A new and exciting discovery to provide real hope for late stage and complex cancer patients has arrived. For years, patients and doctors have been asking, “Why does chemotherapy only work for some patients and not others?” For example, a patient may try a different chemo regiment over and over, or may “respond” to chemotherapy and have a 30% shrinkage of a tumor, only to find it returns even more aggressively later. Our new form of treatment aims to eliminate this problem altogether, meaning many cancer patients will become cancer survivors.
GTF (Genetically Targeted Fractionated Chemotherapy) may help patients outperform conventional chemotherapy by identifying each person’s specific tumor information and genetic profile. Watch the video below to learn more.
PROMOTIONAL VIDEO
How to Improve Cancer Results with GTF Chemotherapy
A Better Model for Cancer Treatment
The current model and approach being used by numerous cancer centers and hospitals is the “germ theory.” This model aims to focus on destroying cancer cells using a “one size fits all” protocol – a methodology which establishes treatment plans based solely upon cancer type and stage. Doctors are content that each person’s cancer is unique, thereby they cannot be classified or grouped – even for patients with “the same type and stage.”
New scientific studies reveal that unlocking the genetic codes for each patient’s cancer means a more successful treatment and outcome. GTF treatment goes several steps further than the conventional chemotherapy approach. It takes advantage of the understanding that everyone’s tumor is different and provides the actual blueprint information to personalize each patient’s treatment plan. Our doctors predict this new method and approach will become the world standard within 5-7 years.
So why are cancer centers not using this approach to treatment? It is very difficult for large structured institutions and pharmaceutical companies to move quickly with the world’s modern technologies because they have so much invested in the old system. That being said, GTF treatments have already begun to save lives, while even helping some patients avoid hospice. According to patients, the best part of the treatment is that this therapy avoids most of all the side effects found in conventional chemotherapy treatment, so patients can feel better throughout. Our doctors have noted that when patients were tested, over 75% of them were administered the wrong treatments … No wonder so many patients are struggling with cancer!
To learn more, contact us with any questions about this new approach to chemotherapy, or watch the video below to learn about a more powerful approach to cancer.
PROMOTIONAL VIDEO
A More Powerful Approach to Cancer Treatment
The Negative Aspects of Traditional Chemotherapy
During World War II, a nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The damage was so devastating, it resulted in the deaths of many innocent people. In the weeks following, between 15-20% of the victims died from radiation poisoning. Without preliminary testing and targeting, large doses of chemotherapy radiation can wreak a similar havoc within a cancer patient’s body. The collateral damage to healthy cells is devastating, often worse than the cancer itself, particularly in regard to the destruction and disabling of the immune system, the body’s first and last defense against cancer.
A Proper Approach to Stage 4 Cancer Treatment
Aggressive chemotherapy treatments involve a combination of four different drugs called MOPP protocol, which worked quite successfully with Hodgkin’s disease during the preliminary years of cancer research. However, as MD and Professor Dr. Guy B. Faguet* stated, “This early success was seldom replicated despite myriad, subsequent clinical trials launched to test a variety of intermittent combination chemotherapy regimens in many types of cancer over the ensuing four decades.” Regarding the traditional use of chemotherapy, Dr. Faguet* also stated, ”Though most patients achieve some degree of tumor response, few survive longer as a result.”
Genetics: The Future of Cancer Treatment has Arrived
Currently, the odds that a patient will respond to any given chemotherapy treatment are generally no better than the odds of flipping a coin. Chemotherapy drugs have historically been tested, dosed, and incorporated into treatment protocols based on trial-and-error approaches, resulting in a single or a range of recommended dosages based on averages from clinical studies in large populations.
The cancer patients who continue to receive chemotherapy drugs they simply don’t respond to are unknowingly suffering through devastating side effects, all while simultaneously wasting valuable time and energy in their fight to survive against cancer.
The good news is that recent advances in pharmacogenetic research may eliminate the randomness in chemotherapy treatment. Through genetic testing, specific gene expression patterns can be identified that can better predict a patient’s drug response. These genetic indicators act to help physicians find the optimal drug or drug combination that will combat the precise tumor in a given individual with the benefit of optimal results, along with greatly reduced side effects.
Research has shown that individual genetic differences in drug-metabolizing enzymes, transporters, receptors, and other factors have been linked to significant differences in drug response, thereby affecting clinical outcomes. For example, a drug in identical dosages may be toxic to a person with a slower drug metabolism, or simply ineffective in a person with a much higher drug metabolism. A positive response might only be found in those particular individuals whose metabolism is close to the general population average in which the standard dosage protocol is based.
In addition, genomic information can also be extracted from the cancer itself to determine which treatments will be most effective. Mutations of various growth regulatory genes, as well as alterations in the transcription of a large number of genes, which may lead to a tumor’s possible resistance to a treatment. Envita has been refining these techniques with great success for numerous years, and we strongly believe it will soon become the standard of care in the future.
PROMOTIONAL VIDEO
This CNN interview with Dr. Henry Friedman of Duke Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center discusses how genetics will be key in selecting the best cancer treatments for patients. Dr. Friedman says, “It is my personal belief that targeted, individualized therapy is the wave of the future.”[3:00] We’ve been using genetically targeted fractionated chemotherapy for years, but we’re focused on multiple forms of cancer, not just glioblastoma multiforme.
Targeting Chemotherapy Via Insulin Receptors
Due to alterations in the mitochondria shifts toward glycolysis, cancer cells develop the ability to produce insulin with an Insulin-like Growth Factor (IGF) themselves. This way, a cancer cell can increase its glucose uptake and metabolism.
The ability to produce insulin makes cancer cells different from normal cells, but there is a second abnormality to note. Every cell in the body has insulin receptors on the outer surface of its membrane (about 100-100,000 receptors per healthy cell). However, cancer cells have a much higher concentration of insulin receptors than the healthy cell. Various studies have shown that the amount of insulin receptors (IR) is dramatically increased in most human breast cancers as well as both ligand-dependent malignant transformations. The high metabolic activity of the cancer actually provides delivery methods enabling the targeting of cancer cells over the healthy ones.
Fractionated Chemotherapy Allows for a Stronger Immune System
Fractionated chemotherapy is a technique by which the total dose of chemotherapy is broken into smaller amounts and then administered over a longer period of time, rather than in a single, much larger dose. Administration in this manner makes the drugs more tolerable to patients by greatly reducing the devastating side effects often experienced as a result of the large doses.
Additionally, cancer cells experience a longer, more sustained exposure to the toxin. For this reason, targeted chemotherapy is another method of treatment that utilizes specific agents to help the delivery of chemotherapy to precise tissues and regions of the body. When lower doses are given, your immune system is better able to respond instead of being wiped-out altogether.
In Summary
GTF treatment allows the patient to experience all the possible benefits of chemotherapy while tremendously reducing the imminent damage to the immune system that is commonly the result of a more conventional administration of these treatments.
Our Comprehensive Smart Oncology® program can utilize targeted chemotherapy to minimize damage to the healthy cells, improve immune system function, as well as greatly improve the quality of life for our patients. Visit the PPMR process to learn more about other therapies that may work for you or contact us if you have any questions.
The following featured articles will help you better understand Envita’s unique approach to cancer treatment as well as provide essential steps to success:
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References:
Blue Cross Blue Evaluation. Pharmacogenomics of Cancer-Candidate Genes. Assessment Program (2007), Vol. 22, no. 5.
Weinshilboum, Richard. Review of genomics Inheritance and Drug Response. New England Journal of Medicine (2003), Vol. 348, no. 6, 529-537.
Wu, Xifeng, Gu, Jian, et al. Genetic Variations in Radiation and Chemotherapy Drug Action Pathways Predict Clinical Outcomes in Esophageal Cancer. Journal of Clinical Oncology (2006), Vol 24, No. 23, 3789-3798.
Evans, William E. and Relling, Mary V. Pharmacogenomics: Translating Functional Genomics into Rational Therapeutics. Science (1999), Vol. 286, no. 5439, 487-491.
Khew-Voon Chin, et al. Application of Expression Genomics for Predicting Treatment Response in Cancer. Therapeutic Oligonucleotides (2005), Vol 1058: 186-195.
*An expert on chronic lymphocytic leukemia, Dr. Faguet received his MD degree in Bogota, Colombia and completed his postgraduate work at the University of Texas and Ohio State University. For 28 years he conducted cancer research in Augusta, Georgia that was funded mainly by the National Cancer Institute and the Department of Veterans Affairs. He’s written 140 peer-reviewed articles, seven book chapters and two scientific books on cancer.
