Uterine Stage IV B Reoccurence Vagina

linmk said:

Taxol/Avastin or Clinical Trial Phase I?

I have been recovering from bronchitis during the past week. Recommendation: (Don't let relatives with coughs visit you.) I'm stocking up on antiviral masks for future visits.

This week I'm going to talk to the investigational clinical trial people at MD Anderson about the possibility of participating in one of their phase 1 clinical trials. I won't be convinced unless I know that all of the mice in the mouse studies had their cancer cured. I'm not overly optimistic about participating because I don't want to suffer through yet another type of treatment that will do nothing for me except cause bad side effects. The alternative is to be treated by weekly taxol/Avastin chemo sessions. I wish there was a way that the doctors could tell if a treatment was going to work before undergoing it.

I asked the doctor about Parp inhibitors and other specific immunotherapy drugs but she said that they weren't approved for uterine cancer. Also, she said i only had a few estrogen receptors on my tumor, so I'm not a candidate for hormone therapy.

I read a NY Times article about a small group of women who had convinced doctors to give them an immunotherapy drug, even though there was no reason to think it would work, but it did, and now there are clinical trials for the drug. I am wondering how does one persuade a doctor to give you an immunotherapy drug that is not approved for your type of cancer, unless you're related to the doctor?

This is the article link https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/19/health/ovarian-cancer-immunotherapy.html?mabReward=ART_TS2&recid=10mbUDeKa0L2lXFUyRFmSt153V2&recp=2&moduleDetail=recommendations-2&action=click&contentCollection=Smarter Living&region=Footer&module=WhatsNext&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&src=recg&pgtype=article

What a challenge.  I wish you the best as you investigate the investigative folks!  

Just to clarify, your MD Anderson doc said uterine cancer isn't eligible for Keytruda?  I thought it was approved for all MSI cancers.  

Linmk, Tamlen,
That is great news about your dog.  PSK mushrooms are well known to boost
natural killer cells.  I also give my dog supplemnts of the beta glucans and
curcurmin to prevent cancer.

Here are the brands of mushroom supplements I use:
I have been using them all for 3 years now:

Maitake D Fraction - Mushroom wisdom - is a liquid I put in my daily smoothie
Chaga -  Host Defense
Shitake - Completely Green (brand from the pharmacy I use)
Turkey Tail Coliolus PSP - Mushroom Science

This is from Life Extension-
"in a clinical trial evaluated the effects of PSK in individuals with uterine
or cervical cancer, study participants received postradiation therapy PSK 
(3grms daily) for 2 weeks per month.  The 5 years survival in those with
Stage 3B cancer who received PSK was 65% compared to 49% in those
not receiving PSK."

They say the maitake mushroom appears to be the most effective against
cancer. In Japanese it means "dancing mushroom." Need to take as a
liquid to be effective.

Mushrooms have been used in Eastern medicine for thousands of
years.  Why do Western doctors disrespect Eastern medicine?

Linmk, you can use medicinal mushrooms to boost your immune system.
I love mushrooms, but don't think you can eat enough of the real ones to
get enough of what you need to boost your killer cells.

Don't worry about the immunotherapy drug so much. There are many ways
to boost your immune system.  Going more organic in the diet is a very
good thing.

Regards,
Takingcontrol58

takingcontrol58 said:

Linmink - immunotherapy drugs

Recent studies are indicating that immunotherapy drugs may work on people who have lots of mutations.
Have you done full genomic profiling on your tumor (eg. through Foundation One) so you know how many
mutations you have?

Unfortunately, they don't know why some people respond and some people don't. They are now starting
to give people two immunotherapy drugs or one immunotherapy drug plus chemo or radiation if you
read the articles in the medical journals.

Immunotherapy drugs actually work against  the immune system, by disabling proteins that protect all
our cells from being attacked by the immune system.  One of the risk factors is that these drugs will remove
the protein from our normal cells as well - here is one of the key side effects listed from Opdivo in the
ads they run in women's magazines-

"Opdivo is a medicine that may treat certain canacers by working with your imune system.
Opdive can cause your immune system to attach normal organs and tissues in any area of your body
and can affect the work they work.  These problems can sometimes become serious or
life-threatening and can lead to death.  These problems may happen anytime durirng treatment or even
after your treatment has ended."

I would look up the manufacturer's websites to get more information on various immunotherapy drugs,
like Keytruda or Opdivo or the drug you want to try.

I personally believe that patients should fully investigate all these drugs that doctors recommend,
as they don't really explain what they do and what some of serious side effects can be.  I believe
that these proteins exist on our cells for a reason and that all the drugs they are trying to develop
disable key processes in our body that are there for a reason- to protect us. That would explain
why these drugs can attack normal cells as well- immunotherapy reminds me of chemotherapy-
the drugs can't distinguish between normal cells and cancer cells.

If you really want to pursue one of these drugs, I recommend you ask your doctor to apply for the
drug for you as a "compassion case".  This way the manufacturer will cover the cost.  Considering
there are not trials for endometrial cancer and immunotherapy, they might be interested in seeing
how you respond.   What drug are you looking to take? Is it a new immunotherapy drug?

Remember, you have to target much more than your immune system to stop cancer. I believe
this is why they hav not had better results with these drugs, which are incredibly expensive. 

There are excellent supplements that boost the immune system- the medicinal mushrooms are
known to be the best - Maitake D fraction, Shitake, Chaga and Coriolus (turkey tail mushroom).
I've been using these supplements for over 3 years now and have remained in remission.

Besides boosting your immune system, you have to address the front end- what is making
cancer grow in your body in the first place.  That requires a full analysis of your health and
lifestyle. Alot of the changes that need to happen aren't addressed by cancer drugs.

Regards,
Takingcontrol58

 

 

I've become interested in mushrooms for immune systerm support as well, particularly chaga and coriolus versicolor (known as yunzhi or more commonly, turkey tail).

Our 7-year-old dog was diagnosed with the highly aggressive and always fatal hemangiosarcoma in April 2015 after we accidentally and luckily discovered her spleen was about to burst. Our vet canceled appointments and got it out of there before the cancer cells went everywhere. We proceeded with chemo, which our dog scarcely seemed to notice, and our vet recommended we put her on an alternative therapy of polysaccharopeptide (PSP) synthesized from coriolus versicolor mushroom; Penn Vet School had just released promising results of a small, early study. Hemangiosarcoma is well established by the time it's discovered, and most dogs succumb, even with chemo, in 3-6 months. In three weeks our dog will have survived for 3 years, an extremely rare occurrence. Penn Vet is scheduled to release results from a larger study late this year.

Is it the mushrooms? We'll never really know for sure, but it tweaked my interest and I've started searching out human studies. And raiding my dog's supply (the capsules are human grade, I'm-Yunity brand), with my gyn/onc's support.

Linmk , that sounds interesting. I now, the last thing anyone wants to be is medically interesting! But I really hope you have a great response.