An Innovative Cancer Course in Philadelphia

In In November, I will help teach a course on complementary and alternative approaches to cancer at the Center for Integrative Medicine (CIM) in Philadelphia. The CIM is part of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Thomas Jefferson University. The course will begin after lunch on Friday, November 16, and then proceed all day on Saturday, November 17, 2001. We hope to enlist the help of Philadelphia oncologists and other medical specialists to make this innovative course a big success. We have also applied for Continuing Education credit for attendees.

At this writing, the course is still in the planning phase. But during these two days, we intend to intensively cover many topics of great interest to medical professionals who are interested in the CAM treatment of cancer. Some of the likely topics are: an overview of the field, and of the involvement of the NIH and NCI in CAM research; the use of popular supplements such as antioxidants and their interaction with chemotherapy; a discussion of mistletoe, and other botanicals and immune modulators in cancer treatment; the use of anti-angiogenic agents in the CAM context; breast cancer and soy isoflavones; polysaccharides and medicinal mushrooms; hyperthermia as a "fourth modality" of cancer treatment; PC SPES and other new treatments for prostate cancer; and some of the psychological and spiritual dimensions of cancer care. For details on registration please contact Sharifa Pettigrew at the Center for Integrative Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital 215 503-0720 or email sharifa.pettigrew@mail.tju.edu

The Marienlyst Conference

This summer I had the pleasure of attending the Seventh International Symposium for Biologically Closed Electric Circuits in Biomedicine. This important meeting was held at the Marienlyst Conference Center in Helsingør (Elsinore), a city north of Copenhagen best known in the setting of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

The meeting was sponsored by the International Association for Biologically Closed Electric Circuits in Biomedicine (IABC). The local sponsor was Finn Scøtt Andersen, MD, medical director of the nearby Humlegaarden cancer clinic. My wife and I stayed at Humlegaarden for eight days and so got a better understand of the workings of this unique healing community. The inquisitive spirit of Finn Andersen shaped every aspect of the conference, especially the lively and inquisitive atmosphere regarding all new cancer treatments.

The IABC promotes the use of harmless low-level electrical currents and magnetic fields in the treatment of cancer, neurological disorders, and other diseases. The group had an unusually genesis. Although the current leadership is mainly American (Prof. George O'Clock, Ph.D of Minnesota State and Carl F. Firley, B.S.) the association originated with the Swedish scientist, Björn E.W. Nordenström, MD, and his Chinese colleagues.

Dr. Nordenström is the inventor of the skinny needle biopsy used all over the world to diagnose cancer; he was also one of the pioneers of balloon catheterization for heart disease. At one time, he chaired the Nobel Prize committee that awarded the biology/medicine award.

In the 1970s, he began to experiment with the effects of low level electrical currents on the human body and published a scholarly book on the subject. He developed a new approach to treating cancer which is known today as electrochemical therapy, or ECHT. His clinical results in Sweden were remarkable. In November, 1980 New York magazine published a a three-part, front-page series on his work. What followed, however, was not universal acclaim but the unreasonable rejection of his ideas by various orthodox medical authorities.

Undeterred, Prof. Nordenström took his treatment to the People's Republic of China, which is more open to innovative approaches. Professor Xin Yu-Ling, director of thoracic surgery at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing, welcomed the chance to work with this world-famous scientist. Their collaboration began in Beijing in 1987 and the IABC was then formed {Eur J Surg Suppl 1994;574:7-23}. Under the direction of Prof. Xin, more than 10,000 cancer patients were treated {Eur J Surg Suppl. 1994;574:25-29}. The treatment is now fully accepted by the Chinese Medical Association and there are more than 300 Chinese members of the IABC. About two dozen of these colleagues attended the meeting in Helsingør. In addition, there are about 200 associates in Europe and another 100 in the US and South America. (For more information about joining this important organization readers should contact Carl Firley at iabc.adelphia.net).

There were also participants from South Korea, where ECHT has recently been introduced into an 800-bed hospital and from Alexandroupolis, Greece, where the treatment of neurological disorders using ECHT is well underway. Members from about a dozen other countries were also represented at the conference. So "international" in the title is more than wishful thinking.

Complementary Medicine Section

Piggybacked onto the IABC meeting was a concurrent session on more general complementary approaches to cancer. I had the pleasure of chairing most of this section, and I will mainly describe this part of the meeting.

The conference began with a lucid presentation by Josef Beuth, MD. Dr. Beuth is the director of a unique institute at the University of Cologne for the scientific study of naturopathic medicine. He is also president of the German Society of Oncology. Dr. Beuth the increasing evidence for the positive effects of complementary therapies in oncology: his own work has focused on the biological effects of lectins derived from the mistletoe plant.

This was followed by an outstanding talk by Dr. Hinrich Peters on the use of dendritic cell therapy in cancer. Dr. Peters is professor in the Department of Immunology at the University of Gottingen, Germany. Dendritic cells are the latest development in the century-old quest to find effective immune approaches to cancer.

Johan Haux, MD, an oncologist at Trondheim University Hospital in Norway, spoke about his work with digitalis in the treatment of cancer. He is optimistic that clinical trials using digitalis derivatives should begin in Norway soon.

There were fascinating presentations by Chinese doctors on the use of traditional Chinese formulas in treating cancer. Dr. Gan Zhong Liu spoke about the use of "jinlong capsules" as cancer therapy. These are mixtures of amino acids from various animal species. Dr. Liu Tong Qing of Beijing gave a detailed presentation, complete with x-ray documentation, on treating cancer with a combination of copper, iron and Chinese herbs.

This presentation stimulated a great deal of discussion, since in the West most scientists believe that both copper and iron stimulate cancer growth and should be avoided. Yet some Chinese scientists are using them, at high doses, as cancer treatments. How can these two opposing views be reconciled? Dr. Andersen suggested that Dr. Liu stay in Denmark long enough to clear up this intriguing difference. But perhaps it will take a visit to China and many discussions to figure out this apparent contradiction.

Next came a discussion by Wolfgang Schmidt, MD, a radiation therapist from Greifswald, Germany, on the effectiveness of mistletoe in cancer. Michael McCulloch, L.Ac., an acupuncturist at the Pine Street Medical Education and Research Group in San Anselmo, Calif., spoke about the use of the meta-analysis technique in clinical research. He also wowed the conference with his flawless speaking ability in Chinese. After dinner, the celebrated German alternative practitioner, Wolfgang Scheef, MD, gave a presentation on the use of proteolytic enzymes in the treatment of cancer. It was a wide-ranging speech, delivered in his charismatic style. It was good to see that he had overcome the effects of a recent illness and was "back in action."

On the next day, we heard from Steen Lindkjaer Jensen, MD, a Danish gastrointestinal surgeon who also works at the Hammersmith Hospital, London, on his use of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) in the treatment of liver metastases. His conclusions were seconded by Bjorn Skjoldby, MD, of the Herlev University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark. From these, I gained the impression that multiple liver metastases can often be eliminated with radio waves when surgery is no longer feasible.

Antioxidants and Cancer

Dr. Joseph Brenner, chief of oncology at Wolfson Hospital, Israel, followed with a presentation on the treatment of cancer using hyperthermia without radiation and chemotherapy. My own presentation was on whether or not dietary antioxidants interfere with chemotherapy and radiation. I presented some new data, theories and controversies that have emerged since the publication of my book, Antioxidants Against Cancer (2000). I concluded that the evidence supporting concurrent use is stronger today than ever before (My speech can be found at www.cancerdecisions.com/denmark2001.html).

Michael Christiansen, MD, from the Danish Serum Institute in Copenhagen, ably reviewed various tumor markers in cancer, particularly "Her-2-neu." This led logically to a discussion on the use of Herceptin in the treatment of Her-2-neu positive breast cancer patients by Filip Janku, MD. Dr. Janku, just 27 years old, is a rising star of the oncology department at Charles University Hospital in Prague, Czech Republic. He projected a very positive impression of Herceptin. This led to a lively exchange on this topic with Josef Beuth, MD and Dieter Hager, MD of the BioMed clinics in Germany.

On the third and final day of the conference Dr. Finn Andersen spoke on angiogenesis. He stated that angiogenesis should always be taken into account in cancer treatment. In his own clinic, he has begun to apply the lessons taught by Judah Folkman, MD of Harvard University. Harald Schmidt, MD, of Denmark presented his results with one kind of anti-angiogenesis treatment, thalidomide, used to treat advanced cancer.

Ray Rosenthal, MD, a physician from Hawaii, related his own experiences with cancer. Initially, he tried to treat his own lymphoma with immune-stimulating substances. This was unsuccessful. He then discovered Dr. Scheef and had a very positive response. He is now without signs of the disease and is writing a book on the remarkable Dr. Scheef.

Finally, Mark Atkinson, MD, vice president of the Complementary Medical Association (CMA), spoke about an exciting pain relieving technology, low-dose electrical currents called ACE.

Overall, an enormous number of new ideas were discussed at this meeting. Not long ago, a serious discussion of complementary treatments was impossible. Most reputable scientists were afraid to associate themselves with anything smacking of "alternative medicine." How times change! The impressive academic credentials of the speakers at Marienlyst is ample proof that CAM is increasingly seen as a promising way of helping cancer patients.

Thanks to open-minded and energetic physicians, such as Dr. Finn Andersen, a true integration of conventional and non-conventional cancer treatments is slowly taking place. Orthodox scientists now frequent CAM conferences, and CAM practitioners present papers at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). The discussion at conferences such as this one help to create a common vocabulary that easily slips back and forth between Herceptin and hyperthermia, colonics and chemotherapy.

The world of cancer owes a debt of gratitude to the IABC for facilitating this international discussion. It allowed scientists of various nationalities, specialties and perspectives to exchange ideas on how to best treat cancer. Many new collaborative friendships were made. I came away more convinced than ever that CAM has an important role to play in the ultimate conquest of this disease.

Flaxseed and Cancer

A well-known oncologist Charles Myers, MD, has cautioned against the use of flaxseed by prostate cancer patients (www.vegsource.com). But recently a pilot study suggested that flaxseed, in conjunction with a low-fat diet, may have a protective effect against the disease. The July report came from scientists at Duke University Medical Center (Urology 2001;58:47-52).

Twenty-five men awaiting surgery for prostate cancer consumed a low-fat diet as well as three tablespoons per day of finely-ground flaxseed. The researchers measured their prostate-specific antigen (PSA), testosterone and cholesterol levels. The men followed this regimen for 34 days before undergoing their scheduled surgery. They were then compared to historic controls.

Both testosterone and cholesterol levels decreased. The PSA level was decreased in those with early-stage disease. According to Wendy Demark-Wahnefried, "For the men on the diet, their tumors cells did not divide as quickly and there was a greater rate of apoptosis [i.e., programmed cell death] in this group."

While not conclusive, this suggests that the combination of flaxseed and low-fat diet not only lowers cholesterol but might be beneficial for some men with early-stage prostate cancer.