Recently, during a gathering of friends, one woman in our group received a text message that registered as deep concern in her countenance. She informed us that the text came from a good friend of hers, a young woman in her 20s, who had been diagnosed with cancer a while back. After the initial cancer diagnosis, the woman had been treated through surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, and her cancer had gone into remission for more than a year. However, the woman had just received the terrible news that the cancer had returned in such an aggressive form that the doctors believed they could do nothing more for her and gave her about six months to live.

We all expressed deep sympathy at the sad news, and then another woman voiced concern about her mother who has cancer. Scared to mention the “c” word aloud, I hesitantly shared that my sister recently had been diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer. Another woman reminisced about a dear friend of hers who had passed away from cancer several years ago. One by one, every person at the gathering mentioned someone close to them who had been diagnosed with cancer. There is no longer any question that one way or another, cancer is an epidemic that will touch every person at some point in their lives.

It is a heartbreaking and all too familiar scenario; cancer patients experiencing remission for a certain period, followed by the cancer’s return in a metastasized and perhaps more aggressive form. A research team led by scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center recently found that administering chemotherapy to mouse models of cells affected by breast cancer was associated with increased risk for tumor metastasis (spreading). Similar results were observed among 20 breast cancer patients who had undergone chemotherapy. Published in Science Translational Medicine, the study discovered the previously unrecognized mechanism that enhances a cancer cell’s ability to invade blood vessels and spread. While the research also identified a potential drug therapy approach to block both the blood vessel permeability and cancer-cell spread, it is disconcerting to know that chemotherapy can contribute to the spread of cancer.

Getting a cancer diagnosis is certainly a terrifying experience, and the conventional medical route may not hold all the answers. Fortunately, more and more doctors are practicing integrative oncology, in which they blend the best of Western medicine with alternative medicine, healing therapies, nutrition, herbs, and more. The article “Live Cancer-Free: Natural Ways to Heal and Prevent Cancer,” by Linda Sechrist, describes additional healthy lifestyle measures that show promise in influencing various cancers.

If you want to learn more about preventing and healing cancer, I highly recommend visiting the website TheTruthAboutCancer.com and Chris Wark’s website, ChrisBeatCancer.com. Wark was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer at the age of 26 and healed his cancer with nutrition, supplements and other lifestyle changes. His website provides access to the latest cutting-edge research, numerous video interviews with other cancer survivors, and an excellent and affordable coaching program that walks the viewer, step by step, through the approach Wark used to heal himself using nutrition, supplements, exercise and emotional/spiritual healing.

To your health,

Gabriella Buchnik, Publisher