Chemotheraphy and the immune system

Support to Chemotherapy

Cancer patients who are undergoing chemotherapy or radiation which greatly weaken the immune system, can greatly benefit from taking transfer factor supplementation. Transfer factor supplementation serves to protect the body from "opportunistic" infections, which often occur during these treatments.

Dr Duane Townsend, former director of gynecologic oncology at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, puts all of his cancer patients on transfer factor treatments to boost their immune systems’ abilities to respond to any health challenges.

Both Japanese and Chinese clinical studies found that the immunosuppression that results from chemotherapy can be prevented by using transfer factor isolates. Keep in mind that the elimination of dying or dead cancer cells is monitored by the immune system. Italian, Japanese and American studies tell us that the use of transfer factor isolates to boost immune function after surgery significantly improves the chances of cancer-free future.

FACT: One in every three Americans will develop cancer. 1.2 million cancer cases are diagnosed every year in this country, and that number is going up, not down. Of these, six of ten people will die within five years.

FACT: One in every four deaths (over 500,00 each year) is attributable to cancer, and the rate is rising. The good news is that the National Cancer Institute estimates that over 75% of all cancer cases are preventable.

FACT: According to some experts at the National Cancer Institute, we are losing our battle with cancer because we’ve been on the wrong track. Prevention rather than cure should become our new emphasis.

What is cancer?

It is a disease characterized by the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells permitted to reproduce due to extensive immune collapse. Cancer is allowed to grow because our immune surveillance system falls asleep.

Our immune watch guards single out identify and destroy carcinogenic agents that enter the body daily. Immune cells such as B-lymphocytes produce antibodies designed to attack and eradicate malignant cells, and a variety of immune chemicals keep tumors in check.

Given the multifaceted defense strategy of our immune system, it is remarkable that in some people, cancer cells grow without any detection. Why? Because people with faulty immune responses are at a much higher risk of developing cancer.

Because many of us cannot avoid exposure to pollution, pesticides, additives, ultra-violet rays, etc., it is crucial that we boost our natural immune defenses to protect us against cancer.

As chemotherapy affects cell division, tumors with high growth fractions (such as acute myelogenous leukemia and the aggressive lymphomas, including Hodgkin's disease) are more sensitive to chemotherapy, as a larger proportion of the targeted cells are undergoing cell division at any time. Malignancies with slower growth rates, such as indolent lymphomas, tend to respond to chemotherapy much more modestly.

Drugs affect "younger" tumors (i.e. more differentiated) more effectively, because mechanisms regulating cell growth are usually still preserved. With succeeding generations of tumor cells, differentiation is typically lost, growth becomes less regulated, and tumors become less responsive to most chemotherapeutic agents. Near the center of some solid tumors, cell division has effectively ceased, making them insensitive to chemotherapy. Another problem with solid tumors is the fact that the chemotherapeutic agent often does not reach the core of the tumor. Solutions to this problem include radiation therapy (both brachytherapy and teletherapy) and surgery.

Over time, cancer cells become more resistant to chemotherapy treatments. Recently, scientists have identified small pumps on the surface of cancer cells that actively move chemotherapy from inside the cell to the outside. Research on p-glycoprotein and other such chemotherapy efflux pumps, is currently ongoing. Medications to inhibit the function of p-glycoprotein are undergoing testing as of June, 2007 to enhance the efficacy of chemotherapy. CLICK HERE FOR HELP WITH YOUR CHEMOTHERAPHY

Dr Markowitz- has also seen the value of transfer factor therapy for an eleven-year-old boy with lymphoblastic leukemia. After chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, he still experienced a relapse, and his leukemia actually became more severe. Enhanced transfer factor supplements were used in combination with chemotherapy treatments, and the results have been very encouraging. Supplementing chemotherapy with transfer factor appeared to support the boy’s immune system and prevent the infections that usually take hold during treatment. His doctors believe that his supplementation with transfer factors most likely spared him the life-threatening complications of infectious disease and apparently improved his tolerance of a very toxic course of chemotherapy.

(DOCTOR DAVID MARKOWITZ AND THE IMMUNE SYSTEM)