Cancer, Cytometric Cancer Profiling (Weisenthal Cancer Group), Blood screening (Research Genetic Cancer Center)

Ask Dr. J

The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly of Cancer Diagnosis

Jim Cross, ND, Lac

I’ve written previously on what I consider the seven, now nine, E’s of cancer treatment/prevention: Earthing, Eating, Education, Emotion, Emunctories, Energy, Environment, Exercise, and Exoskeleton (spinal health). In this column I want to focus on what I, as a naturopathic doctor and an acupuncturist, would do diagnostically for someone who came to me with a cancer diagnosis.

This happens to me all the time. Most people have already passed through the Western medicine portal to a large extent. They have been given, in my estimation, a semi-diagnosis and a semi-treatment. What has happened to them is what I call the cognitive dissonance of slash-and-burn methods of traditional oncology.

So, seeing a cancer patient for the first time, in what direction would I point them? First, I would have to consider giving them the biggest bang for their buck which would probably already be in dangerously short supply due to their previous treatment(s). Second, due to my integrative medical training, I would like to steer them in a direction that would lead them to a more individualized, personalized diagnostic direction that hopefully isn’t too awfully pricey!

The first test I would recommend is provided by the Weisenthal Cancer Group, and it is called Personalized Cytometric Cancer Profiling. The patient’s living cancer cells are tested to determine exactly which various chemotherapeutic, immunologic, molecularly-targeted, and anti-angiogenic drugs and drug combinations most effectively kill their cancer cells and which do not. This pinpoints the most promising pharmaceutical regimen for just them and spares needless exposure to ineffective drugs. There is no trial and error in this approach, or no “I feel this is the best chemo combo to use for you based on my clinical experience.” This is truly individualized, precision medicine, based on specific biological factors that occur at the cellular level of each person’s cancer and are unique to each patient.¹

I find it extremely odd that this testing isn’t routinely done. When people present with UTI’s or sore throats, they do a culture and then a sensitivity to make sure that the antibiotic given will kill the bacteria that has infected the person. This is standard practice. Why it isn’t standard practice to test a person’s cancer against various pharmaceuticals to see what it is sensitive to rivals the fact that no one has gone to jail for lying about WMD in Iraq. With, personalized cytometric profiling, ineffective cancer drugs can be avoided and also the harmful side effects from those drugs. Also, valuable treatment time is not wasted, potentially limited monetary funds do not dry up, and the cancer cells do not become chemotherapy-resistant on these trial and error treatments.

In a study using cytometric profiling versus just standard, empiric therapy, there was a 2.5-fold greater mortality at one year in the group just receiving standard therapy. This translated to a 20% mortality in the standard group versus 8% mortality in the profiling group.²

In another study involving cytometric testing, the researchers found the sensitivity testing to be 90% accurate in identifying sensitivity and resistance of different drugs used in vivo.³

The only downside to this technique is that the patient must have their cancer cells accessible by means of surgery or other biopsy procedure. The test cannot be performed on dead cells or on tissues that were obtained in a past procedure. Thus, the patient has to contact the Weisenthal group in advance and learn what they need to inform their doctor and the lab handling their biopsy with regard to specimen transport materials and methods.

The next direction I would want a patient to head diagnostically would be a blood screening test from RGCC/Research Genetic Cancer Center. This group provides us with a wealth of useful information. They test for CTC’s/Circulating Tumor Cells and CSC’s/Circulating Stem cells in the OncoStat Plus Test. Both of these are tumor cells that have extricated themselves from the primary tumor and are circulating in the blood stream with the potential to spread to distant sites.⁴

These cells can be isolated and identified, which I feel serves one primary purpose: identifying if tumor cells or tumor stem cells have escaped the primary tumor and are roaming free in the blood to invade another body area and establish residence there and grow a secondary tumor. Here again this isn’t rocket science. Why wouldn’t every cancer patient want to know if they have circulating CTC’s and CSC’s and how to kill them?

This test can also be used to assuage the fears of a person who feels they may have cancer. If a patient has tested negative for, say, a lung cancer but feels the test wasn’t sensitive enough, they could have the OncoStat Plus test done. If their CTC’s were above a certain level, this could reliably inform the patient that there is possibly a cancer in their lungs that is shedding into the blood stream and that they need a more reliable diagnostic exam to physically prove the cancer is actually present. This test then has the possibility of revolutionizing the field of cancer medicine.

A common misconception in cancer treatment is that treatment with chemotherapy can lower CTC counts and cure the patient of cancer. Chemotherapy has actually been shown to increase CTC counts. Although chemotherapy is an effective agent to initially reduce tumor size, residual CTC’s and CSC’s can resurface with a vengeance and cause tumor regeneration.⁵

The use of RGCC’s test works with all cancers except brain and central nervous system primary tumors, such as glioblastomas and astrocytomas. RGCC can still work with these tumors when provided with a small, live tissue sample from the donor.⁴

In addition, RGCC performs a sensitivity with the OncoStat Plus test against 53 common chemotherapy drugs and 45-49 natural substances. Basically, this is one-stop shopping as you wouldn’t have to use the Weisenthal cancer group above.⁴

One last diagnostic tool I will write about is a genetic test performed by Genova Diagnostics called Detoxigenomics. This test is looking at single nucleotide polymorphisms/SNP’s in the Phase I and Phase II detoxification systems of the liver.

In naturopathic medical school, I was continuously bombarded with the importance of the liver in some vague concept called detoxification. We could talk detox for 100 articles, but I feel that our emunctories or detoxification organs are extremely important for our long-term health. Of these, presently, the liver has a genetic test that looks for potential deficiencies in its ability to keep toxins out and deal with those toxins that breach its borders.

A useful metaphor that I use with patients, when attempting to persuade them to fork over $500 for a Detoxigenomics test, is comparing their liver to a vase with two openings. The top of the vase is where environmental chemicals and heavy metals enter the liver. I tell them that some people are like a good friend of mine’s father, Cranky Frank. Frank died of a stroke at 87 after smoking two packs of Camels a day for 70 years, drinking excessively into his 70s, and eating a diet that mostly consisted of Wonder bread, mayo, a piece of head lettuce (token veggie), and bologna. Now I tell them that Frank was born with gaping holes at the bottom where the toxins are eliminated from the body. A child who develops liver cancer at five might have microscopic openings, which cause the toxins to remain in the body instead of being eliminated. We can use the results of the Detoxigenomics test to maximize their openings, which are more than likely smaller as they are seeing me for some sort of chronic disease.

A SNP is a common genetic alteration in humans and represents a difference in the base sequence of a DNA building block called a nucleotide. One base substitution or SNP that occurs in a gene may play a role in the development of disease by affecting how the gene is expressed and as a result its function in the body. This can predict how a person will respond to various drugs and their susceptibility to multiple environmental toxins that could affect physiologic function and the risk of future chronic diseases.^{6, 7}     

The SNPs in the liver’s detoxification system then make the individual more vulnerable to the multiple chemicals and heavy metals that are endemic in our modern society and that we are exposed to in unprecedented levels. If we could identify genetic defects in this system, this could go a long way to the prevention of cancer and other chronic diseases and also increase the effectiveness of treatment, preventing a further recurrence.

The SNPs measured in Detoxigenomics have been selected based on their clinical significance, their population prevalence, and their ability to be influenced by lifestyle, dietary, biochemical, and environmental factors whose effects are measurable.⁸

Using these above diagnostic tests allows us to see, as the singer Van Morrison sings so eloquently, “into the mystic.” By the mystic, I mean into the cellular world. We are functionally not a group of organs and organ systems but a mass of cells where the real power grid of the body lies and where the detritus of the world really poisons our body.

On a pathological level, a cancer is also not functionally real. It is also a mass of cells. If we can gain insight into what is powering that mass of cells and what they are susceptible to, then that should allow us to take the proper therapeutic steps to eliminate them and return homeostasis to the person’s ecosystem.

Conflict of interest

: The author is interested in opening and running an in-patient facility to effectively treat people with cancer and other chronic diseases, similar to those in Southern Germany and Northern Switzerland which he has visited. These opinions expressed above belong solely to the author, who hopes they stimulate contemplative thought in the minds of all who have read this piece. In the larger scheme of life, it just doesn’t matter if you completely agree with me, just that you agree to contemplate what I say.

References

1. www.weisenthalcancer.com

2. Matutes E, et al, The use of individualized tumor response testing in treatment selection: second randomization results from the LRF CLL4 trial and the predictive value of the test at trial entry. Leukemia. 2013;27:507–510.

3. Arienti et al. Peritoneal carcinomatosis from ovarian cancer: chemosensitivity test and tissue markers as predictors of response to chemotherapy. J Transl Med. 2011;9:94.

4. https://www.rgcc-group.com/

5. Edwards T. Weapons of Mass Destruction: What Doctors Don’t Tell You. 2016;32–39.   

6. What are single nucleotide polymorphisms? Genetics Home Reference. http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/handbook/genomicresearch/snp. 

7. Making SNPs make sense. Learn.Genetics http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/precision/snips/

8. https://www.gdx.net/core/sample-reports/Detoxi-Genomics-Sample-Report.pdf