Hyperthermia Cancer Treatment

In 1997 at the age of 32 I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was treated at a conventional hospital doing the routine conventional treatments, such as chemotherapy radiation and other.

I was in remission for Seven years.

As I was young and at heart very hopeful to raise a family, I decided to avoid the pills they lined up for me (ie:Tamoxifen, etc…) “.

I managed, to put this scenario behind me and move on to rescue my soul above all, then myself from the emotional & financial abyss I was inn. However, I enjoyed:

Seven 7 Glorious years…….

August of 2003, I went for a routine check up and the hospital overlooked my test results, in October I found a lump on my neck.

In 2004, I was seduced with metastatic cancer through out my body and thirty tumors in my brain.
I dogged the earth beneath me, and reached to the sky above to find some kind of alliance with a systematic Oncologist and the best Neuro -Surgeon, or Brain specialist in the country.
The all mighty Demi- Gods sitting on top of a tall high rises,” DR. John Dow ” the best in the west. Had the following to say for the treatment of the tumors in my brain.
You are inoperative; the only treatment that could possibly work is Radiation,
OK, I said to the doctor, how many rads and for how long? 10.000 rads in a course of three weeks. Well in other words, to cook my brain in a microwave, & the outcome being, to sit on a wheel chair with no mental accuracy, and be Dumb for the rest of my time. Second option, was to do nothing and die in three weeks.

Well, since the latter was a no option for me, I rushed out of the hospital for a hearty meal at restaurant near by together with my brothers. I decided to put a stop to everything.

A couple of weeks passed & I began to notice severe health deterioration which stemmed from the brain.
My family was mortified with the fact that I was adamant not to go to a hospital. At that time I kept telling them that if I go to a hospital I will never come out alive, I was convinced that I would perish in no time in their.

In so many ways I was so lucky. Lucky to have a younger brother who became my all. I could not see very well, and he became my sight, I could not walk anymore , and he became my cane and so on…… he would sit for endless hours trying to find an alternative treatment plan , a place , a protocol that would be acceptable to me.
And finally he did. He took me to a boutique clinic “Valley Cancer Institute” that I called home, for the year to come.

This clique offered their treatment in a most moderate manner, the coarse of treatment consisted of a combination of alternative (Hyperthermia) and conventional (low Radiation), less invasive treatment than most hospitals, to say the least.

The treatment consists of about an hour of daily Hyperthermia, a gentle heat treatment, followed by a very low dose of conventional radiation. The side effects are none or minimum, because the body has the ability to recuperate and regenerate from the mild radiation dose. Hyperthermia has no side effects at all, since is just heat applied to the area treated.

I would like to extend my thanks and my gratitude to the founder of the clinic, Dr. James Bicher, who like a shadow was there and was not, supervising and following my care at the Valley Cancer institute.
Dr. Al -Bussam who’s calm turned the flame into a flicker.

And I bow to all staff and every member of this clinic, for their commitment, compassion, care and continuous support.

Thank you, for singing the song of hope, healing and health to me, and likes of me on a daily bases.

More than two years had passed and I’m feeling better every day.

I come back to visit my friends at the Valley Cancer Institute every Christmas and bring them some yummy baked goodies!

Desiree Kohan

Interview with Marolyn Teague
February 2009

INTERVIEWER: Marilyn, nice to have you here.

M. TEAGUE: Thank you. Glad to be here.

INTERVIEWER: You look very happy today.

M. TEAGUE: Oh, I am so excited. I am going home.

INTERVIEWER: Oh, you are going home!

M. TEAGUE: Yes.

INTERVIEWER: All right. This is very good news for us, too. And why are you going home now?

M. TEAGUE: Because the doctors released me and they said that all my tests came back cancer free. So I’m back to my 100% good self.

INTERVIEWER: I wanted to ask you some questions, like when you were diagnosed, what did you feel, or when did you realize that you had a health concern?

M. TEAGUE: Well, in July, I was just kind of taking a shower and realized that I hadn’t had — hadn’t examined myself in a while. And so I did, and I felt a really big lump in my right breast. So immediately — this was on a Saturday and the following Monday I called my doctor and the ball started rolling from there.

INTERVIEWER: And what did your doctors tell you?

M. TEAGUE: I did some tests and they came back saying that it was positive with cancer. Malignant — I’m sorry, I don’t know the name of it.

INTERVIEWER: That’s okay. And what options did they give you?

M. TEAGUE: Chemotherapy, surgery and high dose radiation. And I didn’t want any of those.

INTERVIEWER: But you didn’t want it from the beginning?

M. TEAGUE: Correct.

INTERVIEWER: All right.

M. TEAGUE: I didn’t know any other options out there. I was really just shocked that I even had it, because I have three older sisters and I thought out of all of us, it wouldn’t be me. But apparently, being the baby, I did get it. My mother does have cancer and she did through the chemo and radiation and surgery. And she’s had a very, very rough time of it. So I just kind of started looking for alternative things and came up with VCI.

INTERVIEWER: How did you find us?

M. TEAGUE: How did I find you? Well, I was looking into the high dose C and low dose radiation, and I knew that the low dose radiation was what I wanted, which is what VCI does. And came across a lady that helps you with insurance and was talking to her and she recommended VCI to me. And I was real excited. And that same day she gave me Nash’s number and I called and from there it just — I looked on the Internet under VCI. I checked into it. I went to my husband, gave him all the reports and everything. The next thing I knew, I was on the plane out here.

INTERVIEWER: All right. And how long was the treatment, for you?

M. TEAGUE: I’ve been here about five months.

INTERVIEWER: Five months?

M. TEAGUE: Mmm-hmm.

INTERVIEWER: Even though it was a long journey, was it worth it?

M. TEAGUE: Oh, definitely worth it. I was concerned about the apartment, where I was going to live and whatever.

M. TEAGUE: I was concerned about where I was to live, and VCI provided the apartment. And so I’m paying rent and stayed over there. It’s a really nice apartment. Not luxurious but, you know, it’s adequate. It helps you. And actually it’s cheaper to come here and rent the apartment than it would have to stay home and drive to my treatments there. So I was excited about that and it’s been a very wonderful experience. The people here are just wonderful. And they helped me along and of course they tease me about my Texas accent, but, okay, you Californians have accents, too. So when I came, I started the treatments right away. I had some preliminary tests done and that’s about it.

INTERVIEWER: Very good. And did you have any side effects?

M. TEAGUE: A little bit. Just losing a little bit of hair, but I knew I was going to. Not anything really drastic. I didn’t get sick. I didn’t get nauseated. I didn’t have any of the bowel syndromes. So every once in a while, I would have a headache, but that’s because I forgot to drink my water. So as long as I get my water down and do my walking and eating properly, I was great.

INTERVIEWER: And was the treatment itself uncomfortable or at least manageable?

M. TEAGUE: Oh, no, not uncomfortable at all. You just lay down on the table and let them heat whatever part of the body you needed. And you just have a little nap. The radiation took, what, 10 minutes or less and that’s it. Minimum hour and a half to two hours and you’re out of here.

INTERVIEWER: And besides hyperthermia, did you do anything else, like any special diet?

M. TEAGUE: Not really. I’ve always been a healthy eater, so I — you all recommended no dairy, a little bit of meat. So I cut that out. And the cheese, cutting out that cheese was very hard. So I didn’t really do any special diet except for the exercise and the water. Oh, I did do a high vitamin C with it, but that’s about it.

INTERVIEWER: All right. So how would you describe, if you had to talk to someone else, how would you describe your experience at the Valley Cancer Institute?

M. TEAGUE: Oh, I would try to convince them 100% to come here. It’s just awesome, because you don’t have to go through the surgery, you know, all the sickness, the hair loss, the nausea. And just to be able to enjoy it, and relax, have your treatment, go party. Oh, and, you know, sightsee, go to the beach, do whatever you want. Your two hours once a day for the Monday through Friday and you’ve got to the weekends to yourself and just enjoy yourself. It’s been really relaxing.

INTERVIEWER: I’m happy to hear that. Anything else you would like to add? To say?

M. TEAGUE: Oh, man, if they could come, anybody who has cancer, I know you all treat any and everything. And mine was right breast cancer. And I’m 100% cured. It was Stage 3 when I came and it was a 4.5 centimeter mass. And it is now less than 1 centimeter. It’s dead. And I know that over time it will dissolve and go away, the lump. But if you could come, that would be great.

INTERVIEWER: I thank you so much for the opportunity of talking to you.

M. TEAGUE: Thank you. I enjoyed it.

INTERVIEWER: Thank you.

Interview with Larry Canter
February 2009

CDC: If it’s okay with you, I will ask you some questions.

L.C.: Please.

CDC: Larry, I am very much interested knowing how your story, how were you diagnosed and what was the impression that you had when you were diagnosed.

L.C.: I was getting ready to go to work one day, shaving, showering and shaving, and as I was shaving, I noticed a small lump, which at the time — in my neck — and at the time I thought, well, maybe I have a little cold, fever. You know, it will go away. And it didn’t go away. And after, you know, maybe 10 days, 2 weeks, my wife said you’ve got to get this checked out. You know, it’s not just a cold. And of course I didn’t want to believe that. I wanted everything to be normal.

So I made an appointment. I went to my doctor. And he immediately referred me to an ENT, an Ear-Nose-Throat guy. And I made that appointment and I went in and he did an exam, a full exam. He went down into my throat and looked at everything. And he said we need to do a biopsy. I’m not sure I would do that again today; it would be questionable. But at the time, he’s the doctor.

CDC: Why wouldn’t you do a biopsy again?

L.C.: Well, I’ll you what. I had the biopsy done and the tumor grew. Almost immediately. Within 48 hours, it was twice the size. It was a little tiny marble. And then that’s when I knew we had problems here. I mean something is wrong. My body’s trying to tell me something, and something’s wrong. After the biopsy, it really began to grow. And we did the test.

The doctor called me in a couple of days later and, you know, in our society, the most feared disease, the most dreaded words anybody could hear. The test came back positive. You have squamous cell cancer. And I knew I had something. I knew it was a tumor of some sort. I was hoping it was benign. It wasn’t; it was cancer.

And for me, I just — it was overwhelming. It consumes your breath when you first hear it, because cancer in our society, it’s a death sentence. I’m not a doctor. I know — what do you read? People dying of cancer, you know, chemotherapy, the pain. Everything happens and your life flashes right in front of your eyes.

I have a lovely life. I have a great family. I have two young boys and that’s what flashed in front of me instantaneously, were the boys. This can’t be happening to me. And so you go through the denial. You go through the anger. You go through fear. You go through anxiety.

And the doctor began to tell me my options, according to him. And my options according to him were surgery, chemo and radiation. And he wanted to do about a four or five hour surgery, open my neck, and do exploratory because he wasn’t sure that this tumor here might be — this may not be the primary. I may have another tumor somewhere else. And that’s what he was going to do. And he began to tell me I very possibly will have nerve damage in my face or in my neck, be on a feeding tube and began to tell me the conventional medicine story of what might happen.

CDC: So what was your reaction to that?

L.C.: Well, my father was a physician. And so I learned a long time ago nobody has all the answers. And it’s your responsibility to take care of your own healthcare, to manage. It’s you. And I don’t just blindly follow, you know, something like that. I knew there had to be another way to do it. I just knew.

CDC: So from the beginning you were looking for something else?

L.C.: The day I was diagnosed, I got on the Internet and I went to the library and I read about my disease. But more than anything, I was searching. I knew there had — I knew there were alternative things out there, but a lot of what I read over the years, they were a little unusual. I wouldn’t consider drinking baking soda and a treatment for cancer that I would be willing to risk my life and my family’s future on. I didn’t want to do that. There had to be other ways.

And so I spent two months researching. I stopped everything, and that’s what happens because it’s so consuming.

CDC: Two months of research?

L.C.: Two months. Day and night. Fourteen, fifteen hours a day.

CDC: You were actually working?

L.C.: Yes. I was working. You know, when you get diagnosed with cancer, nothing matters. I mean what matters is your family. The things you own, the clothes you have, the jewelry, the cars, nothing matters but your family. I didn’t want to never see them again. It couldn’t happen.

So I spent months researching, and during that time, and that research and investigation led me to a short list of what I felt were reasonable and logical options that I wanted to pursue before I was willing to go the conventional route and go through the surgery and the chemo. I needed to pursue this for my own benefit. And I pursued. I called everyone. I called Valley Cancer Institute. I called all the other institutes. I could have gone anywhere in the world. I could have got any treatment in Germany and London and Mexico, anywhere. And I really — you don’t know when you’re on the phone. You don’t know who you’re calling, who they are. You know, if they have the right intention.

And everything’s expensive. And when I was diagnosed, just to let you know, I had health insurance. And the third appointment with my ENT guy that I was just explaining, I came into their office and their accounting guy came out from the back and he said you’re going to have to pay cash. I said what are you talking about? I have my insurance. You have my information. He said they’ve dropped you.

CDC: The insurance dropped your case.

L.C.: Yeah.

CDC: Unbelievable.

L.C.: You know, anyhow, that’s a whole other story. So I could have gone anywhere. And what happened was the list got shorter and shorter and shorter, when I wasn’t comfortable with the information I was getting from one institute or a certain treatment or the people I was talking to. And one of the gentlemen I talked to was at a hospital in this area of California. And I had many good conversations, and he was the only conventional doctor that would consider, because I said I don’t want chemotherapy. I don’t want surgery if I can avoid it.

CDC: May I ask you something? I’m sorry to interrupt, but you have this strong belief that there is an alternative to the conventional type of treatment. Did you lead a special kind of — a healthy life that–?

L.C.: No. The reason why I held that is my father was a physician for 40 years and I grew up with a doctor, a family of doctors. And when you grow up with them, if they’re good doctors — and my father was a great doctor in his day — you learn they don’t have all the answers. They don’t know everything. And you often have to question and ask questions. I was taught very young to ask questions. Get the answer. Find out. If you’re not comfortable, then listen to your body not being comfortable. Something’s wrong there. And no one has all the answers. I’ve never met anybody that does yet.

So each doctor I went to in New York and Chicago and California, Arizona, each conventional doctor remarkably said the same thing. We need to do surgery, chemo. It was a mantra — surgery, chemo, radiation, surgery, chemo, radiation. And so I was talking to my wife and I said, you know, how unusual that the same advice that was given 50 years ago by doctors that whenever it was cancer, it was the same thing. So I said to one of the specialists at Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale where I went for an exam and consultation, and he said surgery, chemo, radiation. And I said, you know, it’s funny. Shame on you. I said your business has not changed. The only thing that’s changed in 50 years is how you deliver the drugs. That’s the only thing that’s changed. You deliver them better. You’re much more efficient at delivering those drugs. But you’re doing nothing different. Nothing has changed and the trillions of dollars this country has poured — and the world — has poured into research, and you’re saying the same thing as you did 50 years ago. That’s unbelievable to me. That is unbelievable.

And I said to the guy at Mayo, I said, you know, there are three Mayo Clinics. One in Rochester, Minnesota, one in Jacksonville, Florida, and one in Scottsdale, where I live. And the main one in Rochester, the original one, they have a hyperthermia machine there, an old one, and they do it. And I said to the specialist at Mayo in Scottsdale, I said, you know, I’ve been reading about hyperthermia and some of the benefits of it. What can you tell me? And he said, well, we don’t do that here. I said what do you mean you don’t do it here? You do it at Rochester, and that’s Mayo Clinic. That’s your headquarters. I don’t understand. Why would you try to steer me away?

And I began to realize that each doctor was a surgeon. If I go to a shoe maker, what’s he going to tell me? You need shoes. You need new shoes. They’re worn down. What’s he going to tell me? That’s what he’s going to tell me. And I quickly learned the same thing from each and every one of them.

CDC: So do you think that the intention of the doctor was just doing his business?

L.C.: They’re trained that way. The medical training, this is all they know. And I won’t get into my belief of the pharmaceutical industry. You know, it’s sad that this is where we’re at after 50 years. We should be much further along.

So I furthered my research, and it was between another organization and your organization, and I had only talked to people here on the phone. And it’s scary, you know? I’m there. You’re here. I don’t know. I don’t know anything. Even though I grew up with a doctor, I’m not a surgeon. I’m not a cancer specialist. I’m a business man.

And I said to one of your employees here who I’ve spoken with many times, they said would you like me to have Dr. Wolfstein call you and talk to you? And to my amazement, because it doesn’t happen too much any more in this world, I got a phone call from Dr. Wolfstein shortly thereafter, where he spent a good 45 minutes with me on the phone. I couldn’t get my ear nose and throat guy in Scottsdale to spend five minutes with me on the phone.

So he held my hand a little bit, and when you get diagnosed with cancer, you need your hand held. It’s consuming. It’s overwhelming. You’re helpless. I mean you’re at the mercy of all this information. You don’t know what’s right and what’s wrong. Dr. Wolfstein spent a fair amount of time with me on the phone, inviting me here to Los Angeles. A couple of days later, I came. I saw him. He examined me. We spoke at length about where I was in my research and what I thought I was going to do. And it was after that meeting that I asked him when can you take me? Because now I was here, I saw — he walked me around and I saw everybody, different patients. And I spoke to a couple of patients in the waiting room when I was waiting to see him. And it was very enlightening. It made me feel better. And then I went back home and the anxiety and the fear — it’s cancer, you know. It’s a death sentence for most people, including me. And the fear sets in. You just don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know. I hope it works out. You just think positively.

CDC: So just let me ask you. Do you think you have to — it takes some courage for you to make a decision where to go? What is it?

L.C.: You know, considering that you’re in this helpless state, you’re in a state of paralysis, you’re in a state of shock because you have this cancer, the deadliest disease that we know right now, it’s remarkable that I was able to make any decisions, let alone one that affects not only me, but it affects my family tremendously. It was very difficult, but you have to do something.

When I left the specialist at Mayo, I remember this. I’ll never forget this. And he knew, we talked about hyperthermia, and he talked to me. He said, you know, he thought it wasn’t the way to go. And I said, well, have you read this study at Duke University? They have been doing it for I think 11 years now and the president of the Cancer Institute there says in 5 to 7 years there will be no chemo. It won’t be around because hyperthermia with radiation, the results are marvelous. And he said, well, you don’t have to tell me about Duke University. I went to medical school there. I said well, then, shame on you. You should be telling me! Why am I telling you?

CDC: Amazing.

L.C.: You know, you live and you learn. But you have to take responsibility for this disease. And it is not a death sentence. It doesn’t have to be. And I knew that in my heart of hearts, that I would somehow be able to get through this in the best way; the best way possible for me, for my family, and all the way around. And so I came to Valley Cancer Institute.

And I remembered I stayed at a hotel. I’m staying there now. I stayed at the hotel right down the street, and wonderful people. I know the owners of the hotel. They’re like a second family to me. I stayed at that hotel for nearly four months of treatment here. And every day I came. But the very first day of coming here, the fear just — because you just don’t know. I still didn’t know the protocol, what was going to happen. I’m thinking, you know, something’s going to go wrong. It doesn’t work. And I was very nervous coming in; very, very nervous. And I don’t like needles and I don’t like any of that. And I got here and everybody was very, very nice. And I got through the first couple of days. And I thought, okay, I can do this. Worst case scenario is I’m going to have some side effects. But I can do this. And much better than the scenario that was painted for me by many doctors across the nation.

And the days, the protocol got easier. I got more comfortable with it. It’s a little difficult not being with my family. But I went to see them once. I took a week off. They came to see me near the end. So in that way, it was good. But I was alone, you know, with cancer. It was tough in many ways — emotionally, mentally, physically. And the hardest thing was, as the days and weeks went on, I’m looking at my tumor in my neck every day, and it wasn’t going down.

CDC: It wasn’t going down? How big was it, the size of a–?

L.C.: A golf ball.

CDC: Golf ball.

L.C.: It started as a marble, and after the biopsy it became a golf ball. Every day I’m looking at it in the mirror when I’m getting ready for the day and I almost try not to look at it. But it’s there. Other people notice it when I’m out. And I would look at it and my wife would ask me, well, is it going away? I mean how do you feel? And I would almost not want to tell her. But I would say, you know, I don’t see much change. And there were some days where I said I think I may be going crazy. I think it might even be getting bigger.

So I was going back and forth and this and that, and then Sylvia, who does the radiation, who is an angel. She said we’ve done a lot worse than this. Just hang in there, and I will take care of this. This is my job. I will get this out of your body. And within a week, it started to disappear and just go away. It was a miracle. I mean it’s nothing short of a miracle. I should be a statistic in cancer, and instead I’m a survivor. And it’s because of Valley Cancer Institute. And I am an advocate in the biggest way of what you do here. I saw it work for other patients who were far worse off than I when I came in the door.

You know, people are entitled to have this input, to know that this institute — and others, who have other treatments that may — one treatment may not work for everybody. But I can only speak for myself, but people need that information. And my conventional doctors did not offer, share any of it, give me literature, research. Shame on them. Shame on them.

CDC: So it took you a long time, about four months. What can you say to a patient that it’s difficult for them to move over here and stay for such a long time?

L.C.: You know, it was the staff here, that because they had seen over the years much worse, much worse, you know, and they all assured me give it time. It takes time. You didn’t get cancer in one day and we’re not going to get rid of it in one day. It’s not how the world works. Relax. It was hard for me. I’m a Type A personality if you haven’t noticed. Difficult, sometimes, to relax. But I gave it time. I had to have faith somewhere. I had to have belief that this would work. And I knew that I had to keep a positive — as positive frame of mind as I could. I didn’t need any more stress or negativity. I believe that has something to do with cancer. I’m not a doctor, but I think it has something to do with it.

So I put my faith — what else was I to do? — in the treatments here and in the institution. And slowly but surely, it went away.

CDC: And how long ago, now it’s generally–.

L.C.: It’s about a year. It’s a year.

CDC: About a year. Oh.

L.C.: About a year. About a month short of a year.

CDC: When you came or when you left?

L.C.: When I first came. When I first came. And so it’s a year later. I almost don’t like to even verbalize how well I feel. The new lease on life. I see the world differently. I look at my family differently. I had different priorities, and it’s very grounding to hear the words, “You have cancer.” Very grounding. And you have to take responsibility. It’s each person’s — they have to be responsible for their own health care. And I was taught that at a young age by my father, the doctor.

CDC: Let me tell you something. I think you are a perfect example of an informed person that at one point you may have to rely on an insurance, because the insurance dropped you. If you dropped insurance, and because you don’t have any insurance I’m not going to take care of you, what do you think of that idea?

L.C.: Well, insurance is — because I was in the business for a few years, I’m amazed that they would pay, cover–. You know, when you are given this diagnosis, and you are told by a specialist at Mayo Clinic, one of the most revered institutions, medical institutions in the country, and a guy says to you, whatever you do, make sure you take care of this because if you don’t, it will kill you. Those are some powerful words that I never forgot. And when you’re at that doorway of mortality and you see your mortality and you understand what’s going on, it’s very important that you — I don’t care if you have money, you don’t have money, you’re successful, you’re not successful, it’s a life and death matter. And you need to do what you need to do. And this institute, I know, has worked with many people over the years, including me. You know, I came in and I was a cash-paying customer. And the money doesn’t matter. It’s life that counts, you know what I mean? I would have done anything. Fortunately, I had the means, but none of that mattered anymore. I had to make sure you guys knew what you were doing.

CDC: But it is important to me that you wanted to take care of yourself. You didn’t need the decision to your doctor, to your insurance. So you started your research and you did what you thought it was best for you, not knowing anything about it.

L.C.: I had two young sons. At the time, they were 9 and 11. There’s my motivation.

CDC: Of course.

L.C.: Am I going to fail them and not do the best thing possible? No. I mean it’s my job to do that research. I have to. It’s my life. But it’s their life, also. It’s so important.

CDC: Larry, I thank you so much for sharing this with us. I wish you my best regards.

L.C.: Thank you very, very much for giving us the opportunity to talk to you about this very important and sensitive subject.

@Desiree Kohan

Hey, just happened by and noticed your testimonial. Glad to hear you’re still around! I was out there in 2005, and I remember that you started off in pretty bad shape but were already making amazing progress by the time I left in September. (Do you remember me?)

I get bits and pieces of news about others every now and then (some good news, often not good news), but have lost contact with most I knew out there. A real thrill when I hear of a long term survivor, though!

Good luck to you. If you’re inclined, drop me an email at the address above. I’ll check it for a little while to see if I hear from you. If you write, I can provide a more reliable and permanent email address later.

Hmm, Desiree, I see that the email address I used doesn’t show up in my reply.

If you desire to reach me, you can presumably get the email from the webmaster. (I had to submit an email in order to post here.)

@admin

Carlos, thank you very much for your kindness, but inasmuch as I can’t even be certain that Desiree remembers me (surely she had more pressing matters of focus at the time), and although I would welcome hearing from her, it would probably be a bit presumptuous to email her out of the blue. So for now, I’ll pass on getting her email address from you.

But thank you once again. (Of course, I reserve the “right” to change my mind, so I hope your spirit of accommodation doesn’t come with a tight expiration date!)

This is my interview/testimony in an informal talk with the administrator, Carlos Caridad, the very day I was leaving the clinic, Valley Cancer Institute, CANCER FREE!! A video summary is at the top of this page:

CDC: Mr. R.

MR. R: Hi.

CDC: You look very good today.

MR. R: I feel very good. Thanks.

CDC: And I heard that you are leaving Valley Cancer Institute.

MR. R: Yes. Tomorrow I fly out.

CDC: Where are you coming from, or where do you live?

MR. R: Honolulu.

CDC: Honolulu. Good for you.

MR. R: Thank you.

CDC: But do you live there, or you just want to have a vacation?

MR. R: Nope. That’s where we live.

CDC: That’s where you live.

MR. R: We’ve lived there now for almost five years.

CDC: Almost five years. And what is the reason you came to our institute?

MR. R: Well, the reason I came to the institute is about two years ago I was diagnosed with bladder cancer. And I went through two courses of treatment, BCG treatment. BCG is a drug developed for the treatment of tuberculosis. For mild bouts of bladder cancer, it has been relatively successful. And so you have — it comes in a little bottle and they put it in your bladder through a catheter through your penis.

CDC: But it’s a kind of chemotherapy?

MR. R: It’s kind of a chemotherapy, but it doesn’t go into your blood. It’s a very strong solution. You can almost smell it when it’s just going through the catheter. It has kind of a burning sensation. And you’re supposed to hold it in your bladder for at least an hour if you can.

CDC: Ah, okay.

MR. R: And they do that once a week for six weeks. And then after that six-week period, they do what they call a sistoscopy. And I’m not pronouncing it very well. Doctors can say that; I can’t. Again, they go through your penis, into your bladder. But they have a camera or an eyepiece that they can see in there. After the first treatment, they went in there and they still saw cancer. And they took a biopsy, which I had had before I started.

CDC: How long was that first treatment?

MR. R: First treatment was six weeks. And then they waited about two weeks before they did this sistoscopy. And they found still cancer. So I repeated it again. I did it again for six weeks. Repeated the test at the end, and they still found cancer. So only now the cancer they found was more serious.

CDC: Oh.

MR. R: It could not be treated by the BCG.

CDC: So during that time, you didn’t have any improvement with that treatment?

MR. R: No.

CDC: Oh.

MR. R: Well, I shouldn’t say that. Some of the cancer that I had in the beginning disappeared. But new cancer grew.

CDC: Oh.

MR. R: So I went to another urologist. I wasn’t satisfied that I had gone through all of this and I wasn’t any better off than I was in the beginning. So the first thing the new urologist did was send me for a CT scan. And in the CT scan, we saw the wall of the bladder at the bottom had a huge tumor in it, at least by my estimation.

CDC: You saw a picture of the CT scan?

MR. R: So he told me that the only thing that they could do would be to remove the bladder and I would wear a bag on my side for the rest of my life. He also offered me chemotherapy, which I’ve had friends take chemotherapy and die, not from the cancer but from the chemotherapy. He offered me radiation. Not IMRT, but regular radiation. And I have had friends who I’ve had to help treat because of the burns on their body from radiation. So I wasn’t going to do that.

And then he told me that the surgery was only a 50-50 chance that I would come out of that with no cancer. I asked him, well, if I do nothing, doctor, how long will I live. And he said two years. So after I thought about it for a few days, I called him back and said I think I’ll take the last alternative, because I’m more concerned with the quality of my life than the length of my life.

CDC: So which was that last alternative?

MR. R: Do nothing. Just by chance, a friend of mine — I’ve known him for 35 years — who knew that I was being treated for cancer and was just calling me to find out how it was going. So I told him what I just told you. He said I’m going to make a call and I’ll call you right back. That’s all he said to me. So he called me back in maybe half an hour, and he gave me the name of a doctor and a telephone number. He said I’ve talked to this doctor. He’s a friend of mine. I’ve known him almost as long as I’ve known you. And I want you to call him. He’s expecting your call tomorrow morning at 10 o’clock. His name is Wolfstein.

So I called him, and I told him everything that I just told you. And he said four words to me. I’ll never forget it. He said, “I can help you.” He didn’t say he was going to take out my bladder. He didn’t say he was going to give me any horrible radiation or chemotherapy. He said, “I can help you.” And he told me all about what you guys do here. He told me about the hyperthermia. He told me about the IMRT. He told me none of it would kill me. And he felt that there was a very, very good chance that — that’s the way I feel — that I would be out of here cured, minimum three months, maximum six. Well, he missed the six months by two weeks. I’m leaving two weeks early.

CDC: I’ve been working here 20 years and I’m crying because I’ve never heard a story like yours.

MR. R: I’ve had virtually no reactions to any of this therapy. I mean, yeah, I’ve had some bowel symptoms where I’ve had a little diarrhea. I’ve had sleepless nights, but I think that’s anxiety. I’m not sure what it is. But anyway, I’ve had very few, and in fact my check up that he gave me, my release, said it is remarkable how few symptoms I’ve had, how little problems I’ve had.

When I first came here, he sent me out for a PET scan and a CT scan. And the PET scan showed the only cancer was in the bladder, which was good news. And the CT scan showed the same as it did when I was with the doctor in Honolulu. He did the — he did a bone scan in November, around Thanksgiving, and another CT scan. And the tumor was still there, but Dr. Al-Bussam thought it was dead. He didn’t say it in that many words, but he said I don’t think it’s active anymore.

But we continued the treatments through the Christmas holidays until last week. And I went again for a PET scan and for a CT scan. I had also been tested, or had my urine tested two or three times here with a very strange test. It’s called a FISH test. Very strange. But it’s simply testing a urine sample. The first two tests showed that there was blood in the urine. So that says the cancer was still active. The last FISH test I had, which was a couple of weeks ago, we got the results last week — negative. PET scan came back negative. The CT scan came back negative. So all the tests are negative. And so I’m going home tomorrow.

CDC: I am so happy for you.

MR. R: The staff here — the nurses, the doctors, and I’ve only met Dr. Bicher; I haven’t really had any consultations with him — is the best. You have the kindest, most professional technicians or nurses working back there in the hyperthermia section in the world. And you’ve got the brightest, smartest and sweetest two girls downstairs — Sylvia and Gigi — that do the radiation. They never did anything without telling me exactly what they were doing. They always asked me if I was having any problems. When I was having some few problems, they corrected the situation immediately. And I just have nothing to say but good things to say about VCI. I’m so glad I’m here.

The guy that called me? He cried when I called him.

CDC: When? Now?

MR. R: When I told him — afterwards, yes. Just a few days ago. The one who told me about Dr. Wolfstein He cried when I told him I was finished. He couldn’t believe it.

CDC: So I just have only one question. I understand you just told me that you were concerned about the quality of your life more than the length. Were you a kind of alternative type of person following a special diet, things like that?

MR. R: No.

CDC: Did you do anything else besides the hyperthermia treatment combined with low dose radiation?

MR. R: No. I was told that I should stay away from sugar. Eh, I had a muffin every day. A blueberry muffin most every day with a cup of coffee. That was my lunch. That was probably my biggest sugar intake the whole time I was here. But I didn’t eat a lot of ice cream or cakes or any of that stuff. But that’s the only thing. And then I didn’t eat steaks. I stayed away from pork and steaks. But that’s all. I ate everything else.

CDC: Nothing drastically.

MR. R: Nothing.

CDC: I am so glad. I really appreciate you telling me your experience here at the Valley Cancer Institute. I think I don’t have any questions because you have said it so well. I’m so happy for you.

MR. R: Well, I can tell the people who watch this is that if they feel — if they have any cancer, not just bladder cancer, any cancer — they should at least try this place. They should call and find out about it. Because I have seen breast cancer cured here. I have seen throat cancer cured here. I have seen prostate cancer cured here. And probably others that I can’t recall. I have met so many nice patients as well as the people here. We’ve talked about our diseases together and how we’re doing. And we’ve encouraged each other for almost six months.

Yesterday, Marilyn was going for her final PET scan, and I told her I had mine and it was all negative. She was as happy for me as I am. That’s the kind of people we have here. So give it a call. You can’t lose. You can’t lose.

I also want to tell people that there’s another special person here by the name of Nash who will help you not only with the payments — paying for your services — but she’ll also help you find a place to stay while you’re here. So I came 2,800 miles, so anybody else can come here. There’s not too many places further away than Honolulu.

CDC: I understand. Well, Mr. R, I am so happy for you. And I really appreciate you giving me this opportunity to talk to you.

MR. R: Well, you’re welcome.

CDC: Thank you so much.

I viewed your video reference the man with bladder cancer. I do believe that hyperthermia and IMRT (?) will cut off the blood supply to the cancers and kill them. My right ureter is blocked by the cancer and I want to know if the radiation treatment will affect the ability of the ureter to heal into a neobladder if it later comes to that.
Thanks
Bob

His bladder cancer looked like a 6, mine looks like a 9, so I am concerned about getting the same result, since my right kidney is blocked but now be drained by a nephrostomy tube.

Your procedure is altmost perfect. I think a hyperthermia procedure alone may be the perfect. It will enhance the immune system to remove cancerous cells only and to restore the organ functions.
David Muresan

Hello, I would like to subscribe your site through rss. Could you teach me how?