Researchers at the University of Alabama Comprehensive Cancer Center have recently received a grant to study whether left over cancer cells from chemotherapy treatment spreads to other parts of the body.
UAB researchers say the resulting altered DNA may be the factor that activates the spread of living cancer cells to distant locations in the body – a deadly process called metastasis – through a specific molecular pathway.
Metastasis is the No. 1 cause of cancer recurrence and treatment failure.
The UAB study acknowledges that dead cancer cells from chemotherapy can cause the spreading of cancer and metastasis.
The research leader, Katri Selander, M.D., Ph.D., states that there is a possibility that “by killing cancer cells with chemotherapy we inadvertently induce DNA structures that make surviving cancers cells more invasive.” Therefore, this may be the factor that activates the spread of living cancer cells to distant locations in the body – a deadly process called metastasis – through a specific molecular pathway.
It is commonly acknowledged and understood by holistic practitioners that in the short term, chemotherapy has very limited effectiveness in most cases. But even in those cases where it is, the cancer is likely to metastasize into a more devastating type of cancer that is resistant to any type of treatment. This research gives a scientific explanation as to why that is true.
This research is essentially important for people dealing with cancer in dogs. It is one of the reasons why at least 80% of dogs on chemotherapy only survive for up to 2 years. Even if the tumor or cancer is in remission for a short period after this type of treatment, when it returns, there is nothing more that can be done.
Chemotherapy is considered successful if a dog survives for 8 months or more. This means if you are told a particular treatment is 50% successful, 50% of dogs on that treatment will not even survive for 8 months.And this study suggests, that chemotherapy alters DNA to make the cancer return more rapidly by spreading the disease through the dead cancer cells that the chemotherapy, itself, has produced.
What this research means for you is that whether the chemotherapy you treat your dog with is Palladia, Carboplatin, Chlorambucil, Cisplatin, Dexamethasone, Doxorubicin, Vincristine, or any other chemotherapeutic agent, chances are that the toxicity of these drugs will promote metastasis.
In Dog Cancer: The Holistic Answer I explain the protocol that I used to extend my dog, Fergie’s life much longer than could have been done with chemotherapy. They’re scientifically proven holistic treatments that are less invasive, less expensive, and don’t pose the risks of metastases that chemotherapeutic agents do.
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