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About Dr. Susan Love, a breast cancer physician:
When I was in college my mother had an abnormal mammogram and underwent ‘lumpectomy” at a hospital in Boston. Her surgeon was Dr. Susan Love, and it has been interesting to follow her career. She published her first book in the late 90’s Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book”, which the New York Times called “the bible for women with breast cancer”. She is one of the doctors I would want to consult with if I had breast cancer, not just because of her medical expertise, but because of her compassion. I would never wish poor health on anyone, but often it seems that physicians would benefit from having to undergo the same treatment they are prescribing to their patients. Only then would they really understand what it is to BE a patient and have to COPE with illness. Well, in 2012 Dr. Love was diagnosed with leukemia. She returned to work a year later, after chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant. Here is a link to the website for her research foundation: https://www.drsusanloveresearch.org/

In May 2015, Dr. Love was interviewed for a health blog for an organization called Lifescript. In the interview, Dr. Love candidly debunks many common myths surrounding breast cancer diagnosis and treatment and offers sound advice: Link to the interview
Here are some highlights from the interview:

  • On changing the way we approach and interpret cancer:

“…cancer is not Osama bin Laden [a foreign invader]. It’s Timothy McVeigh. It’s our own terrorist we grew ourselves.These cells don’t live in isolation. They live in the breast along with fibrous tissue, fat cells, and blood vessels. All these cells are interacting. You can have mutated cells of cancer in your body and not have anything happen. Research and autopsies of women 40 to 50 years old show that 39% of them have cancer cells in their breast doing nothing.
So you need two elements to end [up with] cancer: Not just the cells, but also the “local environment.”
Dr. Love on chemotherapy:

  • What’s the quality of life for breast cancer survivors at this point?

If anything, it’s getting worse because we’re over-treating them.
If there’s a 1% improvement in survival by adding yet another drug, we add yet another drug. And they all have side effects. Adriamycin causes heart damage. Some chemotherapy causes leukemia. Tamoxifen causes uterine cancer. Oncologists tend to dismiss the long-term consequences. Drug companies don’t look at them either. We never study: Is the new drug better alone than combined with the old drug? We just add another drug.

  • So doctors add drugs because they don’t have data that tells them how they act alone?

And in part, it’s because they get paid more. The more drugs they give, the more doctors get paid. I don’t think that individuals are malicious. I think the fee-for-service system we have leads to that.

  • How does that payment work?

As mentioned in the New York Times’ article [“Lack of Study Volunteers Hobbles Cancer Fight,” Aug. 2 ), oncologists buy chemotherapy drugs at a discount from the drug companies and then charge insurance a higher price, pocketing the difference. In addition, they charge insurance for giving chemotherapy.
So if it’s not clear whether a patient will benefit by getting chemotherapy, the oncologist is more likely to give it.
It’s also true that the drugs probably always have some benefit, but it can be vanishingly small. Where do you draw the line?

Dr. Susan Love on Triple Negative Breast Cancer

Dr. Love on hiring a doctor:
How can women find the best doctors to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer?

  • You want to shop around. A diagnosis of breast cancer — even though it feels like it — is not an emergency. You have time to get a second opinion.
  • Always take a tape recorder to every medical visit. You can listen to it later until you really get it. If the doctor doesn’t like being recorded, then they’re the wrong doctor.
  • Take your most obnoxious friend… because we regress to wanting to be a good little girl and wanting the doctor to like us. I do that too when I’m the patient. Bring somebody who maybe isn’t your significant other but who’s willing to speak up for you.
  • Review your questions ahead of time.

Links to Vitamin D3 Research

CAM

  • This 2004 document from the Society for Integrative Oncology grades CAM applications like meditation, acupuncture, massage, music and yoga as to effectiveness Rating CAM therapies for stress reduction, supportive care during BC treatment
  • Ann Fonfa calls herself a “woman with breast cancer and an attitude”. She was unable to tolerate chemotherapy after surgery so she made lifestyle her medicine. Her platform is education and advocacy through her website and annual conference http://annieappleseedproject.org/
  • Electricity and Healing: Novocure is a company that has been doing trials on using low-level electric fields to interrupt cancer cell division. Here is a Ted-Med presentation describing the use of this device. It is not invasive, generates impressive results and may improve a patient’s quality of life: Electric Field Therapy

Chemosensitivity and Metabolomics
[Personal note: My mother died in 2007 of the side effects of chemotherapy that was considered the “standard of care” for her non-small cell lung cancer. We found out about chemosensitivity analysis and, on the advice of an integrative oncologist in Arizona, purchased a Greek assay that isolated circulating cancer cells from blood and tested them against traditional and natural agents to see what would kill them. According to the Greek test, the chemo she was being given was ineffective for her particular subtype, but another chemical (used commonly in breast cancer) would have been effective. When her cancer continued to spread, the oncologist immediately jumped in with the second drug, although mom’s body was too weak to tolerate additional chemo.
Note: An integrative oncologist I respect has told me that the Greek assay should no longer be used, although he himself at one time recommended it. There are better companies, and he currently sends his samples to Rarecells in France for the ISET test (see section on circulating tumor cell testing).

In 2008 I met Dr. Nagourney at a conference in California and learned that his company, Rational Therapeutics, does a type of sensitivity analysis using frozen tumor cells from pathology, as well as cells from pleural effusion. Here is a 2011 TED Talk in which he discusses the rationale behind this testing: Dr. Nagourney on “Metabolomics” ]
The Business of Cancer

Gene science made simple

Books/Websites/Resources of Interest

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