Chemotherapy sent my blood counts spiraling on two separate occasions. Both times I landed in the hospital. And during my second stay, it took several daily injections of Neupogen -- a growth factor immunity drug -- to push my white blood counts from a low 1,200 to a whopping 58,000.The only side effect I suffered as a result of this drug was aching bones and joints. This was temporary and not such a big deal. What might be a big deal for breast cancer survivors like me, however, is the result of a new study suggesting there may be a risk of leukemia from these immunity boosting drugs.
These drugs, G-CSF (such as Neupogen) and GM-CSF (such as Leukine) may cause rare cases of leukemia, says Columbia University's Dawn Hersmand whose study is published in yesterday's Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
It's already been established that chemotherapy itself can cause leukemia. And Hersmand's study showed 1.04 percent of women who did not receive growth factors developed leukemia from chemotherapy alone. But 1.77 percent of women treated with G-CSF or GM-CSF developed the disease. While the drugs appear to statistically double the risk, the actual risk still remains quite small. And researchers say the benefits of the drug right now outweigh the risks.
1. In the US at TheCancerBlog.com ... Jacki Donaldson reports on her personal experiences with conventional medical treatment including: "aching bones and joints" In the UK in numerous newspapers ... Josie Grove reported on her similar experiences declaring: "I've had enough of hospitals. A course of drugs I took in September left me feeling ill, shaky and aching, and it didn't do much to fight the cancer." ... So when are the NHS, in the UK, going to trial, a low cost, cancer treatment that can make Patients healthier? [that has been available for more than 10 years to every Primary Care Trust in the UK].
Alternative Medicine, The UK Human Rights Act 1998 [Article 2 'Everyone's right to life shall be protected by law'] and the requirement for our NHS to offer 'choice' in respect of any reasonably available, life protecting, health remedies...
"The Breuss Cancer Cure" [ISBN 0-920470-56-4] available, since 1996, from bookshops worldwide & online [and is free, at libraries, in every NHS district] ... Quoting Rudolph Breuss at page 2 of the book [which includes a specific chapter on leukaemia] "...How many people have benefited from the Breuss treatment? To be on the conservative side, I estimate that up to 1986 about 40,000 patients who had cancer or other seemingly incurable diseases regained their health. If cancer research organisations and orthodox medicine were with me, instead of against me, perhaps the success rate would be in the millions by now...".
Please discuss, in relation to Prime Minister, Tony Blair's recent comment to The Northern Echo: "We fully understand the worries of individual parties, but it is important that the NHS is guided by experts. That's why we set up the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (Nice) to advise the NHS on what drugs it should use." and the question as to: When, since 1996 [over 10 years ago] the Breuss '42 day' liquidiet treatment has ever been offered to cancer Patients [by our NHS] during more than [10 x 365] '3,650 days', since initial diagnosis, of cancer, in thousands of Patients in every PCT throughout the UK? i.e. Providing Patients the choice of protecting their own lives at a cost, to our NHS, of less than £100 for the 42 day treatment; Warm thanks, Nicholas Dynes Gracey, BSc(Hons) Medical Biochemistry, Birmingham University, UK c/o TheCancerBlog.com @ 23:19hrs SUN.04.MAR.2007.
Posted at 6:27PM on Mar 4th 2007 by Nicholas Dynes Gracey