The Beautiful Truth

I recently watched a very thought-provoking documentary called The Beautiful Truth.  The Beautiful Truth introduces viewers to an alternative (and controversial) cancer therapy called Gerson Therapy, which is based on Dr. Max Gerson’s findings that diet could, and did, cure cancer.  Dr. Gerson’s work is summarized in his book—A Cancer Therapy: Results of Fifty Cases and the Cure of Advanced Cancer. 

I am intrigued by the concept of Gerson Therapy, but I cannot fully believe what is presented in the documentary without doing some research myself.  To start, I ordered Gerson’s original book from Amazon.  (Unfortunately, the book is out of stock so it may be awhile before I can delve into it.) 

Does anyone know more about Gerson Therapy?  I plan to write additional posts about this therapy once I learn more about it.

Even if you don’t believe in the therapy (or its concept), The Beautiful Truth is still a must-see documentary. 

Maintenance Therapy

Even with huge sums of money funding cancer research, the newest prognosis is simply longer chemotherapy. Doctors want to treat cancer patients continuously with drugs in the hope that tumors can be kept under control. This maintenance therapy won’t cure cancer, but it does offer potential to keep it in check.

Maintenance therapy isn’t new, but its usage is growing. Given this fact, it would be beneficial to know the answers to the following questions:

1. Does longer-term use of drugs really prolong the lives of cancer patients?
2. Will longer-term use of drugs subject cancer patients to more side effects?
3. Will tumors become resistant to the drugs over time?
4. Do greedy drug companies simply want more people using their drugs for increased periods of time?

Many (if not all) of these questions cannot be answered—at least not yet. At the surface, there may be a good rationale for maintenance therapy; however, doctors and patients need to dig deeper before actively engaging in the treatment.


References
Pollack, A. (2009, July 20). Considering longer chemotherapy. The New York Times, p. D1.