SCLC - Alternative Treatment Advice?

dscinca · New User Joined: 13 Jun 2009 Posts: 3

Hello. Glad to have found this forum. I am learning a lot by reading current and older posts.

My 69 year old mother was diagnosed in June 2008 with SCLC. Although I don't know the specific details of her treatment, she had chemo and chest radiation, and then a follow up with radiation to the brain.

Unfortunately, we have found tumors externally on her body and after testing, her oncologist confirmed that her cancer has metastasized. He does not recommend any additional treatments and gave us a timeline of 3-6 months. A PET scan has never been ordered due to insurance not covering it, so we clearly don't know the extent.

She is handling this with grace and dignity, but we are all saddened as she had such a youthful disposition just prior to the diagnosis.

My brother is seeking "alternative" treatments for her which include intensive nutritional program following a Raw Foods Diet and others such as IV Vitamin C therapy, Chelation, Insulin Potentiation Therapy, Oxidative Therapies, as well as Cleansing and Detox.

Although I will post a similar question in the Alternative forum, does anybody have any experience either with alternative treatments, or long term survival with a small cell patient? We understand the severity of this diagnosis. The alternative treatments come with a hefty price tag of $30k (a price I would gladly pay for another year with my mom)!

Any thoughts are certainly appreciated.

pbj11 · Site Admin Joined: 12 May 2007 Posts: 2367

Hi dscinca,

Welcome to the forums and I'm glad you've been helped by reviewing the posts. I always think there is a lot of information contained in the various stories and posts.

I'm sorry to hear your Mom's cancer is spreading. I don't recall that PET scans are a typical part of SCLC monitoring for some reason. My best friend never had one either, so this doesn't surprise me.

I wish you luck on any complementary approach your Mom may take. Please take caution and do a lot of research before spending this kind of money. I totally understand the need to do SOMETHING, but make sure it's not going to make her more exhausted and diminish any quality she has. I told my husband that I'd take him to Lourdes if need be, but he became too incapacitated to even do that.

I have three friends who lost their husbands to SCLC. They were all limited stage to begin, but advanced like your Mom. If memory serves me correct, they lived 1 to 2 years from original diagnosis. I've come to believe it all depends on which organs are affected.

You may want to run some of these complementary things by Dr. West and his associates at CancerGRACE.org. It's a site hosted by professionals with a specialty in lung cancer. If anyone would know, it would be them.

Hope this helped and feel free to ask any questions. We'll answer if we have some experience. God bless your Mom and family.

Hugs,
PBJ
_________________
Husband diagnosed with NSCLC Stage IV. (Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer) Fought & lived 2 1/2 years with multiple lines of treatment.

Post describing our battle: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=7026&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

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