If you’ve received a cancer diagnosis from your doctor, there is a very good chance he or she advised you to have chemotherapy drugs as treatment or cure. For many people, accepting chemotherapy is a “no brainer”, meaning you are willing to go along with whatever your doctor recommends, because you are afraid and/or you are not given any other choice at the time. For others though, it poses a real dilemma. Accepting chemotherapy treatment is one of the bigger decisions you will face when you have cancer, considering all of the troubling side effects and costs involved, etc. But chemo has been one of the main conventional cancer treatments since the 1960’s. It involves the use of administering toxic chemical drugs called cytotoxins* into your body, usually through a vein, or a pill you swallow, in the aim to either kill or slow down the growth of cancer cells. The use of chemotherapy drugs has steadily risen in recent years, and according to the Global Oncology Trend Report, released by the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics, global spending on cancer medications rose from $75 billion in 2010 to $100 billion in 2014. The individual financial cost to the cancer sufferers and their families is frankly mind-blowing, often costing many thousands of dollars per month, depending on the type of chemotherapy treatment. “Medical bills” has been cited as the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in this country.  Recent studies showed that 42% of all personal bankruptcies are as a result of medical expenses and a staggering 78% of those who filed had existing medical insurance. Interestingly, the majority of medical professionals would never dare criticize the use of these toxic and terrifyingly expensive drugs, nor feel uneasy recommending them as being the only viable cure or treatment for cancer (aside from radiation and surgery).

But how much can we trust chemotherapy drugs to cure cancer?

When you delve into this subject, you often get very conflicting answers. One thing is for sure, there will always be different success rates depending on the type of cancer you have, the stage it is at or how advanced it is, and your age. The medical and scientific community apply a number of different measurements to ascertain the effectiveness of conventional cancer treatments and the most common measurement is the “five-year survival rate after diagnosis”.  Some documented success rates for treating cancer with chemotherapy can be as low as just 2 to 4% only, whilst other statistics would place cure or successful treatment as high as 90%. It can be impossible for a non-medical (lay person) to be able to interpret the statistics concerning 5 year survival rate improvement from chemotherapy. This is because increased survival rates may be represented as relative increases rather than absolute increases, thus presenting a falsely positive effect. There are some cancers that seem to respond well to chemotherapy. These include acute lymphocytic leukaemia in children and Hodgkin’s disease, as well as a few others such as some cases of ovarian cancer, colon cancer and small cell lung cancer, where extension of life is more realistic. A combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy may be successful in shrinking tumors and even in relieving some forms of cancer pain, such as bone metastases. In certain cases, a combination of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation may have more beneficial results in the outcome of certain cancers. In many other cases, unfortunately, chemotherapy and radiation therapy are less effective in procuring a cure or real extension of life of up to or beyond the 5-year mark. Regardless of what the statistics may say regarding your short-term or long-term life expectancy, my best advice to you is to always seek out several opinions regarding the treatment which is best suited to you. What treatment may suit one person’s life and circumstances, may not suit another. Secondly, don’t panic. Panic and fear often escalate into making unwise decisions. Depending on the gravity of your medical health, you need some reasonable time to consider all of your options. Look into any proposed treatments, any side-effects and the long-term outlook of perusing such a treatment, and of course your quality of life. Thirdly, understand the possible side effects that having chemo may have on you. It is best to be aware, so there are no awful surprises. Chemotherapy is highly toxic to your body. It kills cancer cells! Many chemos also kill good healthy cells too! It also suppresses your immune system making it difficult to fight off infections etc. There are some drugs which target specific cancer cells. These will often have less of an impact on the rest of the body, however these treatments are not available for every type of cancer. Fourthly, taking exceptionally good care of your health while you have cancer is very important. Improve your chances of healing. You can do this for yourself regardless of whether you accept chemotherapy or decide not to have it. Check out some of our previous articles regarding natural ways of taking good care of yourself. *cyto – means cell,  toxin - means poisonous to cells References: International Business Times: Cancer Drug Costs Hit All-Time High: The $100 Billion Disease http://www.ibtimes.com/cancer-drug-costs-hit-all-time-high-100-billion-disease-1908911 IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics – November 2014 Global Outlook for Medicines Through 2018 - http://static.correofarmaceutico.com/docs/2014/12/01/informe_ims.pdf The above statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease.