1. Another scenario could have been, if they interrupted the chemotherapy regimen - that wasn't working - with another chemotherapy regime. And that regimen wasn't working either. Does one gamble with life by trying one chemotherapy regime after another chemotherapy regime? All one has to do is peruse the cancer boards and read all the patients chasing mets because of the wrong treatment from the start. One can take the chance at wrong chemotherapy based on population studies. While ten percent of cancers (like leukemia) are intrinsically sensitive to chemotherapy, the majority of others are not. But as Heather said, "Would he have perished had they pursued traditional chemo for him?" Nobody can tell.

Posted at 5:02PM on May 22nd 2007 by Gregory D. Pawelski

2. "Nobody can tell."

YOU can't tell. You're an IDIOT.

Holistic medicine may be something people can look to IF they are not already sick with a disease or "dying because of advanced cancer" as it were. The family should've stuck with chemo and wiped out the leukemia. LEUKEMIA, for cying out loud! The boy wasn't tackling some sort of future "preventable" sickness, his illness had already progressed.

For a healthy person, using holisitic methods to stay healthy may prevent that person from getting sick with certain kinds of illnesses that can be cured or prevented - but we're talking about a boy who already had been diagnosed with leukemia, who had already gone through a phase of chemo. I do not have the full details of his tests, but for all I know it could've been a genetic mutation, the kid may have never been able to prevent it in the first place.

Posted at 12:20AM on May 23rd 2007 by K

3. The article states the boy was off chemotherapy for four months. Cripe! That's as much time being spent detecting cancer pathways with imaging by giving a patient potentially toxic and ineffective drugs and waiting six to eight weeks, then making a tumor measurement to see if it is working. And then give more potentially toxic and ineffective drugs and wait another six to eight weeks and repeat measurements to see if it worked. And then you still have to wait weeks until you could try Plan B. What's more idiotic? Instead of the parents forced to be torn between alternative therapies and western medicine, more time should have been considered suggesting alternative therapies as a supplemental support. Why not a gray area in between, instead of always black and white?

Posted at 3:08AM on May 24th 2007 by Gregory D. Pawelski

4. newsflash. lots of people who endure chemotherapy and radiation die. cancer therapy is, in effect, experimental. everybodys genetic makeup being different - you can have two people with the same cancer, same 'percieved' stage, have very different outcomes. there is no 'sure thing'. i don't care what the so called '5 year survival rate' is. i know. i lost my beautiful sweet daughter at 18 after a horrific 3 year battle with bone cancer, chemotherapy, radiation, extensive surgerys, experimental therapy...and you know what? I cry when i think of what we put her through to try to save her and I wonder if holistic may have made a difference. what i would give to do it again and let her live her life instead of suffer it. do you have any idea what the side effects of these drugs are? do you know what the secondary cancer rate is for those 'cured'? my 16 year old developed permanent congestive heart failure from one of the drugs. you don't know the details of this childs life. i imagine her parents did what they thought was right in a very difficult situation. have some compassion.

Posted at 10:47AM on May 24th 2007 by ap

5. http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2007/05/another_young_life_claimed_by_a_misguide_1.php

Posted at 11:19PM on May 24th 2007 by hchcec

6. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-05/jws-mpc052107.php

Posted at 9:45PM on May 25th 2007 by Gregory D. Pawelski

7. No one should blam themselves for what choice they make. Although it's a hard descision as to what path to take, I have taken it several times myself. I am a firm beliver in combining homiopathic medicine, nutrition, faith and surgery. I was diagnosed with uterine cancer and pancreatic cancer (really islet cell carcinoma) that met into my liver. Two notable doctors (one from Sloan Kettering and the other from Johns Hopkins) told me to go home and die - a third doctor from Mount Sinai wanted to chop me up and the fourth doctor (whom I picked) from Columbia Prebyterian operated on me and took out the tail of my pancreas only. I did find another great doctor at Mount Sinai who performed my hysterectomy removing the uterus only. It took me a long time to find these surgeons. In the meantime, I use(d) accupuncture, chinese herbs, holistic medicine and vitamins along with a specific diet which, I feel, helped me prolong my life up until surgery. One of the doctors actually told me to not get radiation or chemo because it would do more harm than good and I would ultimately need surgery anyway (my pancreas was wrapped around my stomach and sqeezing it - surgery was inevitable). I now am looking into something called radio surgery for my liver. That combined with diet and exercise - I found pilates to be the best rehabilitative exercise (for me at least) - and nutrition should help me live - I made it so far. There are too many choices and the wait is long before results or appointments are available. No one can say for sure what keeps a person alive, please don't beat yourselves up about it. When you are in pain you can literally feel the crossroad where you can make the choice to live or die - it really is that simple.

Posted at 2:52AM on May 26th 2007 by Kelly

8. To those who responded to this news with condemnation for the parents of that child who died; have some sympathy and mercy. Get your heads out of your collective tushies and have some mercy. This is not about you.

As for the rest of the posts, the information is far from definite that chemotherapy is "the way" to go in treatment. In fact there is not a single study on chemo that complies with the western gold standard of studies, the double blind.

And until there are, then we cannot say definitively which tehreapy is best. Oh wait ... given that each person has unique genetics, then we can't continue to place "faith" [and faith it is] in any single therapy and apply it generally to everyone.

My wife is a Naturopathic Physician who work in conjunction with allopathic doctors to achieve what the oncology only doctors have not been able to. There are some in the field who feel that a blended approach may be the best way to go with treatment. Of course each case is unique and should be. The parents of that child who died deserve our sympathy and not our condemnation.

Posted at 5:20PM on Jun 10th 2007 by JEFF FRIESEN

9. "In fact there is not a single study on chemo that complies with the western gold standard of studies, the double blind."

Sorry, you're wrong. Just do a pubmed search.

"My wife is a Naturopathic Physician who work in conjunction with allopathic doctors to achieve what the oncology only doctors have not been able to."

And, what is that?

Posted at 8:12PM on Jun 10th 2007 by hchcec