This alert and message are to all our patients, friends and followers and it is too late coming. There are many reasons why we have not posted information and progress of the Research Foundation and Breast Clinic. A main reason is one that has also impacted all of you; and that is the Pandemic. Another unfortunately is the hate, chaos, and political upheaval in our country. The war against God and religion is destroying our way of life and promoting a victim mentality society and a lack of personal ambition and responsibility.
Another reason was personal and that was cancer recurrence in my precious wife, Dr. Mary. It happened at the beginning of March and the pandemic. It has been and remains a difficult journey but by the grace of God, we are making progress. Many of you know this, but I cannot tell you how much your support and prayers have helped and lifted her spirits.
Now to the present, our progress, and future goals. Most of you know that we have a Breast Cancer Research Foundation founded in 1977. Since inception we have made significant contributions to cancer vaccines and immunotherapy, early detections, metabolic therapy, and the role of iron metabolism in cancer. This work led to the research of mitochondrial dysfunction in cancer and neuro degenerative disease.
We have now developed an exciting Biotherapy with great proof of principle in the treatment of ALS and Parkinson’s Disease. This is the twilight of my life and I pray God will give me time to bring this therapy to the clinic. The renewed hope seen in the eyes of these desperate patients is a spiritual and emotional experience difficult to explain. I will need your support and prayers to continue this work. So spread this message to those that have family members suffering with these and other neuro degenerative diseases. We will be posting on how you can support and join our team to fight this battle. We will give regular updates, patient videos, and the resources we will need to impact these severe debilitating diseases.
Pray for us and stand by for future updates! Stay Tuned!!
I apologize for not keeping up with our blog, but I have been extremely busy! Our mitochondrial research has opened up new research opportunities. We are now studying mitochondria and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease). If you or someone you know has this deadly and debilitating disease, please watch our video and consider donating to our research so we can start helping people that really need it!
We are very sorry that we are
late in getting back and posting new information on our blog but we have had a
very busy late summer and fall with research presentations around the country
and some exciting new work that we are entering into on nutrients and
supplements. We hope all of you had a
great holiday season. We wish all of you
a Happy New Year.
We are now working on some exciting research projects this year and may discuss some of those later. I want to bring all of you up to date on some of the things we have done on great research and accomplishments that have happened in 2018. First, we presented our work on how antibiotics cause mitochondrial dysfunction and damage to normal cells in June at the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation in Nashville TN. Secondly, we then presented some of the same research information but it was a oral presentation at the Microscopy Society of America in August at Baltimore. In September I was the invited speaker at the Northeastern Cell Therapy Center in Florida to discuss our mitochondrial Organelle transplantation research. This Center is also affiliated with the new satellite Karolinska institute that has recently started in Florida. The main and long-lasting prestigious and research institute Karolinska is in Stockholm Sweden.
In November we presented our work on neglected immunosuppressive molecules in the tumor micro environment in Washington DC at the Society of Immunotherapy for Cancer meeting. This past December I was invited to a research retreat at Evergreen Colorado by a wealthy family to present our research with some other researchers from around the country. This group and family are considering collaboration and possibly financial support for our research. We are continuing to work on what we have mentioned above and now we are working on some very exciting work of how to improve the host immune system in the cancer patient and also how to prevent recurrence of disease. We have been asked to check certain nutrition supplements that might be harmful and actually may promote tumor progression and cause metastatic disease. This is exciting because the work on antibiotics and another supplement that is used frequently around the country, Chondroitin sulfate may be in certain forms dangerous and we think it would impact public health worldwide.
We ask all of you to please pray for our research and center and if you would like to support this work and research you can make a tax-deductible donation to The Sallie Astor Burdine Breast Foundation at 541 Shadows Lane Suite C in Baton Rouge, LA 70806. The tax ID number is:
Dr. Baucom and I hope that all of
you have a great 2019 and we will try and post at least once every month some
valuable information to all of our followers and we will try and keep you
better informed. God Bless all of you
and once again, we thank you for your support.
I wanted to let all of our patients, followers, and friends know that I had the opportunity to go to Nashville the 1st week of July 2018 to the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation Meeting. I presented a nice poster at that meeting entitled, “Antibiotic Over Usage Causing Modern Plagues: Mitochondrial Dysfunction Promoting Neurodegeneration and Tumorigenesis.”
Dr. Elliott’s poster presentation at UMDF 2018
My co-research participants were Mr. Jiang, Director of Research at our Foundation and Dr. Catherine Baucom my surgical oncologist associate.
This poster emphasized the misuse of antibiotics and how they are causing problems in patients and in people because our mitochondria are siblings of bacteria and they share some of the same protein machinery that manufacture proteins that bacteria do.
Mitochondria are siblings of bacteria
So, if antibiotics can help us with bad germs and some of the bacteria that causes severe infections, they can also cause Mitochondrial dysfunction in the rest of our cells.
These slides show antibiotics cause significant, sometimes detrimental changes in cells in culture
Our research suggests that the dysfunction that antibiotics cause to our mitochondria can be minimized by taking a strong antioxidant such as N-acetylcysteine (NAC).
Overview of how antibiotics damage mitochondria.
In summary, our research suggests that antibiotics can kill normal human cells by hurting the mitochondria. We are currently working on trying to find a potential solution so that we can maybe prevent the ongoing damage to our mitochondria.
Last week, in part one of this series of The New Cancer Immunotherapy, we discussed there are 2 types of cancer vaccines.
Personalized Cancer Vaccines
Therapeutic Cancer Vaccines
We briefly discussed the indications for personalized cancer vaccines last week, and this week the focus of this blog is Therapeutic Cancer Vaccine. At the present time, there are not too many therapeutic cancer vaccines. There are a lot of targeted monoclonal antibodies to tumors that are passive immunotherapy, but as far as active adaptive immunotherapy, there are not very many therapeutic vaccines approved at this time.
The therapeutic cancer vaccine is a type of personalized vaccine that will be associated with a combined approach to:
vaccine to activate the effector system to the target
inhibit and depress the suppressive system such as the T-regulatory cells and many others
disrupt the immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment
T-regulatory cells
TGF-B
HLA-G and possibly HLA-E
IL-10
Arginase
Ferritin and free iron
myloid derived suppressor cells (MDSCs)
Cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs)
Indoeamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO)
A vaccine in both cases is similar except you do not have to fight to disrupt the tumor microenvironment in the adjuvant setting or in Stage IV patients that is in total remission or has very low tumor burden.
The Therapeutic vaccine will be used with other therapeutic modalities and timed during the treatment protocol to have maximum effect. There are many things to monitor to determine as to when to vaccinate. Once the effector system is turned on you may want to use checkpoint inhibitors and if response is not where we want it then more attack on the tumor microenvironment is indicated.
Both types of vaccines need other complementary adjuvants.
a good probiotic
no ketogenic diet for 10 days (5 days before and 5 days after the vaccine)
take an AHCC great immune mushroom product before the vaccine and during the vaccine period
if the patient is on a fermented wheat germ, it should be stopped 5 days before the vaccine and held for up to 1 week after the vaccine
N-acetylcysteine (NAC) – this should be taken for 2 weeks after the vaccine. Activating lymphocytes last longer without exhaustion and also develop better and longer memory when this antioxidant is given during clonal expansion.
in Stage IV patients – may need to condition injection site with immunomodulators that stimulate Toll like receptors.
These are just a number of important conditions that need to be created for cancer immunotherapy to have its best effect. It is much more complicated than I have explained here, but it is a good start and overview.
I want all to know that we are also addressing some of the more complex issues especially in tumor immunosuppression and the tumor microenvironment, and how we can combine checkpoint inhibitors with the vaccine and other immunomodulators to improve overall results.
If the Stage IV patient is to stay in remission after treatment, the secret will be that they have developed a good host immune system turned on to their particular target to the cancer they had. Therefore, personalized cancer vaccines should be truly personalized because each patients cancer is different even though it may be the same cell type. There are multiple mutations that people share and many times they are not the same mutation from one person to the other. There is still much to learn about cancer vaccines and cancer immunotherapy, but the field is expanding rapidly and for it to be practical for the community and affordable we believe using the patients own tumor and doing personalized vaccines as to what that tumor expresses gives the patients the best opportunity to have cancer remission.
Cancer Immunotherapy is a very broad term. This is a two part series we will discuss, and part 1 is an overview of how we have been using immunotherapy to treat cancer.
Most of you know that I am involved in cancer immunotherapy and supporting the host immune system in the cancer patient for 30 years. We have developed a breast cancer vaccine and received a patent on that in 1994. Our cancer vaccine has been used in patients with a depressed immunity to their own breast cancer after receiving standard of care treatment. We published a paper on that in 2013 showing that definitely improved disease specific survival. Several years ago, I published an editorial that host immunity in clinical oncology was ignored in the United States.
In the last 4-5 years there has been a big interest in the immune system where cancer is concerned and a big push to develop personalized cancer vaccines, DNA vaccines and what they call check-point inhibitors which have gotten publicity lately. Now the oncology community is realizing that the immune system plays a very important role in how the patient deals with their cancer and how they survive their cancer. It is also recognized that some chemotherapy which is immunosuppressant used in the proper setting can be complemented by immunotherapy and that they are at times synergistic. A new era for cancer immunotherapy is evolving and that is a great thing. In my practice, I have decided to concentrate on innovative, personalized cancer vaccines.
Cancer vaccines can be divided into two groups –
personalized cancer vaccines
therapeutic cancer vaccines
Personalized Cancer Vaccines
What are the indications for personalized cancer vaccines? they should be used in the adjuvant setting (after chemo, surgery, and radiation). That means that this type of vaccine should be used in patients who have been treated for their cancer with standard of care treatment and they should have their immune system evaluated. Since surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation all affect the immune system, the immune system should be evaluated around 12 weeks after any of these modalities are used. If patients have depressed lymphocyte specific immunity to their own cancer, they should be considered for a vaccine in the adjuvant setting to decrease their risk of recurrence.
We already have proof of principle in breast cancer with the vaccine that we have developed. This adjuvant vaccine theory should be applied to all solid epithelial tumors and possible soft tissue tumors such as colon, lung, breast, prostate and melanoma. It is also possible with further experience and research that this type of vaccine could possibly be preventive if directed to its target.
In the Part 2 of this series we will discuss therapeutic cancer vaccines and when to use personalized or therapeutic vaccines.
Living withStage IV Colon Cancer: a patient’s perspective
We are very fortunate to share a young man’s difficult journey living with Stage IV colon cancer. He was diagnosed when he was in his mid 30’s. He was working on his career and building a new family. He wasn’t having any symptoms and the diagnosis really hit him like a freight train.
He initially pursued the traditional treatments and has had multiple surgeries and multiple bouts of chemotherapy.
This young man is very pro-active with his health and has pursued several avenues beyond normal traditional treatment. While he is currently living with his stage IV colon cancer, he has a passion for survival. He is currently on the ketogenic diet and taking several supplements. He is feeling great right now.
His story is a great testimony and is divided into 3 parts. Please click on the links below to view each segment. This young man gave us his consent to use his information to possibly help someone else facing a similar situation.
Mr. Mike Lovell is a practicing Nutritional Consultant that has recently starting working in our clinic. He specializes in the science of Nutritional Balancing, helping the body function properly through diet, supplementation and lifestyle changes. We are excited to have him as our guest blogger today. If you have any questions or want more information, visit his website: http://wmlovell.wixsite.com/lovellnutrition
healthy eating by Mike Lovell
Nutrition in the Fight Against Cancer
When a person is told that they have cancer, the world around them seems to completely close in with a crushing weight. Pictures of chemo and radiation therapy effects on the body, come into full focus as you try to assimilate what you’ve been told. Most associate cancer with death, and with good reason. With all the “advances” in traditional medical treatment and billions of dollars spent on research, the death toll, even with the revision in survival statistics, has not improved significantly in the past 50 years. The purpose of this article will be to explain the importance of diet and nutrition in the fight against cancer applying the science of nutritional balancing
The first step in nutritional balancing is to determine what is necessary to strengthen your body’s defense system and improve energy levels. Accessing mineral levels and ratios allows us to determine the best dietary and supplemental approach to be successful in your battle against cancer. This information is provided by a soft tissue biopsy using hair. The results of the hair analysis is beneficial in knowing the type of diet your body requires and the supplements that will directly improve and impact your health.
I cannot stress enough the importance of the proper diet for your health and body’s ability to fight off the effects of cancer. When it comes to diet, most people do not eat very well. Our life style is built around convenience which translates to fast food. This comes in boxes that direct us to add water, peel back the cover on containers or poke a hole in the bag then stick in the microwave for 8 minutes; or we can just drive to virtually any corner of town and pick up a quick meal without ever leaving the car. This carries several significant liabilities when it comes to our nutritional needs.
Added sugar: The single largest source of calories for Americans comes from sugar—specifically high fructose corn syrup. According to a 300-year trend researched by Mercola:
The average person consumed about 4 pounds of sugar per year in 1700.
The average person consumed about 18 pounds of sugar per year in 1800.
Individual consumption had risen to 90 pounds of sugar per year in 1900.
In 2009 more than 50 percent of all Americans consume one-half pound of sugar PER DAY! That’s over 180 pounds of sugar in a year. (Mercola, 2010)
Added chemicals in the form of preservatives, coloring, artificial flavors, antibiotics and anticaking additives.
These are not found naturally in our food. This adds stress to our liver and kidneys trying to filter these out of the body. Without these organs functioning optimally, clearing medications and dead cancer cells create other concerns that diminish the success of the fight.
Many of these additives cause oxidative stress which over work the immune response.
Lack of nutrients in our foods:
Growers control appearance and growth rate of our food through artificial selection. This involves either controlled pollination, genetic engineering, or both, followed by artificial selection of progeny.
A landmark study on the topic by Donald Davis and his team of researchers from the University of Texas (UT) at Austin’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, was published in December 2004 in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. They studied U.S. Department of Agriculture nutritional data from both 1950 and 1999 for 43 different vegetables and fruits, finding “reliable declines” in the amount of protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin (vitamin B2) and vitamin C over the past half century. Davis and his colleagues chalk up this declining nutritional content to the preponderance of agricultural practices designed to improve traits (size, growth rate, pest resistance) other than nutrition. (Moss, n.d.)
Studies provide evidence of the dangers of sugar for those fighting cancer. They show that cancer cells require glucose (blood sugar) to survive. So, it stands to reason that if we eliminate sugar (starches and fructose included) from our diet that we can effectively limit the amount of available glucose to these cancer cells. This can weaken the cells, providing a greater opportunity for your chosen protocol to kill them.
Losing the nutritional value of our food creates another issue in our fight against cancer. The body requires a certain amount of nutrients (building blocks) to repair, maintain and sustain the many workings in the body. As these nutrients become less and less available, the body is forced to use what is available in the form of inferior replacement minerals. Liken yourself to a high-end automobile, like a Ferrari, trying to use Ford replacement parts. A good mechanic can make them fit but the performance will be dramatically affected. It won’t take long for things to start breaking down. The same can be said for the body, if we don’t provide the proper nutrition, we have a breakdown such as: auto-immune diseases, diabetes, cancer, etc. Truth be told, many of the protocols used to fight cancer depend on the bodies ability to sustain a constant attack against its healthy cells. If it’s depleted of the proper nutrients it won’t be able to repair damaged cells, further diminishing the health of the system. This also applies to those protocols that encourage the body to activate the immune functions in the system. If it doesn’t have the building blocks it can’t make the structure.
When fighting any type of medical condition, diet is important, and in the case of cancer, vital that your body operates at its most efficient level. By determining your dietary and supplemental needs through hair analysis, we can recommend the type of diet you should be eating such as low fat/high protein or high fat diets and the supplements necessary to improve nutritional balance. Once we know what you should be eating, we work on cleaning up the food you will be eating. This means buying fresh organic vegetables and meats according to your financial ability, drinking distilled water the first several months to aid in detoxification, and adding the type of fats that will strengthen the immune system.
Works Cited
Keith Brewer, P. (1984). The High pH Therapy for Cancer, Tests on Mice and Humans. Pharmacology Biochemistry & Behavior, 1-5.
Cori, C. F., & Cori, , G. (1925). THE CARBOHYDRATE METABOLISM OF TUMORS: I. THE FREE SUGAR, LACTIC ACID, AND GLYCOGEN CONTENT OF MALIGNANT TUMORS. The Journal of Biological Chemistry, 64, 11-22.
Mercola. (2010, April 20). Fructose: This Addictive Commonly Used Food Feeds Cancer Cells, Triggers Weight Gain, and Promotes Premature Aging. Retrieved October 18, 2014, from Mercola.com: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/04/20/sugar-dangers.aspx
Morgan, G., Ward, R., & Barton, M. (2004). The Contribution of Cytotoxic Chemotherapy to 5-year Survival in Adult Malignancies. Clinical Oncology, 549-560.
Moss, R. S. (n.d.). Dirt Poor: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? Retrieved from Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/soil-depletion-and-nutrition-loss/
National Cancer Institute. (n.d.). National Cancer Institiute SEER. Retrieved from SEER: https://seer.cancer.gov/
Good morning and I hope everyone is doing well. We thought we would share an amazing testimony from a young man who has been battling a large abdominal liposarcoma. He has personally seen this video and approved for us to use it. He hopes that his story may help someone else facing the same problem.
We were very privileged to have him speak about his difficult journey through both surgery and multiple chemotherapy treatments. Following his first course of chemotherapy, it wasn’t long before he had a recurrence. He tried different chemotherapy drugs, and after being almost bedridden with traditional chemotherapy, he chose another treatment route.
He has been doing the ketogenic diet for several weeks, and as he states in the video, he feels better than he ever has! He has lost over 20 lbs in abdominal girth in the last several weeks.
While there is research supporting the ketogenic diet and certain cancers like breast, colon, lung, prostate, and glioblastoma; there has been very little data on sarcoma’s and the ketogenic diet. We are encouraged by his initial success and will keep you posted. As for right now, he feels great and we will continue to pray for his success.
Click on the link to see his video! https://youtu.be/gN5jx_eG0os
I am excited to share with everyone that I will be talking on Dr. Donese Worden’s Talk show tonight called the “The Truth in Medicine”! The talk show will be on OM Times Radio. The talk show will be tonight Thursday, April 26 at 6pm central standard time. Click on the link above to hear the talk show. If you are unable to hear it tonight, you can always check the archives to the show.
I initially met Dr. Donese Worden at a conference and she is passionate about combining conventional treatment with advanced alternative treatments to promote a healthy lifestyle in all patients not just cancer patients. She focuses on mind, body, and spirit! She has had wonderful results with treating her cancer patients.
We were fortunate to have her as our guest speaker for our Cancer Symposium this past weekend. More to come on that. We had some great talks and great testimonies from several cancer patients. These patients have had Stage IV advanced colorectal cancer and liposarcoma and have done Extremely well on the ketogenic diet and supplements. We will post their testimonials soon! Stay tuned!
