Everyday Project Management

Targeted Gene Therapy To Counter High Levels of VEGF

This is an extremely complex picture of how gene’s help cancer cells grow.  Faults in two types of genes cause cancer: oncogenes, which drive the growth of cancer cells, and tumor suppressor genes, which prevent cancer from developing. The concept of the targeted gene therapy is to attack the most vulnerable parts of the cancer cells based on the person’s specific genes that are causing the growth of cancer cells and the genes that have been turned off preventing tumor suppression.   The four boxes in red are the chemo drugs my Mom is taking to cause cancer cell suicide based on aging gene dysfunction that enabled this brain tumor to exist in the first place.  At the Burzynski Research Clinic, they made this determination by taking a blood sample looking for specific gene markers that told them which genes were turned on and which were turned off causing the growth of her brain tumor.  The one cell growth factor that I have been studying is the mTOR protein.   Inhibiting mTOR slows aging.   The one drug my Mom is taking to stop mTOR (and stop the cancer cell proliferation) is Afinitor.  Several other substances inhibit mTOR in cell cultures - curcumin, EGCG (in green tea), caffeine, and resvratrol (in red wine and grape juice). (Beevers C, Li F, Liu L, Huang S (2006). “Curcumin inhibits the mammalian target of rapamycin-mediated signaling pathways in cancer cells”. Int J Cancer 119 (4): 757–64.) You have to consume a lot of cur cumin to have kill the cancer cells - but it is physiological possible according to the research - “Phase I clinical trials have shown that high doses (8 g/day) of curcumin can be delivered to patients, yielding 1.77 ± 1.87 μM average peak serum concentration, with virtually no deleterious side effects.  We observed complete abolition of S6K1 and 4E-BP1 phosphorylation and reduced levels of mTOR phosphorylation/autophosphorylation upon 2 h treatment with 2.5 μM curcumin. Our results suggest that the lowest concentration of curcumin that could possibly affect these critical phosphorylation events is well within the range of physiologically achievable concentrations of the compound in cancer patients.”

A month ago today my Mom was unconscious for 24 hours in a hospital in Venice, Florida, her left eyebrow twitching for five hours.   We had left Connecticut two days earlier where she had been put on hospice after a visit to her neuro-oncologist Sept. 22nd.   One of my brothers, my father and I  figured if she was on a death watch, why not go to Florida and enjoy whatever time she had left.   In Florida,  at the hospital after her second seizure, my Mom was again put on hospice.  Going into hospice was a condition to leave the hospital and bring my mom home.   Otherwise they were going to put her into a “rehabilitation” center.   None of us liked that idea and my parents have long term care insurance that covers in home health care.

ONE month later, my Mom is on the path to recovery.   We do have the hospice nurse in Florida in part to thank for this.   My mom was on a fast decline because of brain swelling due to the seizures caused by her brain tumor.   During her second seizure, the attending physician caring for my Mom when she was unconscious was insistent that my Mom’s quality of life would be much better if she had steroids -  if she were to wake from being unconscious.   She did wake up, but the second second seizure did set her back.   Her voice was inaudible as it was so weak.   She could no longer sit up.   She spent most of her days sleeping since they had doubled the dose of her anti-seizure medication to keep her from having seizures.    The attending neurologist did not want to give my Mom steroids - saying he wanted to “save” them for when they were really needed.   Fortunately the hospice folks disagreed.   The steroids were going to improve the quality of her life (they actually probably saved her life) so we were given a prescription.   The steroids helped her stay alive long enough for us to get her to the Burzynski clinic.

Now my Mom converses loud enough so we can all understand her and is becoming quite the comedian.   When asked if she had shortness of breath at the clinic - she replied “only when they throw cold water on me.”   My Mom can now sit on the couch without slouching and without supports.   She can reach for things without falling out of her wheel chair.   She can even walk in the pool.  She is eating  three times more food than she was a month ago and is awake and alert the majority of the day.   She has left side paralysis because of the swelling from the brain tumor - but the reflexes are starting to work again in her left leg and she can wiggle the toes on her left foot.   She can stand without as much support on her right leg.   She is gaining weight.   She is starting to write again and is learning how to count again.   Its pretty amazing to see the capabilities she lost from this brain tumor and how fast she is regaining them as the cancer is starting to go away.   Hope isn’t even required anymore as it’s just a known that she will continue to get better.   Her goal is to be able to walk by her grand daughter’s wedding in July.

I’m reading a fantastic book recommended by my Mom’s Feldenkrais therapist in Florida.   It is by Norman Doidge, MD - The Brain That Changes Itself about how people can overcome deficits and achieve any level of personal performance that suits them.   We all have weak areas and the techniques in this book could help anyone who wanted to give them a fair shake.   What is amazing about the stories in the book is that it really doesn’t matter how the brain has been damaged - when the people profiled in the book wanted to develop a capability they didn’t have but knew they wanted, they were able to over time do just that.   What the book emphasized that hit home for me right now is how people reach a learning plateau and need time to rest and assimilate new skills.   This does not mean that improvement has ceased.   It’s important to note this when working with my Mom as she recovers from the impact of brain cancer.   She is doing an amazing job regaining capabilities - but it’s haphazard and some days are better than others.

We met with one of the three nutritionists at the Burzynski Clinic.   Having followed an anti-cancer diet now for three years successfully keeping cancer at bay with my own adrenal tumor, they were the FIRST medical professionals I have met in this whole cancer saga who paid the proper attention to the role of diet in cancer recovery.  What was even more fantastic - their in-depth analysis of just why wild Alaskan salmon is so good for helping their patients recover from cancer.   According to the Burzynski nutritionist “wild Alaskan salmon contains an antioxidant “astaxanthin” that is about 500x more powerful than vitamin E and beta carotene in neutralizing, cleaning up, and preventing free radical damage and disease.   It is loaded with healthy omega-3 fats (DHA & EPA) the can keep your at your healthiest and that also have an amazing effect on serotonin levels, a brain neurotransmitter known for its ‘feel good, feel happy’ qualities.”

Yesterday was a rough day in the quest to cure my Mom’s brain cancer.   She had a really really bad reaction to one of the drugs - it was the last one she was prescribed.    It wasn’t bad from a survival perspective, but bad from a quality of life perspective.   I’m not saying anymore.   We are NEVER giving her that one again.   And to think that people who are going through regular chemo have to put up with that type of impact as a part of the treatment is outrageous.

At her daily doctor’s appointment yesterday we were given the results of her Endogenous Amino Acids test and 12 of the 24 Amino Acid readings were over the max limit.   The Physicians Assistant who handed me the report did not know what it meant.   We did have an appointment to discuss with the nutritionist but she had gone home early because she wasn’t feeling well.   I’ve been scouring the internet to try to make sense of this lab report.   Rather obscure test as there are no reference sites for this one.   From what I could make out - it’s probably her ketogenic diet that is tipping this into this range.   We did also find out that her b-12 levels are sky high - I guess the chewable 5000mg b-12 tablets work GREAT.   She is good on B-12 for a while.

What I really like about the Burzynski’s Clinic - these folks are thorough and on top of everything.   And they are quite happy to share their lab results with you, give you copies and help you make sense of it.   You are treated like a partner in the cure program instead of a necessary evil to be worked around like most of the other medical places we have encountered on this journey.   We are made an integral part of the team on the pursuit of the cure.   We are anyhow, so why not work with us this way?

On the first day we were at the Burzynski Clinic - they did a test on my Mom’s blood to see what type of genetic markers she had (oncogenes).   Their goal with Plan A is to wipe out the tumor cells that make up my Mom’s brain cancer based on her specific genetic markers.

They started her that very same day on Sodium Phenylbutyrate. Sodium phenylbutyrate (Buphenyl) taken orally is metabolized in the liver into a combination of phenylacetylglutamine and phenylacetate, which then enter the bloodstream.  Those two chemicals are the prime ingredients of antineoplaston AS2-1. Sodium phenylbutyrate was given an orphan drug designation by the FDA for use as an adjunct to surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy for treatment of patients with primary or recurrent malignant glioma.  According to Dr. Burzynski, when the body does not have enough antineoplastons, cells that begin to develop abnormally are not corrected, and tumors form and grow. Antineoplaston therapy supplies the body with the substances needed to correct the abnormal development of the cell and allow it to develop normally or to die a natural cell death, while healthy cells are not affected.

The second day she started on a targeted therapy to block specific enzymes and growth factor receptors involved in cancer cell proliferation. The drugs in this group are also called signal transduction inhibitors. She was given Erlotinib (Tarceva®).   It is currently approved to treat metastatic non-small cell lung cancer and pancreatic cancer that cannot be removed by surgery or has metastasized. This small-molecule drug inhibits the tyrosine kinase activity of EGFR.   They use this off label to treat my Mom’s brain cancer.

The third day she started on a targeted therapy to block the growth of blood vessels to tumors (angiogenesis). To grow beyond a certain size, tumors must obtain a blood supply to get the oxygen and nutrients needed for continued growth. Treatments that interfere with angiogenesis may block tumor growth.  She was given Pazopanib (Votrient®).  This is currently approved for the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma. Pazopanib is a small-molecule inhibitor of several tyrosine kinases, including VEGF receptors, c-kit, and platelet-derived growth factor receptor.

The fourth day they start her on another targeted therapy that also block specific enzymes and growth factor receptors involved in cancer cell proliferation. These drugs are also called signal transduction inhibitors.  She is being given Everolimus (Afinitor®).   This is approved to treat patients with advanced kidney cancer whose disease has progressed after treatment with other therapies, patients with subependymal giant cell astrocytoma who also have tuberous sclerosis and are unable to have surgery, or patients with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors that cannot be removed by surgery, are locally advanced, or have metastasized. This small-molecule drug binds to a protein called immunophilin FK binding protein-12, forming a complex that in turn binds to and inhibits the mTOR kinase.

And the story continues…….

Michelle LaBrosse, PMP

We started my Mom today at the Burzynski Clinic to cure her brain cancer.   This place is run the way medicine should be run.   As we walked into the building, we were met by a receptionist who handed us our schedule for the day and escorted us to the 2nd floor waiting room to meet with the intake Physicians Assistant.   We reviewed all the intake forms we had filled out a couple weeks ago.  But the primary purpose of the meeting it seemed to me was to assess our intentions and our beliefs about curing cancer and just why we did not go the conventional route with chemotherapy.  (It wasn’t going to cure her cancer and might in fact kill her so why risk it).  Then three physicians spent an hour reviewing my Mom’s case.   They came in and discussed their assessment.   Which was fascinating and validated earlier perceptions of the neurosurgeon in New York.   My Mom had a very small (the size of a pea) dangerous tumor - an anaplastic astrocytoma.   The neurosurgeon in NY removed it when he did the biopsy resection of her brain.   The larger more diffuse tumor has not grown and is considered a very low grade brain tumor - which is causing brain swelling.   The brain swelling is causing most of her symptoms and was increased by the seizures (caused by the brain surgery).   A precautionary dose of anti-seizure medication AND steroids may have prevented most of my Mom’s increasing deficits.

The doctors at Burzynski proposed a three level approach to shrink the large diffuse brain tumor (without surgery, dangerous chemicals or harsh burning radiation rays).    And they have also proposed an approach to insure the dangerous small tumor does not reappear.   They follow a conservative approach both medically and financially.   They first try a gene targeted therapy protocol using specially formulated medications that are customized to my Mom’s genes.  This is plan A - and will take about ten days to see if it bears fruit.   Plan B is a more aggressive approach to deliver other gene targeted therapies intravenously to shrink the tumor.   Plan C is the most aggressive using the FDA Clinical trial phase III approach that will wipe out the tumor if Plan A and B do not work completely.   Because my Mom never received radiation or chemotherapy,  her chances of success jump from 25 percent to 50 percent.   They emphasize personalized treatment plans at the Burzynski Research Institute so this is the personalized plan to cure my Mom’s specific brain cancer based on my Mom’s genes and her specific cancer.

Yesterday they did blood and urine tests.   Today she is going to start Plan A.  Tomorrow she has the baseline imaging studies done.   Because EKG’s taken during my mom’s seizures showed bundle branch blockages - but on either sides of her heart (not typical of a heart problem).  they are doing an echocardiogram to see if there is in fact a heart problem to consider or to validate if the EKG readings ware due to the seizures.  GOOD MEDICINE - I wonder why no other physicians ordered this?   Oh I forgot - it was because she was 78 and they treated her as if she were dying, NOT LIVING.

At the Burzynski Clinic from 3 - 5:30 every day is set aside for education.   Yesterday we learned about Gene Targeted Therapy and how it works.   We also met another patient who was in for the same condition as my Mom.   This woman had had left side  paralysis just like my Mom.   And she became paralyzed on her left side after her first seizure too - just like my Mom.   When her brain tumor shrunk, it took her about a week to learn how to walk again.   This was very encouraging for my Mom to meet her as she does not want to be cured of her cancer to just end up being impaired long term.   She is going for a full recovery.  The goal is to be playing tennis again by Christmas.

At our education session, I learned something that I have to say I whole heartily agree with - it is not heart disease or cancer that is the number one killer.  Ignorance is the number one killer.   And I dare say it is NOT the ignorance so much of the patient but the ignorance of who they seek out for medical care.   For as long as I have been a professional, I have noticed that the most arrogant professionals tend to also be the most ignorant.  And what constitutes the height of arrogance is when a doctor dismisses you and your research or others research as irrelevant yet fails to do their own research.   Most doctors I ran into BEFORE I went to the Burzynski Research Clinic not only dismissed other research, they down right discouraged us from seeking it out.   And when we did, they did not embrace it yet were threatened by it.   Thus fostering more ignorance and causing more needless suffering.  The folks at Burzynski welcome the insight and research.   Why - their main mission is to CURE their patients’ cancer.

Michelle LaBrosse, PMP

In August, I attended a cancer support group to better be there for my Mom as she works on recovering from brain cancer.  The group was led by Bernie Siegel (author of Love, Medicine, and Miracles) .   At that meeting, Bernie read a passage from the book “Patience - A Little Book of Inner Strength” by Eknath Easwaran.   The story he read was about the Joy of St. Francis.   In the story, St. Francis shares that when you can be happy no matter what other people are doing or what is going on in your life, then you have found deep joy.   I downloaded that book that night and learned the joy in patience.   I also learned that any goal was attainable if one was patient enough.   I was sharing this book with a friend a few weeks later who told me about the book “Buddha’s Brain - The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom.”   This is a book written by Rick Hanson, PhD - a neuropsychologist and Richard Mendius, MD - a neurologist.   The book is an amazing treasure at how to use your mind to develop your brain to create enduring happiness.   I mind mapped the book for my own later review.   I wanted to share it with others through this blog.

Use Your Mind To Develop Your Brain for Enduring Happiness

Michelle LaBrosse, PMP

Over the past six months, we have been helping my mom work towards curing her brain cancer.   We’ve tried many of the conventional and alternative therapies out there.  Numerous friends and family have had suggestions of things we must try if we wanted our mom to recover.    Here are our experiences:

Alternative Approaches We Have Tried

1. High PH water - supposedly cancer cells cannot live in an alkaline environment.  The standard american diet creates a highly acidic environment.     A plant based diet creates a more alkaline environment.  Supposedly high PH water does the same.   We got my mom a Kangen water filter to make her water high PH.   Studying organic apple cider vinegar, a little bit of this in filtered water can do the same thing.   A bottle of Brag’s Organic Apple Cider Vinegar that can last for months costs under $10.   The portable Kangen water filter we got that takes up a lot of real estate on the kitchen counter cost over $1300.   Plus it’s not that portable.    The only plus, you don’t have to tolerate the taste of the apple cider vinegar in your water.   I’ve tried many of these things with my mom as overall they are just a healthy way to live.   I found a little apple cider vinegar in my water to be a nice addition.   You can read more about the impact of an alkaline producing diet on cancer at this link - http://www.acidalkalinediet.com/alkaline-diet-for-cancer.

2. Quark - this is a mixture of flax seed oil, crushed flax seed and organic cottage cheese.   It produces compounds that supposedly kill brain cancer cells.   We did quark for a little bit in June.   She didn’t’ tolerate the quark well because she is lactose intolerant.   We tried to make quark with lactose free yogurt but she still did not like it that well.   You can read more about quark at http://www.budwigcenter.com/anti-cancer-diet.php.

3. Macrobiotic Diet - we did this for several weeks in June.   No one in the family liked this food so this was not a sustainable approach.   We had a well known Macrobiotic consultant visit the family and he made these outrageous statements that did not seem correct regarding conventional blood tests - I don’t really remember what he said but do recall that upon later research, his statements were discredited.  My family then tended to ascribe the term “quack” to anything macrobiotic.   Without family support of this diet, there was no way it was going to work.   This guy did more harm then good because he was too extreme and the family thought he was a nut job.   If the environment is conducive, the patient has good support, and their is strong personal motivation to do this diet, it is good to follow a macrobiotic diet to cure cancer.   It does work for many people.

4. Turmeric supplements - I am not sure these work for brain cancer if this form of turmeric cannot cross the blood brain barrier.  It may work for inflammation in your body.   See the post just below this one. Based on experience of my mom getting better when she drinks this tea and some of the research on curcumin, I do think that curcumin root (from which Turmeric is derived) when it is sliced, boiled and drank right away works very well to kill cancer cells.   I want to figure out a way to grow this myself indoors in non-tropical climates.

5. Ketogenic Diet - this means no carbohydrates at all.  It is high protein and high plant based fats.   This diet is very hard to maintain when you have a family that loves it’s carbs and desserts.    Even with showing every single family member the impact of sugar on feeding cancer cells, some family members still thought it was acceptable and even desired to give my mother dessert and sweets throughout the day.   The ONLY way even a minimal attempt at this diet worked was to remove my mother from interacting with these “well meaning” family members by honoring her request to move to Florida (something that caused HUGE divisivness in the family).  My daughter found a supplement called the Maitake Mushroom that lowers blood sugar so it counters the impact of ingesting foods that increase your blood sugar.  We monitor her blood sugar as well and it’s at the normal levels.  We give her one of these in the morning and do our best to limit the carbs by making her eggs, organic meats, and lots of low glycemic vegetables   Here is a website to learn more about what you can eat on a ketogenic diet - http://www.keto.org/foods.htm.

6. Melatonin - we spoke with this medical intuitive who was adamant we give her 5 mg of melatonin several times a day.   Upon further research we found that it would cause problems with her anti-seizure medication.   He claimed to have cured thousands with brain cancer with this approach.   Maybe this is why so many people from brain cancer die as most people with brain cancer end up at some point in time taking anti-seizure medication.  And if his claims of treating thousands are correct,  this might be why they are all croaking.   Needless to say, his claims seemed preposterous.   Plus brain cancer is extremely rare - thousands?   Considering brain cancer is a 5 out of 100,000 occurrence, treating 1000 people is a very large sample size.   The BS Meter was pegged on this guy.

7. Cancell - This we heard about this in a book called “out smart your cancer.”   She actually appeared to get worse while taking this.   We stopped it immediately.

8. Qigong - while my mom enjoyed going to her shiatsu qigong weekly sessions in June and we had a good time with the Grand Master Foo healing, this seemed too out there for my mother.   She was also given a “sacred” blanket she was supposed to lean against on her chair.   It had magnets in it and she claimed that every time she fell asleep against it she had nightmares.   I think this is in the category if you think it helps, it does.   She did not feel it helped, so we stopped doing it.

11.  Yoga - this was fantastic,  First we created a private yoga class that friends and family did with my Mom. Then we hired a private yoga teacher to work with her as well.   She was doing very well regaining functionality and stopping the increasing of “deficits.”   We were able to do the yoga until she had the brain biopsy.

12. Tennis - my mom is an avid tennis player and she was playing tennis until her first seizure in September.  She now is motivated to get out of her wheel chair so that she can play tennis by Christmas.

13. Removing environmental toxins - the greater exposure to environmental toxins, the harder it is for the human body to fight off cancer.  Conventional thinking now says we all have cancer in our systems.   It becomes a problem when we have lower resistance to countering it.  Lower resistance can come when natural anti-cancer gene’s mutate (as what happens when some people take a prescription drug too long like cholesterol medication or are exposed to environmental toxins in excess of what our body can handle like that in cigarette smoke).  Lower resistance can also come from having a less effective immune system (which can happen just from aging as 60 to 90 percent of our immune system is in our digestive track and digestive systems do become less effective as we age.)   Environmental toxins can both cause naturally occurring anti-cancer genes to mutate and reduce the strength of our immune systems as our bodies have to work harder to counter the effects of the toxicity.   Properly functioning genes and a healthy immune system are both needed to keep cancer at bay in our bodies.   Some toxins are worse than others and when you already have cancer, it’s even more important to remove as many environmental toxins as possible.   Some of the environmental toxins we removed from what my mom was doing was to stop drinking out of plastic water bottles,  to not hold the cell phone up to her head anymore, to replace scratched teflon pans with pans that did not have teflon, to only drink filtered water,  to only purchase organic produce and meats, and to replace her cosmetics and skin care products with ones approved by the cosmetic database as very low to no carcinogens.  What has amazed me is the arguments I’ve gotten from family members and other people visiting who offer an opinion regarding the impact of environmental toxins.   The two biggest arguments I’ve heard is that these environmental toxins help make your body stronger and since they haven’t caused me to get cancer, this whole thing is a bunch of bunk to there are toxins in the air we breathe so why bother doing anything about this anyhow.   One of my friends says these folks live on Planet Ignoramus.   Regardless, these people are as toxic as the environmental toxins they dismiss as relevant.   My approach has been to ignore these folks and do my best to keep the toxins away from my Mom.   Being a cancer patient’s advocate is not a job for the weak that is for sure.

Conventional Practices

1. Brain Biopsy - we cancelled her first brain biopsy because it didn’t make sense nor did the neurosurgeon in Hartford, Connecticut give us a warm and fuzzy he knew what he was doing.   We then went to a hospital in NY at the recommendation of one of my brother’s neighbors.   The neurooncologist there was a fantastic sales person and brought in her aggressive neurosurgeon for the close to convince my family to let them do a resection on her brain.  The Neurosurgeon’s argument was that he was one of the guys who certified all the neurosurgeons in the state of New York and he would never certify someone in neurosurgery who would not do a brain biopsy on someone with brain cancer.   Well with that level of influence, of course every neurosurgeon in NY certified under his watch would agree with him.   The brain biopsy made my mother incontinent (physically and emotionally),  caused her to have seizures and fall and injure herself and started her downward slide.  We were never told of these potential side effects when being pitched on doing the biopsy.    No one even reviewed the results of the biopsy to realize that the pathology report did not correlate to the MRI diagnosis.  Had we known then what we know now, we would NOT do the brain biopsy again.    We would do the curcumin root tea, the ketogenic diet with the Maitake Mushroom capsules, and get her into the burzynski clinic stat.

2. MRI scans.   My mom has had about seven of these.  NOT ONE radiologist has ever looked at all of them.   The last MRI scan she had, the neurologist who ordered it said it looked like the tumor had grown from what he “remembered” seeing back in April - yet he never compared them side by side.   After seeing hundreds of patients over a six month period, how he could “remember” what her scan looked like in April is hard to believe.   Additionally, the Connecticut neurologist made a pronouncement that she had a Gliomastosis Cerebri (for which she had NO symptoms) and told one of my brothers that she had less than six months to live if we were lucky.   Well we were lucky, because of this diagnosis, the neurooncologist in Hartford advised against doing chemo or radiation with this diagnosis as it would not help.  The pathology report showed that she has an anaplastic astrocytoma - for which her symptoms did correlate.  The prognosis for an anaplastic astrocytoma is also measured in years, not months.    Yet the neurooncologist said the pathology report confirmed the MRI diagnosis - it did not.   Thank god for small favors.   As the chemo and radiation would have at best ruined the quality of her life and at worst killed any reasonable chance for a full recovery and significantly shortened her life.

What has worked for my Mom is her continued belief that she could and would recover.  She is living proof of the concepts in Bruce Lipton’s book “The Biology of Beliefs.”   She has tried everything that we have asked her to do to recover.   She is finally starting on the road to recovery.  She has now outlived the prognosis given by her doctor in Connecticut and everything, both good and bad, has lead to the successes we are having today.

What We Now Do Because It WORKS

1. Steroids to reduce her brain swelling.   Her family doctor in Florida recommended that in April.  After her second seizure (Oct. 2011), the tending physician at the Florida hospital was emphatic we give her steroids since the seizure caused even more brain swelling.   Her family doctor agreed with us to continue using them to help reduce the brain swelling.    Her tumor is in the supportive tissues of her brain and causes tremendous brain swelling which causes most of the physical deficits.  She never was given steroids in Hartford after her first seizure (Sept. 2011) and ended up with left side paralysis and in a wheel chair five days later.   Coincidence - I think not. She is quickly regaining functionality since being on the steroids.

2. The Ketogenic Diet - sugar feeds brain cancer cells.   High protein and high plant based fats feed the healthy cells in the brain.  The ketogenic diet starves the cancer cells.  The biggest challenge here is getting the rest of the family to NOT feed her sugar or high glycemic foods.   This has been unbelievably hard to gain compliance.   Like I said above, if you want your family member who has cancer to live and you have family members who insist on feeding them sugar, the best course of action is to move them far away from those family members.

3. High PH water - we have the filter and it does appear to work well overall.   We have the Kangen filter so we use it.   However if people can’t afford this filter, the apple cider vinegar in filtered water will do the same thing.

4. Curcumin root tea - twice a day.   See the blog post below. This is a miracle cure for brain cancer.

5. Probiotic pills twice a day to build up her immune system.  My mom has been very healthy even with the increasing deficits accelerated in part by the medical “care” she received.

6. Daily physical therapy - absolutely required to keep and regain lost physical functioning and muscle strength.  We now have a physical therapist working with her who believes she can and will recover (this is crucial).   Her physical therapist  in Connecticut believed my mom was going to die within weeks and freely expressed that idea to me and other family members.   We solved the problem of the dangerous “debbie downer” physical therapist by bringing my mom to Florida where she is now working with people much more positive and encouraging for her recovery.

7. Feldenkrais - an amazing physical therapy approach that helps regenerate neural networks and regain physical functioning.

8. Intense laughter about everything.  Whatever my mom enjoys doing and makes her laugh, we do it.   For Halloween we have her dressed as “Chair” - this crazy character with a long blonde platinum wig.   She has worn this wig everywhere the past several days.   It keeps her laughing.

9.   Finding clinics like the Burzynski Clinic that have ongoing FDA clinical trials and great success with brain cancer recovery.

10. Continue the removal of environmental toxins from my mom’s environment - in her foods, from the use of her phone, in her water,  with the tools used to prepare her food, and with her cosmetic/skin care products.  This is an ongoing challenge which continues to amaze me.   We now have full time nursing care for my mom and just last week I was told by one of her nurses that since we didn’t have air filters in the house, it was a waste of time to work on reducing the amount of environmental toxins in my mom’s environment.   I called the senior care service that provided that one nurse and asked them not to send that nurse around again.  The message to anyone reading this - if there are people who are not willing or interested in becoming more educated on how to help someone recover from cancer reduce their influence on the cancer patient.  You are not being rude.  You are being kind and caring to the person who matters - the one with cancer who needs your help and advocacy the most.

11.  Continuing to study the relationship between the gut and the brain to reduce the chance of my mom having seizures.   There is an medicine for Crohn’s disease that has shown to reduce seizures caused by glioma’s.   This is still in the animal trial stage according to the researchers we contacted who did the study. Building up the digestive system though does tend to help the brain function.  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110323140247.htm

12.  Prayer - my mom has hundreds of people praying for her recovery.  We are from a large catholic family and she has numerous friends from her varied interests - all praying for her.   She gets several well wishing cards wherever she is every day.   They all believe in her ability to recover from this.   For those of you reading this who have been praying for her recovery - THANK YOU.   For those of you reading this who do not know my mom - your prayers for her recovery are welcome.

Recommendations to Others

Please realize that what we have done has worked for my Mom with her unique condition and her unique lifestyle.  She is in extremely good shape, and has a very strong will to live.   I recommend if you or someone you love has brain cancer, that you try whatever you are most comfortable trying to help you achieve your own personal goals.   Do not accept anyone’s prognosis of your condition and live your life the way that best suits YOU - whether that is one day, one week, one year or one decade.   Surround yourself with happy, upbeat, and positive people who believe in your abilities to cure the condition and who act in accordance with that belief.   This is your life, live it well.