In a study by the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, radiation and chemotherapy treatments that kill tumor cells were found to cause cancerous tumors to grow bigger and more prolific. In fact, the dying cancer cells that chemotherapy set into motion actually trigger the inflammation that causes tumors to grow more aggressively.
Senior author and Assistant Professor of Pathology Dr. Dipak Panigraphy said: “In this study we demonstrate that chemotherapy-generated debris from dead and dying tumor cells can stimulate tumor growth, which has pivotal implications for the treatment of cancer patients. Conventional cancer therapy designed to kill tumor cells is inherently a double-edged sword.”
Their findings come on the heels of another study published in Science Translational Medicine last year that found that chemotherapy can cause breast cancer cells to multiply.
A 2013 study into this issue yielded some very worrying findings. Published in Nature, that study also found that chemotherapy promotes the spread and growth of cancer cells by damaging healthy tissue around the tumors, and it took that one step further by finding that it caused cancer cells to develop resistance to chemotherapy as well, essentially turning them into “super” cancer cells. Much like superbugs, these cancer cells are resistant to the most aggressive types of chemotherapy available, making cancer far deadlier than before.
Chemotherapy outcomes worse than getting no treatment at all?
Some experts have pointed out that chemotherapy kills cancer sufferers more quickly than getting no treatment at all. For example, University of California, Berkeley, Medical Physics and Physiology Professor Dr. Hardin B. Jones said his research shows that people who refused chemotherapy treatment for cancer lived 12.5 years on average, while those who get these treatments averaged just three years of life. Essentially, refusing the conventional treatments for cancer causes patients to live four times longer than those who do get on board, on average. His findings were published in the journal Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences.
In fact, the Pharma Death Clock shows that chemotherapy has killed more than 18 million people since the beginning of the year 2000, which is more people than those who have died from wars, suicide and terrorism combined.
Cancer treatment making some people rich while killing others
Yet, as Christina Sarich pointed out in The Waking Times, we continue to spend more than $107 billion per year on cancer treatment. The fact that this figure is projected to reach higher than $150 billion by the year 2020 tells you everything you need to know about the current state of medical cancer treatments.
A cancer diagnosis is devastating for patients and their loved ones, and dealing with all the decisions that must be made can be overwhelming. Many people have found success with natural treatments, whether it’s carrot juice or cannabis oil, but results vary so much depending on the individual that it really is difficult to make heads or tails of all the information out there. One thing we can be sure of, thanks to studies like these, is that chemotherapy is not always the best route to take, and it is well worth exploring other options so you can make the most informed decision about treatment as possible.
Read more news on cancer treatments at Chemo.news.
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