Alternative Treatment Cancer Centers

eightpawz

Just looking for thoughts? Has anyone been? Opinions? Heard anything?

-Dawn

pete43lost_at_sea

hi dawn
see my post about coffe baden baden and removab at hallwang.
hallwang seems to deliver good service and treatment options, ask me in 3 months and a year if its worth it.
Its expensive but I wanted something beyond chemo till I drop.

goodluck and do your homework, get quotes, put your medical records online and get detailed opinions. it takes alot of time and energy to get to a treatment center.

I am really happy I am getting what I think is the worlds best treatment. just my opinion.

hugs,
Pete

tanstaafl

my view
Saw a friend's extended cancer diary including 3 yrs with CTCA from 3.5 years ago, not colon cancer (had been given "two months" for a surprisingly aggressive recurrence, CEA < 1000). If you have Cadillac insurance, CTCA in the US seems closest to a large, well advertised, one stop complementary-integrative shop with aggressive regular medicine. $$$$$ and probably still on the light side of CAM therapeutic nutrition, e.g. 100-200 mg coQ10 vs 300-1000 mg. Many cancer centers are dabbling with some extras but not consistently aggressive nor technically comprehensive from my perspective. A la carte with individual alt MD or ND almost anywhere or small group practices' "centers" in some locales. I'd ask at the health food stores for a range of possible candidates, caveat emptor x3. Adding self support features is most affordable long term.

How complementary? It is probably easiest to sort out schlock advertising or "bait and switch" by the nominal availability of megadose IV vitamin C (i.e. 25 - 220 grams C per infusion) as a supportive service.
"No" means CAM lite or fake.

Varmint5

My opinion
Hi eightpawz,

My daughter is now going to CTCA in Tulsa. She is 33 years old, stage IV. We love it. I can't say enough good things about it. I don't know about IV vitamin C there - will ask. The whole experience is uplifting and thorough mind/body/spirit care. The reason we went there is because her oncologist here decided her treatment had stopped working and discontinued it (Folfiri). It had not stopped working - he based that one one CEA reading. You can read my post "One Year Ago Today" that I posted 3 days ago.

What have I heard: I live in a rural area in Missouri. I didn't know anything about CTCA except I thought it was a last resort until 7 years ago. An officer I work with kept coming to the office to have his blood pressure checked because of a medication he was on following treatment for leukemia. He told me at that time that he had been given 6 months to live at a major cancer center here and told that there were no more options for treatment and nothing was working for him. So he went there and credited them with saving his life. I took it with a grain of salt at that time. Fast forward to now... he is alive and very well and still working, no further problems, no further treatment after he was treated at CTCA. He considers himself "cured."

A friend in her early 40s had recurrence of her earlier breast cancer and became stage IV with widespread bone mets. While she was being treated for the bone mets she developed numerous liver mets. She was going to a cancer center at one end of the state and they told her they had run out of options. The tumors were growing rapidly and numbers climbing. So she went for a second opinion to a breast cancer oncologist at a major cancer at the other end of the state and he said the same thing. "Get your affairs in order. Terminal." So she went to Tulsa to CTCA. And they began aggressive treatment and alternative therapies. I believe it took two tries with different drugs to get her cancer under control, but they did and she was stable for well over a year on Xeloda. Now she has had a rise in her numbers and bone pain and they have begun chemo again on her. After one treatment her numbers have dropped considerably and the pain is under control. She is doing well, looks absolutely healthy. They can't cure her but have given her time. Another local man had been given the same song and dance regarding his stage IV prostate cancer, so he went there. They treated him, got him stable, now he is down to once every three month checkups and scans and doing well.

The friend with breast cancer talked us into going there. My daughter had severe back pain, probably from holding herself in a position of comfort to "protect" her ostomy which had developed a bad parastomal hernia, and carrying around her new baby. She was taking numerous Rx pain meds to control it and could not get a decent night's sleep, despite even taking Ambien. She had lost a lot of weight, had no appetite - was on Megace for that. She had no energy and lost most of her muscle tone. So... CTCA addressed all these things at the first visit. She saw a pain management doctor, physical therapy, naturopath, chiropractor (after having a bone scan to rule out bone mets), massage therapist, nutritionist, etc. She has accupuncture each time she goes. PT has given her exercises to do and told her to start using her Wii Fit and which exercises to do on it. They stopped her Megace and put her on Marinol. They changed her pain meds to extended release med to keep her from having pain at all - the pain Dr said that pain decreases your immunity and ability fight cancer. The naturopath put her on Melatonin 20mg (I think they do this with all the patients), and some other supplements. She now has Dr visits, chemo, accupuncture, massage, mind/body (psychologist) and PT visit each time she goes. It is all covered by her insurance with United Health Care. She is now off all pain meds, off Ambien, off Marinol, getting stronger every day and has gained 13 lbs. She has been there 4 times now. Her CEA dropped after 3 treatments from 880 to 85. She is doing very well, better than she has done in well over a year, so I'm impressed. And it's just such a good "vibe" in the whole facility - lots of positive energy there.

This is just our experience, may not be everybody's. I've never heard anything "bad." My friend's insurance also covers all of it - did not ask what insurance she has but it's through her husband's job.

Best wishes for you as you go forward in your treatment and journey.

Sandy

So Worried

Varmint5 said:

My opinion
Hi eightpawz,

My daughter is now going to CTCA in Tulsa. She is 33 years old, stage IV. We love it. I can't say enough good things about it. I don't know about IV vitamin C there - will ask. The whole experience is uplifting and thorough mind/body/spirit care. The reason we went there is because her oncologist here decided her treatment had stopped working and discontinued it (Folfiri). It had not stopped working - he based that one one CEA reading. You can read my post "One Year Ago Today" that I posted 3 days ago.

What have I heard: I live in a rural area in Missouri. I didn't know anything about CTCA except I thought it was a last resort until 7 years ago. An officer I work with kept coming to the office to have his blood pressure checked because of a medication he was on following treatment for leukemia. He told me at that time that he had been given 6 months to live at a major cancer center here and told that there were no more options for treatment and nothing was working for him. So he went there and credited them with saving his life. I took it with a grain of salt at that time. Fast forward to now... he is alive and very well and still working, no further problems, no further treatment after he was treated at CTCA. He considers himself "cured."

A friend in her early 40s had recurrence of her earlier breast cancer and became stage IV with widespread bone mets. While she was being treated for the bone mets she developed numerous liver mets. She was going to a cancer center at one end of the state and they told her they had run out of options. The tumors were growing rapidly and numbers climbing. So she went for a second opinion to a breast cancer oncologist at a major cancer at the other end of the state and he said the same thing. "Get your affairs in order. Terminal." So she went to Tulsa to CTCA. And they began aggressive treatment and alternative therapies. I believe it took two tries with different drugs to get her cancer under control, but they did and she was stable for well over a year on Xeloda. Now she has had a rise in her numbers and bone pain and they have begun chemo again on her. After one treatment her numbers have dropped considerably and the pain is under control. She is doing well, looks absolutely healthy. They can't cure her but have given her time. Another local man had been given the same song and dance regarding his stage IV prostate cancer, so he went there. They treated him, got him stable, now he is down to once every three month checkups and scans and doing well.

The friend with breast cancer talked us into going there. My daughter had severe back pain, probably from holding herself in a position of comfort to "protect" her ostomy which had developed a bad parastomal hernia, and carrying around her new baby. She was taking numerous Rx pain meds to control it and could not get a decent night's sleep, despite even taking Ambien. She had lost a lot of weight, had no appetite - was on Megace for that. She had no energy and lost most of her muscle tone. So... CTCA addressed all these things at the first visit. She saw a pain management doctor, physical therapy, naturopath, chiropractor (after having a bone scan to rule out bone mets), massage therapist, nutritionist, etc. She has accupuncture each time she goes. PT has given her exercises to do and told her to start using her Wii Fit and which exercises to do on it. They stopped her Megace and put her on Marinol. They changed her pain meds to extended release med to keep her from having pain at all - the pain Dr said that pain decreases your immunity and ability fight cancer. The naturopath put her on Melatonin 20mg (I think they do this with all the patients), and some other supplements. She now has Dr visits, chemo, accupuncture, massage, mind/body (psychologist) and PT visit each time she goes. It is all covered by her insurance with United Health Care. She is now off all pain meds, off Ambien, off Marinol, getting stronger every day and has gained 13 lbs. She has been there 4 times now. Her CEA dropped after 3 treatments from 880 to 85. She is doing very well, better than she has done in well over a year, so I'm impressed. And it's just such a good "vibe" in the whole facility - lots of positive energy there.

This is just our experience, may not be everybody's. I've never heard anything "bad." My friend's insurance also covers all of it - did not ask what insurance she has but it's through her husband's job.

Best wishes for you as you go forward in your treatment and journey.

Sandy

Sandy
Wow, thank you for that very informative post. I've always thought about Sloan Kettering, or Mayo Clinic, never really thought about this place. It's something to keep in mind..just incase. Thanks!!!