Can cancer sickness have a natural remedy instead of chemotherapy?

You have a number of good answers above - especially the answer from "lo_mcg."

Many chemotherapy drugs are "natural" remedies obtained from plants.

Examples of plant alkaloids used in chemotherapy are actinomycin D, doxorubicin, and mitomycin.

One of our best relatively new agents - Taxol - comes from the bark of the Pacific Yew tree.

Vinblastine and Vincristine are commonly used chemotherapy agents obtained from Catharanthus roseus (Madagascar periwinkle).

Camptothecin and Irinotecan come from Camptotheca acuminata.

We in oncology have no bias against using natural remedies. We have been using them for over 40 years. But they have to be proven effective in controlled clinical trails - not just touted based on unscientific anecdotal evidence.

In the long history of medical concoctions used throughout the European "Dark Ages and into the 1900's in America, people have used medicines that were not proven effective and in many cases did more harm than good. Calomel (mercury) is a good example. Even today there are naive people wasting money on useless medicines, and there are many sellers looking to make money from the unfortunate people who want to try anything in desperate situations. I spent a great deal of time in my oncology practice trying to talk people out of trying chemotherapy when I thought the odds of harm exceeded the chances for a real benefit. But many people will not accept the no treatment option and look elsewhere for a miraculous cure.

Cytotoxic chemotherapy is rough. I have always said that we have to "half kill" someone to cure a cancer with chemotherapy, but there are types of cancer that respond well and can be very effectively treated with these medicines - many of which were found in nature's plants.

Our hope is that non-specific cytotoxic chemotherapy agents will be replaced some day with more specific treatments such as the monoclonal antibody preparations now coming into clinical use. I predict that in the future we will look back at this time as barbaric for the use of present toxic, non-specific chemotherapy agents. Until that day comes, we use the best we have - the treatment that have been proven effective scientifically. Otherwise we are back to shamans and witch doctors chanting or mixing up "Theriac" with owl's toe and eye of newt.

I can understand why the natural approach is tempting. Chemotherapy is a scary thing to go through. But as Io_mcg explained the promises by promoters of natural remedies are not kept. Try to focus on the fact that complete recovery from chemotherapy happens quite often. For instance see the many examples on yahoo answers. Also on http://anaximperator.wordpress.com/about-you/ you can find the story of a breast cancer patient who went through the whole thing.

No. Neither Spirulina or Ganod ama have been proven to be effective against cancer.

The thing is, in this context 'natural' and 'alternative' are just different ways of saying 'unproven'. If something has been proven to be effective it is no longer 'alternative medicine' it is just 'medicine', no longer 'alternative treatment', just treatment.

Wherever there is cancer there is an unscrupulous charlatan eager to part desperate and vulnerable people from their cash for ineffective and sometimes dangerous 'alternative treatments'. Please be wary of unsubstantiated testimonials on the internet - you have no way of knowing if the person ever had cancer, much less that they have been 'cured'.

You will sometimes read perfectly sincere accounts from people who claim they or a relative or friend has been 'cured' of their cancer by diets, herbs, and other 'alternatives'. What has almost invariably happened there is that the person has had conventional, proven treatments and afterwards has tried an alternative approach, and chosen to credit the alternative with the improvement in their condition.

SO - a patient has chemo and feels crap, because chemo makes you feel crap. After the chemo is over, s/he takes some 'alternative' medicine; soon s/he begins to feel better. Well, that's no surprise, you do begin to feel better when chemo is over. But s/he chooses to give the credit for feeling better, and for subsequent improvements in her/his condition, to the unproven alternative rather than to the conventional treatments, which have been rigourously tested and proven in double-blind clinical trials

Conventional treatments are not perfect, far from it; one day people will look back on them with the same horror with which we look back on blood letting. But we know, because they have been tested and proven in double-blind clinical trials that they save many lives and prolong many, many more. The same can't be said of any 'alternative' , 'natural' treatments- otherwise, as I've said, it would be mainstream, not alternative.

I don't know if you are asking this question because you or someone close to you has cancer; if so, and you are tempted by any particular 'alternative', please do a search on this website for some facts before investing money, hope and - most dangerous of all for a cancer patient - TIME on ineffective, unproven and sometimes dangerous treatments

Diet plays an important part in the treatment of cancer. Eating the right kinds of foods before, during, and after cancer treatment can help you feel better and stay stronger. A healthy, balanced diet may reduce the risk of numerous diseases, including some forms of cancer. For example, diets low in saturated fat have been shown to decrease the risk for colorectal cancer and prostate cancer. Similarly consumption of extra vitamins and proteins can help the immune system while fighting breast cancer. Eating well during cancer therapy can help individuals maintain their body weight, tolerate treatment-related side effects, reduce their risk of infection and provide other benefits. For many cancer patients, managing nutritional needs while living with advanced cancer becomes a particular challenge that needs to be overcome. The onset of cancer is reported to cause profound metabolic and physiological changes which tend to increase the nutritional needs for protein, carbohydrate, fat, vitamins and minerals

Nonscientific nonsense promoted to gullible and ignorant people. Salt and pepper don't cure cancer.

I am alarmed by the large number of posts on YA Answers regarding fraudulent cancer cures. I blame the public school systems for generating so many uneducated graduates who believe such rubbish. Apparently, many people have no educational foundation, capability to research a topic, or ability to think independently.

No, I've tried just about everything out there. Only Chemo, and/or surgery, good nutrition to keep your immune system healthy while doing treatments, light moderate exercise and hopefully the chemo will kill the bulk of the cancer.

Some of these materials have just started coming to the markets. I think it's going to take awhile before we see any results from them. In the meantime I think we have what's the best on the shelf from a doctor.

No doubt it can have a natural remedy because all of ouir drugs derive back to a natural begining....i sure hope the righ tones are decovered soon.

have a nice day

try getting the book call "killing cancer" by "jason winters" published somewhere back in the 80's. He proclaims to have cured himself and I know someone who got his book and took all the herbs and all he said to do, and the cancer tumor they had in their lung quit growing.? He teaches in this book about healing the body, not burning it up. He believes that when we gget cancer and go thru chemo and all, that in essence we are adding to an already sick and stressed out body,and therefore we cannot heal. The herbs he uses are not on the list of us's fda apptoval list. He had to go out of the us to get these herbs. Makes since, because our gov. still does not approve of a lot of things. The book is very interesting and really made a lot of sense. I read it. Good luck on finding a copy if you decide to. Its worth the read.

try to follow doctors order.my aunt was diagnose with cancer on her lung,pancreas and liver,in april the doctor gave her 2 weeks to lived,the D.R.asked her did you want your chemo of you want to stay liked this,my aunt said i want my chemo i going to fight this,we are in july and my aunt is waking,dress her self,ect,ect,with the chemo shes doing good,now is not like it used to be,no sickens or hair loss,this is an experience that i like to sharer to people that are afraid of chemo,thank you for letting me share this.