It turns out that
chemotherapy damages healthy cells, causing them to secrete a protein that accelerates the growth of cancer tumors. (
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/chemotherapy-backfi...)
This protein, dubbed "WNT16B," is taken up by nearby cancer cells, causing them to "grow, invade, and importantly, resist subsequent therapy," said Peter Nelson of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. He's the co-author of the study that documented this phenomenon, published in
Nature Medicine.
This protein, it turns out, explains why cancer tumors grow more aggressively following chemotherapy treatments. In essence,
chemotherapy turns healthy cells into WNT16B factories which churn out this "activator" chemical that accelerates cancer tumor growth.
The findings of the study were confirmed with prostate cancer, breast cancer and ovarian cancer tumors. This discovery that chemotherapy backfires by accelerating cancer tumor growth is being characterized as "completely unexpected" by scientists.
German scientists working for the U.S. knew "mustard" chemo brought only temporary tumor remission, and if ingestion of toxins continued, cancer returned with a vengeance.
Sulfur mustard is a vesicant, meaning it destroys mucous membranes. High doses cause nausea, vomiting, and respiratory failure. This volatile poison prevents the normal sequence of DNA replication, depleting the lining of the gastrointestinal tract and causing massive loss of bone marrow. In simple terms, sulfur mustard is basically the "egg" from which chemo has hatched. During WWII, Dwight D.

Eisenhower stockpiled 100 tons of mustard gas on the S.S. John Harvey when it was stationed in Italy's Harbor, but the Nazi airstrikes destroyed it.
Survivors died soon thereafter, and autopsies revealed they suffered from profound lymphopenia, as well as suppression of myeloid cell lines, which brings us to the grim chemotherapy facts.
Chemotherapy kills white blood cells, which are necessary for the immune system to fight off infection.
During World War I and World War II, mustard gas was used as a chemical warfare agent. Soldiers exposed to the gas developed changes in their blood, and the physicians treating them speculated that mustard gas was a substance that might also be used to treat cancer.
http://grandan.blogspot.com/2012/06/chemotherapy-drugs-are-derived-from.html
Mustard gas, more properly called nitrogen mustard, is an extremely toxic substance. Created by the Germans in World War I, it has been called the most effective chemical used in that war. If respirators were not worn, the death rate was about 50 percent. Any part of the body exposed to it will suffer, from burns on the skin to severe irritation of the lung tissues if the gas is inhaled.
Nitrogen Mustard and Chemotherapy
some drugs derived from nitrogen mustard are still used in chemotherapy today. They are usually used in combination with other chemotherapy drugs. Mustargen, mustine and mechlorethamine hydrochloride are all forms of nitrogen mustard. These medications are injected into the veins for lymphomas and cancers, and also used as a lotion for skin lesions of one type of lymphoma. Nitrogen mustard preparations are used in the treatment of Hodgkin's disease, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and as palliative chemotherapy in lung and breast cancers. Palliative chemotherapy is not a cure, but is used to shrink tumors Development of the first chemotherapy drug
As early as 1919 it was known that mustard gas was a suppressor of
hematopoiesis.
[30] In addition, autopsies performed on 75 soldiers who had died of mustard gas during
World War I were done by researchers from the
University of Pennsylvania who reported decreased counts of
white blood cells.
[26] This led the American Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) to finance the biology and chemistry departments at
Yale University to conduct research on the use of chemical warfare during World War II.
[26] [31] As a part of this effort, the group investigated
nitrogen mustard as a therapy for
Hodgkin's lymphoma and other types of
lymphoma and
leukemia, and this compound was tried out on its first human patient in December 1942. The results of this study were not published until 1946, when they were declassified.
[31] In a parallel track, after the
air raid on Bari in December 1943, the doctors of the U.S. Army noted that white blood cell counts were reduced in their patients. Some years after World War II was over, the incident in Bari and the work of the Yale University group with nitrogen mustard converged, and this prompted a search for other similar
chemical compounds. Due to its use in previous studies, the nitrogen mustard called "HN2" became the first cancer
chemotherapy drug,
mustine, to be used.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur_mustardThe skin of victims of mustard gas blistered, the eyes became very sore and they began to vomit. Mustard gas caused internal and external bleeding and attacked the bronchial tubes, stripping off the mucous membrane. This was extremely painful and most soldiers had to be strapped to their beds. It usually took a person four or five weeks to die of mustard gas poisoning. One nurse, Vera Brittain, wrote: "I wish those people who talk about going on with this war whatever it costs could see the soldiers suffering from mustard gas poisoning. Great mustard-coloured blisters, blind eyes, all sticky and stuck together, always fighting for breath, with voices a mere whisper, saying that their throats are closing and they know they will choke." http://www.stopcancer.com/chemo/mustard_gas.htm
Chemotherapy
is a general term describing any treatment that involves
the use of a “chemical” agent (drug) to stop cancer cells from proliferating. Believe it or not, the first agent used in chemotherapy was the
biochemical warfare agent known as mustard gas.
The toxic mix of chemotherapy drugs usually fall into one of three classes—
anthracyclines, taxanes, or platinum-based drugs. In one way or another,
these drugs attempt to target and quickly destroy dividing cancer cells.
But the drugs’ overt failure to make a dent in the war on cancer elucidates
their flaws, as do their biological actions.
The anthracyclines are technically antibiotics, but they are so toxic
that they were never approved for that use. They work by overloading the
cells with oxygen-free radicals, thereby damaging DNA and future repli
-
cation. But they also attack healthy cells, especially those within the heart.
Doctors contributing to the
New England Journal of Medicine
showed
that up to 57 percent of children receiving anthracyclines suffered from
cardiotoxicity, sometimes resulting in heart failure later in life.
111
The
researchers stated that “avoiding anthracyclines would be an option” for
avoiding the toxic outcome. Research by Dennis Slamon, MD, PhD, chief
of oncology at the University of California, Los Angeles, has led him to
insist that these drugs no longer be used in the fight against cancer.
112
In most treatment protocols for childhood cancer, anthracyclines are
still being introduced without data from randomized, controlled trials
that would support their use. The same is true for the use of the drugs
on adults.
Taxanes destroy the structural component of cells that are responsible
for dividing. These components are known technically as microtubules.
Since all cells—cancer or otherwise—have these, taxane destruction
is unselective. Just as cancer cells are destroyed by the drugs, so are
healthy ones.
Platinum-based drugs like cisplatin chop DNA into tiny pieces,
preventing cellular information from being passed to the next generation of cells. Like mustard gas, the drugs attack healthy cells as well as
cancerous ones, causing humiliating and deadly side effects. For instance,
L
145
cisplatin acts as a cog in the wheel of our DNA repair system. That causes
our genetic information to be split, leading to cell death. This would be
great if it occurred only among cancerous cells. But it doesn’t. The chem
-
ical cog goes after anything that contains DNA, and that means healthy
cells get the monkey wrench, too.
But even more ghastly than being nonselective, today’s chemotherapy
drugs can elicit cancer among healthy cells not yet affected by a patient’s
cancer. Leukemia and other forms of cancer show up years or even
decades after chemo treatments. This is hard to swallow, but even harder
when you’re a drug chemist learning that the same is true for today’s
bestselling chemotherapy drug, tamoxifen.
TAMOXIFEN SECRETS UNCOVERED
Long white lab coat, giant safety goggles, rubber gloves, and face mask
were my usual chemist attire when I worked for Big Pharma. I rarely got
to sport my baggy jeans, tight T-shirt and black leather wristband. The
chemicals I was dealing with were simply too hazardous and required
that I wear as much protection as possible. Having them penetrate my
protective layers could mean bad news internally. I was designing and
making chemical cousins of tamoxifen.
Tamoxifen is known commercially as Nolvadex. It’s the gold standard
in chemotherapy for breast cancer. But what a drug does biologically and
what a drug does according to pharmaceutical advertising are often two
distinctly different things.
To my surprise, I learned that the tamoxifen cash cow wasn’t
performing like the industry wanted. Patients who took it were dying
from cancer at a much faster rate than without it. As a medicinal chemist,
my job was to fix the “little cancer problem of tamoxifen.”
Initially, tamoxifen was thought to stop cancer by displacing estrogen
one of the hormones that helped it grow. As time progressed, though,
researchers learned that tamoxifen acted just like the cancer fertilizer
by mimicking estrogen. The end result was a biochemical environment
favorable to cancer growth among users of tamoxifen. My task was made
clear: design “knockoffs” that are effective (at blocking estrogen) without
causing cancer.
My attempt to design safer tamoxifen alternatives was unsuccessful.
And after one year, the project was ended. However, access to tamoxifen
wasn’t. It remained on the market. Even today, it’s advertised and pushed
by doctors as a first line of defense against breast cancer. But science and
anyone who’s been unfortunate enough to take tamoxifen can tell you that
this isn’t something you want to swallow in an attempt to beat cancer.
The National Cancer Institute has recently begun to warn that “tamox
-ifen increases the risk of two types of cancer that can develop in the uterus:
endometrial cancer, which arises in the lining of the uterus, and uterine
sarcoma, which arises in the muscular wall of the uterus. Like all cancers,
endometrial cancer and uterine sarcoma are potentially life-threatening.”
113
The risk of these types of cancers triples with the use of tamoxifen, while
other types—such as liver and breast cancer—are just as likely.
Tamoxifen is so potent that it has been listed as a cancer-causing
substance in the Department of Health and Human Services’
Report on
Carcinogens.
This report is a scientific and public health document first
ordered by Congress in 1978 to educate the public and health profes
-sionals about the many cancers induced by chemicals in the home, work
-place, general environment, and from the use of certain drugs!
114
This brings me to my third universal cancer truth:
tamoxifen is not
a safe option for women battling breast cancer.
But don’t expect this
failing drug—or any other chemotherapy agents—to be pulled from
the gas–like toxicity, chemotherapy drugs
http://www.laymondesigns.com/realhealthhope/over_the_counter_natural_cures_sample_chapter.pdfmarket. Despite their mustard
Lung damage: The chemo drug bleomycin can damage the lungs, as can radiation therapy to the chest. This can lead to problems such as shortness of breath, which might not show up until years after treatment. Smoking can also seriously damage the lungs, so it’s important that people who have had these treatments do not smoke.
“All major cancer centers now have informed consent to alert patients to the immediate and long-term consequences of chemo,” Dr. Stan Gerson, director of the UH Seidman Cancer Center in Cleveland, told
FoxNews.com. “Hardly any of these medicines are benign. The intensity and complexity of side effects both have to do with the age of the patient, and whether there are sequential treatments. It’s a complex test to foretell what they’re [going to experience].”
One of the most serious concerns for cancer patients post-chemotherapy is the possibility of a second malignancy. Although the likelihood of this happening is relatively low, both chemotherapy and radiation therapy are particularly toxic to cells in the bone marrow, increasing a patient’s risk for leukemia, a type of blood cancer that originates in the marrow.
The heart and cardiovascular system are also greatly affected by radiation and chemotherapy medications, especially by a class of drugs called anthracycline. It’s not uncommon for many cancer survivors to experience heart problems, such as swelling of the heart muscle, heart disease and congestive heart failure. Additionally, chemotherapy can cause long-term lung damage, leading to thickening of the lungs’ lining, inflammation and difficulty breathing.
Perhaps the most common side effect of chemotherapy is suppression of the body’s immune system. If suppressed for an extended period of time, the lowered immune system can give rise to many secondary infections throughout the course of cancer survivor’s life. In addition, chemotherapy can leave its mark on the nervous system, causing pain or weakness in the nerves of a person’s fingers and toes.
Although most of chemotherapy’s side effects have been well established and are usually very treatable, physicians have recently become concerned with a new concept called “chemo brain.” For many years, patients undergoing treatments have noted changes in their cognitive abilities, experiencing something of a “mental fog” and forgetfulness.
Now, a recent study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology has revealed that these effects aren’t necessarily all in patients’ heads. Researchers conducted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of 18 breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy treatments, which showed decreased brain activation during the period the drugs were administered.
Researchers with the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Comprehensive Cancer Center and UAB Department of Chemistry have just been awarded a $805,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program to see if the answer to those questions is "yes".
The study is investigating the very real possibility that dead cancer cells left over after chemotherapy spark cancer to spread to other parts of the body."What if by killing cancer cells with chemotherapy we inadvertently induce DNA structures that make surviving cancers cells more invasive? The idea is tough to stomach," Katri Selander, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor in the UAB Division of Hematology and Oncology and co-principal researcher on the grant, said in a statement to the media. "Fundamentally this question must be answered to advance the knowledge base and to know all the risks and benefits of cancer treatment. This research has the potential to reach across numerous scientific disciplines, and may one day improve the lives of patients worldwide."
The UAB scientists are concentrating on inactivated or altered genetic material (DNA) left in the body after breast-cancer cells are exposed to chemotherapy. The research team stated that the resulting altered DNA could be the deadly factor that sparks the dreaded process of metastasis through a specific molecular pathway. Finding out whether chemotherapy could cause cancer spread is hugely important to the field of oncology because metastasis is the number one cause of cancer recurrence and treatment failure.
Dead cancer cells have been found to activate a pathway in the body mediated as a protein dubbed
toll-like receptor 9, or TLR9, that is present in the immune system and in many kinds of cancer. "If TLR9 boosts metastasis, then researchers will work on finding targeted therapies that block or regulate this molecular pathway," Dr. Selander stated.
For more information:http://main.uab.edu/Sites/MediaRela...http://www.naturalnews.com/chemothe...
Research using polls and questionnaires continue to show that 3 of every 4 doctors and scientists would refuse chemotherapy for themselves due to its devastating effects on the entire body and the immune system, and because of its extremely low success rate. On top of that, only 2 to 4% of all cancers even respond to chemotherapy or prove to be "life extending," yet it is prescribed across the board for just about every kind of cancer.Polls were taken by accomplished scientists at the McGill Cancer Center from 118 doctors who are all experts on cancer. They asked the doctors to imagine they had cancer and to choose from six different "experimental" therapies. These doctors not only denied chemo choices, but they said they wouldn't allow their family members to go through the process either! What does that say about their true opinion of this archaic method?
Learn more:
http://www.naturalnews.com/036054_chemotherapy_physicians_toxicity.html#ixzz3IVCZgNf7Therefore, the pharmaceutical industry fights the eradication of any disease at all costs.
The pharmaceutical industry itself is the main obstacle, why today’s most widespread diseases are further expanding, including heart attacks, strokes, cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes, osteoporosis and many others. Pharmaceutical drugs are not intended to cure diseases. According to health insurers, over 24,000 pharmaceutical drugs are currently marketed and prescribed without any proven therapeutic value. (AOK Magazine, 4/98)
“According to medical doctors’ associations, the known dangerous side-effects of pharmaceutical drugs have become the fourth leading cause of death after heart attacks, cancer and strokes. (Journal of the American Medical Association, April 15, 1998)
“Millions of people and patients around the world are defrauded twice. A major portion of their income is used up to finance the exploding profits of the pharmaceutical industry. In return, they are offered a medicine that does not even cure.”
Writing in the UK Guardian on February 7, 2002, senior health editor Sarah Bosely reported:
“Scientists are accepting large sums of money from drug companies to put their names to articles, endorsing new medicines, that they have not written— a growing practice that some fear is putting scientific integrity in jeopardy.” 12a
These supposed guardians of our health are being paid what to say. Said one physician in the article:
“What day is it today? I’m just working out what drug I’m supporting today.”
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_cancertreatment.htm
How Effective is Chemotherapy?
The following table was published in the journal Clinical Oncology in December 2004. The results of this study were astonishing, showing that chemotherapy has an average 5-year survival success rate of just over 2 percent for ALL cancers!
In the U.S., chemo was most successful in treating testicular cancer and Hodgkin’s disease, where its success rate fell just below 38 percent and slightly over 40 percent respectively. Still well below the 50/50 mark.
A review of chemo on 5-year survival rates in Australia garnered almost identical results, with a 2.3 percent success rate, compared to the U.S. 2.1 percent rate of success.
And this is the best that conventional medicine has to offer for treating this widespread killer.
We pride ourselves in America for being technologically advanced and that our technology is rooted in a foundation of good science.
Wrong. When it comes to medicine, little at all is based upon science. Again we shall point to the Office of Technological Assessment’s paper:
Assessing the Efficacy and Safety of Medical Technologies in which we are told that fewer than 20% of all medical procedures have been tested, and that of those tested, half were tested badly.
Medicine in America is not about healing.
When you are diagnosed with cancer, you are suddenly worth $300,000.00 to the cancer industry.
Most telling, according to Ralph Moss in his book
Questioning Chemotherapy, is that in a good number of surveys, chemotherapists have responded that they would neither recommend chemotherapy for their families nor would they use it themselves. One of our advisors, Dr Dan Harper, reported to us about an unpublished cohort study in which it was revealed that only 9% of oncologists took chemotherapy for their cancers.
Let’s hear from a couple of physicians and doctors who have not yet succumb to the heavy hand of the cancer industry:
"...as a chemist trained to interpret data, it is incomprehensible to me that physicians can ignore the clear evidence that chemotherapy does much, much more harm than good." - Alan C Nixon, PhD, former president of the American Chemical Society.
Walter Last, writing in The Ecologist, reported recently: “After analysing cancer survival statistics for several decades, Dr Hardin Jones, Professor at the University of California, concluded “...patients are as well, or better off untreated." Jones’ disturbing assessment has never been refuted.
Professor Charles Mathe declared: “If I contracted cancer, I would never go to a standard cancer treatment centre. Cancer victims who live far from such centres have a chance.”
“Many medical oncologists recommend chemotherapy for virtually any tumor, with a hopefulness undiscouraged by almost invariable failure,” Albert Braverman MD 1991
Lancet 1991 337 p901 “Medical Oncology in the 90s.
“Most cancer patients in this country die of chemotherapy. Chemotherapy does not eliminate breast, colon, or lung cancers. This fact has been documented for over a decade, yet doctors still use chemotherapy for these tumors,” Allen Levin, MD UCSF The Healing of Cancer.
“Despite widespread use of chemotherapies, breast cancer mortality has not changed in the last 70 years,” Thomas Dao, MD
NEJM Mar
1975 292 p 707.
Additionally, Irwin Bross, a biostatistician for the National Cancer Institute, discovered that many cancers that are benign (though thought to be malignant) and will not metastasize until they are hit with chemotherapy. In other words, he's found that many people who've been diagnosed with metastatic cancer did not have metastatic cancer until they got their chemotherapy.
For many cancers, chemotherapy just does not improve your survival rate. Some of these are colorectal, gastric, pancreatic, bladder, breast, ovarian, cervical and corpus uteri, head and neck.
Knowing this, oncologists still recommend a regimen of chemotherapy.
Here are two stories we received from Frank Wiewel:
When President Reagan had his colon cancer successfully removed by surgery, his health was reported daily as he recovered. On his return to work, a spokesperson appeared, proclaimed him cured, and that was that.
However, very nearly every patient who undergoes surgery for colon cancer gets put on chemotherapy afterwards. Why not Present Reagan?
|
| ...and since a picture says more than a thousand words, here is a reduced-size rendering of the burning and scarring resulting of chemotherapy fluid spilling onto the unprotected hand. Does this picture make one feel safer to have such an extremely aggressive toxic chemical administered within one’s body via intravenous injection? Knowing that our outer skin is actually better protected against any impacts than our inner body? That is also why nurses administering chemotherapy have to wear protective gloves and follow the most stringent security measures in case of any accidental spills of chemotherapy beyond 5 cc, see High risks involved in accidental spillage of chemotherapy drugs.
|
|
There is no scientific evidence for chemotherapy being able to extend in any appreciable way the lives of patients suffering from the most common organic cancers, which accounts for 80% of all cancers? (Dr Ulrich Abel. 1990)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chemotherapy drugs are of benefit to at most 5% of cancer patients they are given to, but are routinely given to 50% of patients?
John Cairns of Harvard in Scientific American
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
75 % of oncologists, in one survey, said if they had cancer they would not participate in chemotherapy trials due to its "ineffectiveness and its unacceptable toxicity"?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grouped together, the average cancer patient has a 50/50 chance of living another 5 years; which are the same odds he or she had in 1971?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
With some cancers, notably liver, lung, pancreas, bone and advanced breast, our 5 year survival from traditional therapy alone is virtually the same as it was 30 years ago?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After $50 Billion spent on cancer research, the list of cancers responsive to chemotherapy is almost identical to what it was 25 years ago? Questioning Chemotherapy by Ralph Moss, p81
the War on Cancer is a failure with a death rate not lower but 6% higher in 1997 than 1970?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Did you know that one of the worlds leading nuclear medical scientist, John Gofman M.D.,Ph.D. found that past exposure to ionizing radiation, primarily medical x-rays (eg mammograms), is responsible for about 75 percent of the breast-cancer problem today? http://ratical.co./radiation/CNR?PBC/Overview.htm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Radiation therapy does not improve the survival of patients with breast cancer !
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Did you know that the mortality rate for breast cancer in women over 55 was about 20% higher in 1995 than in 1970 (so much for mammograms)? (Irwin D. Bross, Ph.D.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Did you know that two large studies found an increase in mortality of women (under 55) from breast cancer who were regularly screened with mammograms? http://whale.to/cancer/chemo112.html
What is clear is that mammography cannot prevent breast cancer or even the spread of breast cancer. By the time a tumor is large enough to be detected by mammography, it has been there as long as 12 years! It is therefore ridiculous to advertise mammography as ‘early detection’.
(McDougall, p. 114)
“The other unsupportable illusion is that mammograms prevent breast cancer, which they don’t. On the contrary, the painful compression of breast tissue during the procedure itself can increase the possibility of metastasis by as much as 80%! Dr McDougall notes that between 10% and 17% of the time, breast cancer is a self-limiting, non-life-threatening type called ‘ductal carcinoma in situ’. This harmless cancer can be made active by the compressive force of routine mammography.
(McDougall, p. 105)
“Most extensive studies show no increased survival rate from routine screening mammograms. After reviewing all available literature in the world on the subject, noted researchers Drs Wright and Mueller of the University of British Columbia recommended the withdrawal of public funding for mammography screening because the ‘benefit achieved is marginal, and the harm caused is substantial’.
(Lancet, July 1, 1995)
“The harm they’re referring to includes the constant worrying and emotional distress, as well as the tendency for unnecessary procedures and testing to be done, based on results which have a false positive rate as high as 50%.”
(New York Times, December 14, 1997) 13a
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_cancertreatment.htm
MAINSTREAM ADMITS SIDE-EFFECTS
CHEMO BRAIN
|
updated 11/9/2006 10:45:03 AM ET
Print Font:
WASHINGTON — Chemotherapy causes changes in the brain's metabolism and blood flow that can last as long as 10 years, a discovery that may explain the mental fog and confusion that affect many cancer survivors, researchers said on Thursday.
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The researchers, from the University of California, Los Angeles, found that women who had undergone chemotherapy five to 10 years earlier had lower metabolism in a key region of the frontal cortex.
Women treated with chemotherapy also showed a spike in blood flow to the frontal cortex and cerebellum while performing memory tests, indicating a rapid jump in activity level, the researchers said in a statement about their study.
"The same area of the frontal lobe that showed lower resting metabolism displayed a substantial leap in activity when the patients were performing the memory exercise," said Daniel Silverman, the UCLA associate professor who led the study.
"In effect, these women's brains were working harder than the control subjects' to recall the same information," he said in a statement.
Experts estimate at least 25 percent of chemotherapy patients are affected by symptoms of confusion, so-called chemo brain, and a recent study by the University of Minnesota reported an 82 percent rate, the statement said.
"People with 'chemo brain' often can't focus, remember things or multitask the way they did before chemotherapy," Silverman said. "Our study demonstrates for the first time that patients suffering from these cognitive symptoms have specific alterations in brain metabolism."
Advertise
The study, published on Thursday in the online edition of Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, tested 21 women who had surgery to remove breast tumors, 16 of whom had received chemotherapy and five who had not.
The researchers used positron emission tomography scans to compare the brain function of the women. They also compared the scans with those of 13 women who had not had breast cancer or chemotherapy.
Positron emission tomography creates an image of sections of the body using a special camera that follows the progress of an injected radioactive tracer.
Researchers used the scans to examine the women's resting brain metabolism as well as the blood flow to their brains as they did a short-term memory exercise.
Silverman said the findings suggested PET scans could be used to monitor the effects of chemotherapy on brain metabolism. Since the scans already are used to monitor patients for tumor response to therapy, the additional tests would be easy to add, he said.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, with some 211,000 new cases diagnosed each year, the statement said.
Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
14
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[?]
Chemo brain is a catch-all term for cognitive deficits following chemotherapy, a common cancer treatment where the body is treated with chemicals meant to kill fast-growing cells. People report short-term memory loss, difficulty retrieving information, problems switching from one task to another, and problems with attention.
Scientists believe that chemotherapy-induced memory loss may be attributable to damage to the hippocampus, a brain structure vital to memory, while injury to the frontal lobe can lead to problems with cognitive function and control. More than 70 percent of patients find these difficulties subside several months after treatment ends, but at least one-fourth of that group continues to have these problems five and even ten years later. Women who have been treated with chemotherapy for breast cancer are particularly susceptible.
Vulnerable brain cells
Researchers have investigated these issues for more than a decade. In 2006, research from a team led by Mark Noble, professor at the University of Rochester Medical Center, revealed the extent of the problem: common chemotherapy drugs used to treat breast, ovarian, and colon and rectal cancer, as well as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, were more toxic to multiple kinds of brain cells than the cancer cells themselves.
A later study by Noble’s team done in mice showed that another commonly used chemotherapeutic drug caused damage to oligodendrocytes, the cells that cover axons with myelin. Myelin helps expedite messaging among nerve cells, or neurons. When oligodendrocytes are damaged, myelin breaks down, disrupting communication among the nerve cells vital to brain functioning.
Crossing the barrier between brain and body
Another team from the University of Rochester Medical Center hypothesized the drugs that cause chemo brain are those best able to cross the blood-brain barrier, a network of blood vessels that prevents more than 95 percent of all chemicals from entering the brain from the bloodstream. They tested this hypothesis by giving one group of mice a standard dose of cyclophosphamide and fluorouracil, which do cross into the brain, and a second group paclitaxel and doxorubicin, which do not. Surprisingly, all four drugs resulted in the breakdown of brain cells. The largest reduction in brain cells came from paclitaxel and cyclophosphamide (36 and 31 percent, respectively). Fluorouracil and doxorubicin produced lower reductions (15 and 22 percent, respectively).
Robert Gross, a professor at the University of Rochester Medical Center and the study’s principal investigator, offered one possible explanation for these findings. “It could be that all of the chemo drugs cross into the brain after all, or that they act via peripheral mechanisms, such as inflammation, that could open up the blood-brain barrier.”
Understanding the full impact
What can be done to offset these problems? Promising animal research at the University of Rochester suggests that the growth factor IGF-1 may help. When administered to mice under certain conditions — before and after receiving a single or multiple-dose regimen of cyclophosphamide — IGF-1 seemed to increase the number of new brain cells, although it did appear to be more effective in the high-dose model.
“We’re still trying to understand the causes of chemo brain,” Gross said. “We plan to conduct additional studies to further test the impact of IGF-1 and other related interventions on the molecular and behavioral consequences of chemotherapy.”
Further Reading
Dietrich J, Han, R, Yang, Y, Mayer-Pröschel, M, and Noble, M. (2006). CNS progenitor cells and oligodendrocytes are targets of chemotherapeutic agents in vitro and in vivo. J. Biol. 5, e22.
Kesler S, Kent J, and O’Hara R.(2011). Prefrontal cortex and executive functioning impairments in primary breast cancer. Archives of Neurology 68: 1447-1453.
Scherling C, Collins B, MacKenzie J, Bielajew C, and Smith A. (2011). Pre-chemotherapy differences in visuospatial working memory in breast cancer patients compared to controls: An fMRI study. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 5:122.
Chemotherapy has long-term impact on brain function
10_05_2006. Chemotherapy causes changes in the brain's metabolism and blood flow that can last as long as 10 years, a discovery that may explain the mental fog and confusion that affect many cancer survivors, researchers said on Thursday. The researchers, from the University of California, Los Angeles, found that women who had undergone chemotherapy five to 10 years earlier had lower metabolism in a key region of the frontal cortex.
Women treated with chemotherapy also showed a spike in blood flow to the frontal cortex and cerebellum while performing memory tests, indicating a rapid jump in activity level, the researchers said in a statement about their study.
"The same area of the frontal lobe that showed lower resting metabolism displayed a substantial leap in activity when the patients were performing the memory exercise," said Daniel Silverman, the UCLA associate professor who led the study.
"In effect, these women's brains were working harder than the control subjects' to recall the same information," he said in a statement.
Experts estimate at least 25 percent of chemotherapy patients are affected by symptoms of confusion, so-called chemo brain, and a recent study by the University of Minnesota reported an 82 percent rate, the statement said.
"People with 'chemo brain' often can't focus, remember things or multitask the way they did before chemotherapy," Silverman said. "Our study demonstrates for the first time that patients suffering from these cognitive symptoms have specific alterations in brain metabolism."
The study, published on Thursday in the online edition of Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, tested 21 women who had surgery to remove breast tumors, 16 of whom had received chemotherapy and five who had not.
The researchers used positron emission tomography scans to compare the brain function of the women. They also compared the scans with those of 13 women who had not had breast cancer or chemotherapy.
Positron emission tomography creates an image of sections of the body using a special camera that follows the progress of an injected radioactive tracer.
Researchers used the scans to examine the women's resting brain metabolism as well as the blood flow to their brains as they did a short-term memory exercise.
Silverman said the findings suggested PET scans could be used to monitor the effects of chemotherapy on brain metabolism. Since the scans already are used to monitor patients for tumor response to therapy, the additional tests would be easy to add, he said.
Acute and late onset cognitive dysfunction associated with chemotherapy in women with breast cancer
The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Section of Neuropsychology, Department of Neuro-Oncology, Houston, Texas
Growing evidence supports cognitive dysfunction associated with standard dose chemotherapy in breast cancer survivors. We determined the incidence, nature, and chronicity of cognitive dysfunction in a prospective longitudinal randomized phase 3 treatment trial for patients with T1-3, N0-1, M0 breast cancer receiving 5-fluorouracil, doxorubicin, and cyclophosphamide with or without paclitaxel.
Forty-two patients underwent a neuropsychological evaluation including measures of cognition, mood, and quality of life. Patients were scheduled to be assessed before chemotherapy, during and shortly after chemotherapy, and 1 year after completion of chemotherapy.
Before chemotherapy, 21% (9 of 42) evidenced cognitive dysfunction. In the acute interval, 65% (24 of 37) demonstrated cognitive decline. At the long-term evaluation, 61% (17 of 28) evidenced cognitive decline after cessation of treatment. Within this group of patients, 71% (12 of 17) evidenced continuous decline from the acute interval, and, notably, 29% (5 of 17) evidenced new delayed cognitive decline. Cognitive decline was most common in the domains of learning and memory, executive function, and processing speed. Cognitive decline was not associated with mood or other measured clinical or demographic characteristics, but late decline may be associated with baseline level of performance.
CONCLUSIONS:
Standard dose systemic chemotherapy is associated with decline in cognitive function during and shortly after completion of chemotherapy. In addition, delayed cognitive dysfunction occurred in a large proportion of patients. These findings are consistent with a developing body of translational animal research demonstrating both acute and delayed structural brain changes as well as functional changes associated with common chemotherapeutic agents such as 5-flouorouracil. Cancer 2010. © 2010 American Cancer Society.
Neurocognitive performance in breast cancer survivors exposed to adjuvant chemotherapy and tamoxifen. Castellon SA, J Clin Exp Neuropsychol. 2004 Oct;26(7):955-69. Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
scastell@ucla.edu
The primary aim of the current study was to examine whether neurocognitive functioning among breast cancer survivors (BCS) exposed to systemic adjuvant chemotherapy differs from that seen among BCS who did not receive chemotherapy. The performance of each of these BCS groups was compared to a demographically matched comparison group without history of breast cancer, a group not included in the majority of previous cognitive functioning studies. We also sought to explore whether usage of the anti-estrogen drug tamoxifen, a common component of breast cancer treatment, was related to neurocognitive functioning. Finally, we wished to examine the relationship between subjective report of cognitive functioning and objective performance on neurocognitive measures among BCS. Fifty-three survivors of breast cancer (all between 2-5 years after diagnosis and initial surgical removal of cancerous tissue) and 19 healthy non-BCS comparison subjects were administered a comprehensive neurocognitive battery, and measures of mood, energy level, and self-reported cognitive functioning. Those BCS who received adjuvant chemotherapy performed significantly worse in the domains of verbal learning, visuospatial functioning, and visual memory than BCS treated with surgery only. Those who received both chemotherapy and tamoxifen showed the greatest compromise. Although patients who received chemotherapy (with and without tamoxifen) performed worse than those treated with surgery only on several domains, neither group was significantly different from demographically matched comparison subjects without a history of breast cancer. Finally, we found no relationship between subjective cognitive complaints and objective performance, although cognitive complaints were associated with measures of psychological distress and fatigue. We highlight ways in which these data converge with other recent studies to suggest that systemic chemotherapy, especially in combination with tamoxifen, can have adverse yet subtle effects on cognitive functioning.
Cognitive functioning after adjuvant chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy for early-stage breast carcinoma. Donovan. Cancer. 2005 Dec 1;104(11):
2499-507 Psychosocial and Palliative Care Program, Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Tampa, Florida 33612, USA.
BACKGROUND: Evidence suggests that women diagnosed with early-stage breast carcinoma may experience cognitive problems as a consequence of adjuvant chemotherapy treatment. The present study was conducted to examine whether there are differences in cognitive performance and cognitive complaints between women treated with and without chemotherapy for TNM Stage 0 to II breast carcinoma. METHODS: As part of a larger study on quality of life, women were recruited with newly diagnosed Stage 0 to II breast carcinoma scheduled to be treated with chemotherapy plus radiotherapy (n = 60) or radiotherapy only (n = 83). Six months after the completion of treatment, participants were administered a standard neuropsychologic battery to assess cognitive performance and a self-report measure to assess perceived cognitive problems. RESULTS: There were no statistically significant differences between women who received chemotherapy and those who did not with regard to their average performance on tests of episodic memory, attention, complex cognition, motor performance, or language. Likewise, there were no significant differences between the treatment groups in the prevalence of impairment in each of these cognitive domains. Women who underwent chemotherapy also did not report significantly more problems with cognitive functioning than women treated without chemotherapy. CONCLUSIONS: The findings failed to confirm previous reports suggesting adjuvant chemotherapy is associated with problems in cognitive functioning among women who receive treatment for Stage 0 to II breast carcinoma. Future research should use prospective longitudinal research designs incorporating appropriate comparison groups to further explore this issue.
Because cognitive complaints following cancer treatment have often been associated with anxiety and depressive symptoms, limiting confidence that "chemo brain" and similar difficulties reflect a cancer treatment toxicity, the researchers excluded women with serious depressive symptoms. They also took careful account of the cancer treatments used and whether or not menopause and hormonal changes could be influencing the cognitive complaints. A sample of age-matched healthy women who did not have breast cancer was used as a control group.
chemotherapy hurts your immune system by lowering the number of white blood cells produced in your body…”
Healthy cells can also be affected by chemotherapy, especially the rapidly dividing
cells of the skin, hair, lining of the stomach, intestines, the bladder, and the bone
marrow.
Blood-Related Side Effects
One of the most important side effects of chemotherapy is its effect on the blood cells.
Blood has 3 important components: red blood cells or RBCs, white blood cells or
WBCs, and platelets. Normally, blood cells are among the most rapidly dividing cells
in the body and, therefore, the most sensitive to chemotherapy. RBCs carry oxygen
from the lungs to the rest of the body. WBCs fight infections. Platelets are important
because they help the blood clot and prevent uncontrolled bleeding.
Chemotherapeutic agents may decrease the levels of these blood components
When the RBCs decrease significantly, a
condition known as “anemia” (low red blood cell
count) occurs. This can make patients feel
very tired and sometimes short of breath. A
blood transfusion may be necessary at this
stage.
When the WBCs decrease significantly, a
condition known as “neutropenia” (low white
blood count) occurs. This condition may make it difficult for patients to fight infections.
When the platelets decrease significantly, a condition known as “thrombocytopenia”
(low platelet count) occurs. Patients who have this condition may bleed longer than
usual from minor cuts. They may also have internal bleeding inside their brain,
intestines, or urinary bladder.
Internal bleeding can make anemia (or low red blood cell count) worse. Internal
bleeding can also cause strokes and even death if it happens in the brain.
These side effects can be treated with blood transfusions and new medications that
speed up the replacement of lost blood cells.
Even though physicians check blood counts regularly, patients must watch for
symptoms of these side effects. To help in the treatment and prevention of potentially
life-threatening complications, if any of the following symptoms occur, patients should
contact their physician. Increased tiredness, fatigue, shortness of breath, or chest pain
may indicate anemia.
The following are signs of infection that may occur because of neutropenia (low count
of white blood cells):
•
What's measured in a blood cell count?
If you're undergoing certain cancer treatments that could cause low blood cell counts, your doctor will likely monitor your blood cell counts regularly using a test called a complete blood count (CBC). Low blood cell counts are detected by examining a blood sample taken from a vein in your arm.
When checking your blood cell count, your doctor is looking at the numbers and types of:
- White blood cells. These cells help your body fight infection. A low white blood cell count (leukopenia) leaves your body more open to infection. And if an infection does develop, your body may be unable to fight it off.
- Red blood cells. Red blood cells carry oxygen throughout your body. Your red blood cells' ability to carry oxygen is measured by the amount of hemoglobin in your blood. If your level of hemoglobin is low, you're anemic and your body works much harder to supply oxygen to your tissues. This can make you feel fatigued and short of breath.
- Platelets. Platelets help your blood to clot. A low platelet count (thrombocytopenia) means your body can't stop itself from bleeding.
| What's being counted | What's normal | What's concerning |
| White blood cells | 3,500 to 10,500 | Below 1,000 |
| Hemoglobin | 13.5 to 17.5 for men 12 to 15.5 for women | Below 8 |
| Platelets | 150,000 to 450,000 | Below 20,000 |
What causes low blood cell counts?
Cancer-related causes of low blood cell counts include:
- Chemotherapy. Certain chemotherapy drugs can damage your bone marrow — the spongy material found in your bones. Your bone marrow makes blood cells, which grow rapidly, making them very sensitive to the effects of chemotherapy. Chemotherapy kills many of the cells in your bone marrow, but the cells recover with time. Your doctor can tell you whether your specific chemotherapy treatment and dose will put you at risk of low blood cell counts.
- Radiation therapy. If you receive radiation therapy to large areas of your body and especially to the large bones that contain the most bone marrow, such as your pelvis, legs and torso, you might experience low levels of red and white blood cells.
- Cancers of the blood and bone marrow. Blood and bone marrow cancers, such as leukemia, grow in the bone marrow and don't allow normal blood cells to develop.
- Cancers that spread (metastasize). Cancer cells that break off from a tumor can spread to other parts of your body, including your bone marrow. The cancerous cells can displace other cells in your bone marrow, making it difficult for your bone marrow to produce the blood cells your body needs. This is an unusual cause of low blood cell counts.
Why is it important to monitor your blood cell counts?
Low blood cell counts can lead to serious complications that may delay your next round of treatment. Monitoring your blood cell counts allows your doctor to prevent or reduce your risk of complications.
The most-serious complications of low blood cell counts include:
Infection. With a low white blood cell count and, in particular, a low level of neutrophils (neutropenia), a type of white blood cell that fights infection, you're at higher risk of developing an infection. And if you develop an infection when you have a low white blood cell count, your body can't protect itself. Infection can lead to death in severe cases.
Even a mild infection can delay your chemotherapy treatment, since your doctor may wait until your infection is cleared and your blood cell counts go back up before you continue. Your doctor may also recommend medication to increase your body's production of white blood cells.
Anemia. A low red blood cell count is anemia. The most common symptoms of anemia are fatigue and shortness of breath. In some cases fatigue becomes so severe that you must temporarily halt your cancer treatment or reduce the dose you receive.
Anemia can be relieved with a blood transfusion or with medication to increase your body's production of red blood cells.
Bleeding. Low numbers of platelets in your blood can cause bleeding. You might bleed excessively from a small cut or bleed spontaneously from your nose or gums. Dangerous internal bleeding can occur.
A low platelet count can delay your treatment. You may have to wait until your platelet levels go up in order to continue with chemotherapy or to have surgery
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