It's believed by some experts that there's a safe, non-addictive, completely harmless way to kill cancer cells as well as many other illnesses. This magical drug? Well, it's not a drug. It's something you probably have in your home right now .... magnets.

Magnets have been shown to kill cancer cells in animals. What's more, a negative magnetic field can function much like an antibiotic when surrounding a tumor, and it can destroy bacterial, fungal and viral infections. The patient in this article reported that using magnetic fields during his battle with colon cancer reduced his discomfort by quite a bit. Ok, maybe this isn't the miracle treatment we've all been waiting for, but maybe it is, and shouldn't there be more hype about this?

Are pharmaceutical companies -- evil, money-hungry, paradoxically both the saviours and enemies of the health industry -- denying us magentic treatment, which could save millions, because they can't make a profit on it? What do you think?

It's one of the major setbacks of capitalism: people stand to make a buck off of everything, even medicine that can save the life of many. So when it comes to Cancer, it's no secret that the drugs and treatments are expensive -- and someone is definitely making money off of it. But before you get your hate on for drug companies, consider this: it takes years--decades, even--to do the proper research on a drug before it can get approved for the market. Drug companies need to make up for those years of not making a profit off of the drug, and they do so by making the market price so high.

Still, isn't there some way to find a middle ground, where the cost of saving a life doesn't have to ruin anyone financially?

International pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca is donating $10 million to the American Cancer Society (ACS). The donation is one of the largest gifts ever received by the ACS and will help provide support for patients in United States hospitals.

Support will come in the form of specially-trained ACS employees who will work in 60 different hospitals and cancer centers and will offer social, emotional, financial, and transportation assistance in medically underserved Atlanta areas.

London-based AstraZeneca, maker of breast cancer drug tamoxifen and other breast and prostate cancer drugs, made $26 billion in sales last year, the same year the company gave $7 million to a Boston Cancer Society for the development of a Hope Lodge.

Deep within the pages of ancient texts detailing the remedies used by Chinese medicine practitioners, is there a cure for cancer waiting to be rediscovered? The global pharmaceutical company Merck thinks there might be a reference or two to natural cancer-fighting products used by healers then that is obscurely hidden and not known now in modern western medicine.

Merck has entered into a deal with Hong Kong's Chi-Med to look for evidence of promising products that the pharmaceutical company can research and test in clinical trials. According to the article Merck looks for ancient Chinese cancer cure written by Susie Mesure, "Western pharmaceutical companies are increasingly outsourcing their drug discovery work, with many looking east for the solution to medical mysteries that Western doctors cannot solve."

Traditional Chinese Medicine, TCM, is a practice of medicine that combines medicinal herbs, nutrition, meditation, massage, exercise and acupuncture with an applied philosophy in the harmonious balance of yin and yang for treating illness. In all fairness, because this system of medicine has developed over thousands of years, and my understanding limited by Western educational influence, the definition I have given is a very brief, and possibly incomplete, overview of TCM. If you are interested in learning more about TCM, begin by visiting Traditional Chinese Medicine at Wikipedia.

Chi-Med will be scanning information in a library of 10,000 natural substances for those that might hold potential in a cure for cancer. It will be interesting what they find.

In an interview with the Globe, We're on the way to making cancer a chronic but tolerable disease, one of the leading oncology experts in the US, John Hopkins Medical Institution cancer researcher David Sidransky, states that we are undergoing a profound change in the way cancer is thought of -- from a deadly disease to a chronic one that will be treated much the same as diabetes or heart disease is currently managed.

With individualized treatments and new drugs, Dr Sidransky predicts that chemotherapy dosages can be reduced and in some cases, not needed as a part of cancer treatment. When asked what he thought chemotherapy drug manufacturers reaction to this might be, he explained that patents on most chemotherapy drugs have already expired, and these companies are working on the next generation of cancer treatments -- such as drugs to manipulate the immune system.

Most of the interview focus is on business and the development of Israel's biotechnology industry, and it is a peek into the potential future of cancer treatments. The bottom line is cancer treatment is driven by the business of drug companies. Paying attention to what they are talking about and what direction they are headed gives us an idea what we can expect in new treatments.

I have been a cheerleader for the breast cancer drug Herceptin ever since I began receiving it. I had my initial worries -- about an allergic reaction that I knew caused death within 24 hours for a handful of women and about possible toxicity to the heart -- but after faring well through my first dose and having now successfully completed my one year obligation to the drug, with no allergic reaction or heart damage, I have come to believe the Herceptin might just be the gem of a drug that the media says it is. Yet now I've read an article that makes me question what I really know about Herceptin -- and the studies that surround it and the statistics that back it and the messages sent out over the lines of mass communication to every day, non-medical people like me.

In USA Today, Prices soar for cancer drugs, are some disturbingly stunning and eye-opening facts regarding the current cost of cancer drugs and an examination of where the costs might be headed. For example, Avastin, a newer drug used to treat colorectal cancer, costs about $50,000 dollars a year in treatment. That price is expected to go to $100,000 dollars a year if Avastin is approved to treat breast and lung cancers. It would be an understatement to say cancer patients and insurance companies are concerned. It's an uneasy feeling.

Some cancer drugs can cost $10,000 dollars a month for a single drug. The average monthly cost for a prescription cancer drug is estimated at $1,600 dollars. Without insurance, few could afford to buy life saving drugs and the consumer has to be sitting precariously perched at the mercy of insurance companies to keep funding the medicine. I think it would be safe to say that any cancer patient among the 45 million uninsured Americans is going without much-needed  medications if they have to come up with the money to buy the drugs. At these prices it is not possible.

"These costs are out of control," says Fran Visco, president of the National Breast Cancer Coalition, which is planning a conference focused on drug costs in the fall. "We can't allow it to continue." Who is going to stop the drug companies from charging what they want?

"It's really exploiting the desperation of people with a life-threatening illness," says Marcia Angell, former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.

I just posted about quacks who exploit the desperation of cancer patients. While I do not equate drug companies with that jailed quack specifically, there seem to be more bad guys than the obvious scoundrels who prey on vulnerability. I don't have the answers but I am pessimistic about how this turns out for the cancer patient. I have yet to see anything in our society fall in price. I don't begrudge a business of profit -- but this is starting to look like a free-for-all and forget who might be hurt along the way.  What do you think?

NeedyMeds is a pharmaceutical prescription assistance programs resource guide for people who need help with the cost of medicine and other healthcare expenses. Founded in 1997 by a physician and home health social worker, NeedyMeds is an established and comprehensive online patient assistance programs database featuring over 350 different companies and programs offering more than 2600 different drugs and describes 200 state programs for low-income patients who might not be able to afford medications.

According to NeedyMeds, the website, which now averages 6,500 visitors each day and will soon reach a hallmark of seven million visitors in total, continues to add new programs such as Assistance for Specific Diseases and Conditions, Application Assistance, State Sponsored Programs and Medicaid Sites.

I cannot personally vouch for NeedyMeds, as I have not used them as a resource, but I am always on the look out for resources that might be of benefit to our readers. If you are in need of assistance in affording your medications, visit the NeedyMeds online guide and database. If you do use them, come back and let us know your experiences with NeedyMeds.

Cancer, regardless of the type, is the result of two occurrences:

• Mutations of our genetic material (DNA and RNA).
• Failure of our immune system to detect and destroy the resulting genetic mutation.
  

Everyone has thousands of pre-cancerous cells occurring all the time. In most people, their immune systems are healthy enough to detect and destroy these before they grow into cancer. The cancer patient's immune system is not doing this job properly. The latest research tells us that when levels of one or more of the eight necessary glyconutrients (mannose, fucose, xylose, glucose, galactose, n-acetyl-neuramic acid, n-acetyl-glucosamine, and n-acetyl-glalactosamine) become low, cancer can result.

For example, abnormal mannose and N-acetylglucosamine sugars have been found in breast and colon cancer cells.  In addition, a lack of these glyconutrients have been linked to the spread of cancer cells throughout the body.  What we now know is that we are all deficient in dietary glyconutrients today, thus opening us up to cancer, and other diseases.

• Glyconutrients stimulate macrophage and immune killer cells to destroy cancer (this is the first line of defense).
• They increase the production of substances like interferon to target and destroy malignant cells.
• They activate T-cells to recognize invaders and destroy them (second line of defense).
• They help to regulate when cells die off (apoptosis). When this safety mechanism fails, cancer cells are allowed to keep replicating.
  

There are some top oncologists who are using glyconutrients in their daily practice -- insisting that their patients get on these life-changing supplements.  The discovery of glyconutrients and how cells communicate just occurred a few years ago, long after your doctor left medical school.  Unfortunately, glyconutrients are not in the educational program by pharmaceutical companies presented to your doctor because they are natural supplements, not drugs.  The American Medical Association, AMA, has sanctioned continuing medical education seminars so doctors can begin learning this vital new information. The AMA have never sanctioned seminars for any natural supplement technology before -- that's how important the medical community believes glyconutrients to be.