Re: Any successful alternative treatments to chemotherapy?

[Guest guest]

Dear ,I am sorry to hear about your nephew, but I think chemotherapy is his only option. As horrible as chemo is, it works, at least in the majority of cases. And cancer is worse. That said, my husband and I found it very helpful when our son Zachary was diagnosed with AML to get a second opinion, and ended up with a slightly different treatment plan as a result.If you'd like, you can read about Zach at https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/zacharyleonwallace.All best wishes, sonAssociate Professor of English and Graduate Literature CoordinatorSan Francisco State University, Humanities 5371600 Holloway AvenueSan Francisco, CA 94132(415) 338-3107 On Feb 10, 2009, at 8:55 AM, Tuten wrote:This past weekend my nephew was diagnosed with leukemia and the Doctors want to begin chemo. Are you guys aware of any alternatives? Please help!

[Guest guest]

No, there are no reliable alternatives, and chemo is highly successful. Do you know if he has ALL or AML? Either way, there is a roughly 80% success rate for your nephew, maybe more or less depending on type and risk factors, but generally that is about the success rate. My son had chemo for leukemia. Of course, it was a rough road. It also saved his life. He is two years off treatment now and all I'm worried about today is his respiratory infection. Unfortunately, anytime I've heard of someone seeking herbal, organic etc. stuff instead of treatment, that has resulted in the child's death.

I know it sounds hard, but take one day at a time. If you visit www.acor.org, I believe, you'll find online support groups, and there's one for ALL and one for AML. I was on the ALL loop and it was very, very helpful.

I'm so sorry your nephew and your family face this. But take one day at a time. He can get through this.

Beth

[ ] Any successful alternative treatments to chemotherapy?

This past weekend my nephew was diagnosed with leukemia and the Doctors want to begin chemo. Are you guys aware of any alternatives? Please help!

[Guest guest]

Well, there is an alternative, but you don't want to go there .. and it

involves even more chemotherapy.

The alternative is a bone marrow (really stem cell) transplant and it is

ONLY used as a last resort. The process is pretty simple. You need a

matching donor (really difficult unless there is a sibling who matches

... a one in four chance). They get the donor to express stem cells from

the marrow into the bloodstream and then in a six hour or so session

take blood out of one arm, run it through a blood cell separator to

gather the stem cells, and return the rest to the donor. Relatively

easy for the donor!

The transplant involves chemo to destroy the entire blood system of the

leukemia patient and then injecting some millions of stem cells from the

donor. The patient lives on transfusions until the stem cells set up a

new home in the marrow and start producing red and white cells as well

as the other parts of the blood system. The patient is incredibly

immuno-compromised and the new cells are foreign and may fight in a

host/graft disease which is handled by medications that reduce the

immune system even further. It is a Most Miserable Experience .. if you

survive and survival rates are equivalent to playing Russian roulette

.... twice!!! ... or about 66% survival. That is survival .. not a

guarantee of quality of life.

This is generally reserved for patients where leukemia has returned

after remission and who have essentially no other route to survival.

That said, my daughter fell out or remission from AML at 35 and was

fortunate to have a matching brother. She had the transplant and it was

months of seeing her slowly fail .. until she turned around. Today at

36, she is in excellent health, usually hiking six or more miles on

hilly park trails on the weekends. She is living in her own apartment

(with a few hours of life skills help each week). She works three days

a week helping people more handicapped and has learned and used ASL to

communicate with those who with hearing among their disabilities. Last

fall she received a very nice recognition as one of the outstanding

people with developmental disability in our 4 county area.

We say she's cured and sometimes kid her about having boy blood .. but

we know that cured is " for now " .

Chemo at its worst was much easier.

Rick ... dad to 36 year old Jan .. who does happen to have down syndrome