Morag Currin, author of Oncology Esthetics, A Practitioner’s Guide.

If you’re going through cancer treatments, you’re probably craving a massage, a light facial, or some other restoring spa treatment. Something to help you relax and de-stress, right? But you know you need to find a therapist experienced with cancer patients, and sometimes that’s easier said than done.

One woman has set out to change that.

“It’s very important to have specific training in oncology esthetics if you’re going to work with cancer fighters and survivors,” says Morag Currin, La, CMLT, and pioneer of the Clinical Oncology Esthetics (COE) certification for licensed estheticians. “Why would you work on someone if you don’t know what the disease is about? Even if you’re intent is good, you may touch them or massage them in the wrong way. You might not know what a port is, or how to respond to hair loss. You must know what you’re doing from a safety perspective.”

We’ve spoken about the benefits of massage in former posts. Though many cancer centers and wellness spas now provide massages, facials, reflexology, and other spa treatments to help relieve pain and calm anxiety, many still lack therapists who are truly knowledgeable.

“In countries like South Africa and Australia,” says Morag, “estheticians go to school for two-to-four years. In North America, esthetic education is very poor. But the industry is growing in a number of different ways. We have new medical spas these days, and we have studies showing the benefits of spa treatments for cancer patients. Demand is rising, and there is a very real interest in additional education from a liability aspect.”

Indeed, if an esthetician performs a procedure on a cancer patient and causes harm, he could be at risk of a law suit. Further, as more and more people with cancer and other medical conditions seek alternative treatments, estheticians are finding themselves unprepared. Most of all, however, Morag says that many therapists out there have a great desire to help, and want to know how to do it right.

“I’ve had an amazing response,” she says, regarding her oncology esthetics awareness training. “People write to me and tell me that they’ve been looking for this type of training for a long time. These are people who are called to the healing path, and have a deep desire to touch and to restore. Some are nurses working in hospitals or medical spas, who want to move from working just with equipment to direct contact with patients. There’s a compassion driving them, as it drives me.”

Challenged with a hearing disability, Morag admits to being “in tune” with others suffering from disabilities and disease, and understands their fight to overcome and get on with life. “In my trainings, I’ve had survivors tell their stories, and they get very emotional. I stand behind them, stroke them, and tell them to wait, to refrain from talking for a moment, and I move on to the next person. When they’re ready, they speak, and then they know they’ve been heard.”

If you feel you’ve been called to work in this field, or if you are an esthetician wishing to increase your knowledge of oncology massage and other treatments, you owe it to yourself to register for Morag’s training course. You’ll gain an understanding of cancer, cancer therapies, and the lymphatic system, and receive invaluable instruction in oncology massage, infection control, product choices, treatments and equipment safe for cancer patients and much more. You’ll emerge with a certification that will give you a greater sense of confidence in your abilities, and your customers a greater sense of trust in you.

“Something inside them is saying, ‘I want to touch and I want to heal,’” says Morag. Will you heed that call?

To register for Morag’s course or for more information, please visit her website.

“We would finish a landscape project for someone,” Nathan says, “and we’d be cleaning up when they would come home and see the pond or the fountain or whatever we had done for them, and nine times out of ten they’d drop everything to focus on this new space and just be with their families and with nature. Instantly, all their cares were gone.”

Curious, Nathan researched the effect of water and nature on healing, and found “there’s an actual link to the sights and sounds of water and the release of chemicals in the body that act as stress relievers.” He dug into the subject a little more and found that medical communities have started incorporating water into their environments, from artwork on building walls to peace-promoting landscaping around treatment areas. However, he found that most of these spaces weren’t maximizing the potential benefits. “It was more about aesthetics and not enough about how it could really help people to relax.”

Meanwhile, Nathan’s good friend, Bill, was going through cancer. Diagnosed with leukemia only three weeks after losing his 24-year-old son to brain cancer, Bill was fighting hard, and experiencing the usual ups and downs of treatment. “He needed something to take his mind off what he was going through,” Nathan says. Why not a pond in his own back yard? “I wanted to give him a spot where he could just go and be.”

After Bill’s enthusiastic response to the completed project, Nathan started thinking about other cancer patients. “I felt I was being called to find a way to provide this for other people,” he said. A few handwritten notes and a couple meetings later, Nathan had started a foundation called River of Hope. “We had a 30-minute TV show produced and aired on the four-year anniversary of Bill’s diagnosis. From there we started working on ways to keep building.”

Unfortunately, while River of Hope continued to grow, Bill contracted a serious infection, from which he never recovered. A few weeks before passing away, he encouraged Nathan to hang onto his dream. “He told me—‘You have to keep doing this. It’s the only thing that gave me peace in my last few weeks.’”

Bill’s words encouraged Nathan to work even harder providing natural retreats for cancer patients. So far, he’s planning six new projects in his hometown of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and hopes to eventually expand from residential areas to community parks that incorporate nature, water, and other forms of integrative medicine. “We want to raise awareness about this disease,” Nathan says, “and how it affects not just patients, but everyone in their lives—families, friends, and communities.”

Nathan says he’s found it particularly rewarding how, even after a cancer patient has passed away, the family still gathers around the ponds and fountains to share memories and quiet moments. “I would go over to see how things were going and they would just be sitting out there talking about memories, using it as a gathering place for their own healing. It’s just so powerful. It goes beyond what I ever thought it could be. For the patients, it’s a way to escape and reflect on what they’re going through. For the families, it’s a way to connect.”

If you have someone you think would benefit from one of Nathan’s landscape retreats, please visit his website and submit a nomination. There is no charge to the patient as the landscaping is supported through Nathan’s fundraising efforts and from corporate and personal donations and partnerships. You can also donate through his website here.

“My ultimate goal is to encourage more people to go out and find ways to help support quality of life for those who are going through cancer. There are so many ways people can help others in their communities.”

Have you found water and nature to be helpful in your cancer journey? Please share your story.

Written by Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie, two environmental advocates from Canada, the book chronicles the authors’ experiences when they took matters into their own hands and exposed themselves to products we all use on a daily basis. Choosing themselves for guinea pigs, they spent a week in a condo, surrounded with typical sources of contaminants like personal-care products, canned foods, and stain-resistant clothing and furniture. Then they conducted blood and urine tests to find out the effects on their bodies.

At the April 6 webinar, Rick Smith (also Executive Director of Environmental Defense in Canada) will read from the book and discuss with Campaign for Safe Cosmetics representatives the chemicals found in products like hand soap, toothpastes, deodorants, and of course, rubber ducks. He’ll go over the findings from his and Bruce’s experiments, and will offer tips for how you can protect yourself, your family, and the environment.

If you have a phone and a computer with Internet access and want to learn more about this topic from someone who’s truly experienced it, go to this site and sign up. You’ll receive the call-in info and URL via an e-mail message.

“Using a variety of test methods,” says Colleen Mondor of The Booklist, “the authors determined individual ‘body burdens,’ or the toxic chemical load we carry. The legacy of our chemically addicted society is not just all around us, but also inside us and it is killing us.”

If you attend this webinar, please write in and let us know what you think!

According to the F.A.C.T. website, four of these people had been diagnosed with cancer, and the fifth with a severe case of Lyme disease. All have outlived their diseases, between 15 and nearly 40 years so far. They are part of a group of survivors who sought guidance from Ruth Sackman, past-president of F.A.C.T., and her book, Rethinking Cancer, published in 2003.

Amazon reviewer Gordon Ledford says of that book, “Traditional medicine offers three choices: Surgery (I had 57 “places” removed before I said, ‘Enough is enough!’); Chemotherapy (who really benefits from a destroyed immune system?); and Radiation (which actually CAUSES cancer). I highly recommend this book plus The China Study by Collin Campbell. These two books have changed my life for the better. I am healthy once again, I have more energy than when I was in my 30′s, I sleep better (the body heals, primarily, during restful sleep), and I enjoy life with no fear of cancer any longer.”

Another reviewer from Maryland agrees: “Ruth Sackman is among this century’s most diligent and authentic health pioneers swimming against the tide to get the word out that cancer is a degenerative disease at whose root is a sick immune system that just said, ‘OK, I quit.’”

Sackman doesn’t strive to go against the advice of physicians. In fact, she advises readers to work with a qualified doctor to manage their illness, but to include nutritional and immune-boosting therapies. The new documentary takes alternative therapies a step further, examining the lives of those who sought out other ways of dealing with their illnesses, some after conventional therapies failed, and some after surgery or diagnosis. It includes an interview with Sackman, as well as disscussions with two physicians (one an oncologist) about the results experienced by the people documented. Types of cancer covered include renal cell carcinoma, breast cancer, and bone and lymph cancer.

What is F.A.C.T.? According to their site, a non-profit organization that supports non-toxic, biologically sound approaches to cancer prevention and treatment. “F.A.C.T.’s goal is to educate practitioners and patients about a different concept of cancer and other chronic degenerative disease in the hope that the public will gain an understanding of all viable medical options.” Sackman co-founded the organization after watching her daughter suffer through chemotherapy and eventually succumb to leukemia, and spent nearly 40 years of her life helping cancer patients return to healthy lives. F.A.C.T. advocates a balanced diet of whole, preferably organic foods, detoxification, hormonal balance, stress management, and optimal functioning of all body organs and glands.

The choices these people made may not be for everyone, but they do get you thinking. “Our goal is really to educate the public about alternative cancer treatments,” said F.A.C.T. vice president Jim Oakar. “We want to be a hub of information for people seeking other methods.”

“I’m not anti-medicine,” adds Dr. Sheryl Leventhal, a former New York oncologist featured on the film. “I try to get to the roots of problems and fix the roots.”

If you’re interested in watching this film, you can get it at Food Matters TV.

Have you seen this film? What did you think?

For Meaghan Edelstein, the answers are “keep fighting” and “reach out to help others.” Diagnosed with stage 3B cervical cancer in February 2007, she wasn’t given much hope for survival. For two months prior, doctors insisted her symptoms were caused by stress. When they finally realized what was going on, they thought it was too late.

“After dragging herself to the emergency room and having a CT scan performed,” says Meaghan’s boyfriend, Bryan Power, “they basically told her, ‘Call your friends and family. You have cervical cancer.’ They didn’t expect her to survive.”

Fortunately, Meaghan was accepted into the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. “They saved her life,” Bryan says. “You could see they actually cared.”

After a grueling period of treatment and surgeries, Meaghan is recovering. According to Bryan and many of her friends and family, it’s a miracle. “She seems almost normal now, physically,” Bryan says. “They can’t claim she’s cancer free yet, but she has come a long way.”

Despite her long battle, Meaghan finished law school and passed the bar exam. After treatment, however, she no longer wanted to be a lawyer. She blogged about her experience and began connecting with other cancer fighters and survivors. She realized many needed help they weren’t getting, so she created a new organization called “Spirit Jump.” The mission? Raise the spirits of men, women, and children battling cancer.

“This is a program that connects those in need to those who want to help,” Bryan says. “If someone has cancer or some other debilitating disease, they can go to our website and sign up as a ‘jumpee.’ If someone wants to help, they can sign up as a ‘jumper.’ There are no mandatory requirements. We simply give people a way to help other people, and the response has been fantastic!”

Spirit Jump sends out regular e-mails detailing the stories of registered jumpees. Jumpers respond as they wish. Most send cards, and some even create homemade gifts. The point is to let fighters know that someone cares.

“When I was going through treatment,” Meaghan says, “the things that got me through were the cards, flowers, and little gifts people would send. Cancer can be a really lonely experience. I was lucky in that I had family and friends to support me, but many people don’t have that. I wanted to change that.”

Meaghan and Bryan

To increase it’s outreach, Spirit Jump started a new program called “Cards 4 Cancer” day, scheduled to occur on April 10th. “People are collecting uplifting cards and will deliver them to cancer centers around the world,” Bryan says. “We thought it would be a great way to reach out on a bigger scale.”

Bryan was right. Already over 800 have signed up for the day. Many are putting teams together and having card-making parties, with several planning on delivering hundreds of cards! Participants in the U.S., Germany, Switzerland, England, Brazil, and more are planning to help, with many schools getting in on the act. (You can see pictures of some of the cards on Facebook.) Bryan says he and Meaghan never expected such a large response, but they’re excited and plan to continue the event in the future.

“The magic of this is that people can put the time into it, then really see the impact of their efforts,” Bryan says. “We’re not just tossing money into some unseen pot.”

Meaghan agrees. “My experience gave me a gift, really,” she says. “I’m now able to relate to and touch a lot of other people because of it. I want to inspire others to fight, and to never give up. So many doctors wouldn’t listen to me when I was having symptoms, and when they finally diagnosed me they gave me little hope. Through Spirit Jump and Cards 4 Cancer day, we want to tell people—don’t give up. People care. We care.”

If you want to participate in Cards 4 Cancer day on April 10, please go to Cards4Cancer.org.

Heidi Floyd, breast-cancer survivor, and her son, Noah.

Breast cancer was in her family. Her mother had passed away when she was only in her 40s. So she knew she was at risk—but she never expected to be diagnosed while she was pregnant.

Her name is Heidi Floyd, and today she serves as Breast Cancer Development Ambassador for the Very Bradley Foundation, traveling the nation raising money for breast cancer research. But when she was diagnosed, she was working in IT sales, and didn’t know where to turn. “The first oncologist I spoke to didn’t know how to treat a pregnant patient,” she says. “He told me my options were to terminate the pregnancy, or carry the baby to term while not addressing the cancer.”

Heidi’s cancer was aggressive, and growing fast. An “estrogen-fed” tumor, it was actually thriving in the estrogen-rich environment of her pregnant body. To not treat it would leave her with low odds of survival—and potentially leave her unborn baby (and three beautiful daughters) without a mother. Fortunately, Heidi was working for a company who had just made a large donation to the Indiana University Simon Cancer Center, where researchers study the latest in breast cancer treatment. Heidi’s boss recommended she get in touch with the center.

“My other doctors had been in tears talking to me, as they didn’t know what to do,” Heidi says. “This oncologist was calm. He had treated dozens of pregnant women before. He reassured me that while treatment would be difficult for me, it would not be as difficult for my baby. He showed me other children he had helped take care of. They were healthy. They were fine. I had hope!”

Heidi started treatment, with a baby growing in her belly. As the doctor said, it was difficult. She couldn’t take anti-nausea medications, or drugs to help stabilize her white blood count, as these would be harmful to the fetus. “I would always get chemo on Friday, and then Monday I would go in for an ultrasound. They checked my baby constantly.”

Meanwhile, Heidi worked full time for Vera Bradley. “The women there were with me during my whole treatment. They sat with me, held my hand, made meals for my family. It’s a very rare company. They don’t just say they care, they really do.”

Noah, Heidi’s son, was taken by C-section a month premature. Heidi desperately needed radiation, and no kind of radiation is safe for the fetus. Fortunately, the baby was fine. “His immune system was compromised, because mine was compromised,” Heidi says, “so I wasn’t able to be with him for the first few days. It seemed far too long!” After the birth, Heidi went through additional surgeries, including a partial mastectomy. When asked how she made it through it all, she credits her son, and her faith. “I had something really worth fighting for in my mind—my unborn baby. Plus, my faith kept me going. I’m a Christian person, and I realized I, personally, could do nothing about this situation. I had to turn it over to God, and to the doctors, whom I trusted, and let it ride.”

For other women facing similar challenges, Heidi emphasizes the importance of finding a doctor with whom you can feel comfortable. “You’re basically handing this person your life,” she says, “and asking them to fix it. You have to be positive and strong as you fight through this—so you have to have someone you feel has your back. I met a woman in California who had to go through 4 doctors before she found one who would treat her while she was pregnant. Not all doctors are on the same level. You have to feel comfortable and trust your instincts. Everything depends on it.”

Today, Noah is a happy and healthy 4-year-old little boy. In August of 2010, Heidi will have reached her 5-year mark. She no longer works in the IT sales department, but at the request of her boss, is one of three people who promotes the Vera Bradley Foundation for breast cancer research. “Our money goes to research, period,” she says. “The Vera Bradley Corporation supports services for breast cancer patients, but the foundation strictly supports research.”

Heidi finds great satisfaction in her work now, as she can offer women hope. “So many times, when fundraising, we’re talking about loss. How someone lost their mother, their grandmother, their daughter. I’m able to offer a different perspective, as my battle resulted not only in my life being saved, but the life of my son. This little boy is here because of the research we have supported. He is the outcome.”

What would Heidi tell other moms diagnosed with cancer? “You’re stronger than you think you are. Don’t be afraid. This is the best time in your life to prove that someone else is more important than you are. If you’re fighting for the baby, great. If you’re fighting for someone in the family, great. Fight for someone, and don’t stop.”

To learn more about the Vera Bradley Foundation, go to their website. To learn more about Heidi, her family, and her fight against breast cancer, see “On the Road with the Vera Bradley Foundation.”

“There’s a lot of time with nothing to do,” said Yolanda Toth, adult recreation center director at Sloan Kettering. “After you’ve counted all the holes in the ceiling of your room…and watched enough television, you’re pretty bored. And then you start thinking—what’s going to happen to me?”

Fortunately, Sloan Kettering has a place “where everybody knows your name,” so to speak, but there’s no alcohol involved. Called the “Cancer Lounge,” or recreation center, it’s where cancer patients can go to enjoy themselves for awhile, and forget about everything they’re going through. Pool, poker, pottery, and several other leisure-time activities go on here, all to give patients a place where they can talk to each other and feel at home.

“It’s enjoyable here,” said Mr. Gugliotta, a chemical engineer from Long Island. “And it’s where you can talk about what’s inside you, because it’s inside everyone here.”

The idea is catching on, though probably slower than most cancer patients would like. It’s called “recreational therapy,” and basically means that activities such as games, arts and crafts, music, social interactions, humor, even learning new things can all help a cancer patient feel more in control of his/her life situation. “By giving patients opportunities to create, laugh, and play,” says dukehealth.org, “the program puts a sense of choice and control back in their hands.” A study by the National Cancer Institute, in fact, is currently examining how well animal-assisted therapy and recreational therapy works in relieving distress in cancer patients undergoing treatment for pain.

The NIH Clinical Center also offers recreational therapy, including programs on relaxation, personal fitness, animal-assisted therapy, healthy cooking, arts and crafts, yoga and meditation, and skin care and makeup. But unfortunately, not enough medical centers have comparable areas where cancer patients can go to just relax and be themselves. Many researchers and recreational therapists are trying to change that.

“Recreational therapists are in a position to capitalize on the free and expressive nature of leisure-based interventions to facilitate spiritual growth and development that may aid in recovery from illness,” says Dr. Diane Groff, Assistant Professor in the Department of Exercise and Sport Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In Dr. Groff’s research with breast cancer patients, she writes, “Many women spoke of how having opportunities to be creative during recreation therapy was an important step in beginning a new healthy life.”

If you find yourself enduring long hospital stays as part of your cancer treatment, consider taking part in whatever recreational therapies the facility offers. Ask your doctors, nurses, and oncologists for recommendations. If there is no current recreational therapy program at your medical center, consider changing to another medical center, or engaging in a recreational plan of your own. Ask friends and family to bring in materials for crafts you may be interested in, take lessons with a teacher to learn a new musical instrument or creative skill, or request a deck of cards or video game. Even when you’re in the hospital, if you can find a way to enjoy some of the time spent there, you’re more likely to get better, faster.

Does your medical center have a robust recreational therapy program? Let us know.

Photo courtesy meddygarnet via Flickr.com.

In addition to some of the other brands we’ve mentioned in this post (including Burt’s Bees, Jason Natural Products, and Avalon Organics), we’ve come upon a new player in the game with a healthy hand of good sense.

“I’ve always had a bad feeling about putting something on my face that contained synthetic fragrances, lots of alcohols or a compound that there is no explanation for,” says Michael Lamb, co-founder of jeune d’âge organics. “We put this company together so we could offer a better solution to people concerned about chemicals.”

“When I turned 50,” says Michael’s business partner, Daniel DeLave, “I knew I wasn’t going to get any younger, and I started looking for antioxidants in a skin care product. When I found some halfway decent products, they were going to cost me more than I was willing to spend. A guy is not going to spend over $200 a month.”

Finding a gap in the market for affordable, natural skin care that would have real anti-aging effects, Mike and Daniel started researching ingredients. “We wanted antioxidants,” Daniel says, “but we wanted organic and natural ingredients, not these chemicals we couldn’t even pronounce. So we narrowed down our ingredient list and went to a lab and said, ‘This is what we want.’”

“I have suffered from minor skin irritations for years,” says Mike, “I didn’t want alcohols in the formulas, I didn’t want parabens, and I didn’t want artificial fragrances.” When his dad started battling skin cancer, Mike was even more determined that his skin-care line would contain no potentially damaging ingredients.

Launched earlier this year, jeune d’âge (young of age) boasts a complete line of natural/organic skin care (with ingredients transparently listed and explained on their web site), including a cleanser with rooibos tea and jojoba oil; toner with tea tree oil and sea kelp; face and body lotion with shea butter and green tea; and the flagship product, the Anti Aging Serum, which comes in single-dose application packs to protect the delicate ingredients from oxidation. “The antioxidants have to be protected from the light, heat, and air,” Daniel says. “It makes no sense to put these delicate ingredients in a formula, then open the jar and expose them to the elements, oxidizing the very ingredients that are suppose to neutralize the free radicals on your skin.”

“By using individual packets,” Mike says, “we don’t worry about the anti-oxidants oxidizing, and the product remains fresh without synthetic preservatives. We just couldn’t find a reliable airless pump.”

“The best part?” says Gouldylox Reviews, a fan of jeune d’âge. “It comes in stable, single-use packages that are incredibly generous. The product is also vegan-friendly and comes in a nifty box that can be planted to produce wildflowers.”

Daniel and Mike have also reached their goal of producing a natural product that’s affordable. Unlike competitor products that run $100 or more, jeune d’âge’s Anti-Aging Serum is only $39.95, with refills for $10 less. “The market expects a higher price for a better product,” Mike says, “but we’ve taken out the distribution, and we sell through product representatives and directly, online, so we can keep costs down. We’ve received attractive offers to sell out to distributors, but that would defeat the purpose. We want to get natural, organic skin-care products out there to more people who need them.”

Though young, jeune d’âge is already getting involved in charitable organizations, and will be donating to the National Afterschool Association, and to cancer-awareness campaigns. “We didn’t originally intend to team up with cancer-awareness,” Mike says, “but as we built the brand, we realized it was a natural fit.” As Mike’s mom was recently diagnosed with bladder cancer, the issue has become even more important to him. “Lately, we’ve been sending products to organizations for free, and they’ve used them to raise money for pancreatic, ovarian, and breast cancer,” Mike says. “In some small way, we want to help out.”

If you want to try jeune d’âge Organics, please see their website at www.tobetterskin.com.

In addition to our beloved football players, we found some great companies and organizations willing to donate to this important cause—all they need is your help. You can treat yourself to some great products and help promote breast-cancer research at the same time. Do be careful, though. Whatever products you choose, be sure to “think pink”—ask how much of the purchase price goes to charity, and to which organization the donations are headed. Many companies are on the up and up, but some may “paint it pink” just to gain attention or extra sales. If you’re not sure, feel free to just donate directly to the charity or organization of your choice. We’ve included a few below.

E.L.F. Nail Polish in Bubble-Gum Pink: This formula is free of toluene, formaldehyde, and DBP. All profits from sales of this shade in October go to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
Sonia Kashuk Makeup Brush Set: You can find this one at target.com, a 4-piece travel-size makeup brush set. This company will donate 15% of the sales to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
Suki Exfoliate Foaming Cleanser and Sensitive Cleansing Bar: Proceeds from the salesof these products from the months of October and November will go towards Breast Cancer Action’s “Think Before You Pink” program, which strives to help reduce women’s exposure to toxic chemicals.
Afterglow Organic Lip Love Lipstick: Made with 100% natural ingredients, this product is creamy and moisturizing. The company is donating $2 for every lipstick sold to the Young Survival Coalition.
Solano Pink Power to Prevent Blow Dryer: How’s this for cute? Part of the proceeds to go Living Beyond Breast Cancer.

Organizations:

• Breast Cancer Research Foundation
• Susan G. Komen for the Cure
• American Cancer Society
• Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (a national coalition of nonprofit health and environmental organizations working to encourage the personal-care industry to phase out the use of chemicals related to cancer, birth defects, and other serious health concerns)
• Think Before You Pink (watchdog organization calling for more accountability by companies that take part in breast-cancer fundraising)
• Environmental Working Group (EWG) (uses the power of public information to help protect public health, particularly from harmful ingredients in products and the environment)
• Breast Cancer Action (national education and activist organization that inspires change to end the breast cancer epidemic)
• Cancer Prevention Coalition (nationwide coalition of experts in cancer prevention and public health, who fight together to reduce cancer rates through education, advocacy, and public policy initiatives)

Do you know of any great organizations or companies helping out with breast-cancer research this month? Please let us know.

Photo courtesy Cheryl’s Art Box via Flickr.com.

Would you be surprised to learn that such a treatment—that does all these things—is out there, available today, with thousands of clinical trials behind it, and yet we don’t have it here in the United States?

It’s called “heavy-ion cancer therapy,” first proposed in the 1950s by scientists at U.C. Berkley. Unfortunately, the tides of medical research turned and the method was forgotten until the 1990s, when researchers in Japan and Germany picked it up again and started perfecting it for treating cancerous tumors. They’re currently treating and curing people with survival rates at or above our current rates—but without the extensive side effects. Right now. Today. It’s happening.

But not in America.

We do have something similar. At five locations throughout the U.S., doctors are using FDA-approved focused proton energy to radiate cancer tumors. However, heavy-ion therapies are able to treat cancers that proton therapy cannot, because of their unique makeup and interaction in the body. Yet these therapies are not approved by the FDA, for lack of American research. (The FDA won’t accept Japanese or European-based research as part of their approval process, even though the studies are numerous and overwhelmingly successful.)

That means that thousands of American cancer patients who could be getting this promising treatment without suffering typical side effects will not have access to these therapies unless they go overseas.

One man is trying to change that.

His name is Jeff Chancellor, and he’s a very accomplished individual. He was Senior Research Engineer at Lockheed Martin, contributing to the success of three space-shuttle missions; he’s trained the crew and flight surgeons in space weather and medical physics; and he’s been a research scientist for the University of Houston, focusing on condensed matter and nuclear physics—to name a few of his achievements. But Jeff has a new passion today, one he hopes will do away with what he calls the sometimes “archaic” methods of cancer treatment: to bring the more humane, effective method of heavy-ion therapy to Americans.

“It should not be accepted that treatment of cancerous tumors may kill a person before the cancer does,” Jeff says. Yet that’s exactly what happened to one of his very close friends. Rick Cruz was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, which soon spread to his lungs and spine. He had a gloomy outlook for recovery. Still, after a hard bout with chemotherapy, tests demonstrated substantial improvement—the cancer was showing signs of retracting. Jeff thought his friend was on his way to being disease free. Then he got a call from Rick’s brother. Rick had gone into heart and lung failure. It was over. He was dead.

“He went from showing signs of recovery,” Jeff says, “to his body and organs shutting down from the abuse of chemotherapy. It wasn’t the cancer that killed him. It was the chemo.”

Stunned by the reality of today’s available cancer treatments, Jeff went into action. He learned about the research on heavy-ion radiation therapy, and made it his mission to bring those therapies to America. His goal—along with his new organization, the “Cancer Warriors Coalition”—is to raise enough money to establish a new center that would not only provide therapies to patients during the day, but would serve as a charged-particle research facility at night, where scientists would focus on finding new treatment methods (involving ion particles), discovering new ways to detect cancer at early stages, developing new devices for diagnostics and therapeutics, and testing of all the above.

“There’s no facility in America like this right now,” Jeff says. “We want to build a particle accelerator that will be used for treatments in the daytime, and for research at night. That way we can gather all the best doctors, scientists, and researchers under the same roof, and put any profits gained back into the machine and into research for cancer.”

We were a little confused about how this new therapy works, so we asked Jeff to explain it. “It’s similar to today’s x-ray radiation treatments,” he says, “except today’s radiation tends to dump all its energy at the surface of the skin and the surrounding tissues, before it gets to the tumor, significantly damaging all those tissues and potentially some internal organs. With carbon and other ions, the dose is very low, and it increases at a certain range, say at 14 cm below the skin’s surface. The energy and angle of the beam is dumped at the tumor site—with minimal damage to the skin or the surrounding tissues. Depending on the ion used, we can determine the energy level, how it will break down, and what the residual damage will be. Ideally, we can focus in on the tumor alone, and leave the rest of the body undamaged.”

Jeff says his center will be unique in experimenting with different types of ions for different types of cancers. Similar centers currently operating in Germany and Japan use only carbon ions, but he suspects other ions may prove more effective at treating various types of tumors. “You want something that’s precise, that will kill the tumor and localize the damage,” he says.

Jeff hopes for a Houston location for his center, but that’s hasn’t been determined yet. In the meantime, he’s asking for anyone who is able to donate: “The more we can raise privately through donations and grants, the less we have to rely on venture capitalist, and the purer we can keep our research goals.” FDA approval of heavy-ion therapy has been slow because of a lack of American research, and American research has been scarce because of a lack of funds to build such a particle accelerator as the one Jeff is proposing. However, with the help of organizations, philanthropists, government grants, donor programs, and especially, from concerned individuals, these treatments may soon come to light.

“We want people to realize there are options,” Jeff says. “We want cancer patients to be able to come to us and get treated without having to go through the horrible side effects of chemotherapy, radiation, or dangerous surgeries. We’re supposed to be the number-one country as far as medical treatment is concerned, yet other countries are offering better treatment because they’re focused on doing research that can be put to good use. There is a way to make a difference. We just have to get people excited about it.”

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