HAVE YOU HEARD OF ONCOLOGISTS DEFRAUDING CANCER PATIENTS?

by Yeong Sek Yee & Khadijah Shaari

One night, while browsing the Internet, we came across an article (dated August 2013) that really threw us off the chair. The article that stunned us, but which has not been reported in the mainstream media, can be viewed at the following link:

Cancer doctor gives needless chemo in US 35 m fraud....says prosecutors.

LINK:http://www.today.com/news/cancer-doctor-gave-needless-chemo-35m-fraud-prosecutors-say-6C10913890

As we search further, we came across a more detailed article of the same subject published in MEDPAGE, a medical news portal which can be read at the following link:

Physician Gave Chemo to Patients without Cancer, Feds say

LINK: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/809243

Briefly, in August 2013 Oncologist Dr Farid Fata was arrested for allegedly having scammed US$35 million from Medicare over a two-year period. The following are the main points in the allegations against Dr Farid:

Deliberately misdiagnosed patients as having cancer to justify unnecessary cancer treatment,
Deliberately misdiagnosed patients without cancer to justify expensive testing
Administered chemotherapy unnecessarily to patients who were in remission,
Administered chemotherapy to end-of-life patients who will not benefit from the treatment,
Fabricated other diagnoses such as anemia and fatigue to justify unnecessary hematology treatments,
Unnecessarily distributed controlled substances to patients,
Administered chemotherapy to patients who had other serious medical conditions that required immediate treatment before being permitted to go to the hospital.

You can read more of Dr Farid Fata’s case (or verify the authenticity of this article) when you google CHEMOTHERAPY FRAUD or just DR FARID FATA or watch the following videos on YouTube:

1) Michigan Oncologist Accused of Giving “Unnecessary Chemotherapy to cancer patients”

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4QVqbTTmxU

2) Cancer doctor deliberately misdiagnoses patients

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjL_OrSkEm4

As at 2 October 2013, Dr Farid Fata is still in prison after his US $ 9 million bond has been revoked pending trial. He faces a 20 year jail sentence.

In December 2012, there was another fraudulent chemotherapy case similar to the above Dr Farid Fata case…read link below:

1) Oncologist Dr. Meera Sachdeva gets 20 years for Medicare fraud

Link:http://pathologyblawg.com/medical-news/oncologist-meera-sachdeva-20-years-medicare-fraud/

In this case, this is how oncologist Dr Meera Sachdeva defrauded cancer patients at her cancer center –The Rose Cancer Center in Summit, Jordan, USA:

· Syringes were re-used and different patients’ chemotherapy drugs were drawn from the same bag.

· Chemotherapy drugs were diluted,

· Use chemotherapy drugtreatments after their expiration date,

Submitted claims for chemotherapy services that were supposedly given while she was out of the country,

Dr Meera has been sentenced to a 20–year jail term. You can read more of Dr Meera Sachdeva by just googling her name or watch the following YouTube videos:

1) Summit doctor sentenced for cancer drug fraud.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nzdzit4NsxI2)

2) Two plead guilty in chemotherapy fraud case

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqcqNOOAJvo

And there is yet another chemo fraud case that can blow your brains to pieces….watch the video below:

Chemo drugs diluted

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE6eE0WDxcQ

Concluding comments:

Are these the only “isolated” cases or are these just the “tip” of the iceberg? To be diagnosed with cancer is traumatizing enough…but to be cheated by your oncologist/doctor is like rubbing a ton of salt into a big wound. Don’t you think so?

If you have undergone chemotherapy treatment, you may have some comments/experience to share with the rest of the world. Your comments may help to save some fellow cancer patients.

SOME FURTHER RELATED REFERENCES:

If you would like to blow your brains further, read the following:

1) How We Do Harm…this book is written by oncologist Dr Otis Webb Brawley (also chief Medical and scientific officer and Executive Vice President of the American Cancer Society)…the book gives a detail description how cancer patients are mislead and defrauded into unnecessary treatments.

2) Fraud: Chemotherapy

http://www.mnwelldir.org/docs/fraud/chemo.htm

3) Chemotherapy Fraud: Is This Fraud Too Big Even For 60 Minutes? http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/03/10/chemotheraphy-is-medical-fraud.aspx

4) Article: The Cancer Business

http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/cancer_business.htm

5) The Cancer Report

http://healthwyze.org/index.php/component/content/article/521-video-the-cancer-report-documentary.html

or YouTube at :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=WnaBG177VIw

6) Burzynski: Cancer Is Serious Business

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/burzynski-the-movie-cancer-is-serious-business/

7) National Cancer Institute report admits millions have been falsely

treated for ‘cancer’

http://www.naturalnews.com/042789_National_Cancer_Institute_false_treatments_misdiagnosis_epidemic.html#ixzz2k8yGp8GC

8) Millions Wrongly Treated for ‘Cancer,’ National Cancer Institute Panel Confirms

http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/millions-wrongly-treated-cancer-national-cancer-institute-panel-confirms

ARE YOU SCARED? WE ARE.

Lung Cancer: Chemo Experiments That Failed and Failed

……….more to come ……

BOOK REVIEW : DEFEAT CANCER

(15 DOCTORS OF INTEGRATIVE AND NATUROPATHIC MEDICINE TELL YOU HOW).

Review by Yeong Sek Yee & Khadijah Shaari

In her book (released May 2011), author and medical researcher Connie Strasheim provides the reader with an informative overview of some new and innovative cancer treatments. She identified 15 top cancer healers from the United States and five other countries and then spent the better part of the 2010 interviewing them. The 15 physicians interviewed included medical doctors, osteopaths and naturopaths who treat cancer either exclusively or as a major part of their practice.

Most people, when confronted with cancer in our society, are quickly shunted into typical surgery, chemotherapy and radiation protocols. Standard medical treatment offers little variation from person to person, and after chemotherapy or radiation, patients are left with impaired immunity, toxicities, fatigue and emotional uncertainty. As substantiated by several of the doctors in the book, these conventional treatments don’t have a great long-term track record despite all the money spent on cancer therapy and research.

Strasheim’s interviews with these fifteen different doctors focus on integrating the best conventional wisdom with nutritional supplements, Traditional Chinese Medicine, diet, lifestyle and a wide variety of modalities that help balance body, mind and spirit. Although each doctor employs his or her own set of techniques and protocols, the reader soon understands that there are some common themes among their approaches.

The doctors interviewed present a solid perspective on what options are available to a person facing cancer. They have been trained in a variety of medical disciplines including, but not limited to, allopathic (conventional), naturopathic, homeopathic, biological, and Traditional Chinese medicine. Some of the tools like Insulin Potentiation Therapy (IPT) and specific tumor drug testing (chemosensitivity tests) make so much sense that it is a pity they fall short of the “Standard of Care” procedures followed by the medical establishment. There is a wealth of information for anyone who is interested in pursuing a kinder and gentler cancer therapy.

Each chapter of the book focuses on the treatment approach of a single physician. All aspects of treatment are covered, from anti-neoplastic (anti-cancer) remedies and immune system support, to dietary and lifestyle choices that result in the best outcomes for patients. The book also offers unique insights into healing, such as the pros and cons of different treatments and how to intelligently use chemotherapy. It discusses patient and practitioner challenges to healing, factors that affect healing, treatment outcomes and how to effectively combine multiple medical strategies to obtain the best results. Finally, it offers helpful insights to the friends and families of those coping with cancer.

In this short review, it is impossible to summarize the contents of the 15 interviews. The list of questions asked by the author is sufficient to fill the book with 443 pages of well documented information. Here are some of the questions asked:

What is cancer? What causes it?
What is your treatment approach? How effective is it for different types and stages of cancer?
What are your treatment outcomes and can you provide statistics on your success for treating late-stage cancers?
What are your dietary recommendations for those with cancer?
What lifestyle recommendations do you suggest for people with cancer?
Describe the role of emotional trauma/emotions in healing from cancer. Do you recommend that your patients do any type of spiritual/psychological therapies as part of their healing process? How integral are these to their healing?
Do you recommend detoxification therapies to your patients? If so, which ones?
What supportive treatments do you recommend, besides those described in your main protocol? Do you believe that supporting the hormones, for example, should be an important part of treatment?
Are there any treatments, either within conventional or natural medicine, which are dangerous and/or ineffective
How can friends and family support their loved ones with cancer?
What do you wish that more people with cancer knew when seeking out treatments?
How does medical politics influence the availability of effective treatments?
What else do you want readers to know about your work as a cancer practitioner?
What factors influence healing?
What are your final words of wisdom for cancer patients?

And the 15 physicians interviewed are:

Stanislaw Burzynski, MD, PhD, Houston, Texas
Robert Zieve, MD, Prescott, Arizona
Nicholas Gonzalez, MD, New York, New York
Finn Scott Anderson, MD, Humlebæk, Denmark
Juergen Winkler, MD, Oceanside, California
Dr. Rivera-Celaya, MD and his assistant Steven Hines, Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila, Mexico
Colleen Huber, NMD, Tempe, Arizona
Robert Eslinger, DO, Reno, Nevada
Dr. Dayton, DO, Sunny Isles Beach, Florida
Dr. Reis, MD, Bad Mergentheim, Germany
Julian Kenyon, MD, London, England
Constantine Kotsanis, MD, Grapevine, Texas
Joe Brown, ND, Tempe, Arizona
Keith Scott-Mumby, MD, Reno, Nevada
Chad Aschtgen, ND, Seattle, Washington.

To find out more about the book and Connie Strasheim, visit her website at http://cancerbooksource.com/defeat-cancer-book/

On YouTube, you can view two videos on the subject:

1) New Cancer Book Interviews 15 Doctors from 5 Countries

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhxdeJbUyyU

2) Medical Book Review: Defeat Cancer: 15 Doctors of Integrative & Naturopathic Medicine Tell You How

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsbL7YHZgsQ

This book very clearly indicates to cancer patients that there are many healing choices for cancer…the conventional modalities of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation is just one of the many choices. Some other books you may want to refer to are:

1) CANCER: IS THERE ANOTHER OPTION? by Dr Chris K.H.Teo, PhD

2) CANCER: WHAT NOW? by Dr Chris K.H.Teo, PhD

3) DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO CANCER by Dr Burton Goldberg

4) CANCER THERAPY by Dr Ralph Moss, PhD

5) CANCER: INCREASING YOUR ODDS FOR SURVIVAL by David Bognar

6) KNOCKOUT: INTERVIEWS WITH DOCTORS WHO ARE CURING CANCER by Suzanne Somers.

Besides the above (which your doctor/oncologist will advise you not to read), there are many other books on complementary and alternative healing modalities for cancer. But invariably, your doctor/oncologist will gun you down if you ever mention any of them….not scientifically tested, proven, etc, etc, etc. Amen.

Lung Cancer Success Stories

by Chris K H Teo & Ch’ng Beng Im

Available at:

http://www.bookoncancer.com/productDetail.php?P_Id=73 (This is in PDF format)

http://www.bookoncancer.com/productDetail.php?P_Id=74 (This is in EPUB format)

Price: US$ 2.99

This is how it looks like if you download it into your iPad

This is what it would look like if you download it into your handphone

Available at:

http://www.bookoncancer.com/productDetail.php?P_Id=73 (This is in PDF format)

http://www.bookoncancer.com/productDetail.php?P_Id=74 (This is in EPUB format)

Price: US$ 2.99

BOOK REVIEW: THE CANCER KILLERS—THE CAUSE IS THE CURE

by Yeong Sek Yee & Khadijah

Written by Dr. Charles Majors, Dr. Ben Lerner and Sayer Ji, The Cancer Killers book aims to help you understand more about the disease of Cancer, the business of Cancer and the risks of conventional Cancer treatments.

Dr Charles Major has a doctorate in Chiropractic. In September 2010, Dr Majors was diagnosed with advanced Plasmacytoma, a form of Multiple Myeloma that had metastasized to his brain. He chose to leave conventional medicine (but he did surgery) and applied the same principles he had been teaching for years to reverse his own cancer and not only survives but thrives.

You can listen to Dr Majors explaining the book at the following YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn69pHP_n8A

In addition, you can listen to Dr Major’s cancer journey at a Webinar at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRlegoDXdHs

The other authors, Dr Ben Lerner, is the co-founder of the Maximized Living Foundation and Sayer Ji, is the founder and editor-in-chief of GreenMedInfo.com

In the book, you will learn and begin to see how you have it within you to fight off all diseases and help your immune system do what it is designed to do—to keep you healthy! You will also learn what foods are good for you, which ones need to be avoided and even how much exercise is optimum for health.

According to the authors, your body is a cancer killing machine. Equipped with a high powered immune system and intracellular anti-oxidant defense system, you have the ability to prevent and reverse cancer. They believe that there is one cause for cancer and the cause is anything that interferes with your body’s ability to kill cancer and fight off any disease. Likewise, there is one cure—remove the interference and maximize the potential.

Your goal is to develop a cause-addressing lifestyle that is no longer a destructive force in your life, but rather a force to help your body protect itself now and in the future. The following are the authors’ 5 main cancer-killing essentials:

1) Maximized Mindset—the mind has great influence over the body…constant stress and negative thinking suppresses the body’s immune system, alters digestive functions, and causes the continual production of negative, stress hormones.

2) Maximized Nerve Supply—spinal correction care re-aligns the spine, restores the curves, and make sure the skull and pelvis is aligned…this corrects the cause, removes the interference and maximizes function. With spinal correction, the nerve supply can be restored.

3) Maximized Quality Nutrition—bad eating leads to insulin insensitivity, hormone imbalance, thyroid dysfunction, poor bowel movement, toxicity and cell inflammation. Today’s commercial diets contain endless toxins and lack the nutrients, fiber and antioxidants, etc.

4) Maximized Oxygen and Lean Muscle—oxygen has been shown to stymie the growth of cancers. The lack of exercise causes malfunction and interferes with the body’s ability to kill the enemy.

5) Minimized Toxins—toxic materials cannot be effectively metabolized by the body…these poisons are accumulated or built up in your system and create a “toxic burden.”

Dr. Majors also described his own personal experience with Stage IV cancer and how he found his path to recovery through simple (yet obviously effective) ways of living (listen to the Webinar by Dr Majors). When diagnosed in September 2010, he declined the conventional Cut, Poison and Burn procedures (read Chapter 4). The opening paragraph of the chapter summed up his reasons:

Conventional cancer treatments are the medical equivalent of fighting fire with fire. To kill a cancerous growth, medicine employs something equally hazardous. It bombards the patient with toxic chemicals and radiation, both of which are considered lethal….the doctors hope that the cancer cells will be more susceptible to their potent wallop than the healthy cells. The reality, however is that “collateral damage” from the treatments is inevitable. It is not a matter of “if,” but to what degree the damaging side effects will take their toll.
The DNA damaging effects of chemotherapy and radiation are actual causes of cancer initiation and promotion. Therefore the standard of care in cancer treatment is also a cause of cancer.

In summary, Dr Majors reiterated that “you cannot poison yourself back into health”

Cancer, like all illnesses, is a symptom. It is a result of something weakened and not working right in your body. You have to learn how to strengthen your body and make things right, so that illnesses cannot grow and thrive within you.

That is the ultimate cancer killer in you.

FURTHER REFERENCES:

1) Website of Sayers Ji….GREENMEDINFO…..http://www.greenmedinfo.com/

(Lots of information on cancer which your doctors will not tell you)

2) Visit them on their FACEBOOK page at….https://www.facebook.com/BeACancerKiller

Breast Cancer: What Now?

What to do after surgery? What to do when all treatments have failed you?

US$3.99 Click here to buy: http://www.bookoncancer.com/productDetail.php?P_Id=70

Introduction

This book in a continuation of my earlier book Your Breasts – What to do if you find a lump and What to do if it is cancerous. The main problem at CA Care is not dealing with patients with breast lumps. Our main problem is dealing with patients who have already gone to see their doctors, undergone all the necessary medical treatments and failed. Now, they come to us for help.

Chapter 1: Pressure From Those Around You

In my first book Your Breasts – What to do if there is a lump and What to do if it is cancerous, I told the story of Ina, our friend. She had a lump in her breast which later was found to be cancerous. She underwent a mastectomy. After the surgery, her doctor referred her to an oncologist who recommended that Ina undergo chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Ina was also told to take Tamoxifen, a hormone drug, for five years. Ina refused all these and she opted for our CA Care Therapy. Ina had been on CA Care Therapy for the past one year. So far so good. She has been taking life easy, exercises regularly and takes care of her diet. Let me get back to Ina’s case. I knew she was not at ease after the last meeting with her surgeon. So, I took time to explain one issue after another. 1. Ina is not the only one who opted for CA Care Therapy. 2. Medical treatment is not necessarily the best option. 3. Tamoxifen can cause cancer! 4. Medical radiation can increase cancer risk! 5. Cancer-free or not cancer-free. 6. You are now cancer-free, eat whatever you like! Of all the follies, I told Ina this one is the greatest of them all. Dr. Russell Blaylock (in Natural Strategies for Cancer Patients) wrote: “Oncologists harm their patients by giving them cancer-promoting nutritional advice.” I have learned that if you want to be popular with your patients or make them happy, tell them what they want to hear. Ask them to go back to their old ways of life after you have treated them. When they get sick again, they will surely come hunting for you. Indeed this is a good way of ensuring that you are always in business.

Chapter 2: Recurrence

Ina, our friend and our breast cancer patient, has been on our CA Care Therapy for more than a year now. She is doing fine. There is nothing else I can offer her. If she is happy and is doing fine she should continue to do what she is doing and stay on course. I am aware that deep down in every patient’s heart, there is the feeling of fear, i.e. the fear of recurrence. The possibility of recurrence is real. Patients have to learn to live with it. Only time can tell if you are cancer-free or not. At CA Care we do not intend to mislead you. We want you to know that there is no cure for cancer. Living your life chasing after a permanent cure for your cancer could be miserable. We urge you to learn how to live with your cancer. That is more realistic. The only way that I know how to reduce the chances of recurrence is to make sure that you lead a healthy, happy and stress-free life. I tell patients to take care of their diet. Avoid foods that cause inflammation to the body. Of course this advice is not welcomed by many people. But take it from me. Food plays a major role in whether your cancer comes back or not. Very often I can trace recurrences back to bad diet. So you have a choice to help yourself! According to medical literature, recurrence occurs in the first three to five years after initial treatment. The highest risk of recurrence is said to be during the first two years following treatment. Recurrence is never zero but as time passes the risk goes down.

Chapter 6: Insanity

The only difference between doctors and lawyers is that laywers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob and kill you too

~ Anton Chekhov, Russian physiciain, dramatist and author

Dr. Jerome Groopman of Harvard Unviersity (in How Doctors Think) wrote: “If you do an experiment two times and you don’t get results, then it doesn’t make sense to do it the same way a third time. You have to ask yourself: What am I missing? How should I do it differently the next time?” “It is much easier both psychologically and logistically, for a doctor to keep treating a serious disease with a familiar therapy even when the disease is not responding.” “How an oncologist thinks through the value of complex and harsh treatments demands not only an understanding of science but also a sensibility about the soul – how much risk we are willing to take and how we want to live out our lives.” Life on earth is a living experience. Let the death of these patients be a useful lesson for many of those who come after them. The Story of Amy Cohen Soscia I learned about Amy Cohen from the Internet. She had breast cancer in 1998 when she was forty-three years old. Amy underwent a mastectomy, reconstructive surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. She received treatments in one of the world’s outstanding cancer hospitals – Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, USA. In spite of all the treatments, Amy’s cancer spread to her liver and spine. The doctor tried Herceptin on her. Liz Kowlczyk of The Boston Globe wrote, “Miraculously, her cancer began to shrink, and Soscia began to let herself think that she would conquer the disease.” But it was not to be. In January 2003, an MRI showed the cancer had spread to her brain. ”I hate this disease, I was so discouraged that I was on treatment for five years and I still got brain lesions.” Amy had twenty times of radiation to her brain. The treatment was exhausting. She lost her hair. The treatment seemed to wipe out one tumour, shrunk another but one tumour grew back. Amy took a new drug, lapatinib or Tykerb. Amy later stopped taking Tykerb because the brain tumour grew bigger indicating that the drug was not effective. Amy was not the only one who ended up with brain tumour after Herceptin or found that Tykerb was useless for them. Salvia, Fransiska and Yee also suffered a similar fate. Amy received more treatment with high-intensity beam radiation that focused just on the tumor in her brain. All said, Amy lost her battle and died on 2 September 2001.

Chapter 7: Disaster

Doctors are blindly giving chemotherapy … while the cancer cells smile.

Doctors give chemo, chemo, chemo. And patients die, die, die.

~ Dr. Frank Daudert, Pro Leben Klinik, Austria

Death from chemotherapy is acceptable.

Each oncologist is truly shooting in the dark.

Hope is that the chemotherapy kills the cancer before it kills the patient.

~ Dr. James Forsythe (in The Compassionate Oncologist)

Reflect on the quotations above and the stories below. Ask yourself – what has gone wrong?

Chapter 8 Let The Truth Be Told: No Cure for Cancer

As doctors, we generally don’t tell outright lies. We just don’t speak the truth fully

~ Dr. Allan Hamilton (in The Scalpel and the Soul)

“I am no longer shocked by his fakery …. Fake science, fake researchers,

fake subjects … is what American medicine has become.

Without actually intending it, we have constructed a medical system

in which deception is often not just tolerated but rewarded …

You can see the same patterns of misconduct emerging again and again.”

~ Carl Elliott, Professor of Bioethics, University of Minnesota, in White Coat Black Hat.

Most of what you have heard over your lifetime about cancer treatments

is not the truth. At the very least, you have received an incomplete picture.

If you believe that propaganda you have been fed when you develop cancer,

it can cost you your life ~ Burton Goldberg

The Story of Rose As I am writing this chapter, Rose, an Indonesian, came to our centre and related her story. Perhaps, we can learn many lessons from her experiences.

Chapter 9 What Now?

In this book, I present to you real stories of breast cancer patients. It is up to you to learn from their experiences. Dr. Barbara Joseph was also a breast cancer patient. She said in her book, My Healing from Breast Cancer: “Breast cancer brings with it a clear and very personal message. Something is not working in our lives. Something needs to be changed. Let’s not be afraid of this message … just allow yourself to take the message in. Our diagnosis can be a wake-up call, alerting us to alter our diet, our lifestyle, our relationships.” Unfortunately, not all patients realize this. They come to us and they expect us to cure their cancer, and if possible to do it quickly. I am sorry, I cannot do that. Not all patients who come to seek our help find their healing. Our data showed us that only thirty percent benefited in one way or another, the remaining seventy percent do not. I stress, DO NOT. I don’t want to mislead you. There is this quotation, “There is no incurable disease, only incurable people.” By talking to patients for five to ten minutes, I can more or less know whether I can help them or not. How patients present themselves would indicate to me if they can make it or not. Their attitude, facial expression, emotional problem, lifestyle, commitment, family support, etc., all play important roles in helping patients overcome their cancer problems. Healing cannot be found in a “magic bullet.” Patients need to be committed and work hard towards their own healing.

This book, in pdf format, is available at US$3.99 Click here to buy: http://www.bookoncancer.com/productDetail.php?P_Id=70

BOOK REVIEW: LIFE, WITH CANCER THE LAUREN TERRAZZANO STORY

Reviewed by Yeong Seek Yee & Khadijah Shaari

Lauren Elizabeth Terrazzano was an American journalist best known for her “Life, With Cancer” Newsday column and other writings about her battle with cancer. Lauren graduated from high school in Tewksbury, Massachusetts. In 1990, she earned a bachelor’s degree from Boston University and later, after graduating from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in 1994, she worked at The New York Daily News and The Record before joining Newsday in 1996.

Lauren Terrazzano had two goals in life: firstly, to win a Pulitzer Prize and secondly to write a book.

In 1996, the fearless young journalist shared the Pulitzer Prize with her team at Newsday for their coverage of the TWA Flight 800 crash. Unfortunately, she was not able to achieve her second goal. At age thirty-nine, Lauren’s life was cut short by lung cancer just 30 months after her diagnosis.

Despite being a non-smoker, Lauren Terrazzano was diagnosed with lung cancer in September 2004 at age 36. She endured chemotherapy and continued her work as the cancer went into remission. When the cancer returned in 2006, she developed a Newsday column called “Life, with Cancer” in which she explored and dispel the stigma living day to day with lung cancer. She wrote the column for eight months before her death in May 2007.

However, that goal (of writing a book) did not die with Lauren.

Her father, Frank Terrazzano picked up the torch and, with the help of co-author Paul Lonardo, wrote Life, with Cancer: The Lauren Terrazzano Story. In writing this book, Frank wanted to honor his daughter’s memory as a dedicated and well-respected social journalist who was a voice for the voiceless.

With the help of co-author Paul Lonardo, devoted father Frank Terrazzano tells his daughter′s compelling life story through the eyes of the many people whose hearts and lives Lauren touched. Lauren′s friends, colleagues, coworkers, doctors, and even her college professors, collectively paint a touching portrait of Lauren the person and the journalist. Reflecting on his daughter, Frank writes of Lauren as “A beautiful young lady who believed that ′The Pen Is Mightier than the Sword′ and chose to use her pen as a light–a light to shine in dark places exposing society′s many shortcomings.”

In the fall of 2006, the cancer returned, but Lauren decided to fight it with words. After receiving a weekly column entitled, Life, with Cancer, she shared her experiences in the hope of erasing the stigma associated with lung cancer. She wrote with humor when she discussed “the dumb things people say to those who are ill” and with anger as she wrote about the complicity of tobacco companies.

Each chapter in Life, with Cancer is a heartfelt tribute from father to daughter and begins with Lauren’s voice taken from actual excerpts of her Newsday column.

The following are the main points in Lauren’s cancer journey as told by her father in the various chapters:

Diagnosis—there was a large mass on the right side of her chest, pressing directly against her lung…there were also three smaller masses in the same area, along the lining of her right lung. The tumour that had attached itself directly on her lung was the most threatening and was probably responsible for her difficulty in breathing—it was pressing on her lung.
With that scenario, she consulted with the top thoracic surgeon at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) who recommended chemotherapy, then possibly surgery and then radiation therapy. (Lauren’s husband flatly refused to consider alternative therapies…because insurance does not pay for it).
Lauren then underwent 4 rounds of chemotherapy and this was what happened to her each time:
- After the first round of chemo at MSKCC, Lauren was unable to work…she was just too sick. It was hard for her to eat, and she became weaker by the day. Nothing tasted right. She even lost her love of chocolate. What little she ate she had trouble keeping down.
- After her second round of chemo (this time at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston), the complications from the side effects landed her in intensive care due to life-threatening infections.
- After the third round of chemo (back at MSKCC), she developed a blood clot in her left leg and then for the rest of the treatment, she had to give herself daily injections of blood thinners.
- After the fourth round of chemo, the result was the same: no improvement.

Despite the poor prognosis, the thoracic surgeon managed to persuade the board of MSKCC and Lauren to perform surgery known as “extrapleural pneumonectomy…i.e. to take out her right lung along with its lining, part of her diaphragm, and the outer lining of her heart. He removed all the cancer that he could see, and the surgery was considered a success.
Just three weeks later (after surgery),she started a six-week course of radiation therapy
After Lauren completed her treatment in early March (2006), she started to feel a little better and tests showed that she was, indeed, cancer free. For the first time since she had been diagnosed with lung cancer, Lauren truly felt good for an extended period of time.
Lauren lived cancer-free for the next six months, the culmination of which was an unexpected wedding (her second marriage). Just a week before the wedding, her oncologist told her that something had been detected in her chest midsection…they had found some cancer near right ribs…and they needed to perform surgery on her right away to remove two of her ribs.
Just before Easter, Lauren underwent another surgery to remove the tumours, along with several ribs where tumours were located. She got through that surgery, and again they thought they had gotten all the cancer (successful again?).
When tumours began appearing in different parts of her body, Lauren’s cancer was considered inoperable, at least as far as the recommendation of any further surgeries was concerned.
Also any further chemotherapy would not be effective and would only make her sicker. Her hope was fading fast when she decided to put her faith in a trial drug.
Just after Halloween in 2008, Lauren’s oncologist informed her that her body was not responding to the treatment. When Lauren asked what they could try next, her doctors told her that they had done everything they could: conventional treatment had failed.
When Lauren inquired about alternative therapies they could recommend, she was advised that if there any nontraditional medicines or treatments she wanted to try, it was up to her: but there was nothing more they could do for her at Sloan-Kettering.

Lauren Elizabeth Terrazzano passed away on May 15, 2007 despite being treated at the most renowned cancer hospital in the world, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre (MSKCC), in less than 3 years from diagnosis (Sept 2004).

OUR PARTING COMMENTS:

It was so considerate of MSKCC to advise Lauren to seek nontraditional medicines or treatments after her body has been totally wrecked after all the chemotherapy, surgeries, and radiotherapy. Probably by then her their insurance cover has been exhausted as well.

At the time of reviewing this book (early October 2013), a friend of ours had already undergone numerous chemotherapy and radiotherapy (to the brain as well) for his lung cancer which was diagnosed less than 3 years ago. Recently, his oncologist “consoled” him with a comment that “you are very lucky to have lasted nearly 3 years, etc.” And it was that same oncologist who advised him to irradiate his brain first before the cancer spreads there. Our friend did so obediently but six months later, the lung cancer did metastasize to the brain. Yes, he did further radiotherapy sessions. Now, one year later there are two tumours in the brain as big as a 50-sen coin.

Anyone for evidence-based medicine, scientifically tested and proven??