Practical Insights for Use of Homeopathy in Cancer Patients

Few homeopathic practitioners in the US and I suspect worldwide get to see a plethora of cancer cases – partly because of a paucity of good practitioners who understand cancer as the multivariate disease that it is, and partly due to the patient inability to know that there could be some benefits working with homeopathy, irrespective of their choice of conventional treatment options such as surgery, chemo and radiation therapy.

In my homeopathic practice, I have been blessed to have been trusted by patients with different kinds of cancer and in the last decade have been seeing a large increase of cancer cases.

I suspect that my past appointment as a scientific faculty at one of the oldest and well-respected comprehensive cancer centers in the country was probably responsible for initially attracting desperate patients afflicted by cancer to look for alternatives that can help get them better outcome.

The positive clinical responses in the initial cohort of patients possibly attracted more cancer patients to try homeopathy under my care. I am gratified to see that homeopathy along with the use of Se-methylselenocysteine (MSC), an amino acid, have helped give a better outcome to many of these patients afflicted by a worse prognosis with the stage of the disease.

MSC helps augment anticancer response of chemotherapy and or radiation therapy while protecting the normal healthy cells significantly from the treatment cytotoxicity such as hair loss, peripheral neuropathy etc.

The results in the cases enumerated here are supported by diagnostic, histopathology, biopsy reports and cancer markers in some cases.  All such reports are obtained at first case taking and then ongoing during and end of homeopathic/MSC treatment.

The judicious use of homeopathy and MSC with conventional anticancer approaches opted for by the individual patient has great promise to fight the scourge of cancer for the current and next generation.

As a classical homeopath the usual restriction of using 1-2 homeopathic remedies at one time in most disease conditions is often inapplicable in cancer cases due to the side effects of chemo and radiation therapy.

One is forced to use multiple remedies in order to provide immediate succor and a better long-term outcome to cancer patients in terms of an improved extended life span with longer disease free survival and an improved quality of life.

Almost singularly, I see unresolved past emotions surfacing as physical tumors and cancers, irrespective of the genetic susceptibility in the individual. Part of the resolution to a remission involves getting rid of this physical entrapment of subconscious reservoir of painful emotions and often surgical intervention allows for a sufficient window for homeopathy to act with the depleted vital force in sorting and resolving such deeper psychosomatic issues arising from their past and current life situation/s.

The use of MSC as a chemomodulator has been extensively reported ^[1-7] and documented earlier. I would recommend my readers to look up the literature listed in the reference in order to appreciate this further for a better comprehension.

MSC, an amino acid, is extremely well tolerated with no documented signs of toxicity besides garlicy breath. Normally it is available as 200 microgram caplets/tablets and can be easily ordered from Life Extension 5990 North Federal Highway Fort Lauderdale, FL 33308, USA for delivery outside of United States.

The protocol I recommend to my patients is using 4 caplets /tablets as a dose 4 times a day starting 5 days prior to start of chemo/radiation therapy and continuing on days of such conventional treatments and pausing it in between the treatment cycles, but restarting every time 5 days prior to the next treatment cycle.

I have listed 3 broad categories below: Homeopathy alone; Homeopathy + MSC with conventional approaches, and, Homeopathy in advanced cases for palliation. As is obvious, most patients chose to go the conventional route while working with homeopathy, at least in the cohort of patients seen by me in the US.

Category I – Homeopathy alone:

1.  April 2014 – 43yr Woman with Thyroid Cancer: CT scan March 2014 – 3.1 x 1.7 x 2.5 cm. FNA biopsy confirmed papillary carcinoma of thyroid which has >95% adults surviving past 10y. When I met her with the cancer, she appeared extremely distraught emotionally.

Despite being married to a supportive husband and having a newborn baby, she wanted to run away from the relationship and was even willing to abandon her child!!

She was born in the UK, had travelled through Europe and finally settled in the US. A very tubercular case indeed!! Her thyroid test showed everything was in the normal range except for thyroglobulin at 69.7 (normal range 2 – 23)

The rubrics were:

1. MIND – AILMENTS FROM – abused; after being
2. MIND – AILMENTS FROM – fear
3. MIND – AILMENTS FROM – abused; after being – sexually
4. GENERALS – CANCEROUS affections – Glands
5. EXTERNAL THROAT – LUMPS – Thyroid gland
6. SLEEP – POSITION – abdomen, on
7. SLEEP – POSITION – side; on – left side; on
8. EXTREMITIES – COLDNESS – Feet
9. GENERALS – SEASONS – winter – agg.
10. MIND – HELPLESSNESS; feeling of
11. GENERALS – FOOD and DRINKS – salt – desire
12. GENERALS – FOOD and DRINKS – sugar – desire
13. MIND – AILMENTS FROM – bad news
14. EYE – DISCOLORATION – red – Lids – Lower

She was prescribed Nat mur 200C split dose at night and 1M next day morning (the British homeopaths in the past called this the ‘Plussing method’ that can only be done with minerals to circumvent any aggravations).

5 days later she was to start Calc Flour 6X tissue salts thrice daily and Conium mac 3C twice daily. Also advised iodine supplement (Swanson) which is often the cause for thyroid anomalies when food is depleted of iodine and an individual does not consume iodised salt (I have been seeing many cases of young adults having thyroid issues because of using solely the Himalayan salt without kelp or any source of iodine!!).

Swelling improved by 25% in 30 days when Tuberculinum bov 1M split dose was given followed 2 days later with tissue salts Calcarea flour 6X  and Natrum mur 12X  along with gemmotherapy – Vaccinum vitis idea D1 15 drops twice daily in little water (swish of 10 seconds before gulping).

45 days later, a significant regression was noted on her CT scan dated July 2014: 2.7 x 1.7 x 2.2 cm. She later went into remission as confirmed by successive scan results and during the whole period had personally chosen not to pursue any conventional treatment and was purely under homeopathic care. Her emotions had calmed down and she separated from her spouse and moved on to another part of the country with her child.

2.  March 2011 – 43 y old with Stage I infiltrating lobular multi-focal carcinoma of the right breast: Was diagnosed in 2009. Cancer runs in her family with an aunt and 2 cousins fatally affected by breast cancer within 10 y of their being diagnosed despite following all conventional treatments suggested. She has accordingly decided to avoid any conventional approach and presented 2 yrs later at my office with the following rubrics:

1. CHEST – CANCER – Mammae – right
2. CHEST – CANCER – Mammae
3. MIND – FORSAKEN feeling
4. MIND – REMORSE
5. MIND – REPROACHING oneself
6. MIND – AILMENTS FROM – love; disappointed
7. SLEEP – POSITION – back; on
8. SLEEP – POSITION – knees – chest position; knee
9. MIND – FEAR – death, of
10. MIND – FEAR – responsibility
11. MIND – FEAR – alone, of being
12. MIND – CONSOLATION – agg.
13. GENERALS – FOOD and DRINKS – sweets – desire
14. GENERALS – FOOD and DRINKS – spices – desire
15. GENERALS – FOOD and DRINKS – fish – aversion
16. GENERALS – FOOD and DRINKS – salt – desire

In this case, surgery could have been a preferred conventional route to physically rid of the emotions of guilt trapped in her body that she found difficult to resolve despite being a meditator for years.

 

She had an alcoholic father while growing up, and what was later a long term trauma and origin of her guilt were 2 pregnancies that she terminated when she was a teenager.

She had earlier chosen to be with Ayurveda and energy healing and then decided to pursue homeopathy while continuing with her energy healer. Over the years, her disease has progressed slowly and though she is able to function independently, she has been unable to work for the last 2 y.

She has been given variously Carcinosinum, phytolocca, Viscum album D1, Conium and Sepia besides the tissue salts – Calc flour & Silicea 6x. Other remedies used intermittently were Ruta (for metastatic symptoms including possibly brain), Symphytum and Arnica (for pain, constriction and periosteum issues).

Malandrinum was used for scar tissues and cancer debris while Bufo was used for lymphatic swelling. Her dad died of bladder and prostate cancer in June 2016 when her health deteriorated extensively and it appeared that she may be having a brain metastasis, as her one side of the face had become droopy with the eyes and she almost lost her speech and hearing – all on the left side.

Additionally, she had vertigo, lost her appetite and often vomited and felt nauseous. I thought she would possibly succumb to her conditions and insisted that she do some diagnostic tests which she refused vehemently.

So all this while, she was treated symptomatically with indicated remedies to which she responded well. She also was severely jaundiced in the intermittent. Slowly she turned the corner and today her speech is back, she has got mobility and is able to eat and maintain her weight and does not have any significant speech deficit or vertigo issues although she has a catheter as she could not pass urine (it was found to be a possibly of a neurological origin with narrowing of the bladder and not directly cancer related).

Her main problem is not as much pain but mobility due to constriction in the chest area where the cancer has caused severe tissue regression as shown in Fig 1 from 15 months earlier.

In order for her to claim disability, she was forced to do diagnostic scans which indicates that the disease did progress loco-regionally but no signs of any current distant metastasis like brain was observed (though there was a possibility of a growth in the head of the pancreas, which was not pursued for further diagnosis by the patient).

Despite disease progression to chest wall and axillary adenopathy, she is still alive with her quality of life affected by some restricted mobility. She was conventionally advised hospice care 6 months back but she rarely feels the need for any pain killers or hospice care as of now. In summary, this case depicts that with homeopathy alone even in a serious cancer case with disease progression; one can possibly assist in extending patient survival with a reasonable quality of life.

3.  Jun 2016 – 72y Woman with Insomnia, grief and incipient cancer: A case in which the homeopathic treatment of her emotional conditions possibly resulted in a resolution of still undetected Stage I Papillary Serous Adenocarcinoma.

This individual was married with 2 sons and divorced 20 y back after being married for 20 y. One of her married sons with children committed suicide in 2012.  She has been never been well since and holds onto lot of grief while suffering from insomnia. She presented with the following rubrics:

1. MIND – WEEPING – telling – sickness; when telling of her
2. MIND – SIGHING
3. MIND – AILMENTS FROM – death of loved ones
4. MIND – AILMENTS FROM – mental shock; from
5. MIND – FEAR – alone, of being
6. MIND – FEAR – high places, of
7. STOMACH – HERNIA; HIATUS
8. FACE – ERUPTIONS – acne – rosacea
9. SLEEP – POSITION – side; on – right side; on
10. SLEEP – SLEEPLESSNESS
11. EXTREMITIES – PAIN – Lower limbs – Sciatic nerve
12. EXTREMITIES – RESTLESSNESS – Legs
13. GENERALS – FOOD and DRINKS – salt – desire

Ignatia amara 10M 2 doses 30 minutes apart was given and after 5 days was advised to start Nat mur 6x tissue salts to be taken twice daily. Follow-up 2 weeks later: Is able to sleep deep and for long almost throughout the day!!

Sciatica has improved as is also her restless leg symptoms. Interestingly, after taking Ignatia, she had developed uterine bleed which on further investigation on her insistence with her OBGyn was diagnosed as endometrial serous adenocarcinoma – stage I.

This has been my observation that a well indicated remedy will often allow emotional resolution and any corresponding physical pathology can unravel and heal. Carbo animalis 200C twice daily was prescribed at this stage.

She chose to do surgery followed by radiation during which she received Radium bromatum 200C twice daily. She is in remission since then and I still see her once a month. Her prognosis remains good as the cancer was detected at an early stage and also since the individual has started resolving the long term emotional issues of grief and shock through homeopathy.

Category II – Homeopathy with conventional treatment in cancer:

1.  46y F smoker – non small cell lung cancer with brain metastasis: She was first seen as an in-class patient brought in by another practitioner in my practitioner seminar in October of 2007 after being diagnosed in July 2005 with inoperable stage IIIB, non-small cell lung cancer involving the primary left lung (5 cm x 4.5 cm) and with right-sided mediastinal adenopathy that extended through the left supraclavicular area to her left neck.

She was a past smoker with a 30 y smoking history but no family history of  lung cancer. She was employed in a unit that was brought over by another company that was stripping it of all the assets while getting rid of employees – she being in the company for 20+ years, was not sacked but was forced to put in work equivalent for 3-4 people due to the ongoing retrenchment in the working force.

This made her feel extremely defeated frustrated and soon thereafter the cancer was detected. Prior to seeing me, she had received conventional chemotherapy and radiation with Cisplatinum/Gemcitabine concurrent with radical radiotherapy of 6,000 cGy in 30 fractions.

Her CT scans October 2007 and Feb 2008 indicated no tumour in the neck area and possibly remnant scar tissues in lung. Thus, the primary tumour seems to have responded to the chemo-radiation protocol but she developed progressively speech difficulty with motor deficits and weakness in her right arm.

Brain MRI done on Feb 2008 showed a 13 mm lesion in the grey/white junction high in the left frontal lobe and the conclusion was that of potentially resectable metastases with significant concern for post-operative motor deficits with an estimated 20% risk of brain damage from surgery – no Rx option was provided as she was told she failed therapy and should go for end of life hospice care.

When I saw her, she was hardly able to walk or talk and frankly was dying. To her consternation, I recommended that she goes back to her oncologist and get approved for gamma knife therapy for the brain metastasis, since I did not feel we have enough time-window in order for homeopathy to work.

Fortunately, this was approved and she had whole brain radiotherapy, followed with 3000 cGy in 10 fractions which was completed in Mar 2008 followed later by a single boost radiotherapy treatment with a gamma knife unit in April 2008. A post radiotherapy MRI in April, 2008 showed a single small foci measuring 7 mm. Her rubrics at presentation were:

1. Mind; ailments from; bad newws
2. Mind; proper; too
3. Mind; cares, full of
4. Mind; fear; alone, of being
5. Mind; fear; snakes, of
6. Mind; talking; sleep, in
7. Sleep; waking; night; midnight; after; 3h
8. Teeth; grinding; sleep agg, during
9. Rectum; inactivity of rectum
10. Stool; sheep dung, like
11. Generals; history, personal; tonsillitis, of recurrent
12. Generals; history, personal; bronchitis, of recurrent
13. Generals; family history of; alcoholism
14. Generals; food and drinks; cheese; desire

She was prescribed Kali c 200C thrice a week along with Ferrum phos 6x initially and later Ruta 6C with Calc phos 6X tissue salts twice daily. She went into remission in spring of 2009 as was confirmed by brain MRI (Feb 2010), a chest CT (Aug 2012) and a chest x-ray (October 2012).

She no longer needed to be seen by the oncologist. Till this day she continues to be in remission living a normal life. In contrast, this advanced disease normally has a very poor survival at 5 y.

2.  55 y female with stage 4 metastatic adenocarcinoma of the lungs to the liver and bone: This patient, a practicing dentist, came in worried as she has been told that she will not live longer and hence was contemplating getting a partner in her dental practice as she assumed she will be going downhill based on the prognosis given to her conventionally.

She has family history of cancer with her dad having died of esophageal cancer. She presented with the symptoms listed below. She was started on Phosphorous 30C bid, Ferrum phos 6x bid and Kali carb 200C once every 2 days.  Conventionally, she was put on Kadcyla (Trastuzumab, a monoclonal antibody, and Taxane) once every 3 weeks and so she was also put on the MSC protocol mentioned earlier.

Later on, she complained of her old recurring headaches which extended from neck to her head and was not amenable to any conventional medication – Silicea 12x tissue salts was prescribed and she was amazed to see that it took the edge off and even ameliorated the pain completely. As she mentioned in one of her emails: ‘I had a headache just about every day for almost 2 years. The doctors said it was sinus related yet nothing they recommended seemed to help. ‘Silicea has been amazing. I hardly get headaches anymore’

 

Chemotherapy can elevate liver enzymes ALT and AST that are involved in the detoxification of the cytotoxic drugs. Homeopathic Chelidonium in 3x or 6c is extremely potent in bringing the enxyme back to normal range, as was in this case.

Similarly, when the blood parameters like CBC etc. are affected due to chemotoxicity, China off 30C comes in handy in uplifting the blood counts to near normal. She responded well to the Kadcyla and homeopathy/MSC and has been also given Psorinum 15C one dose every 2-3 days in order to mount an anticancer response.

She says she has never felt better in her life, is able to tolerate the chemo without any adverse effects (such as hair loss or neuropathy) and is able to singlehandedly manage her dental practice.

Her recent reports confirm that many of her metastatic lesions are responding while many remain stable and she enjoys an excellent quality of life. We are hoping for a remission if she continues to respond to the chemo and homeopathy.

Normally in such cases of distant metastasis, the 5 y survival rate is around 6% while with homeopathy along with her current protocol, we can extend that to a significantly greater survival. Interestingly, she has had no hair loss or any significant peripheral neuropathy which are extremely common with the conventional treatment she has been on.

3.  61y woman with Stage 4 breast cancer: This is a breast cancer case with distant metastasis to the bone and spine. The cancer was detected in January 2017 when she was given a 2 y survival time. She has been under my care since April 2017 when 7 liters of ascites fluid were removed from her abdomen.

This unmarried woman lives alone by herself.  Her dad was an industrialist and she still works in that corporation. She appeared quite the Sulphur type with strong traits of Aurum metallica. She was started on Aurum sulph twice daily and Scirrhinum 200C thrice weekly. As she was on Herceptin (TZM), Pertuzumab and Paclitaxel, Dexamethasone since Feb of 2017, I additionally asked her to start the MSC protocol mentioned earlier.

She immediately improved and in 2 months when they found her cancer to be HER2 negative, they put her on Paclitaxel only for a long while. Symphytum and later Hecla lava was added for the bone mets.

 

She tolerated the extremely toxic Paclitaxel regimen for a long time which surprised the attending Oncologist – she never lost her original hair or had any significant neuropathy – signs of the common toxic effects of the drug felt by almost everyone who are on it.

Finally, they had to stop the chemo in July 2018 as she started showing signs of hydronephrosis of the kidneys. They put her on a daily dose of 1 mg Anastrazole – anticancer hormone therapy. Homeopathically Serum ang 12c was added at this point to support the kidneys. Her disease is at a stable condition with Carcinoembyonic antigen at 13.1 (was at 38 when diagnosed, normal range: 0-5 ng/mL), Cancer Antigen 15-3 at 26.4 (was at 232 when diagnosed, normal range: 0-31.3 U/mL) and BUN/Creatinine at 14 (normal range: 6-20).

She still goes to work daily, enjoys life with no adverse effect of the disease or the conventional treatment. She has not had another recurrence of ascites and continues to have a good quality of life having already surpassed the predicted 2 y survival given to her at her cancer diagnosis! She continues to be under my care.

4. 68 y woman with adenocarcinoma of the head of pancreas with lung metastasis: Diagnosed in Sept 2015, this cancer has a very poor 5y – survival rate of 3% in individuals with distant mets. She visited me in Feb, 2016. She was variously on Gemcitabine plus Adraxine and later on Gemcitabine with Xeloda. She was a divorcee with children and grandchildren but lived alone by herself. Her rubrics at presentation were:

1. GENERALS – FOOD and DRINKS – ice – desire
   SLEEP – POSITION – abdomen, on
   FACE – SWELLING – Eyes – Above
   MIND – WEEPING – telling – sickness; when telling of her
   ABDOMEN – CANCER – Pancreas
   MIND – FEAR- poverty, of
   MIND – SIGHING

Besides the MSC protocol, homeopathically she was given Cadmium met and Ceanothus americanus MT. China off was given for blood toxicity related to chemo. By Aug 2016, to the surprise of her oncologist, the cancer in the pancreas had receded significantly enabling them to do the Whipple procedure to remove the head of the pancreas in Sept 2016. Later on she was put on Causticum for repeated boils/warts near her nostril. For her lung metastasis, she was put on Kali carb and tissue salt Ferrum phos. Lycopodium, Scirrhinum and Malandrinum were also given at various times to see if we can get the lung cancer to respond.

Since she was not responding to chemo anymore – she was put off conventional chemo from the beginning of 2019. She continued holding her own with a good quality of life till the very end when she succumbed to her disease in mid-June 2019. She lived for almost 4 y since diagnosis – which is quite significant when most with this disease succumb within 6-9 months of diagnosis. I suspect if she were younger, we could have achieved a better outcome.

5.  49 y women with Stage IIIC endometroid adenocarcinoma of the right ovary: She was diagnosed in July 2018 with metastasis involving retroperitoeum, and central, and anterior pelvis. She did a complete hysterectomy followed variously by Doxil, Bevacizumab, Carboplatin and Paclitaxel which was later changed to Taxotere + Carboplatin + Bevacizumab. This disease has a 5-y survival of 39%. She also had neuropathy due to the chemotherapy. She started under my care from March 2019. She was put on Ignatia amara and China off and later on as she showed improvement in her emotional health, Calcarea carb followed by Lycopodium and tissue salt Natrum phos/mur was started.

 

 

Her August 2019 PET scan mentions: ‘Findings consistent with complete metabolic response to therapy. There is no definite evidence of metabolically active malignancy’. She is under remission and continues to be under my care with the continued aim of getting a better long term outcome.

6.  30y unmarried woman – metastatic breast cancer with hepatic involvement: She was diagnosed in Sept 2016 and came under my care in March of 2017. Her grandma had breast cancer at 70 y and a cousin had lymphoma at 7 y of age. She was fearful of slimy things like snakes, fish.

She had her belly button and ear pierced, and, was into cheerleading in school – traits often seen in Carcinosinum cases. She had bilateral inguinal hernia 10-12 y back. She had acne at menarche and ever since is on birth control pills. She was a regular smoker and drinker and in the past she grieved the death of her dog when she was in 7^th grade. Conventionally, she was on chemo and immunotherapy combination of Paclitaxel+Herceptin+Perjeta(Pertuzumab). Paclitaxel was given once a week and the others once every 3 weeks. I put her immediately on the MSC protocol and started her on Scirrhinum 200C followed by Arsenicum album 30C. She started immediately sleeping better and reported that she did not clench her jaw anymore.

 

When her liver enzymes were elevated as a result of the cytotoxic drugs, Chelidonium majus 3x was given. Later on as her scans showed improvement, the remedies were changed to Lycopodium 30C and Carcinosinum 30C twice daily.

Intermittently, she received other remedies for panaritium (myristica seb) and wrist fracture (symphytum, hecla lava) which all responded very well to the remedies. She is currently on a hormone blocker (Anastrazole 1 mg daily) conventionally that causes her to have hot flushes and for which she takes Lachesis as needed and the hot flushes have been happening less frequently since then.

Her CT scans by end of 2018 showed her to be in remission. July 2019 PET scan showed no trace of cancer which was confirmed by another CT scan in October. Since the time she is under my care, she did not have any significant adverse effects to her chemotherapy including not losing any hair or show significant paclitaxel induced peripheral sensory neuropathy.

She is a hair stylist who since her cancer diagnosis owns her own natural spa and is currently on an international holiday to enjoy her first year free from cancer!

7.  Stage IV carcinoma of the breast with diffuse bony metastasis in a 39 y women: After being diagnosed in March of 2019, she came under my care since September of 2019. She had Estrogen and Her 2 positive invasive ductal carcinoma with a histological grade 3 and a nuclear grade 3, with cribiform pattern high nuclear grade.

She was earlier on Taxol and Zometa every 12 weeks and is currently on Herceptin and Perjeta (Pertuzumab) every 3 weeks. She suffers from seasonal affective disorder and in general any activity or movement makes her feel better.

In the past, she had some sterility issues but conceived her children naturally and delivered by c-section. She has been on antidepressant for the last 14 y.  Her symptoms at presentation were as under:

 

Besides the MSC protocol mentioned earlier, Sepia 30C bid and Hecla lava 12C + Symphytum 6c bid were given. She felt more energetic, less anxious and depressed and also felt her back pains were better. And later for her peripheral neuropathy on her fingers (caused by Taxol given before she was under my care) Cadmium met 200C was given and for her carpal tunnel like symptoms, Ruta 6c was given. Both the complaints improved. By August 2019, her PET scan and cancer markers showed her to be in remission.

8.   47 y woman with metastatic mucinous adenocarcinoma with colonic primary: A well respected and successful sports medicine and softball coach saw me in October of 2006 for her rectal cancer that was detected initially in January 2006 and on recurrence was surgically resected at a non-oncology center followed by a short chemo and radiation therapy.

Personally, I feel it is a good idea if one opts for cancer surgery at an Oncology Center since they do an excellent job in removing enough margins to reasonably ensure that the cancer remnants have been removed from the primary site. In this case, the cancer recurred locally as was confirmed with PET/CT scan in August, 2006.

I recommended that this time she should do her resection at a cancer center and started her on Natrum Sulph 200C for 3 nights in a row, followed by Paeonia 30C and Carduus mar MT which as per my past experience tend to have a salutary effect on the large and small intestines including the colon.

While the rectal cancer was again resected, this time her disease had metastasized to the lungs as nodes. She was a single woman who had adopted a 2.5 y old boy and wanted to ‘fight’ the lung mets, which she did by enrolling onto various clinical trials as the standard FOLFURI was not eradicating the cancer completely.

Her oncologist was quite pleased as she was doing well with homeopathy and the MSC protocol. Remedies variously used were Kali carb, Carcinosinum and Lycopodium, Ruta, Ratanhia and acid nitricum. Almost 5.5 y later, CEA levels showed increase from 28 to 111 with PET scan showing: ‘Minimal Disease progression – numerous cavitary pulmonary metastasis have minimally enlarged, recurrent tumor at the site of rectal resection and tumor in the lower anterior abdominal wall, in the right adnexa has also slightly increased in volume and metabolic intensity’. Despite assurance from me and her oncologist to the contrary, she decided to go on experimental drugs and passed away due to drug induced embolism in the lungs roughly 6 y from her first diagnosis.

 

9.  46 y female with severe constipation which was actually due to an undiscovered rectal cancer: I was approached in June of 2017 by the husband to treat her. I was initially reluctant as they live in India where there are a plethora of homeopathic options. They were not happy with the quality of personal care seen with the homeopathic physician they had tried and hence I agreed to take the case.

Initially, this case of severe constipation with constant pressure in rectum presented with intermingled signs of possible IBS or amoebiasis. The rubrics were as appears in the above table. She seemed to be a phosphorous constitution and so Phos 30C and Aegle mar 3x was started with some immediate initial improvement in the rectal discomfort but she still had urgings for stool 10-12 times a day. On focusing primarily on the main symptoms, Phos was still indicated as can be seen below:

 

Thereafter, Ruta 6c and Calc flour 6x tissue salts was introduced when her pain improved and she had involuntary stool only twice in 10 days. Her HB though fell from 12 to 8.

The immediate family has many physicians and she had also seen very many allopathic physicians and I was surprised that she did not have a colonoscopy done as yet. Since her presenting symptoms were not what one would expect of IBS or Crohns or Amoebiasis, I insisted on a colonoscopy which she initially resisted as she said she was improving.

On further insistence, a colonoscopy was done end of July and the result surprised everyone as a rectal growth was detected which on a follow-up PET scan and surgery was confirmed to be ypT0N0 rectal adenocarcinoma.

This is a case, where because of my involvement and insistence for a diagnosis, this cancer was possibly detected relatively earlier and thereby making an early resolution possible. She was under my care till March 2019 and continues to be in complete remission after her adjuvant chemotherapy, postsurgical radiation therapy and MSC plus the homeopathic remedies given.

10.  A case of E-wing’s Sarcoma in a 7y boy: I was approached in Feb 2015 by the boy’s mother. Biopsy report of Dec 2014 – Rearrangement involving the EWS gene at 22q12 was evaluated with FISH – frequent split signals >4% of the neoplastic cells. Showed rearrangement as in Ewing sarcoma, Extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma, desmoplastic small round cell tumor, clear cell sarcoma and rare types of myxoid liposarcoma.

He was variously put on Cytoxin + Vincristine and Doxorubicin, Cyclophosphamide, Mesna, Ifosfamide, Etoposide as often is the case with childhood cancer and mom was worried about toxicity and recurrence.

Homeopathically, he was put on Symphytum 200C bid, Carcincosinum once every 3-4 days and tissue salts calcarea phos 3X bid. For anemia giving NM6X + FP 6X.  Inter-currently Syphilinum 1M was given for a few doses.

He had surgery in March 2015 which was further followed by chemotherapy which involved Toposide + Phosphamide for 5 days in Jun 2015. Phos 200C and Arnica 1M was given for speedy and uneventful recovery from the surgery while Chelidonium majus 3x given for elevated liver enzyme which was a result of the cytotoxic chemotherapy.

The surgeon and the oncologists were pleased to see him rebound quickly from his surgery and cancer. Hecla lava and tissue salts Calcarea flour and Silicea was also used. He remains in remission as of date.

11.  68 y female with Ductal in-situ carcinoma of the left breast: I saw her in August 2016 after she had her biopsy in June followed by lumpectomy in July of 2016. Her cancer had a nuclear grade III (high) with HER2 positive and Estrogen and Progesterone +ve. Glandular (Acinar) – Score 3, overall grade 3 of 8 or 9, Nuclear Pleomorphism score 3, mitotic rate score 3. Stage pT1c, pN0(1), pM.  Her rubrics were:

1. CHEST – CANCER – Mammae
2. MIND – THOUGHTS – disease, of
3. RESPIRATION – SNORING
4. RECTUM – INACTIVITY of rectum
5. SLEEP – WAKING – night – midnight – after – 3 h
6. SLEEP – POSITION – side; on – right side; on
7. MIND – FEAR – snakes, of
8. MIND – FEAR – high places, of
9. GENERALS – FOOD and DRINKS – bread – desire
10. GENERALS – FOOD and DRINKS – potatoes – desire

This diagnosis is not uncommon in older women when even conventionally intervention is still debated since besides a small proportion that can become fatal irrespective of the conventional chemotherapy and or radiation treatment, this condition is very rarely a progressive disease that kills. Unfortunately, instead of offering her mainly Trastuzumab which was specific for her cancer, she was told to first be on Dox, Paclitaxel, Cyclophosphamide before they consider Trastuzumab, possibly as a cost saving approach as she was a patient with OHIP in Ontario, Canada which is under financial stress.

Additionally, Dexamethasone, Fosaprepitant(anti-nausea) filgrastim/pegfilgrastim, Ondansetron (anti-nausea) was advised to counteract the for side-effects.  She was completely beside herself clouded with anxiety, fear and was willing to undergo all the treatment sequences suggested.

I recommended she give some thought to individual toxicities and introspect on the cost-benefit aspects. In the meanwhile, she was given Sulphur 30C – her constitutional remedy once every 2 days and conium 3c twice daily.

Once she started the remedies, her clouds lifted and her clarity came back. She decided to do the radiation alone during which Radium bromatum 200C was prescribed. Later she was on Anastrazole, an aromatase inhibitor, for 2 months.

Since it caused her to have hot flashes, Lachesis 200C was prescribed and cuprum met 12c for the cramps as needed. Her Mammogram and bone density test done in May 2017 was normal while her CT scan of lungs in August 2017 showed no cancer or blood clots but grape size and fused Fibrosis due to radiation damage for which she was prescribed antibiotics and steroid puffers which made her light headed and hence she paused it after a few days.

She also developed dizziness and pain in her right neck. She was asked to start Conium and Ruta 2-3 times a day in water and Kali carb 200C pills once every 3 days. Additionally, Coryllus avellana D1 (gemmotherapy) and Sambuccus nigra MT was advised. By Aug end, all her symptoms have resolved – no dizziness or pain. She was able to do her chores at home without getting dizzy or having a coughing fit.

Interestingly, when in Jan 2018 she developed severe allergies on her way to Florida, Sambuccus MT and sulphur 30C was all she had and was asked to try that. The results – ‘I slept the whole night without coughing once’. She has been doing well and is now 3 year cancer free and her clinic turned her over to her family physician to monitor her yearly mammogram. This is an example when a homeopath can veer them to make a better decision and thereby avoid what at times seems to be an attempt to overmedicate.

12.  69 y past smoker with stage II small cell lung cancer with right hilar adenopathy – In our preclinical studies with MST, the most robust response was seen in preclinical studies using nude mouse implanted with human small cell lung cancer where the standard chemotherapeutic drugs with MSC was able to abrogate a substantially bigger tumor. This patient had a nagging cough in April of 2019 and investigation lead to the detection of the mass 24 x 15 mm with a large hilar node 26 x 24 mm. It was immunochemistry positive for TTF-1, CD56 and synaptophysin but negative for p63. Her rubrics were as under:

 

Death of her mom and her first husband within a span of 2 y in 2012-2014 was a shock and so she received a single dose of Ignatia 10M followed by Phos 30C twice daily and Lycopodium 200C once at bedtime and Ferrum phos 6x tissue salts twice daily.

She was conventionally advised radiation of total dose of 4005 cGy in 15 fractions concurrent with chemotherapy Cisplatin + Etoposide for which she was put on the MSC protocol described earlier and advised to take china 30C for blood toxicity and Radium brom 200C during radiation.

Later, Ruta was added for some relevant issues. She responded well to the treatment and her recent report of Oct 22^nd 2019 indicates she is disease free. Her response: ‘As you can see the test shows that the tumor is gone and the lymph nodes are back to normal!! As you can imagine, I am thrilled!!’

I am hoping that the small cell lung cancer does not recur as is often the case with this cancer type when it comes back, becomes unresponsive to chemotherapy with fatal consequences.

Category III – Palliative care:

1.  69 y women with return of breast cancer after 20 y of being in remission: First seen in October 2006, 2.5y after her cancer returned in the liver, kidneys, spleen and bones. F/H of cancer – 2 brothers died from bladder & lung ca. for her breast cancer detected in 1990, she has undergone left mastectomy followed by chemotherapy with Tamoxifen and Femara.

She had adrenal cancer in 1999 and had surgery with recurrence 5 y later when Carboplatinum was used. In Sept 2005 – abdominal wall mass showing adrenal metastasis. Was treated with Mitotane which she did not tolerate. She was then hospitalized in 12/2005, 03/2006, 07/2006, 10/2006 for pain, retching, loss of appetite, cachexia (lost 30 lbs).

Surgical intervention was ruled out as the tumor was on the celiac plexus and thereby posed risk of paralysis. She was on Oxycontin and Dilaudid (hydromorphone) for pain. She progressively became sicker and had an emotional meltdown – could not eat or sleep anymore, anxious and restless with fears.

She was prescribed Lexapro which she stopped after 16 days as she started hallucinating, seeing people, doing repeated tasks, talking to imaginary people. This was an end stage cancer case where she was expected to die anytime soon within weeks.

When I saw her, she was a bundle of nerves, constantly crying, her legs shaking and with severe bouts of pain in both arms and legs. Family: ‘We are looking to reduce her anxiety/depression AND stabilize her AND get her vim and vigor back, AND fight the cancer and eliminate the nausea and improve her appetite, if we can throw controlling pain in the mix, we want to do that too so we can get her off as much stuff as possible.

At this point though, we do not want the pain coming back into the mix (Good luck!)!’ Quite a tall order which I daresay was able to be done with homeopathy! I started her on Lycopodium LM3 moving onto LM9 as time passed on. Later on Carduus mar MT, Carc, Nux mosch, carbo animalis were given for various presentations.

As her improvement with homeopathy was quite dramatic, her Oncologist who had no understanding of homeopathy, suggested that she meet with me every two weeks, which she did!!  She lived for an additional 3 years with an excellent quality of life for the most part and died peacefully at home in late 2009 – 3 additional years of a wonderful life free of fear and suffering.

2.  47 y old male with lung cancer and other health complications – This individual, a case of Carcinosinum, was under my care initially from 2004. He has been on and off on various recreational drugs including cocaine, alcohol while being a life-time smoker and had history of gonorrhea twice.

He had been on Ritalin for 2 years. I have been seeing him regularly since Jan of 2016. 2 weeks earlier, he was in extreme pain with abdominal cramps when he took several laxatives, and again 2 sacks of pico, a purgative.

He was operated on the next morning when he went to an Emergency clinic and they almost lost him on the surgical table due to his weak lungs which was a result of smoking and doing drugs.

After performing a colostomy on the left side of transverse colon, they had to sew him up and he had to be intubated post surgery until he was able to breathe on his own.  However the blockage in the sigmoid area of colon – where the diverticulitis was, had not been dealt with.

Due to the pico taken the day earlier, the cecum and ascending colon were extremely distended, and were about to rupture.  He had to be operated on  again 5 days later when they removed the cecum to where they had performed the colostomy, and gave him an ileostomy.

The bowel had started to perforate by then and the surgeon felt that it was a good thing they had operated on him. At this point, he presented to me with a severe back pain with the following symptoms besides a significant weight loss:

1. BACK – SPASMS;
2. BACK – OPISTHOTONOS;
3. EXTREMITIES – PAIN – Feet;
4. GENERALS – STRETCHING – amel.;
5. BACK – PAIN – lying – back; on – amel.
6. STOMACH – THIRST

Pyrogenum 200C followed by Bellis per 6c and gun powder in low potency was given along with Carduus mar MT internally and Calendula MT externally for application on the open ostomy areas.

His back pain and feet pain improved by 75%. By Dec 2017, he was diagnosed with right upper lobe adenocarcinoma medically inoperable due to poor pulmonary function due to his history of COPD and emphysema.

He was treated with 15 fractions of hypofractionated radiotherapy 60Gy to primary and hilar area and selenium when he was on radiation.  For his lung cancer and other issues, he was given Kali carb 200C, Lycopodium 30C, Ferrum phos 6x tissue salts, intermittent dose of Hippozaenium 200C and antimonium tart 30C.

Occasionally, he needed few other remedies to attend to his constipation, hernia and breathing issues. Despite all these progressive disease states, he has not been able to give up smoking except sporadically for a few intervals.

He has been doing fine with homeopathy, though he needed to be hospitalized for 2-3 days in between in October 2019 for his lungs flare up. He attributes his well-being to homeopathy and gives it credit for keeping him alive so far.

In cases like this, despite reluctance I am forced to use more than 2-3 remedies at the same time due to the multiple health complication surfacing at the same time and treating him from such a distance over phone or email.

3.  67 y male with collecting duct cancer of the left kidney with metastasis in pleural cavity: This was someone who never thought of or used homeopathy in his life but met me in June of 2012 as he claimed that he has heard that I can do miracles in difficult cases. His symptoms were:.

1. KIDNEYS – CANCER
2. GENERALS – METASTASIS
3. GENERALS – PAIN – burning
4. GENERALS – PAIN – cancerous affections, in
5. BACK – PAIN – Coccyx
6. GENERALS – CANCEROUS affections – cachectic emaciation; with
7. MIND – AILMENTS FROM – anger
8. MIND – AILMENTS FROM – indignation
9. SLEEP – POSITION – side; on – impossible
10. SLEEP – POSITION – back; on
11. SLEEP – INTERRUPTED

After looking at his detailed status and his presenting symptoms and giving credence to his advanced age – I confided that I fear I will be only looking to palliate as he has advanced too far in disease pathology where it would be a difficult task to reverse the course of disease.

He had cachexia and sharp burning pains which lasted 15-20 minutes at a time. He was prescribed Carcinosinum 30C and Solidago 30C bid and Euphorbium off 30C in water for pain as needed. He also started Taxol based chemotherapy and antibiotics for his pneumonia.

Later he complained of waking with breathlessness and perspiration for which he was asked to start Samuccus nigra MT. He passed at home very peacefully in August 2012. His wife sent me a wonderful and touching thank you memo for making his life better at his end stage.

4.  48 y woman with advanced ovarian serous carcinoma with metastasis: She had used talcum powders on her private parts for over 9 y (currently suspected to be a possible cause of ovarian cancer). Her mom died of breast cancer and dad died of pancreatic cancer.

She had a break up 9 y prior with her boyfriend and felt dumped, depressed when she barely ate while drinking alcohol a lot which caused pancreatitis. She was earlier on Doxil, Avastin, Loretab and Oxycodone and had Avastin related hypertension and stage II chronic renal failure.

When she met me her Cancer antigen 125 (CA125) was at 11020.7 against a normal range of 0-30.2. She had cachexia where she lost 23 lbs. in last 6 months. Her other symptoms at presentation in October 2016 were:

1. EYE – STARING
2. ABDOMEN – PANCREAS; complaints of
3. FEMALE GENITALIA/SEX – CANCER of – Ovaries
4. MIND – WEEPING – telling – sickness; when telling of her
5. MIND – AILMENTS FROM – abused; after being
6. MIND – EMOTIONS – suppressed
7. GENERALS – PAIN – burning
8. GENERALS – PAIN – cancerous affections, in
9. ABDOMEN – DISTENSION – flatulence – sensation as if distended by flatulence
10. SLEEP – POSITION – knees – chest position; knee
11. GENERALS – CACHEXIA – cancer; from
12. MIND – DELUSIONS – people – behind him; someone is
13. MIND – FEAR – robbers, of

She was put on Serum ang. 12C for her kidneys, China off 30C for side effects of chemotoxicity of blood parameters, Euphorbium for pain and at various times on different remedies for easing different issues like Aesculus hipp for back pain, Chelidonium majus 3x for elevated liver enzymes, Belladonna 6c for fever, Lycopodium for edema and ascites, Scirrhinum 200C for immune response against the cancer.

She stopped losing weight, her pain became tolerable and her CA125 was down to 1700 by April 2017 while she was on different experimental drugs/protocols conventionally.

In the meantime, she repeated that she wants to give up as she was tired of the fight. She passed away while being on a new experimental therapy in October 2017 – a year from the time she saw me. Considering her status and the various experimental drugs she tried, she had a relatively comfortable last year of her life when her cancer seemed to be responding before failing all treatments.

Final words:

The above cases will hopefully encourage more practitioners to have a pragmatic approach in providing care and support of cancer patients at various stages of the disease and conventional treatment using MSC and homeopathic medicines. This article does not in any way deter or debunk the use of conventional approaches but rather tries to exemplify the role of MSC and homeopathy in delivering a better outcome in terms of an improved disease free survival and quality of life in cancer patients besides facilitating a remission.

References for Selenium:

1. 1. 1. Rustum YM, Chintala, Durrani FA, Bhattacharya A. Non-coding micro RNAs and hypoxia-inducible factors are selenium targets for development of a mechanism based combination strategy in clear cell renal cell carcinoma – bench to bedside therapy. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2018, 19, 3378; doi:10.3390/ijms19113378;
      2. Zakharia Y, Bhattacharya A, Rustum Y M. Selenium targets resistance biomarkers enhancing efficacy while reducing toxicity of anti-cancer drugs: preclinical and clinical development. Oncotarget, 9, 10765-10783, 2018. . Doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.24297
      3. Bhattacharya A. Methylselenocysteine – a Promising Antiangiogenic Agent for Overcoming Drug Delivery Barriers in Solid Malignancies for Therapeutic Synergy with Anticancer Drugs. Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery, 8(6), 749-763, 2011
      4. Bhattacharya A, Turowski S G, San Martin I D, Rajput A, Rustum Y M, Hoffman R M, Seshadri M. Magnetic resonance and fluorescence-protein imaging of anti-angiogenic and anti-tumor efficacy of selenium in an orthotopic model of human colon cancer. Anticancer Research, 31, 387-394, 2011.
      5. Rustum Y M, Tóth K, Seshadri M, Sen A, Durrani FA, Stott E, Morrison C D, Cao S, Bhattacharya A. Architectural heterogeneity in tumors caused by differentiation alters intratumoral drug distribution and affects therapeutic synergy of antiangiogenic organoselenium compound. Journal on Oncology, Article ID 396286. doi:10.1155/2010/396286. http://downloads.hindawi.com/journals/jo/2010/396286.pdf
      6. Bhattacharya A, Tóth K, Sen A, Seshadri M, Cao S, Durrani FA, Faber E, Repasky E, Rustum Y M. Inhibition of colon cancer growth by methylselenocysteine – induced angiogenic chemomodulation is influenced by histological characteristics of the tumor. Clinical Colorectal Cancer 8(3), 155-162, 2009. http://cigjournals.metapress.com/content/f31h5xv7268440k9/fulltext.pdf
      7. Bhattacharya A, Seshadri M, Oven S D, Tóth K, Vaughan M, Rustum Y.M. Tumor vascular maturation and improved drug delivery by organoselenium compound methylselenocysteine. Clinical Cancer Research 14(12), 3926-3932, 2008. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2504718/pdf/nihms-59711.pdf