When Jim was 36 year old, he was diagnosed with acute myeloblastic leukemia with symptoms of fatigue, anemia, and extremely high white count on his blood panel. Over three years, Jim received seven chemotherapy treatments, each one giving him a temporary remission shorter than the last one.  Eventually the chemotherapy was no longer effective, the cancer cells became resistant to chemotherapy.  After exhausting all of the usual treatments, the doctors offered Jim allogeneic hematopoetic stem cell transplantation, a procedure which obliterates the patient’s bone marrow with high dose chemotherapy.  The patient is then “rescued” with donor bone marrow stem cells from a family member or donor bank.  This procedure is associated with considerable morbidity and mortality from infection and graft vs. host disease.   The high dose chemotherapy produces permanent, irreversible infertility.  Jim had the procedure and is alive and doing well three years later.  Upper left image poster courtesy of Cancer Stem Cell Meeting 2012 Cambridge Cancer Stem Cell Symposium.

What can we learn from Jim’s story?

The first lesson is that hematologic malignancies, and all other cancers for that matter, tend to  come back (relapse) even after complete remission induced by cytotoxic chemotherapy.  For many years, the reason for this cancer recurrence was unknown.  However, in the past decade, the reason has been discovered.

Two Populations of Cancer Cells

There are actually two distinct populations of cancer cells in the cancer victim.  The bulky tumor masses are caused by rapidly replicating cancer cells, highly sensitive to killing effects of chemotherapy.  However, a  subset of these cancer cells lurk within the tumor mass, hiding in a dormant state, not actively replicating.  These are the cancer “stem cells” which are resistant to conventional cytotoxic chemotherapy, biding their time, waiting for a future opportunity to reactivate and seed metastatic cancer throughout the  body.

This explains Jim’s futile experience with chemotherapy which kills off the rapidly replicating leukemia cells, while leaving the dormant leukemia “stem cells” unharmed.  This is also true for most other solid organ cancers.  The solution, of course, is to address the dormant cancer “stem cell”, at the same time as the rapidly replicating cancer cells.(1,1A)

Unfortunately,  modern day oncology/ hematology doctors are oblivious to this important lesson, and continue to mindlessly treat their patients with the same chemotherapy protocols as before.  Even though this information is in their own oncology/hematology journals,  they cannot bring themselves to acknowledge it.

Sadly, since their doctors will not help them, patients are left to fend for themselves.  In order to get off the chemotherapy merri-go-round, the patient must learn about non-toxic targeted therapies which kill cancer stem cells.  These are widely available.  As we will see below, some of these therapies are supplements at the health food store, and some are common drugs  requiring a doctor’s prescription.  With knowledge of non-toxic targeted therapies,  a durable remission after the last chemotherapy treatment can be achieved.

Ovarian Cancer Stem Cells

Many Natural Substance Target Cancer Stem Cells(12)

You might be surprised to know there are 3,000 plant species having anti-cancer activity.(1B)  In fact, there are hundreds of non-toxic natural substances that target cancer stem cells. (12)  There are so many to choose from, one must be selective, so we will discuss only a few of them below: (10-19)

Curcumin

The food spice, Curcumin (tumeric) is widely available as a nutritional supplement in highly absorbance forms such as Curcumin Phytosome Meriva (r), Cogumen,  Lipospheric Curcumin. and the most bioavailable   Ultra-Cur .

Dr Huang reports in 2016 that “Curcumin Induces Apoptosis of Colorectal Cancer Stem Cells by Coupling with CD44 Marker”.

Dr Huang studied colorectal cancer stem cells, and found curcumin couples with the CD44 cancer stem cell membrane marker,  and “might have some blocking effect on the transport of glutamine into the cells, thus decreasing the glutamine content in the CD44+ cells and inducing apoptosis.”(2)

Dr Chung reported in 2015 that both “Curcumin and EGCG Epigallocatechin Gallate Inhibit the Cancer Stem Cells . (3) Dr Chung reported the cancer stem cell marker was denoted by the CD44+ protein.  The CD44+ cell population decreased following curcumin and EGCG (from Green Tea). (3)

Dr Hasanali in 2012 reported that Curcumin inhibits Nuclear Factor Kappa Beta activation and Downregulate Cyclin D1 in Mantle Cell Lymphoma, thereby inducing apoptosis. (4)

molecular structure of curcumin

Dr Shishodia in 2005 reported that “Curcumin inhibits constitutive NF-κB activation, induces G1/S arrest, suppresses proliferation, and induces apoptosis in mantle cell lymphoma.” (5)