So I went to see Dr. Parmar of Langley Intergrated Health yesterday. I had been there once before in the summer and seen Dr. Gonzalis; that's where I first heard of chemo-sensitivity testing. They had suggested I start doing local hyperthermia (only available at the Langley Clinic) with my chemotherapy but when I asked Dr. Martin (my oncologist at the time) she didn't think it was a good idea. At that point, I wasn't really feeling super keen on the idea of going against what my doctor was telling me to do (not to mention it's really expensive as well).
Anyway, I went back there yesterday and met Dr. Parmar for the first time. He explained that he works with Dr. Klimo through his Lions Gate Clinic. He looked over my chemo-sensitivity results, talked with me about the recent PET scan results and suggested several things...
1) Start taking Artemisinin, which is a herb that Dr. Roehnish and Dr. Drazinski also suggested. It tested out at 35% effective on my chemo-sensitivity tests.
2) Start taking DCA; clinical trials are showing some success with this as well. However, if I start to experience neuropathy (tingling and numbness in fingers, toes etc) then I need to stop right away.
3) Start local hyperthermia but not until I can get a prescription from Dr. Klimo for Xeloda - Xeloda is a daily oral dose chemotherapy drug that I can take while I'm doing the other weekly chemotherapy. (It also tested out in the 30% range on my chemo-sensitivity results) Local hyperthermia can help with local recurrance and the spreading to the liver but not the bone.
(Dr. Parmar later called Klimo to get me the prescription so hopefully I can pick it up soon)
We also discussed the treatments available in Germany. Dr. Parmar has made several trips to Germany to visit the integrated cancer clincis over there and feels that the best treatment for me would be extreme whole body hyperthermia; this is not available in Canada or the US (as far as I can see). I've been trying to see if the Mexican clinics do it but haven't been able to get that info yet.
Dr. Parmar explained that for the metastases (spreading) that I have, the best treatment would be the extreme whole body hyperthermia. Basically, they raise your body temperative to 42 degrees and then start a low dose chemotherapy treatment. The idea is that the heat makes the cancer cells much more receptive to the chemotherapy. There is also some research showing that the high temperature itself may work to kill the cancer cells. Currently there are many clinical trials using hyperthermia taking place in North America.
I'm going to start looking into one of the clinics just outside of Frankfurt - Dr. Herzog has been doing the hyperthermia there for a long time and Dr. Parmar says that he is having very good success using it for cancer treatment.
Another thing that I haven't mentioned yet is that Dr. Roehnisch said that I really need to try to get into one of the clinical trials using PARP inhibitors - these are clinical trials that are going on right now, in Phase I, II and III and are showing really good results for triple negative breast cancer. I haven't had much time to do a lot of research on it yet but so far I haven't had any luck finding a clinical trial that is still recruiting. (Just thought I'd throw that out there in case someone knows someone who knows someone :o)
In the meantime, I will be starting chemotherapy with Dr. Klimo so I will have to travel to North Vancouver for treatment. I've been given the first two dates for my chemotherapy ~ Dec 24 and Dec 31 ~ nice way to start my Christmas and New Year ;)
Also, I've added a new page outlining the various vitamin and supplements I've been taking. It's a page link on the right hand side - if you want to check it out (just to see how completely rediculous it is)
Thank you to everyone who has been sending me messages and making donations. I feel so supported and love reading your thoughts, prayers and positive words. I wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy New Year!!
xoxoxoxo
JL
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