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ORTHOMOLECULAR TREATMENT OF CANCER CANCER/VITAMIN THERAPY
Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD, FRCP(C)
I could not perform double blind controlled experiments in my private practice, nor do I think it is ethical to do them. I therefore decided to place every patient on the same program. My objective was not to directly attack the tumor, but to enhance the ability of the body to defend itself more successfully against the cancer. All patients were getting the usual standard therapy: combinations of surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, and in most cases had already failed to respond to these treatments. I considered one of two ways of dealing with them. The first would have been to administer only ascorbic acid as Cameron and Pauling had done in their study. Unfortunately, it would take many years to come to a conclusion and by then it would be too late to start on a different nutrient. Would I start first with vitamin C or vitamin B-3? By then I had developed a multi-nutrient program which included a large number of vitamins and minerals. This would not be considered as desirable scientifically, but I was not as interested in the science as I was in getting my patients well. Patients do not really care why they recover as long as they do so. I, therefore, thought the preferred plan should be to follow the same type of program I had been using for my other psychiatric patients. This program was based on a hunch, taking into consideration that food we always have a large variety of nutrients, not just single ones. Fortunately, evidence is now appearing that the anti-oxidants have a synergistic effect on each other, and combinations work better than individual nutrients. The Program Nutrition Elimination of all junk food and foods the patient was allergic to. The patient was also instructed to markedly decrease fat intake by eliminating most dairy products, increasing raw vegetables, fruit and the grains, and decreasing meat and fish. Vitamins and Minerals Vitamin C- Starting dose is 12 grams daily, preferably as a powder, one teaspoon (4 grams) TID. Occasionally, the powder can not be tolerated well by the patient. In this instance, tablets may be substituted using the 4 grams TID as a starting point. The dose was then increased to the sublaxative dose and maintained. The dosage ranges between 12 and 40 grams per day. As a rule, mineral ascorbates are better tolerated and probably more effective. With Vitamin C IV therapy, it is most important to attain 400 mL/dL spikes with each blood sample. The blood sample should be taken at the end of an IV. In order to achieve this level, practitioners must administer 50-125 g/IV drip. Vitamin B-3 - Niacinamide, usually 500 mg TID. This was my basic regimen. Later I added: Within the past 2 years, I added cartilage, bovine, shark and more recently a shark cartilage extract found in in-vitro tests to be ten times as effective as the preparation found in stores. *Bovine Cartilage: 4 caps, TID (each cap contains 750 mg) Vita-Cartilage-800-947-8482 My Patients In Canada, all patients who wish to be seen by a specialist must be referred. My patients were referred by their family physicians, by their surgeons, and by the oncologist of the local cancer clinics. They were seen a couple of times and the consultation reports sent to the referring physicians. Patients were seen thereafter if they wished to return or were again referred. I have an excellent follow-up system and can tell within minutes how my 800 or so patients are getting on. Each month I trace each patient seen one year earlier by calling them personally, or by calling their relatives, their doctors and their cancer clinics. I also watched the obituaries in the local newspaper. The data is entered in my data bank in my home computer. Diagnosis is well established by their family physicians and/or the oncologists and radiologists of the cancer clinic. Additionally, I receive copies of all the clinical records including pathological reports, surgical reports, and so on. My criteria for response are very hard: the death rate. I record the date of death and count the survival time in months or years. I also have evidence of the quality of life. The Matter of Controls I am convinced that controlled comparison studies are essential, but it was not possible to do so with these patients; they had been referred for treatment, not to join a research protocol. However, they all knew that vitamins were new in the treatment of cancer, and that is why most of them wanted to come to see me. Not every patient was able to follow the protocol, for a variety of reasons. I had concluded arbitrarily that a minimum trial must be at least two months--it takes that long for the program to kick in. Thus, my control group consisted of the following patients: *Patients I had seen who died within that first two months The patients in the control group were still receiving all the standard treatment they could get from the cancer clinic and their referring physicians. Results 2,3,4 Between 1978 and 1988 I saw 134 patients. From this very sick group, 33 were in the control group. The remaining 101 patients faired much better. As of 2/3/97, 34 of the latter group are alive and well. There are no more cancer related deaths from this group. They are dying of the usual illnesses one would expect from a similar aging group. Subsequent analysis of the rest of my patient population shows that these early results are being maintained. I found that patients who survived four years after I first saw them remained well for the next ten years, which is about the length of this follow up study. It appears that on this vitamin program a four year cure rate is indicative of a very good prognosis. I have seen about 100 women with breast cancer. 80 percent of stages one and two are alive and well after five years. Out of stages 3 and 4, 50 percent are alive and well. The best results are found with breast and prostate cancer; the worst with stomach, lung and ovary cancer. Almost all sarcomas have recovered. Discussions and Conclusions On the basis of this long term study and on the literature, I have made the following conclusions: (1) That the addition of the orthomolecular regimen to the standard treatment of cancer will improve the duration of life anywhere from ten to twenty fold, and will markedly improve the five year cure rate. (2) That the program is acceptable to the vast majority of patients and improves the quality of life. I have yet to run across a family who did not express their gratitude at the help their relatives received, even if they died in a few months. (3) The program is relatively inexpensive compared to the standard treatment. (4) The treatment is compatible with all standard treatment. It decreases the toxicity of radiation and chemotherapy and improves their efficiency. Surgical patients heal faster, and leave the hospital sooner. (5) Every patient with cancer should begin the entire program as soon as the diagnosis is made. References 1. Hoffer, A & Pauling L: Hardin Jones biostatistical analysis of mortality data for a second set of cohorts of cancer patients with a large fraction surviving at the termination of the study and a comparison of survival times of cancer patients receiving large regular oral doses of vitamin C and other nutrients with similar patients not receiving these doses. Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, 8:1547-167, 1993. 2. Hoffer A: Orthomolecular Oncology. In, Adjuvant Nutrition in Cancer Treatment, Ed. P Quillin & RM Williams. 1992 Symposium Proceedings, Sponsored by Cancer Treatment Research Foundation and American College of Nutrition. Cancer Treatment Research Foundation, 3455 Salt Creek Lane, Suite 200, Arlington Heights, IL 60005-1090, 331-362, 1994. 3. Hoffer A: How to live longer - Even With Cancer. Journal of Orthomolecular
Medicine 11; 147-167, 1996.
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