Stage Four Cancer Treatment

Our cancer treatment modality for stage four patients

A cancer is said to be in Stage Four when it has spread from its site of origin to distant organs, this progression is also known as metastasis. Unless a metastasis is singular—meaning it has only spread to one specific site—and accessible, it usually means that the cancer is no longer curable with localized therapies such as surgery or radiotherapy.

Some types of stage four cancer can be attacked effectively with chemotherapy; other types are poorly responsive to the cytotoxic drugs that are currently available. Even when a cancer shows a good initial response to chemotherapy - shrinking or disappearing - in most cases the cancer eventually grows back, this time in a form that is less responsive to the chemotherapy. This evolution of chemo-resistance is not a mystery, because it is well known that the chromosomes of cancer cells are prone to undergo frequent changes (genetic and epigenetic). All cancer cells behave differently and thus their response to chemotherapy drugs varies. Successful chemotherapy will kill a high proportion of the responsive cells in a tumor - but the less responsive cells are prone to survive and give rise to new tumors that will be much harder to kill with the initial chemotherapy.

When stage four cancers continue to progress despite repeated attempts of conventional cancer treatment, most doctors are prone to throwing up their hands, telling the patient that "I've done all I can", and suggesting that the patient find a good hospice and get his or her affairs in order.

A high proportion of the patients who come to Oasis of Hope have stage four cancer and have already been through this discouraging process. But at Oasis of Hope they encounter doctors who are eager to work with them and to fight for them as long as they are willing to fight for themselves. At Oasis there truly is Hope for patients with stage four cancer. Here's why:


REASON 1:

At Oasis of Hope, we employ a number of integrative treatments that can often make cancers more responsive to chemotherapies – even those that a cancer has been poorly responsive to in the past. By using certain adjuvant drugs and nutraceuticals, we seek to block the molecular mechanisms that cancers commonly use to help them survive chemotherapeutic assault, while boosting the molecular pathways that make cancers more vulnerable. One promising strategy we are starting to employ is "epigenetic therapy", which strives to reverse the so-called "epigenetic" changes in chromosome structure that that are often responsible for the evolution of chemo-resistance. We also employ a range of measures that are intended to protect the body’s healthy tissues from chemotherapeutic assault, so that chemotherapy is far more tolerable for the patient. The goal is to achieve a less traumatic therapy that is successful at slowing tumor growth.

REASON 2:

Some types of cancers are inherently resistant to available chemotherapies, and in some cases, cancers that are potentially responsive to chemotherapy fail to respond, even when all reasonable adjuvant strategies are employed. That's why Oasis of Hope has developed new therapeutic protocols—IRT-C and IRT-IL—that do not use cytotoxic chemotherapies. IRT-C involves intravenous infusions of large doses of vitamin C and vitamin K, in an effort to induce lethal levels of oxidative stress in cancers. This regimen achieves tumor shrinkage in many though not all cancers, depending on their capacities to cope with oxidative stress; it often is effective in types of tumors that are typically unresponsive to cytotoxic chemotherapy. Our new IRT-IL protocol allies this intravenous ascorbate therapy with a range of measures, including daily injections of the hormone-like compound interleukin 2. These measures are intended to maximize the effectiveness of the immune system's assault on the cancer. So for patients who have been told that "chemotherapy won't work" on their cancer, Oasis offers genuine hope for achieving cancer shrinkage or control.

REASON 3:

Not everyone can have good luck, and sometimes cancers will continue to progress despite the best efforts of doctors and patients. But even in these cases, Oasis of Hope can employ a range of safe and well-tolerated measures that can render the cancer less aggressive and throw obstacles in its path. These measures include: "signal modulation therapy" which interferes with growth factor signaling in cancer by slowing its growth; anti-angiogenic strategies that suppress the growth of new blood vessels in tumors, a process that is vital for cancer spread; anti-metastatic measures which interfere with the molecule mechanisms that enable blood-borne cancer cells to migrate through vessel walls to establish new nests of tumor cells; and immune-stimulant measures that boost the ability of the body's immune cells to attack cancer cells. So, even when it doesn't prove possible to wipe out a cancer or control its growth indefinitely, Oasis of Hope offers therapeutic resources that can help patients achieve extra months or years of high-quality life.

REASON 4:

Oasis of Hope also looks out for the psychological and spiritual needs of its patients. Professional counseling, as well as fellowship with other Oasis of Hope patients helps patients to break out of the isolation and dread that so often afflicts them. Patients can truly appreciate each day they have here on our wonderful earth, and can fully experience the tranquility and hope of their faith.

REASON 5:

Do these therapies really work? We have recently analyzed our 2-year survival statistics for several common stage IV cancer—breast, lung, ovarian, and colorectal—and find that they are decidedly higher, sometimes twice as high as those calculated by the National Cancer Institute from U.S. cancer statistics. (You can find the detailed data in our new book Integrative Regulatory Therapy - a Multi-Focal Strategy for Cancer Control. Click to download it here.) Admittedly, we have a long way to go, one death from cancer is one death too many! However we are making some progress, and we are constantly revising our therapeutic protocols in light of the latest discoveries of cancer science.

So if you or a loved one have been told that "nothing more can be done" for a stage IV cancer – don't believe it! Oasis of Hope is here to fight for you and with you every step of the way, using the most advanced and creative clinical strategies available, and to help ensure that whether you have months or decades left to you on earth, you will really be living!