Cancer Conquest
Edited by Burton Goldberg
www.curing-cancer.com (8/15/06: Not a valid link anymore)
Do No Harm Productions, LLC; DVD or VHS: $39.95
Available at: www.burtongoldberg.com

Dedicated to German physician Dr. Albert Scheller, Cancer Conquest is a remarkable video that is obligatory viewing and studying for physicians, cancer workers, and patients. Beyond offering the remarkable story of a revolutionary diagnostic test for determining the correct cancer treatment and proper administration of chemotherapy, this video interviews 15 physicians and cancer workers who are truly at the cutting edge of alternative cancer treatment. Through these interviews, Burton Goldberg presents an in-depth portrait of individuals who are combining the best of conventional and alternative complementary therapies. Many US physicians and patients will find the wealth of resources available in Germany for implementing alternative diagnostics and therapies astounding. Fortunately, a number of US clinics are beginning to utilize many of the protocols underway in Germany, providing a closer pathway for patients who are unable to journey to Europe. Still, there appears to be an advantage in having diagnostics and treatments initiated by the master practitioners directly, and it would be of definite advantage for many patients to consider the trip to Munich and Frankfurt. Physicians would be advised to study these masters as well. The video provides contact information for all the featured clinics and doctors.

Dr. Scheller, who passed away in 2005, developed a collaborative approach for diagnosing and treating cancer patients. While some clinics have offered unique cancer treatment protocols – for example, strict dietary regimens – Scheller sought to combine conventional cancer treatment approaches in modified fashion to maximize cancer control. Dr. Scheller focused on understanding cancer cell metabolic pathways. This understanding provided clues to either killing cancer cells or shutting down their reproductive mechanisms. Together with Professor Michael Giesing, MD, of Munster, Germany, Dr. Scheller tested patient blood samples for evidence of micrometastasis, the microscopic spread of the primary cancer through the blood stream.

In his interview, Professor Giesing states that, despite removal of the tumor by radical surgery and administration of chemotherapy and radiation, tumor cells are released in the blood stream, permitting micrometastasis development. The exposure of these cells to chemotherapy and radiation allows for the creation of new cancer cells distinctly different from the primary tumor cells and resistant to previously administered chemotherapies. The micrometastatic cells have distinct metabolic and gene functioning, which will advance into fully growing metastatic tumors, unless the tumor metabolic function can be shut down. Giesing, in collaboration with other German physicians and molecular chemists, has studied the genetic metabolic pathways of these micrometastatic tumor cells. The relative ease of this metabolic and genetic testing – which Giesing calls pharmacogenomic testing – provides a means for testing the cancer cells' sensitivity to different chemotherapy agents. This testing is a phenomenal advance for oncology; while most chemotherapy protocols dictate in cookbook fashion specific chemotherapy agents for specific tumors, this testing would determine the precise chemotherapies appropriate for the metastatic tumor.

Giesing comments on a patient who had metastatic colorectal carcinoma who had been failing under standard chemotherapy regimens. After pharmacogenomic testing, it was determined that the tumor was highly sensitive to Herceptin, an agent primarily used in treating breast cancer. Ed Overloop, a member of the CARE cancer support group, was treated by Dr. Scheller for his recurrent prostate cancer. After the genomic testing, now done by the Bio-Focus Institute for Molecular Oncology in Recklinghausen, Germany (www.biofocus.de), it was determined that a chemotherapy agent primarily prescribed for ovarian cancer was the best treatment for his prostate cancer. Overloop presented to Scheller with a PSA score approaching 1000; after three weeks of treatment, his PSA score dropped to 50, and a month later his score dropped to below 15. Note that Overloop's treatment at Dr. Scheller's clinic was not limited to chemotherapy. He received many other therapie,s including hyperthermia treatment and specific immune therapies. Yet, his treatment clearly was enhanced when the proper chemotherapy agent was administered.

Scheller Clinic Treatment Strategy

Dr. Scheller's work is now supervised by Dr. Ursula Jacob of the Leonardis Klinik in Bad Heilbrunn, Germany (www.leonardis-klinik.de). In the US, Dr. James Forsythe, MD, at the Cancer Screening & Treatment Center in Reno, Nevada, is following many of the cancer treatment protocols of Dr. Scheller (www.drforsythe.com). Many other physicians and cancer clinics are also following Dr. Scheller's treatment strategies and using the pharmacogenomic testing of Bio-Focus laboratory; Dr. Dana Flavin-Koenig in Greenwich, Connecticut consults and offers this testing (www.collmed.com).

Goldberg's video, Cancer Conquest, provides a travelogue of medical clinics in Germany that offer collaborative strategies for the Scheller approach. For example, Dr. Thomas Vogl, a professor at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, catheterizes the tumor and administers localized chemotherapy directly into the arteries feeding the tumor. Once the chemotherapy has been administered, other agents can be administered to block off the blood supply to the tumor. This dual application can be remarkably helpful for metastatic tumors.

As previously mentioned, hyperthermia is also an important therapeutic tool in the treatment of advanced cancer, as well as within early cancer for prevention of recurrence. The theory is that chemotherapy will be much more effective in killing tumor cells after the patient has undergone either systemic or localized hyperthermia. Hyperthermia generally heats the body temporarily to 105-108º F. Hyperthermia has been employed in alternative cancer therapy clinics in the US and Mexico for many years. At the Leonardis Klinik in Bad Heilbrunn, Germany, hyperthermia can also be administered with laser. In addition to these approaches, the interviews Cancer Conquest reveal a wealth of equally valuable approaches (see Sidebar).

Cancer Conquest does not look at the clinics and practitioners in Mexico. (Individuals interested in studying about the Mexican therapies and clinics should attend the Labor Day conference in Los Angeles, California put on by the Cancer Control Society (www.cancercontrolsociety.com). On Sept. 6 and 9th the Cancer Control Society will offer tours of the best Mexican cancer facilities.) Additionally the video does not look in depth at the many alternative cancer clinics in the US. For a survey of those clinics, readers can turn to the textbook Alternative Medicine (see Resources), which examines many practitioners and therapies in the US in its supplementary text on alternative cancer treatment. Cancer Conquest is perhaps the best two-hour education any practitioner or consumer can acquire on the state of alternative cancer treatment in 2006. I would highly recommend this video for the practitioner who is not involved in cancer work as well as any alternative or naturopathic clinic seeking to educate the client and patient base as to what alternative cancer therapy is about.

Video Highlights

• Dr. Florian Kubitzek, a physician and dentist in Munich, Germany, uses the CT scan to study the teeth and jaw. His scanning technique has been invaluable in diagnosing jaw abscesses below the teeth that have been inadequately treated by standard dentistry. Conventional dental X-rays have entirely missed the jaw abscesses known as cavitations. Kubitzek treats many cancer patients who have dental cavitations as a collaborative approach in the overall treatment of metastatic and primary cancer.
  
• Dr. Andreas Jordan, in Berlin, Germany, treats brain tumors with a novel approach implanting microscopic (nano-sized) metallic particles into regionally distributed areas of the brain. The metallic particles are subjected to a localized energy source, which heats up to approximately 50ºC., killing localized tumor cells. The heat treatment process can be used in concert with chemotherapy and/or radiation treatment and can be employed in any solid tumor.
  
• Professor Dr. Dietmar Molitor in Landau, Germany, surgically operates on patients who have so-called inoperable cancer. The patient's tumor is treated with chemotherapy first, as determined by pharmacogenomic testing. Following a regimen of chemotherapy, which generally reduces the tumor mass, Dr. Molitor operates to remove the bulk of the tumor mass. It has been observed that tumor patients do not recover adequately unless the tumor is surgically removed.
  
• Dr. Peter Koeck in Wilhelm, Germany has been successful in treating skeletal
  metastases frequently observed in metastic prostate and breast cancer. His treatment employs radioactive Samarium, an agent administered as an intravenous drug. The Samarium-153 latches onto the receptor sites of the bone metastases, disabling the metastatic tumor cells.
  
• Dr. Bernhard Hoerr, a radiologist in Stuttgart, Germany, employs PET scan in the diagnosis and treatment monitoring of all cancer patients. Hoerr states that the PET scan, unlike the CT Scan or MRI, provides critical information about the cancer activity in any tumor within the body. Tumor cells that are actively reproducing and metastasizing light up in a PET scan; inactive or dead tumor cells show no activity. Hoerr prefers to diagnose a patient with a PET scan because biopsies frequently miss the tumor. (It has been estimated that needle biopsies accurately diagnose cancer only 40% of the time.) The PET scan offers an exact means to determine metastases present in the lymph glands.
  
• In the US: Dr. Michael Gerber in Reno, Nevada, and Daniel Dunphy, PA-C in Mill Valley, California, study the progress of cancer using the dark-field microscope.Microscopy allows a real-time study of live blood, which is frequently littered with characteristic cell forms typical of cancer or pre-cancer. Reevaluation of the blood permits ongoing assessment of treatment progress and indicates need for more aggressive therapies.

Resources

Burton Goldberg
www.burtongoldberg.com

Leonardis Klinik
Bad Heilbrunn, Germany
www.leonardis-klinik.de

Prof. Dr. Thomas J. Vogl
Klinikum der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universitat
Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany
www.kgu.de/zrad/diagnostik/eng/portrait-vogl.shtml (8/15/06: Not an active link)
Try http://cox.gotdns.com/sites/institut/content/index_eng.html

Dr. Florian Kubitzek
Munich, Germany
Email: florian@kubitzek@munich.netsurf.de

Dr. Andreas Jordan
MagForce Nanotechnologies GmbH
Berlin, Germany
www.magforce.de

Prof. Dr. Dietmar Molitor
Landau, Germany
Tel: +49-06341-17-2600

Dr. Peter Koeck
Weilheim, Germany
Tel +49-0881-93770

Dr. Bernhard Hoerr
Zehntgasse, Germany
www.hoerr-pet.de

Biofocus Institute for Molecular Oncology
Dr. med Dipl Chem Doris Bachg
Recklinghausen, Germany
www.biofocus.de

Dr. James Forsythe
Cancer Screening & Treatment Center
Reno, Nevada, USA
www.drforsythe.com

Dr. Dana Flavin-Koenig
The Foundation for Collaborative Medicine & Research
Greenwich, Connecticut, USA
www.collmed.com

Dr. Michael Gerber
Gerber Medical Clinic
Reno, Nevada, USA
www.gerbermedical.com

Daniel Dunphy PA-C
Clear Center of Health
Mill Valley, California, USA
www.danieldunphy.org (8/15/06: No site yet. . .under construction.)

Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide.
The Burton Goldberg Group. Tiburon, Calif.:
Future Medical Publishing; 1997.