Naturopaths role in treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer care

My husband is getting supplemental support from our Naturopath while he is being treated with Folfironox. We get high dose IV Vitamin C and vitamins / supplements to address his bodies nutritional deficiences.

I don't know what a truly alternative treatment would look like, but I imagine there would be a heavy focus on detox, supplements, nutrition and exercise.

I would recommend that you read the book "How to Starve Cancer" written by Jane McClelland who is now an over 20 year cancer survivor. It is a lot of excellent information in it and can give you additional tools in your tool kit to add to chemotherapy.

I get very confused on this entire issue based on my regular scanning of research reports and books when it comes to diet and cancer. I'm reading "The Metabolic Approach to Cancer" now (given to me as a gift from a cancer survivor [not pancreatic]), one of many nutrition/healing books I've come across.

First, there are research reports that seem to indicate certain vitamins/supplements can interfere with the efficacy of certain chemo products. So, "whatever" your beliefs or philosophy your team "needs to know" what your are eating, your supplements and your honest activity level. Don't obfuscate!

Second, (as an example) in one research project, engineered PDAC mice were starved of glucose (think Keto Diet) and circulating cancers cells pretty much all died (yay!) -- but so did some of the mice that developed a fatal, unrecoverable muscle disease that required steroids to live. Then, there was a recent report that seems to show that diabetic pancreatic cancer patients have statistically better outcomes and respond better to chemo treatments. Since I don't have access to the actual papers (just the summaries, commentaries, etc.) the "specific" tumor types (think KRAS G12?, BRAC1), patient age, stage, location, co-comorbidities, etc. aren't indicated and I don't have access to the underlying data collection specs, I don't know what to think of this conflicting information.

This is just a teeny-tiny drop of all the research done in the last year. There are countless microbiome and bacteria studies being published, like comparing mouth or poop bacteria of PDAC patients to the general public and finding different bacteria for the PDAC crowd. This is a growing field of research, especially at universities around the world.

Researchers are looking at "everything" these days to figure out why some people survive and others do not. With the new customized targeted therapies being developed, they are frantically searching to learn why some respond to immunotherapy and others fail. I recently came across an interesting graphic that showed the amount of money, research grants, etc. that was being poured into pancreatic cancer and KRAS research over the last seven years and it has been nothing less than amazing. We are finally on the map! The last thing I'd like to mention here is that there is a ton of research and research dollars going into nutrition and supplement investigation (yes, Chinese medicine, too. Check out how much of the research is being contributed from Asia -- a lot!).

So, what am I doing? Ha, ha. Eating my veggies as always, getting a ton of exercise, sunlight and attempting to stay positive while I comb through the "cure" books and scientific research. A friend of mine just passed from PDAC. Younger, an amazing athlete (think "walking muscle"), who ate the healthiest foods, had the most positive outlook on life, but had no symptoms until it spread to so many organs they weren't sure where to start. She had the best neoadjuvant chemo, but her cancer did not respond. Why? Would Turkey Tail mushrooms have made a difference? Despite my anger and grief at her passing, I take solace knowing that right now, there are a few thousand people huddled in labs around the world trying to save us and those who will walk our path in the future. So now, I'll finish my oatmeal loaded with bananas to begin my day and follow this thread of ideas, hoping I started today with a beneficial meal and pray I'm not struck with paralysis as to what prepare for the next meal.

Chin up everyone -- there are thousands out there working for us!

I get very confused on this entire issue based on my regular scanning of research reports and books when it comes to diet and cancer. I'm reading "The Metabolic Approach to Cancer" now (given to me as a gift from a cancer survivor [not pancreatic]), one of many nutrition/healing books I've come across.

First, there are research reports that seem to indicate certain vitamins/supplements can interfere with the efficacy of certain chemo products. So, "whatever" your beliefs or philosophy your team "needs to know" what your are eating, your supplements and your honest activity level. Don't obfuscate!

Second, (as an example) in one research project, engineered PDAC mice were starved of glucose (think Keto Diet) and circulating cancers cells pretty much all died (yay!) -- but so did some of the mice that developed a fatal, unrecoverable muscle disease that required steroids to live. Then, there was a recent report that seems to show that diabetic pancreatic cancer patients have statistically better outcomes and respond better to chemo treatments. Since I don't have access to the actual papers (just the summaries, commentaries, etc.) the "specific" tumor types (think KRAS G12?, BRAC1), patient age, stage, location, co-comorbidities, etc. aren't indicated and I don't have access to the underlying data collection specs, I don't know what to think of this conflicting information.

This is just a teeny-tiny drop of all the research done in the last year. There are countless microbiome and bacteria studies being published, like comparing mouth or poop bacteria of PDAC patients to the general public and finding different bacteria for the PDAC crowd. This is a growing field of research, especially at universities around the world.

Researchers are looking at "everything" these days to figure out why some people survive and others do not. With the new customized targeted therapies being developed, they are frantically searching to learn why some respond to immunotherapy and others fail. I recently came across an interesting graphic that showed the amount of money, research grants, etc. that was being poured into pancreatic cancer and KRAS research over the last seven years and it has been nothing less than amazing. We are finally on the map! The last thing I'd like to mention here is that there is a ton of research and research dollars going into nutrition and supplement investigation (yes, Chinese medicine, too. Check out how much of the research is being contributed from Asia -- a lot!).

So, what am I doing? Ha, ha. Eating my veggies as always, getting a ton of exercise, sunlight and attempting to stay positive while I comb through the "cure" books and scientific research. A friend of mine just passed from PDAC. Younger, an amazing athlete (think "walking muscle"), who ate the healthiest foods, had the most positive outlook on life, but had no symptoms until it spread to so many organs they weren't sure where to start. She had the best neoadjuvant chemo, but her cancer did not respond. Why? Would Turkey Tail mushrooms have made a difference? Despite my anger and grief at her passing, I take solace knowing that right now, there are a few thousand people huddled in labs around the world trying to save us and those who will walk our path in the future. So now, I'll finish my oatmeal loaded with bananas to begin my day and follow this thread of ideas, hoping I started today with a beneficial meal and pray I'm not struck with paralysis as to what prepare for the next meal.

Chin up everyone -- there are thousands out there working for us!

This is so sad about your friend,,, Did she take Turkey Tail Mushrooms, by the way, during her chemo?
It is confusing, I agree.

I just mentioned Turkey Tail mushrooms because....well, when the doctor first spotted my tumor and was quite sure it was cancerous, I had many calls from friends offering support that often came with lots of advice. Maybe some who are reading this had similar experiences? Anyway, I had people who called and said, nope, it's not cancer. They find stupid stuff in corpses all the time. Don't bother with any more tests. Yep, that really happened. Then, I had numerous calls offering info on cancer cures. The most popular one was Turkey Tail mushrooms that they swore cured this woman's cancer. They read all about it on the internet -- even on YouTube! Others, advised me to take lots of Turmeric and I'll be cured. Since my chemo treatment, even had a Keto fan lambast me for my stupidity in causing my own cancer because I haven't lived my life on a Keto Diet; proclaimed that no one on the Keto Diet ever got cancer.

BTW, there are likely beneficial aspects to most of the "cures". Turkey Tail mushrooms have been touted for medicinal ingredients and there is now a new chemo drug incorporating derivatives from Turmeric they think might be more effective battling glioblastoma. Realistically, if eating a particular mushroom or eliminating four or five foods from a diet enabled a person to live a long and healthy cancer-free life, I "think" we would have a found a very simple solution to a very complex issue by now. Anyway, sure hope we make some progress against this disease. I'm not ruling anything out and very interested to hear about what others are doing. Personally, I approach the entire process cautiously and optimistically -- all while trying to keep down my stress level. Have gotten tons of advice to "just relax" too!