From: sbharris@ix.netcom.com(Steven B. Harris)
Newsgroups: misc.kids.health,sci.med,misc.health.alternative
Subject: Re: The National Cancer Institute Does Not Want To Cure Cancer
Date: 10 Aug 2000 04:03:06 GMT

In <8mr9r8$jr1$1@newsg2.svr.pol.co.uk> "John"
<whale@whaleto.freeserve.co.uk> writes:
>
>>
>Cisplatin (just Steve's sort of medicine)
>Side Effects:
>Nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite are common side effects. Nausea
>and vomiting can be quite severe. In some cases, drug therapy may be
>necessary to prevent or relieve nausea and vomiting. Not eating before
>your treatment may help relieve vomiting. Changes in diet such as eating
>several small meals or limiting activity may help lessen some of these
>effects. Contact your doctor immediately if you experience any of the
>following symptoms; fever, chills, painful or difficult urination,
>blurred vision, dizziness, fainting, trouble walking, easy bruising or
>bleeding, black, tarry stools, blood in urine or stools, bloody vomit,
>stomach pain, diarrhea, joint pain, swollen feet or lower legs, sores in
>mouth or on lips, small red spots on the skin, cough, shortness of
>breath, lower back or side pain; tiredness or weakness, loss of balance,
>ringing in ears, hearing trouble, fast heartbeat, swelling of face,
>wheezing, numbness or tingling in fingers or toes, loss of reflexes, loss
>of taste, confusion, agitation, change in ability to see colors.


COMMENT

   All of which depend on who you are and how you get the drug. I just
got finished participating in initial therapy of a cancer patient
according to the Robbins high-dose intra-arterial cisplatin (RADPLAT)
protocol, which I personally had to supervise in "porting" from one
institution to another. The patient was justifiably anxious, but she
had an unresectable tumor and wanted the benefit of high dose treatment
of the tumor, with neutralizing thiosulfate to mop up the cisplatin
which made it through the tumor bed, before it got to marrow or kidneys
(this is tricky). So far as I can tell, however, it worked very well,
and just as predicted (this is a well-published protocol). We are one
month into the protocol now, and cisplatin at this point has been
finished for a week. The tumor, which was large and otherwise
unmanagable, has clinically disappeared entirely (response imaging is
in progress).  Other tissues look fine. Side effects from the entire
cisplatin course (now finished) were limited to loss of appetite and
some bruising at the stick sites.  That's it. We saw NO significant
bone marrow or renal toxicity. Hell, she didn't even lose any hair.

  Cisplatin, like so many things in life, is what you make of it. And
yes, Johnnie, apparently it is my kind of drug.

From: sbharris@ix.netcom.com(Steven B. Harris)
Newsgroups: misc.kids.health,sci.med,misc.health.alternative
Subject: Re: The National Cancer Institute Does Not Want To Cure Cancer
Date: 8 Aug 2000 19:56:49 GMT

In <8moppk$map$1@newsg4.svr.pol.co.uk> "John"
<whale@whaleto.freeserve.co.uk> writes:

>"I had a brain cancer specialist sit in my living room and tell me that
>he would never take radiation if he had a brain tumor. And I asked him,
>'but, do you send people for radiation?' and he said, of course. 'I'd be
>drummed out of the hospital if I didn't."---Ralph Moss
>
>John


   As his headache increased, he'd take the radiation.  So would
anyone. I've seen a lot of head tumors, and I've yet to see anybody
refuse radiation.  It has little downside besides hair loss, after all.
As you feel something inside your head start to squish your brain, a
painless treatment, curative or not, starts to look better and better
and (ouch) better.

  BTW, I suspect your Ralph Moss is a lying sack of manure. Radiation
is the one thing I think every oncologist *would* take for a solid
tumor.