Stage 4 cancer -- the treatment target of new very expensive Big Pharma drugs called "angiogenesis inhibitors" (idea being deprive blood to tumor) -- is the terminal stage of cancer progression when cancer cells spread throughout the body and multiply. Big Pharma's newly approved Zaltrap (Aug 2012) is a last resort drug intended for stage 4 colorectal cancer treatment after chemotherapy fails. Treatment with Zaltrap can be enormously expensive, as Dr. Saltz indicated. Like Avastin, Zaltrap is an "angiogenesis inhibitor" that uses the tact of choking off the blood supply to tumors. Even so, the median survival rate for patients using Zaltrap (in combination with their existing chemo) is 24 days. The PR announcing FDA approval and clinical trial results of Zaltrap clinical was hardly a celebration -- the average life extension being marginal and contraindications being very unpleasant or even fatal.
The premise of cutting off the blood to tumors is something like an army laying seige to an enemy city. The seige takes its toll on both sides of the conflict. On the other hand, the all-natural "cannabinoid complex" approach, as exemplified by high-dose Dharmanol, is to fight the enemy cancer by strengthening to a maximum the human body's own best defenses (immunity functions of the built-in endocannabinoid system) against the enemy cancer while doing no harm to the body itself.
Zaltrap v. Dharmanol? "Dang it all, give me some Dharmanol!"
Zaltrap
"The study was designed to measure overall survival, or the length of time a patient lived. Patients who were assigned to receive the Zaltrap plus FOLFIRI combination lived an average of 13.5 months compared to an average of 12 months for those receiving FOLFIRI (chemo regimen) plus placebo. A reduction in tumor size occurred in 20 percent of patients receiving the Zaltrap plus FOLFIRI combination versus 11 percent for those receiving FOLFIRI plus placebo.
"In addition, the clinical trial demonstrated an improvement in progression-free survival, or the time a patient lived without the cancer progressing. The progression-free survival for patients receiving the Zaltrap plus FOLFIRI combination was 6.9 months compared with 4.7 months for those receiving FOLFIRI plus placebo.
Stage 0 'in situ'
"A cell that becomes a cancer cell usually does so in the company of other similar cells. Often, but not always, it can produce a tumour right there in that tissue, in a way that poses little or no threat to life. This is called in situ cancer; that is, cancer in the position where it started. It is probable that some cancers never go beyond this early stage."
Stage 1: localised cancer
"At the next stage, the cancer cells gain the ability to pass through the 'basement membrane', that is the thin, fibrous boundary to the tissue in which the cancer began, and to invade neighbouring tissue. This invasion is a serious step, because it indicates that the growing cancer cells may threaten life.
"While the cancer remains a single lump, partly in the tissue where it began and partly in a neighbouring tissue, it is said to be in the localised stage."
Stages 2 and 3: regional spread
"Once a cancer cell has invaded, a common next step is for one of its daughter cells to invade through a lymph vessel (a vessel like a blood vessel that carries the clear fluid called lymph, which is all the time exuding into tissue from our blood capillaries (the smallest blood vessels), back to the blood stream).
"On the way to the blood stream, the cancer cell can get caught in a lymph node, one of the powerhouses of the body's immune system. There it might provoke an immune response against it, which can go on to destroy it and the other cancer cells. Wonderful!
"Sometimes, though, it divides and forms a lump in the lymph node. This stage is often referred to as regional spread. That is, the cancer has spread within the general region in which it first began but not to other parts of the body."
Stage 4: distant spread
"The next step can be quite varied. Cells from the lump in the lymph node may spread further through lymph vessels to more distant lymph nodes or on into the blood stream. Or cells from the original lump may invade a capillary and enter the blood stream that way.
"Either way, once in the blood stream, the cancer cells can go just about anywhere in the body, form new colonies and spread further. This is the stage of distant spread."
The premise of cutting off the blood to tumors is something like an army laying seige to an enemy city. The seige takes its toll on both sides of the conflict. On the other hand, the all-natural "cannabinoid complex" approach, as exemplified by high-dose Dharmanol, is to fight the enemy cancer by strengthening to a maximum the human body's own best defenses (immunity functions of the built-in endocannabinoid system) against the enemy cancer while doing no harm to the body itself.
Zaltrap v. Dharmanol? "Dang it all, give me some Dharmanol!"
Zaltrap
"The study was designed to measure overall survival, or the length of time a patient lived. Patients who were assigned to receive the Zaltrap plus FOLFIRI combination lived an average of 13.5 months compared to an average of 12 months for those receiving FOLFIRI (chemo regimen) plus placebo. A reduction in tumor size occurred in 20 percent of patients receiving the Zaltrap plus FOLFIRI combination versus 11 percent for those receiving FOLFIRI plus placebo.
"In addition, the clinical trial demonstrated an improvement in progression-free survival, or the time a patient lived without the cancer progressing. The progression-free survival for patients receiving the Zaltrap plus FOLFIRI combination was 6.9 months compared with 4.7 months for those receiving FOLFIRI plus placebo.
"Zaltrap is being approved with a Boxed Warning alerting patients and health care professionals that the drug can cause severe and sometimes fatal bleeding, including gastrointestinal bleeding, and the development of holes in the gastrointestinal tract. Zaltrap can also make it more difficult for wounds to heal."
The most common side effects observed in patients receiving Zaltrap plus FOLFIRI were decreased white blood cell count, diarrhea, mouth ulcers, fatigue, high blood pressure, increased amount of protein in the urine, weight loss, decreased appetite, abdominal pain, and headache.
Stage 0 'in situ'
"A cell that becomes a cancer cell usually does so in the company of other similar cells. Often, but not always, it can produce a tumour right there in that tissue, in a way that poses little or no threat to life. This is called in situ cancer; that is, cancer in the position where it started. It is probable that some cancers never go beyond this early stage."
Stage 1: localised cancer
"At the next stage, the cancer cells gain the ability to pass through the 'basement membrane', that is the thin, fibrous boundary to the tissue in which the cancer began, and to invade neighbouring tissue. This invasion is a serious step, because it indicates that the growing cancer cells may threaten life.
"While the cancer remains a single lump, partly in the tissue where it began and partly in a neighbouring tissue, it is said to be in the localised stage."
Stages 2 and 3: regional spread
"Once a cancer cell has invaded, a common next step is for one of its daughter cells to invade through a lymph vessel (a vessel like a blood vessel that carries the clear fluid called lymph, which is all the time exuding into tissue from our blood capillaries (the smallest blood vessels), back to the blood stream).
"On the way to the blood stream, the cancer cell can get caught in a lymph node, one of the powerhouses of the body's immune system. There it might provoke an immune response against it, which can go on to destroy it and the other cancer cells. Wonderful!
"Sometimes, though, it divides and forms a lump in the lymph node. This stage is often referred to as regional spread. That is, the cancer has spread within the general region in which it first began but not to other parts of the body."
Stage 4: distant spread
"The next step can be quite varied. Cells from the lump in the lymph node may spread further through lymph vessels to more distant lymph nodes or on into the blood stream. Or cells from the original lump may invade a capillary and enter the blood stream that way.
"Either way, once in the blood stream, the cancer cells can go just about anywhere in the body, form new colonies and spread further. This is the stage of distant spread."
