Dear DR Chris Teo,
I apologize for writing without the benefit of an introduction, I am writing this email, with hope that I can scheduled an appointment with you, on behalf of my father who has been diagnosed with nose cancer(T2N1).
My father, Aba (not real name), 58 years old, has been diagnosed with nose cancer (T2N1) in February 2017 and was scheduled for 33 sessions of radiotherapy and 6 rounds of chemotherapy (4 hrs of cisplatin IV infusion),with an approximate total cost of SGD$9,700.
He declined the chemotherapy treatment (oncologists here are very persistent, we had to go thru series of ‘debates’) but complied to radiotherapy treatments. We was initially ensured a total recovery. Doctor mentioned that only 30% suffered from mild side effects and seeing my father is young he is confident that my father will be able to spring back to life in seconds.
Little did we knew, radiotherapy is just as bad. He is currently on his 13th session. The tormenting days started as early as day 2. He is unable to eat maybe because of the many big ulcers, sudden chills, fever, nausea/vomiting and scalded skin. He is so weak. And ever since radiotherapy, I noticed he started to develop tight congestive cough at night. As of now, he said he had lost his sense of taste and hearing to his right ear.
On 6/6/17, during a scheduled consultation, we expressed our concern on his deteriorating health, and if there is anything that they can provide to aid him during this time, and they mentioned a few lists of medications in which they don’t recommended. Their only advice is to allow his antibody to fight it off naturally. At the end of the day, we was only prescribe with a tin of Ensure Vanilla powder.
Disappointed with their lack of concerned and couldn’t help feeling betrayed, that was when we finally decided to called it off and stop the radiotherapy treatments.
It has been more than 48 hrs from his last radiotherapy session and he doesn’t seems to be getting any better.
Our family do believe in herbs but we have no knowledge on it. He has been taking rodent tuber and jus rerama (butterfly plant) as supplements for almost a month now. We sincerely hope you are willing to look into my father’s case. My father is eager to take all possible aggressive measures to combat this disease or at least to live peacefully with it.
We understand that this is one of many such requests that come across your desk and greatly appreciate any guidance that you can lend. We live in Singapore and ensure that I have no issues travelling to Penang on behalf of my father for the consultation and also the follow up treatments.
Thank you, in advance, for your help. I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.
Best of regards.
Reply: Come and see me with all the medical reports and scans … no need to bring your father … only you come ….. fly in the morning … go back in late afternoon.
Summary of medical reports:
- 9 Feb. 2017: Right PNS biopsy — Non-keratinizing papillary squamous cell carcinoma.
- 23 Feb. 2017: MRI – Nasopharynx and Neck — right nasopharyngeal mass (4.8 x 3.9 x 3.0 cm) with extension across midline and into the right parapharyngeal space with right mastoid effusion. Enlarged right lateral retropharyngeal node, 1.4 x 1.2 cm.
- 23 Feb. 2017: Bone scan — there is no conclusive scan evidence of bone metastasis.
- 5 April 2017: Diagnosed with T2N1 nasopharyngeal cancer, EBV negative, p16 positive.
- 30 May 2017: MRI — Since the previous MRI stuy dated 23 Feb. 2017
- stable size and extent of the known right nasopharyngeal tumour.
- slightly larger right lateral retropharyngeal lymph nodes — 1.5 x 1.2cm fro, 1.4 x 1.1 cm.
- larger cystic right level 2 lymph node suspicious for nodal metastasis — 2.2 x 1.5 cm fro, 1.3 x 0.7 cm.
Aba’s daughter (let’s call her Linda) and her husband came to seek our help. We talked for more than an hour. Below are some excerpts of our conversation that morning.
Here are some of the points we discussed.
- Do chemo, 100 percent cure, if radiotherapy 80 percent cure
Linda: He was told to go for chemo – 6 times and radiotherapy – 35 times. He declined chemo but went along with radiotherapy.
Chris: Chemo! Can cure or not?
L: The doctor said, 100 percent cure with chemo. The doctor also said if the patient is my father or mother, I would also ask him/her to do the same.
C: So chemo can cure 100 percent. What about radiotherapy?
L: If he did radiotherapy it will be 80 percent cure.
- Only 30 percent of patients will suffer mild side effects of radiation
L: The doctor also said that only 30 percent of patients will suffer from mild side effects of radiation.
C: Mild side effects? That’s what the doctor said?
L: The doctor said my father is still young.
C: Did you father know that the doctor said the radiation side effects is very mild?
L: He knew.
C: And after 13 times of radiation, why did he gave up?
L: He had bad mouth ulcers, etc. When to see the doctor and was told no medication to help him. Only let the body’s antibodies (immune system?) help him.
- Why are you so against chemotherapy?
C: Chemo would give a 100 percent cure — why don’t you ask your father to go for chemo?
Son-in-law: He wanted to go for it.
L: I quarrelled with the doctor. I have read a lot of stories. Even my uncle — he had one cycle of chemo for his colon cancer and he wanted to die already. Only one shot, and want to die already.
- Oncologist pushing my father to go for chemo!
L: The doctor was very, very …
SIL: insisting.
L: When I told the doctor that I don’t want my father to go for chemo, she was like trying to put the blame on me — if my dies, I would be the one responsible for it.
C: The doctor was really pushing you on that? How old is this oncologist?
L: She is a young lady doctor.
SIL: Some young doctors are like that! Very pushy — chemo, chemo, chemo!
L: She said, this is the standard American protocol.
C: (From my experience) Nobody can cure any cancer! There is another young oncologist who told one of our patients. In my professional life as an oncologist, I have not come across a case where a patient dies because of my chemotherapy!
- Fellow patient undergoing the same treatment already died!
L: There was another patient who also underwent the same treatment (like my father in the same hospital). Last week my father asked the nurse what had happened to him. The nursed checked and found out that he already died.
- Mom with colon cancer. Surgery but refused chemo. Ten years still alive!
L: I read a lot.
C: Before you father got cancer, did you also read?
L: Actually my mother also had cancer — colon cancer. She went for surgery but she refused chemo. It’s now ten years. She never go for any check-up and she is still alive.
7. My take on this case
- We cannot change human attitude. So let me tell you honestly — out of ten patients who come and seek our help, only three patients would benefit from our therapy. We cannot help the remaining seven patients because we cannot change their attitudes. We can help the cancer but we cannot help human beings.
- You need to take care of your diet. You cannot eat anything you like. So what to eat now? I can’t help people like that! I know many people swear and curse me because I say you cannot eat this and cannot eat that.
SIL: My father is a very stubborn person. He likes to eat — so we have to change him on that.
C: That is the problem. I have no herbs to make him change his attitude, his stubbornness. I can tell you, I give up on such person. No use. My experience is when he gets well, he will not listen to my advice anymore. He eats anything he likes and he dies.
Comments
There are many lessons we can learn from this story.
- It pays to read and read, to know more. It is not enough to just go and see an oncologist and believe he/she can take care of you.
Linda read about her father’s cancer treatment. She took note that her uncle almost died after one shot of chemo. Linda’s mother also had cancer. She was told to undergo chemotherapy after her colon cancer surgery. She refused. She is still alive after ten years!
When the oncologist told Aba and his family members that chemo was going to provide a one hundred percent cure of his NPC, Linda was skeptical. You can only be skeptical and dare to question the doctor if you have some basic knowledge of what cancer treatment is all about. Unfortunately, many patients dare not ask. And they don’t read. They swallow everything that is being fed to them!
- Experience and wisdom are what you need to look out for when it comes to making life and death decision. Read and ponder the following wise words of Dr. Ruggeiri below.
It is not difficult to understand what Dr. Paul Ruggieri is trying to tell us. Substitute the word surgeon with oncologist and see how the message strikes you! It may sound like this … the first ten years of practice, an oncologist learns how to chemo people …. she is eager to chemo anyone who walks into her office … she is going to show off her stuff …. bla, bla, bla.
So if I have a choice, I would choose an experienced, sympathetic and wise doctor rather than a sweet, young one! (I know it is hard, wishful thinking?).
- Radiotherapy provides a 80 percent chance of cure. And only 30 percent of patients suffer side effects. Even that, according to the oncologist, these side effects are mild. Do you believe that?
Obviously this oncologist does not know what it is like to suffer from the treatments she is dishing out to her patients!
Pastor Danny had NPC and underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatments (using the same drugs as recommended for Aba). And he suffered severe side effects.
- Suffered severe side effects of radiation – mouth sore, difficulty swallowing, burnt skin, etc.
- At the same time, he received two cycles of chemotherapy. The side effects were worse than radiation and he had to be hospitalized. He was unable to sleep, was in pain and became anxious and depressed. He was put on morphine and as a result suffered constipation and hallucination.
- The treatment caused much misery. I would rather die – it was miserable and never again!
Dr. Peter Ooi related his NPC treatments as below:
Radiotherapy Experience
- The treatment burnt my whole throat – like it was on fire.
- My wife cried, because I couldn’t drink even a drop of water.
- I could not walk by myself.
- I was not told about the side effects of radiotherapy.
- I have no more salivary glands (that is why in the video you see Peter having to taking sips of water very often when talking to us).
Chemo Experience
- I was not told about the side effects of chemotherapy – the only thing mentioned was hair loss.
- I stopped chemo after the fourth cycle – I was too weak.
- I developed a phobia for “needle”. The veins in my hands just “disappeared” when I see a needle!
Doc, you call these mild side effects?
- The oncologist told Linda that chemotherapy can provide a one hundred percent cure! What the oncologist did not tell is that chemotherapy can also come with a heavy toll! Sometimes, chemotherapy kills.
According to Linda, a fellow patient undergoing the same treatment as her father died along the way! Is that not proof enough? Read what these two doctors say.
Last week the newspapers reported that one of Singapore’s most prominent oncologist was suspended for eight months due to professional misconduct. According to this report, Dr. Ang Peng Thiam, a 35-year veteran and medical director of Parkway Cancer Centre, was found guilty of these charges:
- That he made false representation to the patient who was suffering from lung cancer that there was a “70 per cent” chance of responding to the treatment he suggested, and
- That he failed to offer her surgery as an option.
The patient died six months after seeing this famous oncologist.
The disciplinary tribunal found that Dr Ang “had no reasonable basis” for saying there was a 70 per cent chance of response and felt that he had “wrongly held out false hope” to the patient and her family. He made the claims intentionally even though he knew or ought to have known there was no basis for him to do so.
The judges said doctors were obliged to present the range of viable options and what the pros and cons of each of these were. Patients must get to decide for themselves what treatment they want, the judges added. “It was not Dr Ang’s role to decide, but to inform,” the judges said.
Cancer patients, can you learn anything from the above episode?
Read more: https://badscienceblindtruth.wordpress.com/
Let me end by asking you once again to reflect on the wise words of Dr. Ruggieri below:
CANCER STORY 
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