The Convetional Mainstream Warming Up to Immune Therapies
Over the last few years, a handful of conventional oncologist have converted to adding natural, non-toxic therapies that enhance and shorten conventional treatment. Most of these medical frontiersmen are also associated with a major medical school where creative thinking is perhaps more the rule than the exception. Today, names like Dr. Andrew Weil, Dr. Donald Abrams, Dr. Keith Block, Dr. Ralph Moss, Dr. David Rosenthal, and Dr. Jeremy Geffen, just to highlight a few, are prominent champions of the integrative oncology movement. Although these highly credentialed physicians are respected by the conventional mainstream, their practices and writings haven’t been welcomed and generally accepted by mainstream medicine. However, there is evidence that such disinterest is beginning to change for the better.
With the latest discoveries of immune system therapy for certain cancers (see yesterday’s post), positive remarks are springing from unlikely critics. Dr. Len Lichtenfeld of the American Cancer Society was quoted in the AP release yesterday, “I don’t know what we did differently to make the breakthrough. Dr. John Niederhuber, director of the National Cancer Institute added, “Instead of a single ’A-Ha!’ moment, there have been many ‘ah, so’ discoveries about the immune system that now seem to be paying off. Dr. Patrick Hwu of the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston described the vaccine discovery as “…a mimic to what you’re trying to kill, a training device to train the immune system to kill something.” Across the country, leading doctors and researchers are buzzing about the immune system being a possible answer to cancer. Ironically, that has been the integrative oncologists position for years. But, anything that turns the heads of mainstream oncologists toward integrative options is a welcome sign. We may be about to cross a threshold into what we have worked so hard for over the last several years. Let’s keep the pressure on. We can’t declare victory yet.