Alternative/adjuvant breast cancer treatment
Failure of breast cancer treatments lead to the discovery of alternatives in the field. The combination of complementary and alternative therapies is known as alternative breast cancer therapy. The aim of an adjuvant treatment is to eliminate any infected cells that have spread from the breast tumor to other parts of the body and remained in local breast/lymph node area. It is referred to as adjuvant, meaning "in addition to," as they are used with surgery and radiation where entire system of the body is treated. Chemotherapy and hormone therapy are conventional alternative therapies where as nutritional supplementation and diet modification are modern ones.
Apart from women with tumors less than 1 cm and with lymph nodes that do not have cancer, alternative treatment is advised. Therapies and their combination, depends on the woman's age, tumors estrogen receptors, and the number of positive lymph nodes.
There are basically three types of alternative treatments:
1. Chemotherapy
It uses drugs that can be taken in oral form or injected intravenously to kill the infected cells. At times combinations are used.
2. Hormone Therapy
Breast tumors require either estrogen, progesterone, or both for growth, which are naturally occurring and necessary, and produced mainly in the ovaries and adrenal glands in varying amounts all through a woman's lifetime. Hormone therapy prevents hormones from sticking to tumor receptor sites and slows the growth. The most used drug in this type of endocrine therapy is tamoxifen. Others are:
Raloxifene
Toremifene
Anastrozole, Femara, Aromasin
Megestrol Acetate
Trastuzumab
Paclitaxel
Oophorectomy
3. Natural Therapies
Protecting breast cells against Dangerous Estrogens.
Green Tea
Conjugated Linoleic Acid
Caffeine
Melatonin
Vitamins A, D, and E
Tocotrienols,p>
Diet
Cancer needs sugar, which plays an active role in reducing immune responses and energizing cancer, for survival. The oxygen-rich environment, burns glucose and produces maximum amount of energy with minimal of lactic acid. Tumor cells create excessive lactic acid and underutilization of glucose to form a vicious cycle reducing energy output, stimulating tumor cells to burn more glucose, which again produces more lactic acid. This glucose consumption wastes the cancer patient's energy reserves. To avoid this, following diet articles should be kept in mind.
1. Avoid all white foods, including sugar, flour, rice, pasta, breads, crackers, cookies, etc.
3. Per glass of juice contains many pieces of fruit and a large amount of fructose but no fiber. Hence, limit all fruit juices.
Conclusion
There are various other therapies that are still in the development stage. The practitioners usually formulate mix and match method according to the diagnosis and requirement of attention to the patient. This saves them from sticking to a particular type of procedure. In fact, combining certain correct ones can create a synergism which can effectively cure certain pathways.
also read our article about
Breast Cancer Diagnosis
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