Cancer Decisions - Free Newsletter

HERE AT THE MOSS REPORTS

This week I conclude my review of Dr. Guy B. Faguet's important book, The War on Cancer: An Anatomy of Failure, A Blueprint for the Future (Springer, 2005).

Dr. Faguet's trenchant analysis of the failure of the current medical approach to cancer deserves to be read by a wide audience.

His message is one that I, too, have been voicing for many years. The fruit of my long involvement in this field is the Moss Reports, a complete library of more than 200 individual reports, each one dealing with a different type of cancer and detailing in depth the best currently available conventional and alternative treatment approaches. You can order a Moss Report on your particular diagnosis by calling 1-800-980-1234 (814-238-3367 from outside the US), or you can order and download it directly from our Web site, www.cancerdecisions.com.

In addition, the following useful reports on current topics of importance can be purchased for $9.95 each, and can be downloaded from our Web site, www.cancerdecisions.com:

Do Antioxidants and Chemotherapy Conflict?
Mammography, Biopsy and the Diagnosis of Breast Cancer
Herceptin – or Deceptin?
Mexican Cancer Clinics in the Era of Evidence-Based Medicine
Avastin – Your Money or Your Life

For those clients who have already purchased a Moss Report and are facing difficult treatment decisions I offer a phone consultation service. A phone consultation offers the chance to discuss the suggested treatment plan and examine all the various possible options. Many people find this service invaluable in coming to an informed decision. To schedule an appointment for a phone consultation please call 1-800-980-1234 or send an email to Jacquie@cancerdecisions.com

We look forward to helping you.

RESEARCHER INDICTS WAR ON CANCER, PART TWO

Last week I began a discussion of Dr. Guy B. Faguet's book, The War on Cancer: An Anatomy of Failure, A Blueprint for the Future (Springer, 2005). I conclude, with references, this week.

Dr. Guy B. Faguet's proposal for winning the war on cancer is threefold:

"The time has come to abandon the cell-kill paradigm and to anchor cancer control on an incremental, three-tier approach that incorporates prevention, early diagnosis, and when these fail, on controlling the aberrant genetic defects that lead to the development, growth and dissemination of cancer" (p. 183).

In the abstract, it is hard to argue with any of these proposals. However, implementing the first two (prevention and early diagnosis), even when effective means are at hand, ultimately depends on the willingness of the government, non-profit agencies and the general public to take on powerful vested interests that gain handsomely from cancer-causing habits and behaviors.

The measures taken to stop the ravages of tobacco consumption are in fact a perfect barometer of any society's seriousness about controlling the cancer problem at its source. So how are we doing in that regard? Every year, the American Lung Association (ALA) issues a Report Card on the State of Tobacco Control, both for individual states and for the US as a whole. States vary widely in the effectiveness of their anti-smoking measures, but the US national grades for 2005, as assessed by the non-partisan ALA, are as follows:

Smoking cessation = F
Framework Convention on Tobacco Control = D
Food and Drug Administration Regulation on Tobacco = F
Cigarette Tax = F

These failing grades are a grim reminder of the obstacles to implementing even well established prevention strategies. The picture with early detection is also not encouraging. Certainly early detection is a proven principle in cancer control. But there remains considerable uncertainty about whether or not some of the most popular current screening methods actually save many lives. Mammography for the detection of breast cancer, digital rectal exams and PSA tests for the detection of prostate cancer, and sputum or x-ray tests for lung cancer all have serious deficiencies.

And while Pap screening tests for cervical cancer do save lives, the US Government (as reported in a previous newsletter) has now proposed severe cutbacks in its program of providing free cervical cancer screening for poor working women. We are now heading in a backward direction on the issue of cervical cancer detection, while in other forms of screening we have denied equal treatment of various groups based solely upon class. So a considerable amount of work, time and money will be necessary before truly effective early detection measures can be implemented. In the absence of a fundamental shift in public policy towards effective prevention strategies, the onus for reducing cancer mortality remains where it has been for the past thirty years - on the detection of existing disease and the development of better treatment.

The advent of molecularly targeted therapies has renewed the hope that cancer treatment is about to enter a new and more enlightened phase in its otherwise less than glorious history. Certainly, the successes of Rituxan (rituximab) for the treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and Gleevec (imatinib mesylate) for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) afford some hope that other drugs with similar specificity might soon be developed. However, the track record so far with most other ‘targeted' drugs (such as Iressa, Erbitux, Herceptin, and Avastin) has not been encouraging, for reasons I have explained in previous newsletters and special reports.

Criticisms of the Book

Prof. Faguet's book is a breakthrough explanation of the overall failure of the war on cancer. But it is not without some faults. The book is poorly copy edited: there are a number of minor, but annoying, typographical errors. In addition, it is rather expensive—$59.95 (including shipping at Amazon.com) for a 227-page book. The publisher, Springer, has priced this book as an academic text, when in fact it should be made available to every generally educated reader who is interested in the topic. I hope eventually someone will bring out a better-edited, paperback version at around half the price of the present hardcover.

What some readers may find more disturbing is the author's tendency to take gratuitous swipes at complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). In conversation with me Prof. Faguet did display openness to the fair testing of such methods. However, his major concern is that testing CAM methods would greatly expand the already enormous list of agents to put through the ‘hit and miss' drug development approach that he otherwise condemns in his book. But, conversely, shouldn't CAM methods be allowed to compete on a level playing field with empirically discovered toxic treatments?

Predecessors

The retired Georgia professor also gives an unnecessarily abbreviated account of the work on the subject of the war on cancer that preceded his own. He claims that "others have previously questioned the status or direction of the War on Cancer," but "they have done so mostly within the confines of the scientific community." This is only half true, as there have been a number of critiques that have attempted to reach a broader public.

He does cite two influential articles by John C. Bailar, MD, PhD: "Progress against cancer?" (1986) and "Cancer Undefeated" (1997). In "Cancer Undefeated," Prof. Bailar wrote:

"The war against cancer is far from over. Observed changes in mortality due to cancer primarily reflect changing incidence or early detection. The effect of new treatments for cancer on mortality has been largely disappointing. The most promising approach to the control of cancer is a national commitment to prevention, with a concomitant rebalancing of the focus and funding of research" (Bailar 1997).

Dr. Bailar's words have carried much weight, since he is Former Deputy Associate Director for Cancer Control of the National Cancer Institute; Former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute; and a Professor at the University of Chicago.

Another article cited by Faguet is by Michael B. Sporn, MD, a molecular biologist at Dartmouth University in New Hampshire. In "The War on Cancer," which appeared in the Lancet a decade ago, Prof. Sporn concluded:

"Failure to appreciate that local invasion and distant metastasis rather then cell proliferation itself are lethal, obsession with cure of advanced disease rather than prevention of early disease, and neglect of the need to arrest pre-neoplastic lesions may all have served to make victory elusive" (Sporn 1996).

Faguet also acknowledges the work of Harvey Schipper, MD, of the University of Toronto, who has been an outspoken critic of the chemotherapeutic approach.

But Faguet fails to mention some other seminal contributors to this discussion. For example, Ulrich Abel, PhD, a biostatistician at the University of Heidelberg/Mannheim, wrote a brilliant critique, The Chemotherapy of Advanced Epithelial Cancers, in 1990. My popular book, Questioning Chemotherapy (1996), was inspired by Dr. Abel's monograph. But, that omission aside, Faguet's book is certainly the first full-length critique by an American scientist of the problems and failures of the War on Cancer. For that reason, one hopes that it will receive a wider audience inside and outside American academia than would be the case for works that originate outside the field.

Dr. Bailar for one has enthusiastically endorsed the work. He wrote to Faguet:

"I think your book will be a valuable corrective to much of the hype that has been splashed around in greater and greater quantities by the cancer establishment as it tries to stifle the message that it has failed to make much of an impact."

Similarly, Gerald E. Marti, MD, PhD, a laboratory chief at the National Institutes of Health, has said:

"Faguet's approach is not unlike an analysis of the so-called industrial military complex, a complex consisting of the federal government, pharmaceutical drug companies and academia—all have a part of the pie and therefore a reason for maintaining the status quo. Insurance companies, regulatory agencies and patients themselves add further layers of complexity. Faguet walks through all of these areas in a critical but unemotional manner.... His book should be of interest to policy-makers, cancer-care workers, and the public at large."

Prof. Faguet's book is highly recommended to anyone with a serious interest in understanding why and how our current emphasis on chemotherapy and radiation has failed to secure victory in the War on Cancer. It also offers a cogent strategy for regaining the upper hand in that faltering campaign.

To order Guy B. Faguet's War on Cancer, click here or go to:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/dt/assoc/tg/aa/xml/assoc/-/1402036183/cancerdecisio-20/ref%3Dac%5Fbb6%5F%2C%5Famazon/104-1661683-0762302

--Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.

References:

Abel, Ulrich. The Chemotherapy of Advanced Epithelial Cancers. Stuttgart: Hippokrates Verlag, 1990.

Bailar JC 3rd, Gornik HL. Cancer undefeated. N Engl J Med. 1997;336:1569-1574.

Bailar JC 3rd, Smith EM. Progress against cancer? N Engl J Med. 1986;314:1226-1232.

Moss, Ralph W. German magazine blasts chemotherapy, Cancer Decisions Newsletter, Jan. 15, 2005. Available at:
http://www.cancerdecisions.com/011605.html

Moss, Ralph W. Questioning Chemotherapy. Lemont, PA: Equinox Press, 1996.

Schipper H, Goh CR, Wang TL. Shifting the cancer paradigm: must we kill to cure? J Clin Oncol. 1995;13:801-807.

Sporn MB. The War on Cancer. Lancet. 1996;347:1377-1381.

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IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER

The news and other items in this newsletter are intended for informational purposes only. Nothing in this newsletter is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice.