Last Chemo

20130408-140728.jpgFor better or for worse, I have decided to stop systemic chemotherapy and last friday was my last cycle.

I have known since day one that chemo was a dead end. For the majority of cancer patients, chemo does not lead to a cure. Chemo destroys everything including healthy cells and wrecks havoc with the immune system. I am no longer prepared to do that to myself.

My decision is also in part due to the fact that neither the first line folfox, or second line folfiri chemotherapies worked well enough to reduce my tumour load. Officially I have achieved stable disease for the last 6 months, however most of my liver mets grew by a few millimetres. Its not even certain whether chemo had anything to do with this slowdown in growth.

I realise that I am taking a huge risk in light of my extensive liver mets, but I have to try something different. I believe that the only path to a potential cure lies with my immune system, and that is the path I have decided to follow.

Next week I am off to Germany to explore a range of alternate and off-label therapies. Its expensive as heath insurance will not cover it, however many of these treatments are simply not available in Australia.

My Germany based treatment plan includes:

Chemoembolization of the Liver
Dendritic Cell Therapy
NDV oncovirus
Removab antibody for my epCAM positive cancer
Hyperthermia
Thyroid based therapy

About Ren

I have been diagnosed with stage 4, metastatic colorectal cancer in October 2012, 3 days after my 44th birthday. There is no cure, but I am determined to go down the road less travelled to find one. I have setup this blog to document my journey and hopefully help others in the process. My view is that if there is a cure, it does not lie with traditional chemo, but with the immune system. Time will tell.
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