*great* conversation with Ralph Moss! (part 2)

(In this part: UltraPheresis therapy)

I had a *great* conversation with Ralph Moss the other day. (He's the professional cancer researcher (http://www.cancerdecisions.net ) who pointed me to my original treatment with Dr. Thaller in Germany, which bought me a remission for several months early last year.)

The second treatment that Moss discussed with me (and the one he slightly recommends for me) is UltraPheresis therapy by Dr. Lentz in Prien am Chiemsee, Germany. Dr. Lentz has isolated three compounds in the blood that cancer cells produce as a decoy; as long as these compounds are in the blood, the cancer cells won't get attacked by the immune system. UltraPheresis is similar to a dialysis machine -- it filters these compounds out of your blood, and then your own body's immune system is free to attack the cancer.

Moss has also tracked several patients who have received these treatments, and they have got very good results.

description of treatment from Dr. Lentz' own site: --
http://www.biopheresis.de/index.php?id=17

great brief summary of the treatment and the theory --
http://www.euro-med.us/lentz_therapy.html

link to Dr. Moss' Flickrstream from his visit to Dr. Lentz' clinic in the German Alps (I'm almost sure I can faintly hear "Edelweiss" playing in the background!)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24860924@N07/2514340851/in/set-72157605203869407/

*great* conversation with Ralph Moss! (part 1)

(In this part: Sonodynamic therapy)

I had a *great* conversation with Ralph Moss this week. (He's the professional cancer researcher (http://www.cancerdecisions.net ) who pointed me to my original treatment with Dr. Thaller in Germany, which bought me a remission for several months early last year.)

For the past year, Dr. Moss has been traveling to clinics around the world, and has sent several of his clients to new treatments in China and Germany that seem very impressive.

The first one, sonodynamic therapy, is an ofshoot of photodynamic therapy, which has already ben approved by the FDA for use in some cancers. Sonodynamic therapy can go deeper, to get some cancers (like my bone metastases) that aren't easily reachable with light.

From what I understand, it consists of ingesting a compound made from deep-sea algae that photosenthysize through vibration, since no light penetrates their environment. The compound is designed to be taken up specifically by cancer cells. After your body absorbs it for 24 hours, you sit in a bathtub and the doctors turn on ultrasound for an hour and a half. The treatment lasts for a couple of weeks.

The results are really amazing, even for incurable metastatic cancers. Dr. Moss has tracked several clients who have used this therapy and has seen them get good results. Here's an abstract of an article talking about the good clinical results: http://bit.ly/quJtw

Some other references on SDT:

Here's the blog of a young couple from Portland that went to Xi'an, China for the treatment. Sounds relatively painfree.

http://www.roundhousemedia.net/china/round1.html (start at bottom)

2nd page of entries -- http://www.roundhousemedia.net/china/index.html (start at bottom)

brief description of SDT aimed specifically at prostate cancer patients (scroll down to "What is SPDT, PDT?" -- http://www.prostate90.com/prostate_cancer/Metastasis.html

website of Dr. Mitchell in Australia who has moved his treatment centers to China:
www.opalclinic.com/PDTSDT.htm

Alternative Treatment Hunt

A quick recap for those of you just joining us: when I was diagnosed with Stage IV prostate cancer in July of 2007, I was already at the point where Western medicine really had nothing to offer me. (And definitely nothing that could offer the hope of a cure.) They did offer two palliative treatments. One was hormone blockade therapy, which consists of Lupron shots that zero out my testosterone -- this starves the portion of the prostate cancer that thrives on testosterone. (Yes, this is the same shot that they give to sex offenders...and yes, it has the same scorched earth effect on my sex life.) The Lupron only works for a while...and for me that period ended sometime a few months ago, when my PSA started to skyrocket again.

The second Western palliative treatment I used was Zometa, an industrial solvent (!) that slows the growth of bone metastases. Every time I get my infusion, I have pain for a couple of days as the Zometa does its job. (I'm also taking strontium citrate, a non-radioactive natural supplement that supposedly halts metastases the same way that Zometa does.)

So, long story short: from the very first day of my diagnosis, I was forced to search for alternative treatments for my cancer if I really wanted to have an impact on it. I found a great ally in Dr. Ralph Moss, who has researched the cutting edge of both alternative and conventional treatments for the last thirty years, evaluating which ones work and which ones are hokum (and believe me, there's a lot of hokum in *both* camps!) It was his recommendation that led me to Dr. Thaller in Germany as my first treatment. This was successful, but mind-numbingly expensive ($80,000 for a combined 5 weeks of treatments over several months).

After a brief stretch on pancreatic enzymes and supplement-only therapy, I settled down to ayurvedic treatment this summer -- first at Mt. Diablo Institute in Pleasant Hill, and then at Center for Wellness in Aptos. I learned a lot, I received good care for the psychological and some of the physical aspects of my illness -- but it didn't hold the tide against the advance of the cancer. So I am dipping my toes back out in the world of researching alternative treatments to see what alternatives there might be for me.

Researching the Next Step

OK, now that the last visit to the PraxisKlinik is under my belt, I can turn to the question at hand: what's the best way to continue my treatment going forward?

One option is to continue the visits to Dr. Thaller every 6 weeks or so. The three treatments I'll continue with would be the fevertherapy, the Newcastle Disease Virus injections, and the Dendritic Cell injections. (Alongside these there are the additional treatments of vitamin C and ozone infusions, and local hyperthermia).

Liz and I have 20 vials of the virus with us here in the States, so the injections with those will continue through January in any case.

A second option is to work with Dr. Pfeifer at the Aeskulap Klinik in Switzerland. He has a very interesting-sounding protocol for prostate cancer, which consists of high dosages of four different supplements. (I've already started taking one of these -- ProstaSol -- and my PSA went down by over 50% in one month! )

The third option is to go with the enzyme therapy that Dr. Gonzalez is known for. This is an intensive self-care program consisting of supplements (mainly pancreas enzymes), a strict diet, and detoxification procedures. I'm strangely drawn to this path, as it is a way that 1) I can take responsibility for controlling my own health, and 2) is something that I can maintain over the long term, as I manage this cancer as a chronic condition. (I don't imagine that there will be a sudden cure for what I have, and the costs of Thaller's treatment -- around $15,000 a visit -- make it extremely hard to envision continuing to do it over the long term!)

In any case, I'm going to be getting some help in sorting these issues out -- I'll be doing another phone consultation next week with Dr. Ralph Moss, the über-researcher that keeps his finger on the pulse of all the new cancer therapies that are being tried.

The Reviews are In

I just received an updated version of the Moss Report on Prostate Cancer*. Inside were a couple of positive mentions of the doctor I'm seeing in Germany, Dr. Thaller:

Another German practitioner with a strong interest in immunotherapy is Dr. Arno Thaller, whose practice in Markt Berolzheim, near Nuremberg, uses immunotherapies based primarily on Newcastle disease vaccine. On the whole, I have a positive impression of Dr. Thaller. He clearly understands the latest developments in immunotherapy, but also has a good grasp of historical treatments of interest (of which Coley's toxins and Newcastle disease virus vaccine are prime examples – see later in this report). The biggest problem is that if you call the clinic you are very likely to get someone who does not speak English. That is what sometimes happens when you are dealing with a small, rural clinic like this one.

and later in the report:

Arno Thaller is a medical doctor in a small private practice in Markt Berolzheim, Germany (near Nuremberg). He has a web site at www.praxis-thaller.de There you can find a very intelligent essay that he has written on the immunotherapy of cancer. What distinguishes Dr. Thaller is his aggressive use of Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) vaccine, as well as other immunotherapeutic procedures. He has had experience in treating even advanced cases of brain cancer. From my limited experience, he seems able to stabilize some such cases, although it is too early to say what the long-term effects can be. Dr. Thaller strikes me as caring and humane, with a good reputation among other German doctors. I continue to watch the evolution of his program with great interest.

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* Ralph Moss is hands-down the best researcher I've found on cancer treatments -- he keeps an eye on all the new research (both conventional and alternative), and then synthesizes and evaluates the information in reports on each type of cancer. The reports are available at his site.