Chronotherapy Helps Lung Cancer Patient on the Road
to Recovery
EVANSTON, IL (PRWEB) November 8, 2005 -- Margaret Olszowka
was diagnosed with lung cancer on New Year's Eve, 2002. The
prognosis was very grim: her disease had advanced to Stage
4 and was inoperable. Doctors at a very well known university
hospital told her there was nothing they could do for her.
They didn't even offer chemotherapy as an option; she was
told she had months to live. However, instead of giving up,
she decided she was going to fight the disease, and ultimately
found her way to cancer specialist, Keith Block, MD, where
she received chronotherapy as part of her treatment plan.
Today, she is doing very well and enjoying her two children
and six grandchildren. She wants the world to know about the
role chronotherapy played in her survival in the hopes of
helping other cancer patients.
What is chronotherapy? Chronotherapy takes into account how
our body's natural rhythms' impact our ability to process
medications. Patterns like sleeping, menstrual cycles, even
our physical response to the changing seasons, are different
for everyone. In the old days we called these biorhythms.
Today, doctors are finding that understanding a patient’s
biorhythms, and coordinating the timing of their medical treatments
to these biorhythms, can profoundly affect the outcome of
their treatments. This is called "chronotherapy."
“Every drug has an optimal time when it is least toxic
and most effective," says Keith Block, MD, editor-in-chief
of the peer-reviewed journal Integrative Cancer Therapies,
and Clinical Professor, Department of Medical Education, at
the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago
(UIC), and at the Department of Pharmacology. For cancer treatment,
this is determined by several factors, including the biological
uniqueness of the particular drug being given, the time when
the specific type of cancer cells divide the most, when the
normal healthy cells of the patient generally divide the least,
the patient’s circadian clock and individual rest-activity
cycles, and even the time zone the person resides in."
According to Dr. Michael Smolensky, co-author of the book
The Body Clock Guide to Better Health, "When cancer medications
are given in a chronobiological manner, patients may be able
to tolerate higher, more potent doses than would be possible
otherwise."
“This method of administering chemotherapy is revolutionary
and has demonstrated in large randomized trials its potential
to improve survival,” states Dr. Block. ”We have
found that often patients receiving chronotherapy reduce what
would have been recurring side effects of nausea, vomiting,
diarrhea, and fatigue. This is important because the debilitation
caused by chemo can cause patients to reduce or even stop
treatments that could otherwise help them win their battle
with cancer.”
Chronotherapy is being widely researched around the world:
There are over 62,000 references in PubMed (the National Institute
of Health’s archive of biomedical and life sciences
journal articles) about chronobiology (how biology is affected
by timing) and over 500 scientific articles specifically about
chronotherapy. The National Cancer Institute's Office of Cancer
Complementary and Alternative Medicine (OCCAM) devoted an
entire web cast for doctors on chronotherapy.
So why isn’t chronotherapy used more widely? One of
the main problems has been logistics – figuring out
how to deliver chemotherapy in exactly timed doses. “Portable
infusion pumps may hold the answer,” explains Gerald
Sokol, MD, an oncologist with the division of oncology in
FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.
Dr. Block has brought technology to the U.S. that administers
chemotherapy via a pump designed to precisely time up to four
channels of infusion simultaneously to the individual needs
of a patient. Highly portable and small enough to fit in a
fanny pack, patients are able to maintain full mobility, play
sports, and enjoy a full night's sleep – while receiving
their specifically timed cancer therapy.
About the Block Center for Integrative Cancer Care and Optimal
Health:
The Block Center for Integrative Cancer Care and Optimal Health,
located in Evanston, Illinois, was founded in 1980 by Penny
and Keith Block, M.D. with a focus on treating the patient
as a whole person, not treating just the diagnosis or symptoms.
The Center's research-based treatment integrates an innovative
approach to the best of conventional medicine with scientifically
sound complementary therapies -- therapeutic nutrition, botanical
and phytonutrient supplementation, prescriptive exercise,
and systematic mind-body strategies -- to enhance the recovery
process. Block has pioneered this "middle ground"
approach to cancer care and optimal health – designing
a total treatment plan that is tailored to the precise needs
of each patient, using a unique set of clinical and laboratory
assessments. The Block Center is breaking new ground with
the creation and development of Cancer Rehab as an innovative
treatment modality, and is currently the only private North
American medical center using chronomodulated chemotherapy.
Dr .Block was recently appointed to the US National Institutes
of Health’s PDQ Cancer Complementary and Alternative
Medicine (CAM) Editorial Board in Bethesda, MD. While the
Block Center is a full treatment clinic, it is involved in
collaborative research with university facilities in the United
States and Israel (www.blockmd.com).
Company Name: HOEFFNER PR GROUP, LTD.
Website: www.blockmd.com
