The goal of screening is to discover early cancers that have a greater than 90 percent chance of cure. Most often, the first thing physicians do when a person comes to their office is to take a history. They ask about symptoms that could be related to stomach cancer. A comprehensive family history is also taken asking the patient if anyone in their family has ever had stomach cancer. Ultimately, a complete physical examination is performed.

Although screening of the general population for Helicobacter pylori infection and treating those who are infected would be expected to reduce the incidence of stomach cancer, it is not felt to be cost effective in the United States at this time. Furthermore, no one has yet proven that eradicating Helicobacter pylori after twenty to forty years of infection would prevent the development of stomach cancer.

Avoidance of stomach cancer may also be possible by proper diet and vitamin supplementation. Smoked foods, pickled vegetables, salted fish, excessive dietary salt, foods with nitrates such as lunch meat and hotdogs as well as charcoal broiled foods, produce nitrosamines that cause cancer. Vitamin C can prevent nitrosamine formation and therefore fresh fruits should be substituted in the diet for foods that produce nitrosamine. Recent studies in animals show high dose folic acid may play an important role in prevention of stomach cancer. Helicobacter pylori may increase the formation of nitrosamine by preventing the secretion of vitamin C in the stomach. Taking supplemental vitamin C (250 to 500 mg per day) is advised for those with a family history of stomach cancer and those who have been infection with Helicobacter pylori.

Once the diagnosis of stomach cancer is made, surgery is the treatment of choice. If it has spread to the lymph nodes or to the liver, you may also need chemotherapy. When stomach cancer is diagnosed early and thought to be cured by surgery, a careful search for Helicobacter pylori should also be made. When the bacteria is not found in the stomach by biopsy, a serological blood test should also be obtained. If evidence of Helicobacter pylori infection is found, intensive antibiotic therapy should be given and treatment success proved by endoscopy or breath test. A Japanese study of stomach cancer patients surgically treated and cured demonstrated that getting rid of Helicobacter pylori prevented another stomach cancer from forming. In individuals who did not receive treatment for Helicobacter pylori, a substantial percentage developed a second stomach cancer within a few years.

Helicobacter pylori cancer can also cause other forms of stomach cancer. Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma of the stomach is probably related to Helicobacter pylori most of the time and MALT lymphoma of the stomach (a low grade lymphoma) is always associated with Helicobacter pylori. Patients with severe gastritis should have biopsies taken looking for MALT lymphoma. In cases of early MALT lymphoma, treatment of Helicobacter pylori may completely cure the patient. In more advanced cases surgery, radiation therapy, or chemotherapy may be necessary. Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma of the stomach can often be treated with radiation therapy alone. Occasionally chemotherapy with or without surgery is also necessary.

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to

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Everyone has seen them. The small ribbons and pins that people are wearing on their shirts, purses, hats, and jackets. Whether they are pink or red, white, and blue, it is easy to spot cancer awareness pins. And, no matter who is wearing them, they are always happy to share their story or the story of their loved one who has passed away. One of the most prevalent colors is pink, pink ribbons are everywhere now days. But what are all those pink ribbons for?

Since cancer awareness pins came into existence, pink has always stood for breast cancer. The pink ribbons, pins, and other cancer awareness merchandise are all to help people become more aware of breast cancer and its effects on women, girls, and families all over the world. Breast cancer is one of the major cancers effecting women today, every year, over 200,000 American women alone are diagnosed with the disease. Over the course of the average American woman’s life, she has a 1 in 8 chance of getting breast cancer, and a 1 in 33 chance of dying from it. But, with all the research that is being done today on breast cancer and other forms of cancer, the number of women who die from breast cancer each year is dropping.

Some of this decline is due in part to the push in cancer awareness through cancer awareness pins and cancer gifts that are becoming more prevalent throughout the United States and the world. With the help of the money received from these gifts, cancer treatment centers and research facilities can keep going and keep researching to find cures and medications that help to fight and kill the disease before it can do major damage to the body.

Cancer awareness pins aren’t just made for breast cancer though. They come in all colors for different cancers, like gold for children’s cancers. So, no matter the type of cancer you want to push into the spotlight when you go out, you can always find cancer awareness pins and cancer gifts to help you on your mission. There are thousands of shops, both on and off line, where you can order cancer awareness pins or cancer gifts from, all you need to do is search a little to find the gift that is right for you. You can also be sure that out of the money you spend on your cancer gift, part of it will go to cancer research and studies to help find cures for this horrible disease.

rainbowofhopecanada.ca/default.php?cPath=5 Cancer Awareness Ribbon Pins
Rainbowof Hope to raise cancer awareness among Canadians

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A friend sent me a newspaper cutting from Indonesia written by Bondan Winarno in memory of his dear friend Ken Sudarto, entitled “Mimpi Tak-Mungkin” (A Crashed Dream). The author related the story of Ken’s battle against cancer. Ken was the founder of an all-Indonesian advertising company after having been inspired by Joe Darion’s “The Impossible Dream.” In short, he was a successful businessman who built this empire from scratch after having dreamt a dream.

“To dream the impossible dream,

To fight the unbeatable foe,

To bear with the unbearable sorrow,

To run where the brave dare not go.”

Ken’s battle against the “unbeatable foe” started shortly after Chinese New Year 2004, when he suddenly fell ill. The doctors in his country did not know what had gone wrong with him. Ken and his wife went to Singapore and after two weeks of intensive investigations, Ken was diagnosed with Stage 4 lymphoma. It was said that this cancer was rather unique, since it only attacked his backbone leaving other organs intact. Ken underwent chemotherapy in Singapore and within six months he was said to have conquered his cancer. “Cancer-free”, Ken returned to his country feeling satisfied and grateful.

However, the victory was short-lived! Two months later Ken suffered a relapse and he needed his oncologist again. The next option for Ken was to undergo bone marrow transplant (BMT). He was made to understand that BMT is the state-of-the-art procedure – the most modern of medical technology against cancer! Elated, Ken agreed and underwent a high-dose chemotherapy in preparation of his BMT. Unfortunately, the BMT did not cure him. Ken suffered a second relapse. The author said that Ken had to sell his first house to pay for his medical treatment in Singapore. A second BMT was recommended and Ken again agreed to it.

In early September 2004, the author had an opportunity to visit Ken in Singapore where he was still undergoing medical treatment. Ken invited the author to the “Top of the M”, a revolving restaurant in a famous hotel. At that time Ken was fitted with a state-of-the art “chemo-pump” which he carried around with him, Ken proudly told his friend: “This is the mother of chemotherapy” that he was wearing! While dining, Ken expressed his vision that one day, in the years to come, he would like to publish a bulletin giving information about how patients can fight this cancer war. Now that he had himself gone through this “fight” and had learnt a lot. Ken figured out that it would be of great help to others if he shared his experience. In this way, others too could follow his “path.”

Two days after this “great and wonderful” dinner at the posh restaurant, Ken had to be admitted to the CCU (critical care unit). Ken died soon afterwards.

Comments: The song above was only half sung. There are many more meaning lines to the lyrics.

“To right the unrightable wrong

This is my quest, No matter how hopeless, no matter how far

To fight for the right without question or pause

To be willing to pass into hell for a heavenly cause

And the world will be better for this.”

Ken went into battle against cancer seemingly “to right the unrightable wrong, to fight the unbeatable foe.” I dare suggest that he had been misled. To me, the metaphor used in this adventure was and is wrong. Take a pause and ask these questions: In any war, be it Vietnam or Iraq, who or where is the winner? Who died? What are being destroyed? What is the net result? Cancer that dwelled in Ken’s body is not a foe. Cancer is a process that tells us that something had gone wrong in our body over the years, possibly due to a constant, long-term abuse – again, I say, it is never a foe. “To right that unrightable wrong” is not to fight with highly poisonous drugs or to use the killing technology of war. These are too destructive. At the end of it all, patients die because of the treatment rather than the cancer. This is not only true in the case of Ken, but also many numerous other cases which I know or have come across.

Randall Fitzegerald (in: The hundred-year lie) wrote: “Effective natural-health solutions DO exist. But unfortunately for many people who grew up by and dependent on technology and the laboratory drugs of Western medicine, breaking free of that paradigm, … requires a leap of faith.” This is especially true with the many so called educated or rich. To them only science and technology have the answers to all human ills. In the book, Hope or Hype – the obsession with medical advances and the high cost of false promises, Professors Richard Devo and Donald Patrick, of the University of Washington, USA, wrote: We develop “our own blind trust in a medical establishment that preys on our deepest fear, all the while purporting to ride to our rescue with miracle cure. The combination of industry greed, media hype, political expediency and our own techno-consumption mindset is leading more and more often to a reliance on costly treatments that are marginally effective at best – and sometimes downright dangerous.”

Guy B. Faguet, medical doctor and researcher of 28 years and author of more than 140 peer-reviewed articles, wrote (in: The War on Cancer: An Anatomy of Failure – A Blueprint for the Future): “ The objective analysis of cancer chemotherapy outcomes over the last three decades reveals that, despite vast human and financial expenditure, the cell-killing paradigm has failed to achieve its objective … and the conquest of cancer remains a distant and elusive goal.” The bullet of this war is inefficacious and highly toxic and its model is “ based on flawed premises with an unattainable goal. Cytotoxic chemotherapy in its present form will neither eradicate cancer nor alleviate suffering. Recurrent announcements of breakthrough in the War on Cancer is designed to impress the public but little progress has been made in the treatment of cancer since 1971.”

Three doctors in Australia – Graeme Morgan, associate Professor and radiotherapist at the Royal North Shore Hospital; Robyn Ward, senior specialist in Medical Oncology and Associate Professor of Medicine at St Vincent’s Hospital; and Michael Barton, Research Director Associate Collaboration for Cancer Outcomes Research and Evaluation, wrote this in the Journal of Clinical Oncology: The “overall contribution of curative and adjuvant cytotoxic chemotherapy to 5-year survival in adults was estimated to be 2.3% in Australia and 2.1% in the USA. Chemotherapy has been OVER SOLD and the responses of the treatment have been EXAGGERATED.”

Clifton Leaf, CEO of Fortune Magazine, suffered from Hodgkin’s Disease but fortunately survived the ordeal. In an article, The War on Cancer: changing the way we think about cancer (March 2004), he pointed out that the mass media all too often come out with reports of “medical breakthroughs” – Avastin, Erbitux, Gleevec… these are touted as “wonder” drugs that fight cancer. The question is: “are we truly winning the cancer war?” Leaf said: “We’re not. We are far from winning the war against cancer.”

A respected magazine in Germany, Der Spiegel of 4 October 2004, had this article: Giftkur ohne Nutzen (The Useless Poisonous Cures). This article said: “Increasingly sophisticated and expensive cellular poisons are being given to seriously ill patients … patients do not actually live a day longer.”

Let not the death of Ken be yet another meaningless death. Let this message lives on and let us hope that many others who are in a similar situation can learn a lesson from the above episode, if at all they have eyes to see, ears to hear and brain to think. Cancer is better handled by a natural, holistic way of healing, not through waging a war! Is this not what righting “the unrightable” wrong is all about? The whole world needs to know this lesson.

For more information about complementary cancer therapy visit: cacare.com cacare.com, NaturalHealingForYou.com NaturalHealingForYou.com, BookOnCancer.com BookOnCancer.com

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Cancer of the ovary, a disease affecting one of both of the ovaries, is one of the most serious and under-recognized ailments affecting women. In United States, it is considered as the fifth among the most fatal gynecologic cancers (affecting the female reproductive organs). It is said that in every 57 women, one may be diagnosed with ovarian cancer and almost half of those women diagnosed with the said cancer may die in a span of five years.

Ovarian Cancer: Overview

Ovarian cancer is characterized by the malignant growth of one or of the two ovaries. The cells in the ovary multiply progressively and abnormally to the point that they can no longer be controlled. As a result, excessive tissues start to form tumors, which may be benign or malignant. The malignant ones are those that cause cancer.

The growth of the tumor may not necessarily start from the ovary or the ovaries, but may have spread to the ovary from other parts of the body, oftentimes the breast. The malignant tumor in the ovary may likewise spread to other parts of the body. The most common cases of ovarian cancer arise from epithelial cancer, which affect the epithelial cells (cells found in the tissues covering surfaces of the ovary).

Symptoms of Ovarian Cancer

It is important for women to be aware of the nature and symptoms of ovarian cancer as this deadly cancer can affect women of any age. However, women face higher risk of ovarian cancer as she gets older, particularly after she reaches the age of fifty.

Most of the time, the symptoms of ovarian cancer do not show up until the cancer is widespread or in its advanced stage. This makes a woman at higher risk since it can be too late before she may be able to detect symptoms of ovarian cancer. Moreover, there are only very few symptoms of the cancer, which may be mistaken as symptoms of other health conditions.

The very first symptom of ovarian cancer is vague abdominal discomfort and bloating, which is caused by the excess fluid in the abdominal cavity. One always feels full even when she has not eaten much. As time passes by the swelling of the abdomen intensifies that some of your clothes may no longer fit you. Usually, it is because of this unusual swelling (way different from a woman’s monthly water retention) that most women go to the doctor for check up.

Bloating is accompanied by digestive disturbances, unexplained changes in the bowel habits and urinary patterns. There are frequent trips to the bathroom even in the absence of a urinary tract infection or other health problems. One may feel nauseous, very tired and she may feel like vomiting at times. She may also feel discomfort and pain during an intercourse.

Pain and swelling in the pelvic area is also noticeable upon closer physical examination. This is due to the swelling in the pelvis. In very rare instances, a woman in her postmenopausal stage experiences abnormal bleeding.

Other vague and non-specific symptoms of ovarian cancer include back and leg pain, loss of appetite, undernourished appearance, weight gain or weigh loss, and unusual bleeding in the vagina (heavier and longer than the usual menstrual bleeding).

Detecting Symptoms of Ovarian Cancer

Screening is a way to detect the symptoms of ovarian cancer. The earlier the patient is screened, the better so as to decrease the mortality and morbidity of ovarian cancer. One of the most effective ways to detect the cancer in its early stage is through pelvic and rectal exam.

Jeanette Pollock is a freelance author and website owner of ovariancancerdomain.com ovariancancerdomain.com. Visit Jeanette’s site to learn more about ovariancancerdomain.com/2006/06/27/ovarian-cancer-symptoms/ ovarian cancer symptoms.

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