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| It can and does save lives in many cases. When conservative surgery alone is done, the survival rate is no less than surgery combined with radiation. Further, in some cases, such as certain cases of postmenopausal breast cancer, surgery without either chemotherapy or radiation is a valid option. |
| As I have stated earlier, I support each person's choice, whatever that might be. I will help, regardless of whether or not I agree with the treatments that have been chosen. Frankly, I myself do not always know for sure what is best. |
| Radiation |
| From what I have seen and from what I now know, I can say with confidence that prophylactic radiation therapy for many types of cancer not only spreads the cancer rather than eradicating it, but in some cases it actually causes cancer in healthy tissue. For instance, breast cancer patients may be at risk of developing lung cancer or leukemia after radiation. In one study of thirty-one patients who received radiation therapy for breast cancer, nineteen went on to develop lung cancer an average of seventeen years later (usually in the lung on the same side as the breast that had been irradiated). 2 |
| However, used correctly in certain types of cancer, and in certain circumstances, radiation therapy can be a useful tool. It can, for instance, be used to reduce the size of some tumors before an operation, to kill microscopic cancer cells following an operation, and, in advanced cancer, to reduce pain. |
| Radiation therapy can work in some cancers, although I personally question its effectiveness, and it is certainly no wonder-cure treatment. I offer patients undergoing radiation some adjunctive support, including herbs, nutritional supplements, and specific dietary suggestions, to diminish the systemic damage radiation does and to inhibit recurrence of the cancer and reduce the chance of developing a second type of cancer. |
| Radiation can help eradicate the following types of cancer: |
| Cancers of the oral cavity, tongue, and lip |
| Cancers of the larynx and nasal cavity |
| Skin cancers and other melanomas |
| Small-cell lung cancer |
| Early Hodgkin's disease and some other early non-Hodgkin's forms of lymphoma |
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