Does chemo work?

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Does chemo work? I dont think it will prolong my life. and most likely kill me.?

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lo_mcg has a terrific answer - and she has been through it.
But there are over 100 chemotherapy drugs with hundreds of combination for hundreds of different types of cancer. No one can answer the vague question you have posed without more information.

I was a cancer chemotherapy specialist doctor for twenty years.
I treated thousands of people with various combination chemotherapy regimens. I don't think I killed any of them with the treatment - though over two thousand died from their cancers.

[It was more than that, but I lost track after two thousand.]
I often thought it would be better to not use chemotherapy in situations where no cure had ever been achieved with drugs - pancreatic cancers, advanced non-small cell lung cancers, many brain malignancies, etc. I spent a great deal of time trying to talk some patients out of taking chemotherapy. In the USA, many people will not accept the 'supportive care only' option no matter how carefully it is explained that chemotherapy has never cured some types of advanced malignancies.

As others have said, it is up to your medical oncologist to carefully explain the risks and benefits of any chemotherapy regimen for whatever type of malignancy you are asking about. You are the one with the final word. All patients in the U.S. should be signing permission forms before they are given any of the many types of chemotherapy. These permission forms say that the treatment risks, side effects, and posible benefits have been thoroughly explained.

If you have widespread testicular cancer like Lance Armstrong, you could be cured with chemotherapy and go on to win the Tour de France bike race 7 times. It all depends what type of malignancy and what stage?

Source(s):

MD medical oncologist for 20 years

Wow, what a question. It's a personal choice. You should research it very carefully, all positive and negative opinions about it.

I know that I would never choose chemo. I would be willing to have surgery, and I'm not sure about radiation, but chemo, never. We are all going to die anyway, and we should die the way we want to and not let others tell us how. Chemo would take away my will to live, so what's the point?

There are radical diets that fight cancer, and I would choose one of these if I had cancer. I don't know if they cure cancer, but they beat it down and make you feel a lot better, and probably prolong your life in a good way. Chemo kills your immune system along with the cancer cells; then the cancer comes back stronger than ever. So I'm with you, although this is a controversial topic.

Good luck and God bless!

P.S. I hope people realize that this is my personal opinion, and that I respect other people's choices. This is what I would choose to do for myself, not necessarily for others.

• Chemo does work. I have a lot of family members who went through chemo and it didn't kill them. I too had breast cancer and I'm still here. Why do you think it will kill you?. What kind of cancer do you have? No one has had more chemo and radiation than my sister, Dianne. She's had chemo 4 times and radiation once. She's doing great. Unless you have an incurable cancer, I don't know why you think it wouldn't work. Be blessed and good luck.

Source(s):

Breast cancer survivor

• How does anyone expect to cure cancer by poisoning the cells of the body? Chemo drugs are extremely toxic they not only kill cancer cell but also healthy ones they are not specific to cancer cell, chemo drugs are designed to target cells within the body that multiply rapidly and that includes our healthy cells like the lining of the digestive system which is the first to be destroyed by chemo, also the toxic chemicals left within the body continue to destroy cells long term. Surveys indicate that more than 75% of doctors would refuse the chemo drugs they prescribe, interesting? They know well that their chances of survival using chemo are almost none. Chemo has a low 5 year survival rate, that’s if the cancer is gone before you are. So...why do doctors prescribe chemicals that poisons healthy cells, have horrendous side effects, and a poor record of success? The answer is !!! Money!!! Cancer’s management produces billions of dollars, we have been duped by the medical establishment and made to believe that these ridiculous treatments actually can save your life. Natural cures for cancer have been known for more than 40 years but as there is no money to be made drug companies make sure these therapies are never taken seriously, they are discredited and ridiculed so that people do not take this path as this would mean medical and pharmaceutical industries will go bankrupt.
  
  Chemotherapy drugs are the most toxic substances ever put deliberately into the human body. They are designed poisons. It began with experiments with "mustard gas," the chemical-warfare agents from World War I. We are obviously losing ground with conventional cancer treatment, because the death rates keep going up. The reason for this is because conventional treatment is based on a faulty standard: That the body must be purged of cancer by aggressive and toxic methods such as surgery chemotherapy and radiation therapy. This seemed reasonable back in 1894 when William Halsted, M.D. did the first radical mastectomy, but it has proven to be so wrong over the last 50 years that continuing to adhere to it constitutes more fraud than honest mistake.
  
  Cancer cells are your own cells which in their struggle to survive in a hostile environment mutate. What it all means is that the body is out of balance and by simply trying to kill these cells it is not going to eradicate them because the cause still exists within the body “imbalances” The key to treat cancer is eliminating the cause of the imbalances which is generally toxicity and deficiencies in the body. Cancer thrives in certain environments like low in oxygen, high in acidity, it grows and feeds of sugar and meats, It thrives on a weakened immune system. The key to success is to change the environment where cancer lives and it will just whither away. But if you only aim at destroying the cancer but not the reason why it got there in the first place it will come back.

Don’t listen to those people that without thinking for themselves want you to follow what doctors tell you about chemo or radiotherapy being your only chances for survival, educate yourself, there are hundreds of doctors now that have turned away from their own training and are treating patients with natural therapies like diets and supplements in order to detoxify the body, strengthening the immune system and allowing your body to do its work in getting back to balance, every cell in your body has intelligence it knows exactly what to do to heal itself trust your body, it is your friend and it is asking for help, don’t look at the word cancer as being equal to death, this is not true.

I have personally witness people around me heal themselves from terminal cancer through natural therapies and more than 20 years later they are cancer free and healthy.

There are hundreds of books written by cancer survivors that after being given a death sentence by their doctors choosed alternative therapies.

You need to be brave and fight for your life, do not give up. “Winners do not quit and quitters do not Win”.

Follow the links I give you here and you will find out what it is all about, no need to purchase expensive supplements or magic pills, you can heal yourself in the comfort of your home all you need is to educate yourself on the detoxification of the body and strengthening of immune system your body will do the rest, I am not saying it is easy but it works, it is not wishful thinking although it also helps to have a positive attitude, but natural treatments through vegetarian raw juicing and diets are scientifically proven, raw fruits and vegetables are so rich in powerful enzymes that are by far more effective than chemo in killing cancer cells and so is vitamin C in large amounts it acts as chemotherapy doing it without side effects.

http://www.hallgold.com/cancer_and_chemo…
http://blip.tv/file/418486
http://www.gerson.org/
http://www.drkelley.com/
http://www.cancertutor.com/Cancer/RawFoo…