A woman from Victoria, Texas, underwent several rounds of chemotherapy, only to find out that she never had cancer to begin with, reports CBS’s Houston affiliate, KHOU.
Herlinda Garcia, 54, was diagnosed with stage 4 terminal breast cancer after she had a benign tumor removed from her left breast. Through the next seven months and eight rounds of chemotherapy, she felt her body and mind deteriorating.
“Everything was swollen,” Garcia told KHOU. “I lost my eyebrows, my eyelashes. It’s really hard. I can’t explain how I felt. It’s like I was in a dream.”
Certain that her life was coming to an end, the part-time civil process worker gave away most of her belongings and wrote a bucket list.
"I just wanted to give up on everything," Garcia said.
But when she decided to seek help for her growing anxiety at Citizens Medical Center, a series of scans revealed a new reality: Garcia never had cancer.
At MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, a second opinion confirmed what doctors at Citizens Medical Center had discovered.
“I was happy, but at the same time, I had anger,” Garcia said. “The damage had been done.”
For her pain and suffering, a Victoria County jury awarded Garcia $367,000. Garcia said she hopes her experience will lead others to always seek a second opinion.
“I know I’m never going to feel the same because of what I went through,” she said. “It changed my life.”
Talia Joy Castellano, the charming teen that inspired thousands with her YouTube make-up tutorials, died at 13 of cancer.
With wise beauty tips and an inspirational story, Talia became an Internet sensation and captivated many with her extensive cosmetic knowledge as well as her experience fighting two forms of aggressive cancer: neuroblastoma and preleukemia. On Tuesday, a message appeared on the teen’s Facebook page announcing her death.
#prayfortalia It is with a heavy heart that we share with all of you that Talia has earned her wings at 11:22am. Please lift her beautiful soul, her beautiful light to heaven and please send your love and prayers to her family during this most difficult time. God speed little one, may you be free from pain and suffering, may your soul feel the light and love that you brought to so many of us on this Earth during the short time you were her with us. We will miss you more than you will ever know baby girl.
Last summer, doctors told Talia her condition had left her with four months to 1 year to live. On Monday, a Facebook post updated fans saying the teen had been in the hospital for almost 6 months.
On her YouTube channel, taliajoy18, Talia demonstrated great skill with matte bronzer, eyeliner, false eyelashes and more. Despite losing her hair to chemotherapy, the teen’s profile shows a photo of Talia with “Make Up Is My Wig” colorfully written on her head.
The teen's YouTube channel, which included make-up tutorials and personal video blogs about her cancer treatments, has over 750,000 subscribers.
"YouTube, and all the support that I get from everyone telling me that I'm inspiring and not to give up, it really makes you stop and think about how many people there are that love you... You're not there alone," Talia told Shira Lazar, co-founder of WhatsTrending, in August 2012.
In September, Ellen DeGeneres invited the Florida native to appear on her show and revealed that Talia had been chosen to be an honorary CoverGirl. Story continues after the photo
On Tuesday, Ellen and Talia’s fans took to Twitter to mourn the teen’s death.
In a video interview with The Truth 365, Talia was asked how she would like to be remembered.
"In a hundred years, I would like to be remembered as the bubbly girl who wanted to do something about childhood cancer," Talia said.
CHENNAI: The long quest for an affordable anti-cancer drug has led scientists to an unlikely place — Indian kitchens. It has been found that turmeric, garlic, ginger, saffron and capsicum, used to spice up Indian curries, have excellent cancer-fighting qualities.
While research on curcumin (a derivative of turmeric) is in the human trial stage, animal trials on others have shown promising results, scientists said at the Indian Science Congress. The search for alternative cancer drugs began years ago after doctors found the existing drugs unaffordable.
"They were bogged down by the side-effects of cancer therapy. They went in for natural remedies,'' said Shrikanth Anant, professor of cancer research, University of Kansas, who has been researching on curcumin. In most US pharmacies, curcumin is available in tablet form. Studies published in medical journals estimate that at least 62% of cancer patients in the US resort to self-medication with natural compounds, he said.
He said doctors wanted to understand whether these natural products worked well in isolation or when combined with existing therapy. "Cancer is a complex disease. No therapy is a silver bullet. It has to be a combination. So, we're looking at options that can make treatment more effective,'' Anant said. The Kansas University, he added, had seen success in the first phase of human trial, where they gave volunteers up to 12 grams of curcumin mixed with orange juice, taken orally for three months. The reports are now being submitted to medical journals for publication, he said.
Almost simultaneously, his colleague Animesh Dhar, associate professor in gastroenterology, began research on pancreatic cancer using crocetin, a natural carotenoid dicarboxylic acid found in saffron. His study done on mice showed that when crocetin was administered orally, it decreased tumour size by half.
"We are moving towards human trials,'' he said.
Similarly, Addanki P Kumar of University of Texas Health Science Centre and Bal L Lokeshwar, professor and co-director of research in urology, Miller School of Medicine,University of Miami, who worked on prostate cancer using herbal extracts and spices, claimed to have seen success in reducing tumours.
The promises some of the natural and plant derivatives showed in animal trials have encouraged scientists to go in search of many more spices like the Jamaican pepper and potions like BIRM (biological immune response modulator), an Amazonian plant extract that has been found to inhibit prostate cancer growth.
Contrary to popular belief, cancer is genetically recessive, rather than dominant, according to Professor Henry Harris of Oxford University (1969). Professor Harris proved previous theories wrong, shaking the scientific community to its core. He took normal tissue cells and fused three different types of cancer cells to them. He did this thinking that the cancer cells would overtake the healthy cells and convert them into cancer cells. Instead, they grew as they normally would. Have a question? Get an answer from a Medical Professional now!
Native American Cancer Research
Native American Cancer Research (NACR) is a community-based American Indian-operated, non-profit organization that has worked with Native American cancer patients for the past 20 years. Additionally, the National Native American Cancer Survivors' Support Network has been compiling data for years.
Essiac Cure
Essiac is an herbal cancer remedy, which has been used for over 50 years to treat various forms of terminal cancer. According to Johns Hopkins University, a person with cancer has multiple deficiencies. Chemotherapy involves the poisoning of rapidly growing cancer cells. Chemotherapy is essentially a "toxic burden" and when the body has had too much, the immune system becomes compromised.
Essiac can be drunk as a tea to cure cancer. It is compromised of four different herbs, two of which are well known for killing cancer (sheep sorrel and burdock root). The other two herbs in the tea help build a strong immune system while protecting the organs. Although the main ingredients of Essiac are well known, the precise proportions are not disclosed. Essiac is believed to derive from a Canadian Ojibway formula. Sheep sorrel has been used for over 200 years to fight cancer.
The Hoxsey Therapy
Harry Hoxsey reportedly cured many cancer patients for years. He was a self-proclaimed natural healer who died in 1974. The Hoxsey Cancer Clinic was located in Dallas, Texas and was among the world's largest private cancer centers, with branches in 17 states. In 1960, the clinic was shut down. Three years later, Hoxsey's trusted RN, Mildred Nelson, moved the clinic to Tijuana, Mexico. Today, the clinic is called the Bio-Medical Center and continues to treat all types of cancers. Hoxsey treated external cancers with a red paste made of bloodroot, a native American plant. The rootstock of bloodroot, a spring-blooming flower, contains an alkaloid, sanguinarine, that has powerful anti-tumor properties.
An aging population coupled with improved treatment methods mean more people will survive cancer. But at what cost?
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) released its second Annual Report on Cancer Survivorship, which shows that the current 13.7 million cancer survivors in the U.S. will likely swell by 31% to 18 million by the year 2022.
Some of the rise is due to the aging population; the risk of the most common cancers, including breast, prostate and lung, increases with age, and the researchers estimate that two-thirds of cancer survivors will be over the age of 65 in 2020. But advances in early detection and treatment are also contributing to helping people are live longer after diagnosis.
Using two government-funded databases, the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program and the U.S. Census Bureau’s population projections, the scientists estimate that women with breast cancer will make up 22% of cancer survivors in coming decades, while men with prostate cancer will make-up another 20%. Patients with lung cancer, however, may account for only 3% of survivors, reflecting still-nascent efforts to successfully treat the disease.
While the survival trend is encouraging, it may come at a price. Cancer survivors generally have twice the annual medical costs that patients without cancer do, because of they need routine monitoring for recurring tumors, as well as for side effects from their treatment or long term effects of their disease. Cancer drug shortages are also becoming more common, and the high demand for cancer-related care could overwhelm the current supply of oncologists. “The growing number of older survivors also presents a unique challenge to the healthcare system because older cancer survivors are more likely to have multiple chronic diseases and tend to experience poorer physical functioning than younger survivors,” the authors write.
The cost of cancer care will also continue to rise in tandem with the number of survivors. According to the report, it is estimated that population growth will increase the cost of cancer care by 27% by 2020. The authors write:
Health care costs in the first year after a cancer diagnosis tend to be higher than annual costs thereafter for survivors who are not in their last year of life. Nevertheless, among survivors who are more than 1-year post-diagnosis, annual healthcare expenditures are double that of the general population, suggesting that the economic burden of cancer in terms of medical expenditures is both considerable and persistent.
To address some of the issues the growing population presents, the researchers proposed the following recommendations:
Improve methods for delivering long-term follow up care: Few studies adequately analzye the best ways to evaluate and monitor side effects and long term effects of cancer treatments, and the researchers say more data is needed to evaulate the most cost effective strategy for keeping cancer survivors healthy.
Collect long-term clinical, psychosocial, and behavioral data from adult cancer survivors: In order to find the most effective ways to care for patients, more data is needed to identify best practices.
Exploit electronic health care records and other technologies to coordinate and improve survivors’ care: With the growth in electronic medical records (EMR) and personal health records, researchers can begin to capture important biological and self-reported data in real-time, and determine if acting on patterns and trends in these records can improve care.
Improve palliative care: Research has shown that addressing pain, discomfort and other cancer-related symptoms with interventions such as massage, group therapy sessions and meditation, can improve quality of life and lower health care costs of cancer patients.
“How to ensure that these patients lead not only long lives, but healthy and productive lives, will be a vital challenge to all of us,” said Julia Rowland, the director of the Office of Cancer Survivorship at the National Cancer Institute in a statement.
The report is published in the AACR’s journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
“You have cancer” are three words you never want to hear . . .
Unfortunately, over 5,000 people in North America do hear those words — every single day. Even worse, cancer has become the second leading cause of death for Americans.
America’s foremost holistic health practitioner, David Brownstein, M.D., has spent much of his medical career studying cancer, and learning the best ways to avoid becoming its victim.
And Dr. Brownstein does not shy away from the hard truth. Statistics demonstrate we are not winning the war on cancer. Far from it. In fact, cancer death rates have remained nearly unchanged over the last 80 years. Plus, traditional cancer treatments have been a dismal failure, particularly when the initial cancer returns — often with a vengeance.
Because the only big winner in the cancer treatment story to date has been the cancer industry’s multibillion-dollar profits, Dr. Brownstein has just released a complimentary video documentary revealing some of his startling findings.
In this video, you’ll discover five specific signs that you will be diagnosed with cancer during your lifetime.
More important, you’ll see:
• Seven simple but smart steps to prevent cancer from taking over your body . . .
• How to help your body naturally kill cancer cells . . .
• Easiest ways to avoid known cancer-causing factors . . .
• The little-known relationship between iodine and cancer . . .
• And much, much more . . .
According to Dr. Brownstein, nearly all of us have cancer cells in our bodies at various times during our lives. The trick is to avoid letting those cells multiply and overwhelm the body’s natural defenses. The good news is that you and your loved ones do not need to become cancer victims. With the simple strategies revealed in Dr. Brownstein’s eye-opening video, you can take steps to prevent this deadly disease, or even reverse it.
You already know that not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, and drinking alcohol in moderation are keys to avoiding cancer. But what if you want to take cancer prevention one step further? What else can you do? Simple, say the experts -- eat right.
Though factors outside our control, such as genetics and environment, do play large roles in the development of cancer, a good diet can tip the scales in your favor.
There is no standard staging system for pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma. Patients have traditionally been divided into categories based on the presence of localized (apparently benign), regional, and metastatic disease. There are no clear data regarding the survival of patients with localized (apparently benign) disease or regional disease. Although patients with localized (apparently benign) disease should experience an overall survival approaching that of age-matched disease-free individuals,...
Research shows that dietary patterns are closely associated with the risk for several types of cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates that as many as 35% of cancer deaths may be related to dietary factors.
"Diets low in fat and high in fiber, fruits, vegetables, and grain products are associated with reduced risks for many cancers," says Elaine Magee, MPH, RD, author of Tell Me What to Eat to Help Avoid Breast Cancer andEating Well for a Healthy Menopause, among others. In one recent two-year study, she says, non-melanomaskin cancer patients on a 20%-of-calories-from-fat diet had five times fewer new skin cancers at the end of the study compared with patients in the typical 38%-of-calories-from-fat control group.
In another recent study, says Magee, a lower-fat diet appeared to decrease breast-tissue density in menopausal women, which may decrease breast cancer risk.
Simple Plan
These American Institute for Cancer Research recommendations on diet and lifestyle can provide a starting point for your own cancer-prevention eating plan:
Don't eat more than 3 ounces of red meat daily -- about the size of a deck of cards.
Limit fatty foods.
Avoid salty snacks, and use herbs and spices instead of salt as seasoning.
Men should limit alcoholic drinks to two per day; women, to one per day.
Do not eat charred food.
Avoid being overweight. Limit weight gain during adulthood.
Take an hour's brisk walk (or get equivalent exercise) daily.
Although Americans are slowly adopting healthier diets, a large gap remains between recommended dietary patterns and what we actually eat. According to the CDC, only about 25% of adults in the U.S. eat the recommended five or more servings of fruits and vegetables each day.
"Eating five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables every day will do a lot to decrease cancer risk," says Melanie Polk, RD, director of nutrition for the American Institute of Cancer Research, or AICR.
Getting that many servings doesn't have to be hard, says Polk.
"Make it simple," she says. "Add a handful of blueberries to your cereal in the morning. If you're having a sandwich at lunch, throw in lots of tomato slices as well as lettuce. Broccoli can be added to soups or sprinkled over pizza with olives, onions, and mushrooms. Instead of having a packaged snack in the afternoon, have an apple or banana. It all helps."
Plant foods appear to be most protective against cancer. They are rich in fiber, antioxidants, and helpful phytochemicals.
"Preliminary evidence supports the speculation that substances in flaxseed may help block substances that promote cancer," says Magee. "Omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in fish and certain plant foods, including flaxseed, have been shown in animal studies to slow or prevent the growth of certain cancers."
A good diet can even help those with a family history of certain cancers beat the odds.
"A history of cancer in the family doesn't mean that every person in the family will get it," says Polk. "For someone at high risk, diet should be included as part of an early-detection screening plan set up by their doctor."
For the person already diagnosed with cancer, the nutrition picture is a little murkier. No single answer serves everyone.
"Body changes may be caused by the patient's response to the tumor, the side effects of treatment, certain medications, or some combination of these," says Magee. "Some dietary practices, like supplementing with flaxseed, might compete with a drug like Tamoxifen. That's why it's important to discuss diet with your oncologist."
Polk recommends that cancer patients work with a dietitian to make dietary decisions.
"When a patient gets involved in decisions like treatment and diet they feel less passive, more like they're part of their own healthcare team," she says.
