(From the Moss Report on Invasive Breast Cancer)
Dear Friend,
I want to extend a warm welcome to you as a client of The Moss Reports.
For over 30 years, it has been my mission to educate and empower
cancer patients, including those with breast cancer. I am honored
to now be part of your healing journey. Over the years, my thinking
about cancer has evolved considerably. Before we begin our exploration
of treatment alternatives, therefore, I would like to share with
you some of my own core beliefs about your illness and the recovery
process.
First, I firmly believe that there are scientifically valid cancer
treatments that exist outside conventional Western medicine. These
treatments offer the hope of real and substantial benefit to you,
and in this report I will discuss the ones that I believe are most
relevant to your situation. Keep in mind that some alternative treatments
for breast cancer are fully accepted and routinely used in countries
other than your own. Others are new treatments that your doctor
may never have heard of. Some treatments are so embroiled in controversy
that it is difficult to get objective information about their effectiveness.
Yet others appear worthless or dangerous. My goal is to help you
formulate a winning plan for yourself and to give you a compass
with which to evaluate the many conflicting treatment claims in
the field of cancer. Let my knowledge, objectivity, and experience
be your guide.
Second, I believe that reversing breast cancer and remaining well
is more than just a physical process. Of course, medical treatments,
such as surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, all have their place
in the treatment of this disease, and you need scientific information
to make rational decisions about such therapies. As one long-term
survivor of cancer put it, "Returning to a state of health is not
just about having treatment; it means dealing with the mental, emotional
and the spiritual issues that tend to manifest physically. It means
asking, Am I on the path that I want to be on?"
This report is dedicated to helping you to repair the breach that
breast cancer has created in your life. To do so, you need to seek
emotional healing as well. The attention you give these less tangible
areas can speed healing and enhance the effectiveness of your physical
treatments. But it can also serve as a profound source of strength,
peace, and inspiration for you. What we call body, mind, and spirit
are interwoven strands that form the whole person. Approach your
healing holistically.
Third, and most fundamentally, I believe that one can heal from
breast cancer. I realize that on an emotional level many people
still react to any diagnosis of cancer as a death sentence. The
attitudes of oncologists, family members, and friends may reinforce
this fatalistic idea. Doctors may deliver some statistical average
of survival as a certainty: "You have six months to live." The doctor
is trying to be scientific and to avoid giving false hope. Yet the
result can be devastating to the patient.
I cannot tell you how often I have seen this "six month" figure
become a self-fulfilling prophecy! I believe that some patients
actually die what Harvard physiologist Walter Cannon, MD, once identified
as "voodoo death." In this case, on an emotional level, patients
are being convinced that their situation is hopeless, which contributes
to their demise. In truth, no one can know in advance how long any
individual patient is going to live. (Cannon WB. "Voodoo" death.
Am J Public Health. 2002;92:1593-6)
Even the various diagnostic categories of cancer are man-made constructs
that mask the uniqueness of each individual's condition. Each person's
cancer is only similar to, but not identical with, that of any other
person with the "same" diagnosis. A medical philosopher once wrote:
"Diagnosis is a system of more-or-less accurate guessing, in which
the end-point achieved is a name. These names applied to disease
come to assume the importance of specific entities, whereas they
are for the most part no more than insecure and temporary conceptions.
(Lewis, T. Reflections upon medical education. Lancet 1944;1:619-621)
In 'War and Peace,' the great novelist Leo Tolstoy wrote of the
character Natasha's illness, "Every living person has his own peculiar,
personal, novel complicated disease unknown to medicine - not a
disease of the lungs, liver, skin, heart and so on, mentioned in
medical books, but a disease consisting of one of the innumerable
combinations of maladies of those organs." He added that "this simple
reflection can never occur to doctors (just as a sorcerer cannot
entertain the idea that he is unable to work magic spells) because
it is the work of their life to undertake the cure of disease, because
it is for that that they are paid, and on that they have wasted
the best years of their life" (ch. 16). So, forget about statistics!
Defy the odds! Work in a joyful way to heal yourself, body, mind,
and spirit.
If names are "temporary conceptions," then so too are all predictions
that are based on them. Never forget that statistics are just averages,
not judgments of what must happen to you as a breast cancer patient.
As one recovered cancer patient put it, "Remember, people aren't
statistics. Statistics are made of people. Anybody can be the exception.
It takes awhile for others to be confident in your wellness but
it must start with your own confidence in yourself and your own
will to live no matter what it takes. It isn't always easy. I am
just now accepting that I am going to live in the long term. My
doctors are becoming more confident, too!"
Even the most dire prognoses have their exceptions. Throughout the
years, I have seen people survive the most threatening kinds of
cancer, people whose chances, statistically speaking, were declared
nil. Sometimes these "exceptional patients" used various unusual
treatments. But on occasion, they did nothing special. My good friend,
William (Bill) Fair, MD, was chairman of the Urology Department
at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York when
he was diagnosed with colon cancer. When his cancer recurred after
surgery and chemotherapy, Bill chose a treatment path involving
yoga and herbs. He not only survived years longer than expected,
but lived his life to the full. Towards the end of his life he and
his family went trekking in the mountains of Patagonia Ð something
he had always wanted to do, but had deferred in his busy life as
a leading oncologist. He died on January 2, 2002, at the age of
66, seven years after his initial diagnosis.
Among other experiences, my friendship with Bill Fair made me a
firm believer that there is a healing power inside us that is within
our own grasp. The body has an inherent ability to overcome disease
and regain equilibrium. This can provide a powerful underpinning
to modern medicine. In fact many of the treatments that I write
about in this report are actually sophisticated ways of activating
this self-healing ability and bringing it into play in the fight
against cancer.
So please do not take any negative statistics to heart. Reject the
delusion that lies at their core. Let hope burn bright within you!
As the Roman philosopher Seneca said, "To wish to be cured is part
of the cure" (pars sanitatis velle sanari fuit).
Hope is the antidote to the psychological cancer engendered by the
physical diagnosis. Hope is a tremendous force for healing. The
great poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge said, "He is the best physician
who is the most ingenious inspirer of hope." With this report, you
have in your hands information that can help you move forward towards
hope and wholeness. But you and I both know that information alone
is not enough. You must surround yourself with supporters and health
care practitioners who share this belief, treat you with love and
respect...and radiate optimism. The main reason, I feel, that so
many patients are turning towards complementary and alternative
medicine (CAM) is because oftentimes their oncologists are lacking
in hope.
The purpose of this report is to unite hope and realism, the rational
and emotional minds, by pointing you in the direction of scientifically
credible and ethically defensible treatments. Commit yourself to
an overall plan that is nourishing to your body, mind, and spirit.
Be patient with yourself and the process, and reach out for help
whenever you need it. Look for opportunities to replace negative
beliefs, relationships and environments with more positive, life-affirming
ones. This can be intense work. One excellent method (as Bill Fair
discovered) is yoga, but other tools such as positive affirmation,
meditation, journal writing, prayer, and counseling can also be
invaluable to you. You should adapt your techniques to the best
resources that are available in your community.
I have also seen many people use the crisis of cancer as a wake-up
call. A minister (Clifford Oden) once wrote a book entitled "Thank
God I Have Cancer." He blessed the disease's transformative power.
Bernie Siegel, MD, reports that many patients say that "cancer is
a very good thing in my life, it's a blessing." Similarly, in a
famous book, psychiatrist Lawrence LeShan, MD, praised cancer as
a "turning point." While I know that cancer is never a wished-for
diagnosis, many people have found that the experience has helped
them to foster closer personal relationships, heal emotional wounds,
and develop a deeper faith. I hope this can be true for you as well.
A final point before we move on to a discussion of options. Patients
are often paralyzed by fear, or exhausted by "battle fatigue" from
a long struggle. This is especially so with cancers that follow
a protracted course, as breast cancer sometimes does. After making
a decision to use complementary and alternative medicine, patients
can become confused by the many competing claims and systems (conventional
Western, Ayurvedic, and Traditional Chinese Medicine, to name just
a few). Each has its own distinctive approach towards cancer. While
it is wonderful to have access to these traditions, it can open
a Pandora's box of confusing claims and counterclaims. For example,
your doctor may claim one thing, your acupuncturist another, and
then this report (or other things you have heard or read) even more.
Whom should you believe?
We are moving towards a time of greater communication, cooperation,
and respect among these different traditions. I hope that the dedicated
work of the US government's National Center for Complementary and
Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) and National Cancer Institute (NCI)
has contributed to create a truly pluralistic medical culture, called
Integrative Oncology. (It was my pleasure to serve as an advisor
to those agencies for almost 10 years.) Change takes time and struggle,
but we are making progress. However, sharp differences still exist.
If you experience a conflict between what you have been told by
others (such as your oncologists) and what you read in this report,
I urge you to probe more deeply into the question. Here, as in my
other writings, I almost always give scientific references for my
statements. I encourage you to investigate their articles yourself
and to share this information with your doctors.
Ultimately, after intelligently assessing your options, you need
to make treatment decisions. All my life I have promoted rational
choices, yet in the end your choice may involve a leap of faith.
Knowing which treatment to move towards requires using your intuition,
as well as factual information.
Over the ancient Oracle at Delphi was engraved this simple prescription:
"Know Thyself." In modern terms, "Know Thyself" means putting self-knowledge
- and, yes, self-love - at the center of your decision-making. Remember
that beliefs themselves are powerful things, and believing in the
treatments you choose is an important part of the healing process.
This is as true of radiation or chemotherapy as it is of unconventional
therapies. You have your own unique way of taking that leap with
greater confidence. I hope this report will be helpful to you in
choosing your unique path.
Albert Einstein has told us that "imagination is more important
than knowledge." The greatest scientist of our era told us that
while research is important, we should also trust our hearts. It is
my ardent wish that you will engage both science and personal feelings
to embrace the healing path that is opening up before you. I believe
this will give you the greatest possibility of a cure.
Sincerely,
Ralph W. Moss, PhD
