Surviving "Terminal" Cancer: Clinical Trials, Drug Cocktails, and Other Treatments Your Oncologist Won't Tell You About Paperback – June 2, 2002

A critical perspective of the cancer industry from a very intelligent patient. Good for thought of you ever have to deal with cancer.

The Gold Standard treatment for Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) brain tumors is a combination of surgery, radiation and the chemotherapy themozolomide (Temodar / Temodal).Untreated, GBM uniformly kills its victims within four months.For 10% of all patients treated with radiation, that survival expectation increases to two years. At four years, 3% of the original group will still be alive.Add Temodar and surgery to that radiation, and 27% of those treated can expect to survive to two years. At four years, 12% of those treated with the Gold Standard combination will still be alive.University study press releases cheer the dramatic increase in surivival rates for patients receiving Tamodar along with radiation and surgery. From 10% to 27% for two years and from 3% to 12% for four years are big jumps.While the numbers do represent a significant increase, the fact remains that at four years, 88% of those receiving the Gold Standard treatment for Glioblastoma Multiforme tumors will be dead.In 1995, before Temodar was anywhere near the marketplace, Dr. Ben Williams discovered that he had a large Glioblastoma Multiforme tumor. Williams looked at the survival rates for those receiving the recommended treatment and did not like the odds.A research scientist and academic, Williams scoured every resource to create a state-of-the-art Glioblastoma Multiforme protocol. He received all of the standard treatment, which he supplemented with six other anti-cancer, pro-immune agents (and aspirin for the side effects).Williams combined the prescribed treatment:* Surgery (which left mass behind)* Radiation* BCNU chemotherapy* PCV chemotherapyWith these addition of these agents:* Tamoxifen* Verapamil* Accutane* Melatonin* Mushroom extract* Gamma Linolenic Acid* AspirinThe treatment the oncologist recommended was certain to result in Williams' death. Yet the doctor refused any treatment outside the standard protocol, for fear of doing harm.Williams believed that nothing was more harmful than death. The oncologist only budged a little. He gave Williams some Tamoxifen. Everything else Williams took to reduce his tumor - including a higher dose of Tamoxifen than the oncologist would prescribe -- he researched and obtained on his own.A 1995 Gold Standard for GBM tumor treatment did not exist. The oncologist offered surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. The difference between 1995 and 2007 is the accuracy of the radiation and the quality of the chemotherapy.At two years from diagnosis - when 92% of patients receiving standard treatment would be dead - Williams received the first of what is now 12 years of clean MRIs.Williams regards his low-toxicity drug cocktail as a synergistic weapon against glioblastoma multiforme. He compares the current Gold Standard GBM treatment to the AZT AIDS treatment. Although AZT worked at first, the body developed a resistance to it. No more HIV patients were alive at four years on AZT than off of it.GBM cancer cells also adapt to chemotherapy. They're not adept at adapting to the low-toxicity cocktail Williams invented. The Accutane prevented the cancer cells from consuming the cells nearby. The Tamoxifen slowed the cancer cells' ability to extrude out the chemotherapy. The Gamma-Linolenic Acid produced free radicals inside the tumor, killing it from the inside out.As a rule, oncologists do not offer these treatments to brain tumor patients. These treatments are not "proven." If the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has not blessed the substance then the doctor will not prescribe it, even if the doctor's treatment itself means almost certain death.Doctors know, says Williams, that their patients will die. So what is the problem prescribing low-toxicity agents that might cure brain tumors?Going outside the system can have a dramatically negative affect on a doctor's career. He might be accused of fraud, profiteering or incompetence. In a profession based on the credo "First, do no harm," doctors would first like to do no harm to their own careers.Doctors find themselves trapped between the FDA and the medical self-policing infra-structure on the one hand, and certain death for their patients on the other.Doctors won't prescribe the cocktail agents Williams took because they are not "proven" according to FDA standards. The approval process requires billions of dollars. Pharmaceutical companies won't research drugs that will not be economically viable. The drug must be exclusive to the pharmaceutical company. The population requiring the drug must be large enough to expect a return on investment.Many of the agents Williams used to cure his cancer are not patentable. Competitors would be able to copy and sell the compound. About 12,000 people a year are diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme tumors. The market is not large enough to justify very expensive scientific trials.Beaten down by disease, radiation and chemotherapy, few GBM patients have the energy to climb the hurdles to promising but not "proven" treatments. Even when the outcome is certain death patients who ask for more will not receive it. Just as AIDS patients created political pressure to get "unproven" treatments for HIV, Williams encourages GBM patients to insist on access to "unproven" treatments for GBM.Dispensing only "proven" treatment is legal, says Williams. But denying dying patients access to substances that could save their lives is grossly unethical. Already fighting the deadliest of brain tumors, patients should not have to fight for promising but "unproven" cures. Until the political pressure on the FDA reaches a critical mass, he says, the GBM Gold Standard Treatment will still produce a four year death rate of 88%.[...]

A fantastic book, written by a learned author who negotiated the maze of brain cancer treatments--both conventional & alternative. I could not put this book down, & totally enjoyed the author's personal narrative, his wry sense of humor, & his articulate voice. Absolutely amazing that he survived his brain cancer 20+ yrs via a "cocktail" of prescription and OTC drugs, along with a couple rounds of chemo. This book reinforces my belief in alternative medicine's promise, & I believe would be of high value to any newly-diagnosed patient looking for alternatives to the decades-old "slash & burn" conventional treatments.

My advice to anyone buying a cancer treatment book for a loved one that has cancer is to read it and screen it for emotionally upsetting/damaging content. Mr. Williams has written a fine personal history of his journey through advanced primary brain cancer. He expresses his fears, emotions, struggles in a well written psychological perspective that makes the reader feel almost like a family member that is with him every day. Anyone who has experienced cancer close-up can relate to his book. For those who can think outside the box regarding cancer, they can admire his courage and strong convictions in pursuing his own researched complementary therapies while undergoing standard oncological treatment.What I didn't like here is that he takes a cheap shot at Dr. Burzynski. Was that really necessary? He states that his oncology colleagues regard him as a quack. Meanwhile the patients of these oncologists who have a similar condition as Mr. Williams are dropping like flies. He writes that Burzynski's treatment is very expensive implying he is enriching himself. Well Hello, cancer treatment isn't cheap unless you stick to the budwig protocol and essiac tea. I don't know if it's true but apparently some oncologists get a cut of the chemo drugs they prescribe.Another thing I disliked is what I refer to the "country bumpkin republican" view. There is a problem. In this case the impediments to cancer research. This view will identify the problem to a cause that is minor to the problem and oblivious to the core factors that impede cancer research. In Mr. William's view it is the bureaucratic hurdles caused by animal rights activists that have driven up the price of research pigeons!

This book is extremely helpful in explaining medicine, clinical trials, FDA, doctors, drug manufacturers and healthy alternatives to traditional medicines. Everyone should read it.

This is an amazing book - a rare occurrence to have a highly sophisticated writer be able to write from both within and without medical science to bring us a crystal clear analysis of the philosophical approach to problem-solving that guides most cancer treatment decisions. As a doctor myself, this book has been thoroughly illuminating - I am so grateful to have found it. A model of decision-making that makes a huge amount of sense for managing hypertension or diabetes makes very little sense, in fact, when confronted with a process like glioblastoma. Williams illuminates the clinical trials and drug approval process with stunning clarity and points out the gaping holes and ethical inadequacies of using that process as our sole guide in helping patients and ourselves. I could hardly put this book down.