And more, from Ralph
Moss. . .
Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D. Weekly CancerDecisions.
com
Newsletter #331 03/09/08
OVERCOMING THE ADVERSE EFFECTS OF RADIATION TREATMENT
FOR CANCER
As readers of this newsletter are probably well aware, the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) increasingly approves cancer drugs without
requiring that they be shown to prolong life. Indeed, FDA's approval
standards have now become so lenient that in most instances the
manufacturer of a drug only has to demonstrate that in clinical trials
the drug performs better than a placebo in order to be confident of a
smooth passage through the approval process.
But readers are perhaps less aware of the fact that some kinds of cancer
treatment have become the standard of care without ever having been
evaluated in clinical trials. Many forms of radiation treatment, for
example, have simply been "grandfathered in," - i.e., accepted by
default largely on the basis of having been around for a long time.
While few would dispute that radiation does have a useful role in the
treatment of cancer, the fact remains that in many instances the
relative merits of different kinds of radiation treatment, the limits of
its usefulness and the extent of its effectiveness have never been
clearly established through clinical trials. This has led to a situation
where on the one hand the treatment is almost universally available, yet
on the other hand there is very little solid evidence comparing the
effectiveness of radiation to various other treatment approaches.
The lack of clear and unequivocal information regarding the question of
exactly what benefit radiation treatment confers on cancer patients has
been a longstanding concern of mine. For the past year we have been
working on a series of evaluative reports on the use of radiation in the
treatment most of the common types of cancer. The first of this series,
"Radiation and the Treatment of Breast Cancer," is already available.
To order scroll down to the end of this newsletter or click or go to:
http://www.cancerdecisions.com/mrstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=81&products_id=605
Another report, "Radiation and the Treatment of Prostate Cancer," will
be released within the next few weeks. Over the coming months we will be
releasing more of these individual, disease-specific reports as they
become available.
We have also written a report on the interaction of radiation with
antioxidants "Do Antioxidants Interfere with Radiation Treatment for
Cancer?" To order, scroll down to the bottom of this newsletter or click
or go to the following link at:
http://www.cancerdecisions.com/mrstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=81&products_id=606
One aspect of radiation therapy that is often overlooked is its capacity
to cause sometimes debilitating adverse effects. Patients going through
radiation treatment for cancer are seldom adequately forewarned about
the unpleasant aspects of treatment, nor told about its capacity to
cause long-term harm. Neither are patients typically given nearly enough
practical information on how to combat the unpleasant side effects of
treatment.
We have now written a practical guide, Overcoming the Adverse Effects of
Radiation Therapy, explaining the common negative effects of radiation
and how to overcome them. This report will be of immediate value to all
patients who are going through radiation treatment or trying to recover
from it. As naturopathic physician Daniel Rubin, ND, FABNO, of
Scottsdale, AZ, has commented:
"In this report, Ralph Moss demonstrates a global understanding of the
mechanisms and pitfalls of radiation therapy. While the benefits of
radiotherapy are often discussed, its pitfalls are less well known but
can potentially cause harm to people with cancer. It is here that Moss's
report demonstrates its true utility: as a guide for those interested in
both preventing and treating the unpleasant side effects of
radiotherapy. For such people, Overcoming the Adverse Effects of
Radiation Therapy is a must-read."
To order this report, as well as others in our Cancer Decisions series,
please click or go to:
http://www.cancerdecisions.com/mrstore/index.php