The Barnard Observer

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Home  Picks  Figures  Great Investors  Vault  Misc Contact   c2003-06 Thomas Barnard

[Disclaimer:  I have found the information below largely on the internet. I make mistakes, so do your own research before changing your habits.]

Some Ideas for Dealing with Lung Cancer

[work in progress]

            The cost of doing prospective studies is really expensive, so many studies have been of the population variety, which are called epidemiological studies.  They take data collected from subjects together with blood samples, or toe nail samples, and then they work from there to conclusions.

            Such studies are fine as far as they go, but you may be working with many, many variables.  One study in Shanghai took data on 122 different foods.  Each food composed of perhaps 20 or more substances.  Red wine, for example, has hundreds of compounds.

            Doctors may pooh-pooh such studies, waiting instead for cohort studies with hundreds or thousands of subjects, such as those funded by drug companies. 

            There will be some repetition since many of these substances are effective against more than one kind of cancer.  But I thought it was more important to address the individual diseases and work my way to the nutrients that will help, rather than start with the nutrients and work to the disease.

Perhaps there is some truth to the notion that we are the sum of our bad habits.  Even 1-3 cigarettes a day increases your chances of getting lung cancer by a factor of 3 over a non-smoker.  So, the obvious thing is that if you quit smoking you improve your odds.  I’m not saying this is an easy thing to do.  A friend of mine who quit smoking said to me that he loved his kids, but he wasn’t sure that he wouldn’t trade them all of cigarettes.  As addictions go, nicotine is seriously addictive, even more addictive than heroin and cocaine.

            Change of any kind is an obstacle for me.  Giving up something like an addiction like cigarettes on top of that is hard for me to imagine.  I think you have to use any sneaky, tricky way you can to let it go.  Rewards, of course.  But those rewards can’t involve tobacco.

            My neighbor roomed with me for the better part of a year when he moved his family out to California, but he wanted to stay back to qualify for his pension.  My neighbor was a fireman and plumber.  He had been on the program for 8 years when I met him, so I never saw him drunk, but I coaxed a few stories out of him.

            “Well, I’d get to the firehouse, and start the day with maybe 11 shots.”  He drank prodigiously.  But he always showed up, he always did his job.

             He went on the program.  He confessed he was powerless, because he was.  He gave up drinking, but when they sent him to the half-way house after a stay in the hospital the doctors gave him a prescription to Valium, and he proceeded to become addicted to that.  So, that was another addiction to get over.

            Then, finally, came the cigarettes.  “I had to do it.  There was woman I knew who was able to quit drinking but couldn’t quit the cigarettes.  So you know what happened to her.  She got the Big C.”
            Addictive personality that he was, he smoked three packs a day.  So, this was yet another big problem.  But he overcame it.  In his case, he replaced it with another less dangerous addiction, coffee and AA meetings.

            If my neighbor can do it, I think that anyone can.   But you have to recognize that if you have an addictive personality, that you’re going to need a substitute addiction which is less dangerous.  It could be substance, or it could be an activity – tennis, golf, jogging, dancing.

            If you’re already diagnosed, then you will be offered an operation removing a lung if it’s only in one.  That’s a decision you’ll have to make.  And you’ll be expected to take a few reogtnions of radiation, and maybe some chemotherapy.

            An alternative plan should probably encompass the following:

            1.  Give up the cigs, unless you want to exacerbate the problem.

2.      Steer clear of sugar, and starches.

Sunlight – Vitamin D

“Led by Harvard University's Dr. David Christiani, they studied 456 consecutive patients with early-stage lung cancer at Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Patients were interviewed about diet, supplements and timing of their cancer surgery, which was thought to be another indicator of their vitamin D levels.

“Those who had high vitamin D levels and summer operations fared the best: five-year survival was 72 percent versus 29 percent for those who had the lowest levels of the nutrient and winter surgery.

“This does not mean that people should delay or try to time operations, but taking vitamin D supplements around the time of surgery might be a good idea, said Wei Zhou, a Harvard researcher who presented the study results.

“If verified by larger experiments, "this would be considered an important gain," said Thun of the cancer society. "A benefit of this size is important for this highly lethal disease."

“Lung cancer is the world's top cancer killer. About 172,500 new cases and 163,510 deaths are expected this year in the United States, and more than 1.3 million cases and nearly 1.2 million deaths worldwide.”[1]

Omega 3 Oil

            I cannot find any studies that show anything definitive about omega 3’s and lung cancer.

There is an anecdotal story on the web about a 78 year old who in 2000 had terminal lung cancer, but who years later had only 10% of the tumor size he had five years earlier.[2]

Tomatoes – Lycopene

“A significant reduction in cancer risk was noted in association with an increased intake of lycopene, even in smokers.  Interestingly, smoking alters the concentrations of most carotenoids, including -carotene and ß-carotene, but not lycopene.  Therefore, lycopene may have a special role in lung cancer prevention.”[3]

Vitamin E

            As cited in the chapter on heart disease, the HOPE-TOO study showed there is apparently no connection between vitamin E and cancer or heart disease.

However, a study at Purdue University suggests that in lab-cultured cells that a form of vitamin E called gamma tocopherol inhibits the proliferation of lung cancer cells and prostate cancer cells.[4]

Make of these contradictory reports as you will.

Selenium

            Dr. Larry Clark and his colleagues published a study in 1996 in which lung cancer deaths were reduced by 53% with daily supplementation of 200 micrograms of selenium yeast.[5]  Numbers like that speak for themselves.  Only a fool would ignore results like that, or a smoker with a true death wish.  It is study hard to ignore.  It was large, prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, clinical study published in a prestigious medical journal.

Green Tea Extract

            Not enough research has been done on green tea and lung cancer.  Nevertheless, in a study, “published in the April issue of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, researchers identified a potential target for the antitumor action of EGCG [epigallocatechin-3-gallate] on human lung cancer cells that inhibited cancer cells' growth. By learning more about this target, researcher may be able to develop new treatments that maximize green tea's cancer-fighting potential.”[6]

            So far I have not read anything negative here, so I don’t think there would be any harm in drinking green tea.  Stay tuned.

IP6 (Inositol Hexaphosphate)

            IP6, inositol hexaphosphate, is a component of fiber found in whole grains and legumes.  Interestingly, it seems that the protective effects of fiber against cancer come primarily from IP6 in the fiber.

            IP3, a product of IP6, apparently turns off the switch that would allow a cell to grow uncontrollably.  It has also been found that IP6 together with inositol is more effective than IP6 alone.  Dr. A. Shamsuddin, M.D., Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, who discovered IP6, suggests that as a general preventive measure that you take between 800-1,200 mg together with 200-300 mg of inositol.  For patients who are high risk for cancer or with cancer, he recommends a does of 4,800-7,200 mg IP6 along with 1,200-1,800 mg of inositol.

            Unlike lycopene above, for which supplements are not shown to have the same effect as the food that contains it, tomatoes, IP6 is more bio-available in the pure form than when it is found in foods, such as whole grains and beans.

            In animal studies and in cell cultures, the combination of IP6 with inositol works against virtually all types of cancers including breast, prostate, lung, skin, and brain as well as lymphomas and leukemia.  It is reported there are no side effects, but remember, no human studies as of 2006.

Pomegranates, Pomegranate Juice, ellagic acid

“In the first study, a pomegranate extract rich in antioxidant anthocyanins (delphinidin, cyanidin and pelargonidin) and hydrolyzable tannins (punicalin, pedunculagin, punicalagin and gallagic and ellagic acid esters of glucose), was found to inhibit the proliferation of A549 human lung carcinoma cells by inhibiting apoptosis and signaling pathways including nuclear factor kappa beta (NF-KB), leading the researchers to conclude pomegranate fruit may be an effective lung cancer chemopreventive agent.”[7]

Broccoli , cabbage, cauliflower (Indoles: Indole-3-carbinol)

“An extensive review of epidemiologic studies published prior to 1996 reported that the majority (67%) of 87 case-control studies found an inverse association between some type of cruciferous vegetable intake and cancer risk. At that time, the inverse association appeared to be most consistent for cancers of the lung and digestive tract.” [8]

Vitamin C

            Linus Pauling and Ewan Cameron showed in their book Cancer and Vitamin C that 10 grams of vitamin C given daily prolonged the lives of cancer patients, and resolved the cancer in about 5% of cases.[9]

            Past research has shown that vitamin C in high concentration kills cancer cells in vitro.  Recently, it was shown that blood plasma and urine concentrations were higher after IV (intravenous) administration than with oral dosing.  The conclusion of the researchers was that “only intravenous administration of vitamin C produces high plasma and urine concentrations that might have anti-tumor activity.  Because the efficacy of vitamin C treatment cannot be judged from clinical trials that use only oral dosing, the role of vitamin C in cancer treatment should be reevaluated.”[10]

            So stay tuned.  A Phase I study showed that it was safe except for those who have had kidney stones or a propensity to form kidney stones, so if you want to experiment on yourself, so far there appears to be little downside.

Coenzyme Q10

            Coenzyme Q10 has been shown in small studies to be effective against breast cancer and prostate cancer.  Anecdotally, Karl Folkers kept one of his benefactors alive who developed small cell carcinoma of the lung with only one supplement, coenzyme Q10.  The benefactor’s cancer disappeared and he was alive years later.[11]

            It would take a negative report to steer me away from recommending this very effective substance against lung cancer.

Exercise

I am not able to find any cites that speak to this directly, but in the case of colon cancer, exercise has been shown to help cut cancer risk by 46%[12], and also helps after you have been diagnosed.[13]

I would be surprised if this did not hold true for lung cancer as well.  The lymph system, which is the body’s system for eliminating toxins, has no heart to pump these out, so they only move when the body moves; hence, the need for exercise to remove toxins.