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No proxy medicines for cancer

Oncologists and cancer survivors say that patients should stick to one form of treatment.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The alternative systems of medicines that are said to cure cancer can actually kill the patients. That is the bitter lesson to be learnt from the tragic case of film actor Jishnu Raghavan who died of cancer on Good Friday. In a Facebook post in April last, he had admitted to using the herbs Lakshmitharu and Mullatha, but said his condition had only worsened.

Jishnu, who had throat cancer, had tried many other alternative medicines suggested by friends and family. But the cancer had spread to his lungs as well.
“The herbs couldn’t control my tumour and rather took me to a very dangerous situation…I will never suggest it as an alternative to the already proved medication…Please don’t advice this to anybody as an alternative to chemotherapy or any formal medication and mislead people…It is very dangerous…And never believe forwarded messages on social media blindly,” Jishnu said in his post dated April 21, 2015.

Oncologists and cancer survivors say that the patients should stick to one form of treatment. Otherwise, the drug interaction would aggravate the disease. Dr. V. P. Gangadharan, senior consultant and head of the department of medical and paediatric oncology at Lakeshore Hospital in Kochi, echoes the same opinion. Dr. Gangadharan vouches that he sits in the hospital until 11 p.m. at times to save the lives of the cancer patients.

The Facebook post by late Jishnu Raghavan.The Facebook post by late Jishnu Raghavan.

“If I can save at least four patients, it matters. But what is depressing these days is that patients come back to me in a worse condition after their friends and relatives take them for alternative therapy. They tend to stop the medication when they go for alternative therapies which aggravates their condition,” said Dr Gangadharan who also had treated Jishnu.

He cites the cases of his own patients, who had shown remarkable progress in allopathy treatment, but who went for alternative therapies at Kalpetta or other tribal hamlets and suffered. A patient who had stomach cancer started taking Lakshmitharu and Mullatha when he should have taken only oral food. Another patient developed severe burns on his scrotum after taking some herbs which resulted in skin allergy. Even the other day, one of his patients came to him after he was fleeced by an alternative medicine practitioner in Kattapana by charging Rs 1.5 lakh for three courses of medicinal herbs.

“Propagating alternative medical therapies amounts to killing a patient. Strict norms should be enforced by health and legal authorities against it,” added Dr. Gangadharan. A senior doctor belonging to Thrissur Amala Medical College told DC how Sebi Vallachirakkaran, former public relations officer at IMA blood bank, Thrissur, a cancer patient with malignancy, claimed that he was cured with Lakshmitharu and popularised it.

But recently he died due to disseminated malignancy. Actor and Chalakudy MP Innocent told DC how people from all walks of life had come to him with advice on alternative therapy or to meet a vaidyan or a hermit claiming permanent cure for cancer.

“Fortunately, I have not fallen for such fallacies. People come to me with Mullatha and I don’t eat it. It’s up to the patient to decide what kind of treatment he or she should undergo. In my case, I have been undergoing treatment under Dr. Gangadharan and I trust him completely,” said Innocent.

Dr. K. P. Aravindan, retired professor and head of pathology at Kozhikode medical college hospital, recalled that patients tend to fall for fallacies propagated by educated people. Strong legal action must be taken against them, he said.

A leading palliative care specialist at Regional Cancer Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, said that one never knew the active ingredients and some may be detrimental, due to the presence of heavy metals which can cause renal failure.

“Going for alternate systems of medicines is like the last floating straw for the patient or the family. A sour soup costing Rs 8 per kg in Chalai market here earlier is being sold now for Rs 150 after a report that it can reduce cancer incidence/ cure/improve immunity,” he said.

He added that when the doctors speak the truth of the disease trajectory, patients go from one system of medicine to another. When wisdom dawns on them, it is too late. “Cancer is an emotive word and if the truth is told in the proper way (dose the truth and time the truth), patients will not try alternative systems of medicines,” he said.

Jury still out on herbal cancer concoctions

The herbal concoctions Lakshmi Tharu (simarouba glauca) and Mullatha or sour sop (graviola) are popular among cancer patients as alternative medicines. The leaves of paradise tree aka Lakshmi Tharu, a native of South and Central America, are taken as a decoction as a complement to chemotherapy.

Initially, the patients vouch for its efficacy. Many internet sites advertise and promote graviola capsules as a cancer cure but none of them are supported by any reputed scientific cancer organisations. In laboratory studies, graviola extracts have been found to kill some types of liver and breast cancer cells that are resistant to particular chemotherapy drugs. But there haven’t been any studies in humans, say oncologists.

Ms V. S. Biba, a post-doctoral research fellow, who is doing research on cancer cure through Mullatha and Lakshmi Tharu at Regional Cancer Centre, told DC that she doesn’t believe that Jishnu’s cancer had aggravated just because he had taken Lakshmi Tharu and Mullatha.

She feels that the cancer must have spread already to other parts of Jishnu’s body. Ms Biba’s research had bagged ‘Best paper award’ at Botanica 2012, a two-day international seminar held at SN College, Chempazhanthy. She is also the winner of ‘Young investigator award’ at International Conference on Biosciences held at Kumarakom in 2014.

“I had identified two compounds present in Mullatha which can effectively destroy cancer cells with little side effects. The compounds have been tested on mice for toxicity and efficacy for curing cancer and the mice was free of it. But the research is ongoing and it is too early to comment further on it,” she said.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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