About Cancer Treatment
March 12, 2021
About Cancer Treatment
The National Cancer Center has compiled the findings of epidemiological surveys and various studies on Japanese people into the “New 12 Articles for Preventing Cancer”.
The 12th article, “Start by learning about cancer with correct cancer information”, is an important point that cannot be stressed enough.
If what is reported in the media about celebrities who have died of cancer is true, I often wonder why they did not get more correct information and treatment.
I’ve also heard that books by doctors who say that surgery is unnecessary for cancer are selling well. This is also a real pity. There is absolutely no such thing as no need for surgery for all cancers.
The number of people who get well without recurrence after having their cancer surgically removed is increasing rapidly. On the other hand, there are still people who refuse to undergo surgery and die.
How sad.
We should not trust the saying that we should do this for all cancers.
“This is because there are many different types of cancer”.
About cancer treatment methods
Cancer immunotherapy has been attracting a lot of attention lately, but some of these treatments have no evidence of effectiveness.
Some of them have no evidence of efficacy at all. Specialists can assure you that this kind of treatment cannot be effective, but if the website says that it has treated more than 7,000 cases, the largest number in Japan, the general public may trust it. This is also a very unfortunate reality.
However, there are some drugs that are indeed effective in immunotherapy for cancer. It is an immune checkpoint inhibitor called Opdivo (nivolumab).
It is not a drug that kills the cancer itself, but a drug that helps the body to understand that the cancer is sending out false information saying, ‘it’s not cancer,’ and that, ‘this is cancer‘. There is evidence that this drug has an efficacy rate of about 30%. There is no other drug that kills cancer that has an efficacy rate of 30%. Other drugs at most 10-20% effective, but they are still very effective.
The drugs currently covered by insurance are for malignant melanoma, advanced lung cancer, and stomach cancer. Insurance coverage is expected to expand further in the future. The problem is that it is very expensive. Still, it is better than nothing.
Also, I would like to recommend that you read the book “This is not the time to die! (Author: Naomi Okada ), which was released last year, if possible. It is a story about a physician specializing in cancer treatment who almost completely cured a terminal cancer patient by mobilizing all existing treatment methods.
The book is co-authored by the physician and his patient, and the subtitle says, “How I was cured” and “How I can be cured” from a cancer survival rate of 0%, and it describes the exact process and reasons.
There was cancer, it recurred, it metastasized…
Each stage was treated in a different way. He was given special radiation therapy for lymph node metastasis, and chemotherapy for cancer scattered all over the body.
As a result, a patient who was in the terminal stage of cancer has now been cancer-free for about three and a half years.
Many people give up when their cancer metastasizes, but I know that it is very important to consult a specialist and not give up until the end.
Depending on the site of the cancer, the nature of the cancer, and the individual patient, the same therapy may or may not work.
Therefore, when you hear about a drug or treatment that works for all cancers, it is important to carefully check whether there is really evidence.