The Unwinding of the Miracle - Julie Yip-Williams Page 0,64

without having done the research I needed to be comfortable.) In addition to vitamins and supplements and the like, Dr. Chang proposed alternatives like metronomic chemotherapy (i.e., delivering traditional chemo drugs at lower dosages but more frequently), hyperthermia (i.e., shooting the body with heated microwaves on the theory that the heat will kill tumors), and various non-FDA-approved drugs that are used in other countries and that he is able to import through the compassionate-use loophole in the federal laws. He did give me studies that accompanied every option he proposed and encouraged me to do my own reading. After some research and much thought, I’ve determined that the only thing I’m comfortable doing in the way of integrative and alternative therapies is vitamins and supplements (with limitations). I don’t really believe those things will make much of a difference, but I think they will not harm me, so I’m willing to give them a try. I asked Dr. A.C. and Dr. D.L. their opinions, and they agreed with my conclusions. In fact, Dr. A.C. said the other stuff was “snake oil.”

It’s hard to avoid the talk of diets—whether vegan or alkaline or low carb—when you have cancer. Someone will inevitably say, You should juice or switch to a plant-based diet or avoid all sugars. People have asked me privately my opinion about diet, and I will state it here for the record. I tried a plant-based diet when I was first diagnosed—again one of those desperately grasping at straws acts—and I absolutely hated it. It’s not that I love meat—in fact, I don’t eat that much meat, and when I do it’s mostly fish and poultry and organic at that—but I can’t give up eggs, milk, butter, and cheese. Barring irrefutable evidence that animal products cause cancer, I’m not willing to give up certain things. The same is true of sugars and carbs. Food is a quintessential part of the human experience. The enjoyment of food is such a big part of life, and to give that up without the irrefutable evidence that might justify the sacrifice is a compromise in the quality of my life that I am unwilling to make. I believe in eating as much unprocessed food as possible, lots of fruits and vegetables and whole grains, with some meat and fish and the occasional dessert. I generally avoid red and smoked meats (although I do eat pork once in a while—we Chinese love our pork!). Everything in moderation, as they say.

Before my surgery, after I had asked online whether anyone had ever continued with full-blown chemo even with no evidence of disease (something my oncologist had favored at the time), a woman in one of my support groups sent me a private message. M is a researcher extraordinaire. She told me I might want to consider something called the ADAPT protocol, a treatment developed by Dr. Edward Lin out of the University of Washington that is currently in the Phase II clinical trial process. There are only three phases of testing before a drug is approved by the FDA, and Phase III is generally a rubber stamping, meaning much of the evidence in support of the drug therapy is established in the first two phases.

M sent me a link to the clinical trial at clinicaltrials.gov as well as links to the published journal articles discussing the results of the trials from 2007 through 2012. I read, and I made Josh read. The results in Phase II have been astounding—ninety-two-month survival rates for metastatic colon cancer for 40 percent of the cohort; this for a disease that typically sees an average of about twenty-four months. The protocol involves taking Xeloda, the oral form of 5-FU (which I’ve had all along), and Celebrex (an anti-inflammatory drug that is used to treat arthritis). Dr. Lin describes these drugs as working together to awaken the cancer stem cells and then kill them, akin to poking a beehive to bring out the bees and then spraying them with a pesticide. Dr. Lin likes to get patients to the point of no visible disease or as little visible disease as possible before starting this protocol, so it seems perfectly geared to someone in my position. I was persuaded.

I sent emails to both Dr. A.C. and Dr. D.L. before my appointments with them with links to the trial and the articles, letting them know that I would expect to hear their opinions. Both doctors think this is a reasonable next step