Herceptin

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Bottom Line's Health Breakthroughs 2007 Bottom Line Health See book keywords and concepts

New finding: herceptin reduces recurrence. Up to 20% of women who have breast cancer have cells that contain an overabundance of the growth-related protein HER2. This substance makes their tumors particularly fast-growing and deadly. The drug herceptin has been developed to block HER2, slowing the duplication of cancer cells. Previous studies have shown that herceptin improves survival rates in HER2-positive women who have early-stage breast cancer (confined to the breast and adjacent lymph nodes) and metastatic breast cancer.

Herceptin hype: Big Pharma's new "miracle cure" for breast cancer is inferior to free, natural cures Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

So, instead, you hear about miracle cures from high-priced prescription drugs like herceptin. Big Pharma hype masters are claiming that a 0.6% percent reduction in absolute risk is the best result in the universe. I find that laughable, because when you look at the natural medicine world and natural healing, you find that a combination of natural sunlight, physical exercise, green tea, mineral supplementation, colon cleansing and avoidance of cancer-causing foods causes cancer rates to plummet far beyond 0.6 percent.

One thing we do know about herceptin is that it will be heavily hyped, marketed and advertised. There will be lots of newspaper and magazine articles written about this drug. We also know that it's no better than sunshine, exercise, broccoli, garlic, green tea and other common anti-cancer foods and health strategies. In other words, this drug is ho-hum. There's really nothing exciting about this drug to anyone who knows anything about real healing. It's really only exciting to the people who can't wait to profit from it.

The double standard with "cures" I also find it interesting that this drug, herceptin, is being called a cure for breast cancer with only a 0.6 percent reduction rate (absolute risk) in recurring cancer. If there were an herb that had better than a 0.6 percent reduction rate and you called it a cure, the FDA would jump all over you. The agency would say, "How dare you call it a cure -- there is no such thing as a cure for cancer!" Apparently, the word "cure" is reserved exclusively for pharmaceuticals; it can never be used with herbs or other nutritional therapies.

With all this talk about herceptin being the cure for breast cancer, it's funny that you don't see the FDA sending warning letters to the manufacturer of this drug, claiming that these third-party statements are in fact going to be used against them, because the FDA claims that third-party statements about nutritional statements can be held against the very manufacturers of those supplements, even when those manufacturers didn't make those statements. Yet the FDA is doing nothing to shut down this over-hyped, exaggerated miracle-class language being used to describe this prescription drug.

With herceptin, the aim now is to try to get every woman on this drug whether she has breast cancer or not. That's probably going to end up being the strategy. They'll call it prevention, and they'll put women on it for a lifetime. Ten to 20 years later, we may find out that this drug causes liver or kidney damage. Or perhaps this will be a remarkably safe drug, but how much money will people spend on it over that time, when they could be preventing breast cancer for free?

He's one of the proponents who calls herceptin a "cure." He probably even does it with a straight face. Is a 0.6% reduction in deaths really such a big deal? The fact is that getting some regular sunshine and engaging in regular physical exercise has a far greater success rate of reducing the risk of recurring breast cancer. In other words, something you can do absolutely free of charge is better than the most advanced, most miraculous breakthrough the pharmaceutical industry has come up with in 30 years. You don't see doctors jumping up and down about the healing benefits of sunshine.

Bottom Line's Health Breakthroughs 2007 Bottom Line Health See book keywords and concepts

A study reported at a recent American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting confirms the benefits of herceptin. HER2-positive women who were given herceptin after surgery, along with standard chemotherapy, had a 52% lower rate of tumor recurrence than women who weren't given the drug. Women who have invasive breast cancer routinely have tumor cells tested for HER2. New finding: Exercise fights breast cancer. Previous research showed that physical activity—a 30-minute walk, five days a week—can help prevent breast cancer, cutting risk by 20%.

In another part of the study, a subgroup of 232 women who had more aggressive cancers were assigned either to receive nine weeks of herceptin infusions or a placebo. The women who got herceptin experienced 58% fewer cancer recurrences during the three-year follow-up than those who did not get the drug, the researchers report. FINDING THE OPTIMAL DURATION According to Joensuu, this study supports previous research.

FDA outlaws vitamin D, seeks to destroy sun to protect Americans from sunlight (satire) Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

In other news, the FDA said it was ready to grant approval to the newest anticancer drug, called herceptin, which, quite miraculously, has been shown to reduce the risk of recurring breast cancer by almost 1 percent. The drug will soon be available by prescription at the low cost of $11,000 per year, per patient. Following the announcement of herceptin, an FDA spokesperson said, "Why do we need to take risks with dangerous vitamin D when we have clinically proven products like herceptin ready to be safely used by everyone?

Bottom Line's Health Breakthroughs 2007 Bottom Line Health See book keywords and concepts

However, in this study the herceptin was administered for only nine weeks, which could explain why it was not linked to an increased risk of cardiac failure, as it was in previous research. "We don't know the optimal duration of [Herceptin]—is nine weeks as good as one year?" asks Dr. Mark Pegram, director of the women's cancer program at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles.

The women who got herceptin experienced 58% fewer cancer recurrences during the three-year follow-up than those who did not get the drug, the researchers report. FINDING THE OPTIMAL DURATION According to Joensuu, this study supports previous research. "A few prior studies have shown that administration of adjuvant [Herceptin] for one year reduces the rate of breast cancer recurrence by approximately 50%" in women who have aggressive cancers, he says.

HER2-positive women who were given herceptin after surgery, along with standard chemotherapy, had a 52% lower rate of tumor recurrence than women who weren't given the drug. Women who have invasive breast cancer routinely have tumor cells tested for HER2. New finding: Exercise fights breast cancer. Previous research showed that physical activity—a 30-minute walk, five days a week—can help prevent breast cancer, cutting risk by 20%. A study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association shows that exercise helps prevent a recurrence.

Natural Health Solutions Mike Adams See book keywords and concepts

When you look at drug claims, especially new miracle-sounding claims on drugs like herceptin, be aware that these statistics are routinely given as relative statistics, not absolute. The numbers are distorted to make the drugs look more effective than they really are. herceptin, for example, produced only a 0.6 percent absolute reduction in breast cancer risk in one study, yet the medical hucksters pushing this drug are wildly screaming about it being a "breast cancer cure!" and demanding that practically all breast cancer patients be immediately put on it.

Even today's most over-hyped cancer drug, herceptin, which is being heralded as a "miracle cancer drug" for women, only produced a 0.6 percent absolute reduction in breast cancer risk in one study. That's less than one woman out of a hundred actually being helped by the drug, and yet doctors are raving about the drug like it's some sort of miracle. (It's really just pharmaceutical quackery.) Herceptin holds nothing to the power of this information to prevent and even help cure cancer.

Lying with statistics: How conventional medicine confuses the public with absolute risk vs. relative risk Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

The numbers are distorted to make the drugs look more effective than they really are. herceptin, for example, produced only a 0.6% absolute reduction in breast cancer risk, yet the medical hucksters pushing this drug are wildly screaming about it being a "breast cancer cure!" and demanding that practically all breast cancer patients be immediately put on it. Yet it's not even effective on one person out of a hundred. See my herceptin Hype article for more details.

Timeless Secrets of Health & Rejuvenation: Unleash The Natural Healing Power That Lies Dormant Within You Andreas Moritz See book keywords and concepts

This practically makes the sun an instant healer, far more effective than even the most aggressively hyped cancer drugs, such as herceptin. The second study showed that the same amount of sunlight corresponded with a two-thirds lower risk of contracting colorectal cancer. For any doctor or friend who asks for proof for the "outrageous" claim that sunlight can prevent or cure cancer, you may want to refer him or her to the Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (doi: 10.1016/j.jsbmb.2006.12.

You Don't Have to be Afraid of Cancer Anymore Bill Sardi See book keywords and concepts

New England Journal Medicine 344: 783-92, 2001] For the small percentage of women with HER-2 positive (genetically predisposed] breast cancer, (15-30% of cases), herceptin appears to offer a slight improvement in survival -three to four months of added life, with the increased risk of heart failure, and thousands of dollars in costs. For the up to 30% of breast cancer patients who produce the HER2 protein, there is no explaining to them that such a drug could be withheld from use, even if it does increase the risk for mortal heart problems.

I u on Regimen Universal dietary and supplement regimens to successfully fight cancer drugs like herceptin, Avastin, Erbitux that temporarily infuse targeted antibodies into a tumor. Anticancer mechanisms within your own body can be activated to put a stop to cancer in a continual manner that exceeds that of anti-cancer drugs. Cancer authorities now speak of universal mechanisms that can be manipulated to block the growth, spread and recurrence of cancer.

Most recently, with media reports celebrating such revolutionary cancer medicines as Gleevec, herceptin, Iressa, Er-bitux, and the just-approved Avastin, the cure has seemed closer than ever. But it's not. Hope and optimism, so essential to this fight, have masked some very real systemic problems that have made this complex, elusive, relentless foe even harder to defeat. The result is that while there have been substantial achievements since the crusade began with the National Cancer Act in 1971, we are far from winning the war. So far away, in fact, that it looks like losing. Living longer?

NBC News June 20, 2006] All this is happening at a time when the public is distracted by news reports concerning gene-targeted drugs, like Ires-sa, herceptin and Erbitux, that only prolong survival by a few months, are laden with side effects, and literally cost a fortune ($1000-10,000 a month). The hype surrounding these drugs is unprecedented. The ability of these drugs to perform on Wall Street is being touted above their ability to cure cancer. "None of these drugs prompt the kinds of dramatic tumor shrinkage or disappearance that doctors look for," says an Associated Press report.

The drug that caused the initial euphoria, herceptin, was later found to only delay the progression of breast cancer by a few months among patients with a specific genetic profile. Slight progress like this "is sometimes breathlessly reported," said Haney. "Right now, in the short run, we can bring an occasional miracle and have an overall small benefit," Dr. John Glaspy, medical director of the UCLA surgical oncology center was reported to have said.

Lying with statistics: How conventional medicine confuses the public with absolute risk vs. relative risk Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

When you look at drug claims, especially new miracle-sounding claims on drugs like herceptin, be aware that these statistics are routinely given as relative statistics, not absolute. The numbers are distorted to make the drugs look more effective than they really are. herceptin, for example, produced only a 0.6% absolute reduction in breast cancer risk, yet the medical hucksters pushing this drug are wildly screaming about it being a "breast cancer cure!" and demanding that practically all breast cancer patients be immediately put on it.

You Don't Have to be Afraid of Cancer Anymore Bill Sardi See book keywords and concepts

Stunning," "revolutionary," "jaw-dropping," "wonder drug," "cuts disease recurrence in half," are the words used to describe the three reports published in the New England Journal of Medicine involving herceptin (trastuzumab). But if the published results are so "jaw-dropping," why weren't they heralded earlier, when they were first reported at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting? Women battling breast cancer are never going to hear the details of these studies. They are already rushing to line up for treatment.

Big Pharma: Exposing the Global Healthcare Agenda Jacky Law See book keywords and concepts

Anastrozole could have been compared with later breast cancer drugs, such as herceptin. This costs £20,000 ($36,000) a year and works spectacularly well in the one in five women that carry the particular genetic flaw it addresses. So well in fact there are calls for women who are known to have this flaw, as expressed in a protein known as HER2, to take it at much earlier stages, putting more strain on limited budgets.41 If the comparison had been with herceptin, anastrozole would not have looked so good.

Breast Cancer Industry A Scam? Support Education, Not Medication Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

With nearly all breast cancer nonprofits being subjugated by drug companies, the FDA censoring alternative cancer solutions, and the mainstream media wildly exaggerating the benefits of near-useless cancer drugs like herceptin, there's hardly a message heard about breast cancer today that doesn't have a profit motive behind it. "Breast cancer has been transformed into a market-driven industry. It has become more about making money for corporate sponsors than funding innovative ways to treat breast cancer." - Health Studies researcher Samantha King, author of Pink Ribbons Inc.

FDA outlaws vitamin D, seeks to destroy sun to protect Americans from sunlight (satire) Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

Following the announcement of herceptin, an FDA spokesperson said, "Why do we need to take risks with dangerous vitamin D when we have clinically proven products like herceptin ready to be safely used by everyone?

Lying with statistics: How conventional medicine confuses the public with absolute risk vs. relative risk Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

See my herceptin Hype article for more details. Reverse the perspective for natural treatments At the same time, when conventional medicine promoters want to discredit a natural substance, an herbal remedy or the effects of nutrition on health, they always talk about absolute risk. If taking green tea supplements reduce the risk of cancer by that same 50 percent, eliminating cancer in one out of 100 patients, the news about that supplement would be something like this: "Green tea doesn’t work. Only helps one out of 100 patients.

Education Not Medication -- a women's health program by Mike Adams Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

With nearly all breast cancer nonprofits being subjugated by drug companies, the FDA censoring alternative cancer solutions, and the mainstream media wildly exaggerating the benefits of near-useless cancer drugs like herceptin, there's hardly a message heard about breast cancer today that doesn't have a profit motive behind it. The emphasis on breast cancer "screening," and the circus of holding breast cancer awareness months is, of course, all about recruiting more women into a system of treatment that generates profits for drug companies.

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