What most people don't know about chemotherapy is a lot.

In the e-Alert "Heart of Texas" (10/17/05), I stated that most people don't realize that only nine types of cancer are considered "highly responsive" to chemotherapy.

That comment caught the eye of an HSI member named Robert who sent an e-mail with this question: "What are the 9 types of cancer that are highly responsive to chemo?"

Good question. According to Gordon Zubrod, M.D., (a researcher for the National Cancer Institute), chemotherapy is considered to be highly effective only in these cancers:

• Burkitt's lymphoma
• Choriocarcinoma
• Acute lymphocytic leukemia
• Hodgkin's disease
• Lymphoscarcoma
• Embryonal testicular cancer
• Wilms' Tumor
• Ewing's sarcoma
• Rhabdomyosarcoma
• Retinoblastoma

Note that I initially had the number wrong: it's 10, not nine. Note also that except for testicular cancer all of these malignancies are rare in adults. Certainly, these are not the only cancers that can be defeated by chemo; it all depends on the type of cancer, how early the cancer is caught, what other measures are taken to treat the cancer, etc.

Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D. - one of the leading researchers in alternative cancer therapies - states that when an oncologist speaks of a "response" to chemotherapy, that should not be taken as an implication that "increased survival" is probable. Dr. Moss urges cancer patients to ask these questions before beginning chemo:

• What is being promised: short-term tumor shrinkage, or actual life-prolongation?
• What effect will chemo have on quality of life?
• What is the cost?

Dr. Moss' book, "Questioning Chemotherapy," is available on amazon.com.

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson


Sources:

"What is Cancer Anyway?" Bill Henderson, Cancer Therapy, cancertherapy.ftherapy.com