Cancer Education Hub
If you are a cancer patient the following information can be a game changer.
This is because during my 50 years working as an independent cancer navigator I have seen too many patients harming their health through making ill informed choices. In my half-century of cancer service I have also amassed a huge range of valuable informational resources. These resources can help you avoid making the mistakes others have made. I share these with you to help you make better decisions on your cancer journey.
This page discusses both conventional and complementary medicine approaches. Both of these approaches make claims and these need to be verifiable. Grace Gawler.
What is Cancer ?
Grace Gawler “It is important for patients and their families to understand the nature of cancer. This knowledge, we believe, underpins all future decisions that will be made to achieve health restoration. Becoming cancer literate can also help you to discern when a treatment or supplement option is valid or bogus.
Cancer Definition: Cancer is a disease resulting from damage or changes to your genes and we each have about 24,000 genes.
Simplistically; cancer is unchecked cell growth that progresses toward limitless expansion – manifesting as a complex range of over 100 diseases.
This is caused by a wide range of genetic mutations. In other words; the transition from a normal cell to a malignant cancer is driven by changes to a cell’s DNA, also known as mutations.
Busting Cancer Myths & other Useful Resources:
Many patients spend months ‘researching’ on the Internet but during our consultation, I always find most of their research comprises of pseudoscience, misinformation, false facts’ & false claims.
The following brilliant links may help you to become ‘cancer literate’ and discern between ‘fake cancer information and solid science.
Cancer Fact Checker
Sugar feeds cancer myth
Cancer Food Fads & Fallacies
Alkalinity Myth-Information
Kale Hype & other Cancer Nutrition Myths
The Truth about Coconut Oil
Traps with Essential Oils
Caution for Protocel and Cancell
Ten Persistent Cancer Myths Busted
Sugar Substitutes may harm your Gut Microbiome
Be informed about how some supplements can cause cancer.
Click Here
The Internet is awash with dietary claims for curing cancer. Are they true?
Click Here
Did you know that some popular vitamins can cause your cancer to increase.
Click Here
Did you know that sugar substitutes can harm your gut health.
Click Here
Cancer Awareness Videos
Becoming Cancer Literate helps you make Informed Choices
Cancer Entrepreneurs and their Claims – Are they Real?
Caution: The slick American Video – “The Truth about Cancer’ is mostly untrue
Be informed about Chemotherapy before making any decisions
Be informed about Immunotherapy (drug based)
Be aware of the considerable side effects with drug based immunotherapy
Side effects with Conventional Drug-Based Immunotherapies
Cancer Research UK reports on immunotherapy side effects:
“These immune-related adverse events (irAEs) can happen at any time but most often occur within the first few weeks or months after starting treatment. There are reports of some irAEs starting even a year or more after treatment has finished.
IrAEs are usually mild and generally well tolerated by patients. However they can be severe, even life threatening, in up to 27% of patients having single agent anti CTLA-4 drugs and 20% of those having anti PD-1 or PD-L1 drugs. The number of patients who have severe toxicity with combination therapy is much higher – about 55%.” Source – Cancer Research UK
Warning on Keytruda Immunotherapy website:
“KEYTRUDA can cause your immune system to attack normal organs and tissues in any area of your body and can affect the way they work.
These problems can sometimes become severe or life-threatening and can lead to death. You can have more than one of these problems at the same time.
These problems may happen any time during treatment or even after your treatment has ended.”
See- https://www.keytruda.com/
US FDA Black Box warning (the Lancet):
On Jan 22, 2024, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked the manufacturers of all six commercial chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies to add a black box warning to the label to include the risk of the development of T-cell malignancies following therapy.
This decision follows reports on Nov 28, 2023, of 22 cases of T-cell malignancies from around 8000 recipients of CAR T-cell therapy included in the FDA Adverse Events Reporting System (FAERS) database. Data from 14 of these patients show that the malignancies occurred 1 to 19 months following CAR T-cell therapy, with around half occurring within a year.
See – https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanhae/article/PIIS2352-3026(24)00037-1/fulltext