Six Miracle Cancer Survivors (1/3)

Why do some patients beat the odds? Some go on experimental medicines that help them, but few others take novel combinations of approved drugs that are too toxic for most to endure. The most mysterious cases of all are so-called spontaneous remissions, where tumors vanish without any treatment. Only a handful of such cases are reported in the medical literature each year. Here are some of the selected 6 cases (courtesy: Forbes) which everyone muse read & appreciate their willpower…

	Sharon Belvin Jamesville, N.C. / 27 years old / Melanoma The story: Sharon Belvin was diagnosed with melanoma in her lung a week before her wedding, when she was only 22. That sort of tumor usually sprouts like a weed once it has migrated beyond the skin to internal organs, and it resists most chemotherapy. By the time she turned 24, the few standard treatments had failed, and Belvin had tumors in both lungs.
The Recovery Doctors at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center put her on an experimental drug called ipilimumab, which aims to trigger the immune system against cancer. Within four months, her lung tumors started to shrivel, and by late 2006, they were gone. Today, Belvin is off all treatment. She spends her time with her husband and 1-year-old daughter, Lilly Elizabeth, who she calls “a miracle baby, after all we have been through.” In a 2007 trial, her drug (from Medarex and Bristol-Myers Squibb) helped only around 10% of patients with melanoma. Why patients like Belvin do vastly better than others is a subject of vigorous study at labs nationwide.
	Charles Burrows Mesa, Ariz. / 59 years old / Liver cancer The story: Charles Burrows noticed a strange lump on his stomach in the summer of 2005. By November, the pain was so bad it felt like a knife was stabbing him in the stomach. A biopsy confirmed his worst fears: He had inoperable liver cancer. His tumor was the size of a baseball and was already starting to strangle the portal vein going into the liver. Doctors at the Phoenix Veteran Affairs (VA) told Burrows, then 56, that they had no treatment and he had just a month or two to live.
The Recovery Burrows is among a tiny handful of patients whose tumors go away on their own. Burrows developed abdominal bloating, shaking, chills and nausea in February 2006. Soon after that, he noticed that the lump on his stomach was gone. When he went back to the VA, doctors were flabbergasted when computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging scans showed no sign of cancer. The case was so unusual that his doctors published it in a medical journal last year. Says Burrows: “I won a lottery, and I don’t understand why.” While numerous explanations have been proposed for these mysterious remissions, one of the likeliest is that the body’s immune system gets involved.

You can now help various Cancer affected people with little donation. Please note that these donations would be used towards the betterment of facilities for the Cancer patients. Come, let’s help humans…

CLICK HERE for Part 2 (Case studies of Joseph Rick & Jamie Spencer)

CLICK HERE for Part 3 (Case studies of Jan Lesser & Barbara Bradfield)

Tags: Around the world, Lifestyle, Research, Young generation

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One Response to “Six Miracle Cancer Survivors (1/3)”

Zachs Blogs Says: March 19th, 2011 at 7:26

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