Eli

Bruce, I just recalled that my wife drank 2-3 cups of ginger tea when she was on chemo. Especially in the later cycles.

Ginger tea helps with nausea. It also has a soothing effect on the digestive system. Indigestion is often an issue during chemo.

We bought organic ginger tea in bags:
http://www.traditionalmedicinals.com/product/ginger

To prepare, steep one bag in a covered cup for 15 minutes. We added slices of lemon for taste.

Re: caffeine is a diuretic

I recall hearing on the news that it’s an old myth and that it’s not true.

Mayo Clinic nutritionist says the same thing here:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/caffeinated-drinks/AN01661

The article below says that caffeine during chemo is fine. In fact, it mentions some research papers that found caffeine *beneficial* during chemo.

Is It Okay to Drink Caffeine With Chemotherapy?
http://www.livestrong.com/article/497165-is-it-okay-to-drink-caffeine-with-chemotherapy/

Does your wife put sugar in coffee? I would be more concerned about sugar than caffeine. That’s just my personal opinion and I’m not a doctor.

Marion, you are welcome (and sorry about the bittersweet part).

I’m going to put a few more links here, so they are easy to find in one place.

American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy – Educational Resources
http://www.asgct.org/general-public/educational-resources

Gene Therapy Patient Information
http://www.genetherapynet.com/patient-information.html

Gene Therapy Developments in China
http://www.genetherapynet.com/gene-therapy-in-china.html

Medical Tourism for Gene Therapy Treatments
http://www.genetherapynet.com/medical-tourism.html

I took a quick look. My first impressions:

1. Cancer Therapy China is a medical tourism company. They offer a number of cancer treatments that are not available outside of China. They say it right here:

http://www.cancertherapychina.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=287&Itemid=120

In other words, you have to travel to China as a tourist in order to receive some of these treatments.

2. Gendicine is a viral gene therapy developed by Chinese company Sibiono:

http://en.sibiono.com/

The company got approval to use this therapy in China in 2003, but only for one type of cancer: head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

An article in the Nature magazine (year 2004):

China approves first gene therapy
http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v22/n1/full/nbt0104-3.html

An article in the Business Week magazine (year 2006):

A Cancer Treatment You Can’t Get Here
http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2006-03-05/a-cancer-treatment-you-cant-get-here

Sibiono looks like a serious company doing serious research. The question I have, is Gendicine approved anywhere in the world outside of China? I could not find any information. I will do more research later. My guess as of right now, Gendicine is only approved in China. Meaning that, you have to travel to China to receive this treatment.

More later…

Hi lostandscared,

I’m in Ottawa.

My wife got diagnosed with extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma in April 2011 at the age of 44. She had Whipple surgery in July 2011, followed by 2 months of 5FU chemo-radiation and 4 months of Gemcitabine/Cisplatin chemo. She is currently in remission. She received all her treatments at The Ottawa Hospital.

Here’s how she got diagnosed:

She went to ER with unbearable abdominal pain in the upper right quadrant. She wasn’t visibly jaundiced. Ultrasound showed dilatation of the common bile duct. ERCP found a tight stricture in the intra-pancreatic portion of the CBD. The brushing biopsy came back as suspicious for adenocarcinoma. CT and MRI ruled out pancreatic cancer. EUS was the final test that led to surgery; EUS was highly suggestive of cholangiocarcinoma. The final pathology report done after Whipple confirmed the dx. Extrahepatic CC, stage IIB (T3/N1/M0), 2 positive nodes out of 15, microscopically positive margins.

Medical history prior to cancer:

My wife had recurrent, intermittent digestive issues for as long as I remember (20 years). She had trouble digesting fatty foods, raw fruits and veggies. I know she mentioned her digestive issues to our family doctor on a few occasions. The GP never ordered any tests or investigations. To be fair, I don’t think my wife was persistent enough in her complaints (she is not the type who complains about minor irritants). Our surgeon told us that digestive issues are very common in the general population; the fact my wife had them doesn’t mean they caused her cancer.

Lostandscared, I’m very sorry you had to find us. The best tip I can give you is to live one day at a time and not look too far ahead.

My best wishes to you and your boyfriend.

Hi Sharon,

You asked:

I know four types of studies.

1. Clinical trials, or prospective studies.

Doctors design the trial, recruit the patients, treat the patients, then publish the results.

2. Retrospective studies.

These are usually based on the medical records in a single hospital. The patients receive conventional therapy without entering any formal trials. Doctors publish the study based on the medical records collected over a certain period of time (can be as long as 5 or 10 years).

3. Registry studies.

National Cancer Institute collects cancer statistics in the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program:

http://seer.cancer.gov/

The data in the SEER database is quite detailed. I’ve seen some CC studies based on SEER data.

UK has a similar program:

http://www.ncin.org.uk/collecting_and_using_data/national_cancer_data_repository/default.aspx

4. Meta-studies.

Meta-studies are studies of studies. Doctors extract the statistics from the multiple previous studies, put it together to assemble a larger sample, then publish the results.

Here’s an example of a huge CC meta-study:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/762919

They analyzed 20 previous studies published from 1960 through 2010, involving 6,712 patients.

Hope this helps,
Eli

The article doesn’t mention the name of technology, but it sounds very similar to the chemosaturation technology developed by Delcath Systems:

http://delcath.com/technology/chemosaturation/

I did a quick search but could not confirm if it’s the same technology or not.