• The Most Promising Weapons Against Pancreatic Cancer Were Never Ordered For Steve Jobs

    Posted October 10, 2011: by Bill Sardi

    The e-mails, telephone calls and personal inquiries were continuous. Since 2004 when Steve Jobs was first diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, so many people, knowing the dire prognosis of this form of cancer (97% succumb within 2 years of diagnosis), and knowing I had written a 500-page book about cancer, asked if I would write to Mr. Jobs about promising alternative therapies.

    Finally, after so many inquiries (a couple from Apple employees), I relented and wrote a letter and sent it to his office at Apple and suggested he consult with his doctors about well-referenced natural remedies, while still unproven, were the most promising.

    Doctors kept Mr. Jobs alive for 7 years with chemotherapy and finally a liver transplant. But the immune-stunting drugs employed to avoid organ rejection did him in say news reports. Mr. Jobs had some quality of life to the end, saying his goodbyes and staying on as the visible leader of Apple till his end.

    Mr. Jobs suffered with a less common for of pancreatic cancer called neuroendocrine tumor which is generally more curable. One doctor, quoted in Time Magazine, said: “I’m sorry to see him affected by this; it only redoubles my resolve to improve on the treatments we have.”

    What, more radiation, stronger more toxic chemotherapy? That has been modern medicine’s answer to its failed attempts to cure cancer. And while there is toxic treatment, there is no prevention and no therapy to address the spread of cancer which is the mortal form of the disease.

    Why use treatments that have already been disproven at all? Why do cancer doctors treat patients with failed therapies that put the patients in agony and maybe prolong their lives a couple of months? Chemotherapy cannot possibly work as it inevitably induces drug resistance and destroys the immune system that fends off tumors. Radiation treatment kills tumor cells but causes a latent sloughing off of dead cells that drowns people in their own fluids when lungs and throat areas are treated. Surgery downsizes the tumor, but even if a 1-millimeter ball of tumor cells remains, that represents 10 million malignant cells. None of the modern treatments for cancer address its cause. Modern cancer therapy is an exercise in billing insurance companies.

    Is the next generation of pancreatic cancer treatments on the drawing board already? Yes, and surprisingly the most promising molecules aren’t coming out of pharmaceutical laboratories but rather from nature.

    The most promising molecule against cancer is resveratrol (rez-vair-ah-trol), a red wine molecule that was initially heralded as an anti-aging agent. Resveratrol inhibits pancreatic tumor cell growth.

    Tumor cells are normally immortal– they don’t die off as do normal cells. Resveratrol induces pancreatic tumor cells to die off (what is called apoptosis). Resveratrol inhibits stem cells from becoming pancreatic tumor cells. Resveratrol makes pancreatic tumor cells less resistant to chemotherapy. Researchers lament that no human clinical trials have commenced to use resveratrol for pancreatic cancer.

    But resveratrol is a dietary supplement, not a drug, and patients could use it on their own, without their doctor’s prescription, if they had the gumption. Why aren’t oncologists prescribing resveratrol on a compassionate basis for otherwise terminal patients when all other avenues of treatment have been exhausted?

    You can add IP6, a molecule found in bran, to the list of most-promising anti-pancreatic cancer agents. IP6 is considered a novel and non-toxic treatment for pancreatic cancer.

    There is also strong evidence that pancreatic cancer patients live longer if they have higher vitamin D levels. In fact, pancreatic cancer is less prevalent in sunnier areas of the globe. There is a reduced risk of ever developing pancreatic cancer is vitamin D blood levels are high.

    None of these natural molecules were likely to have been used by Mr. Jobs. Modern medicine looks down its nose at these natural remedies even though there is abundant science to substantiate their use.

    Mr. Jobs is gone and we may never know if these natural molecules will prevent, treat or cure pancreatic cancer. Bill Sardi, Knowledge of Health, Inc. October 9, 2011

    Posted in Cancer, Dietary Supplements, Modern Medicine ; No Comments »

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.