Know cancer for a fighting chance

Know thy enemy

If a loved one got a cancer diagnosis, it can be very very confusing. If you are anything like me, you have a lot of learning ahead of you. While your first port of call will be the oncologist, let me try and pen down what helped us assist the oncologist in controlling dad's stage 3+ cancer. Before that though, let us get a sense of what we are up against using the standard of care offered by medicine clinically.

How many chemo cycles : math of cancer growth and chemo effectiveness

Some of our good oncologists tell us that ever round of chemo kills a certain proportion of the remaining cancer in the body. The percentage for very hard chemo cycles is about 99% and that for softer ones can even be in the 60s of percent. 

So, if we start from about 10000000000000000 (17 digits) cancerous cells (about 10 grams of cancer) in the body when we detected the cancer, every chemo can at most take off two zeros from there because 1% of that number is 15 digits. Even if you start two two four digits lower (below that we can rarely detect cancer) the math does not change much. If a surgery can remove all of the cancer, it may be the best way as your oncologist will tell you.

If surgery is not an effective option in a case, every chemo can take off two zeros and between every chemo the cancer adds another zero by growth (it varies from cancer to cancer and you should observe your own cancer to find out), then effectively, you are removing one zero from the number of cancer cells every hard chemo cycle.

Count of digits in the number of remaining cancer cells. Every drop corresponds to a chemo cycle which are 14 days apart and the gradual daily rise corresponds to the cancer growing back. This is only representative, sometimes the cancer is more aggressive or the chemo cycles are further apart, in that case the drop is not that rapid and it might take more than the 260 days plotted here. In other cases if the rise is slower, it might reduce faster.

If all goes well without deviation you should be ready for about 18-20 cycles of chemo alone, and possibly changed lifestyle. See the next few posts on some tips to plan the fight. They will focus on reducing the rise of the cancer on non-chemo days.


Meanwhile I will strongly urge you to learn more about cancer and the specific one that is hurting you. Next section focuses on that.

 

Learn about your cancer

The three resources that helped us the most were: 

1. Johns Hopkins course about Introduction to Cancer Biology on Coursera for understanding what is standard of care for the particular type of cancer.
2. Search box on google scholar for knowing things that are not yet standard of care but will get there given enough time.
3. Search box on youtube to find home remedies and such to manage the symptoms and side effects of cancer treatment.

1. Johns Hopkins Course

While you will learn a lot, some of the things that helped were:

1. The hallmarks of cancer and the warberg effect tell you that sugar/glucose/carbohyderate rich diet is loved by the cancers. You want to make it hard for the cancer by restricting those while keeping your calories (from protein and fat) and other phytonutrients (from plant extracts or non sweet juices).
2. The various treatment options. Surgery, Radiation and Chemotherapy.
3. The types of chemotherapy and their side effects.

2. Google Scholar

Even the scholars among us don't use google scholar as much as you should be using. While all the papers published there may not be usable, it can give you a lot of reliable information on what foods and other therapies can you deliver at home to help your oncologist despite their protest. Some of the things that I picked up include:

1. Compounds found in food and spices - Curcumin (Turmeric), Resveratrol (Peanuts/Grape Seeds), various flavanols (Green Tea) etc...
2. Other plant stress harmones like Salicilates (Asprin), Jasmonates and how to maximize those.
3. Hyperthermia helps kill some proportion of cancer but only if at least 3 days apart lest they get used to it.
4. Hyperbaric oxygen is a potent chemopreventive as well as helps kill some cancer.
5. Ketogenic diet helps.
6. Various herbs help to the extent of their extracted nutrients purity.
7. No sweetners allowed except perhaps stevia.

3. Youtube.com and other blogs for home remedies

Keeping the gut, liver, kidneys etc. functioning properly can be found easily on youtube or the rest of the internet. The ones that helped the specific cause for us include...

1. If hemoglobin/Iron is low, go for liver in diet. For the vegetarians you will need to supplement the green leafy vegetables (spinach, mint, bathua, fenugrek), cruciferous vegetables(broccoli, Brussels sprouts) or iron pills with vitamin C (Amla, lemons).
2. Whatever you do, try avoid carbs, sugars, glucose and any other sweet including that from milk, fruit and juice.
3. If there is fluid in the abdomen or other swelling on the feet then it is due to low Albumin. A month long consumption of all/many of proteins (egg white, fish, water of boiled black gram) and remedies (bitter gourd (karela) juice, soaked fenugrek water,  etc.) help a lot. 
4. Isabgol (Phylum Husk) helps regulate bowel.
5. Coconut in all shapes and forms is helpful in covering energy deficit for lack of carbohyderates. Oil, Milk(unsweetened), Cream, desiccated coconut.
6. Amla (Indian Gooseberry) juiced (for vitamin C disintegrates under heat) is the best way to bring your white blood cells back up. 
7. Giloy is most effective for getting the platelets and rest of the immune system back in shape after chemo sessions.
8. Just type in whatever symptoms you are facing and someone would have posted ideas on how to deal with it.

Plan the fight

I will edit here with links to suggestions on the fight.