
-Dr. West
Reply # - January 25, 2013, 02:24 AM
Reply To: Chemo only works on 20% of lung cancer patients????
Hi AuntTootsie - people often ask about paw-paw as you'll see from a search. A couple of years ago Dr West interviewed a naturopath, Dr Patrick Bufi, who said of graviola (paw-paw): “I would not take or recommend a graviola product or any graviola extract as a dietary supplement. We do not have any convincing proof of efficacy, dosage, concentration, purity, nor basic safety data on the graviola plant.”
(and by the way, what's happened to that interview? it seems to have dropped off the site).
Reply # - January 25, 2013, 06:57 PM
Reply To: Chemo only works on 20% of lung cancer patients????
The complementary medicine section was archived but wasn't rebuilt into the redesign because we couldn't support it in terms of answering questions -- but it's an accident that the old information isn't findable on search. We'll try to restore that.
-Dr. West
Reply # - January 25, 2013, 07:11 PM
Reply To: Chemo only works on 20% of lung cancer patients????
Thanks Dr. West for explaining the percentage. One of Tony's doctors made a percentage comment back in September and it totally took the wind out of his sail! I have tried to do a little damage control with Tony but in his mind, all he heard was 20-30% chance he will respond. I will show him this explanation from you in hopes that he will look at it a little differently. My goal is to keep him as stable as possible for as long as possible. Any reduction would just be a bonus!