NEW YORK, April 30, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Oncologists at Weill Cornell Medical College have used an innovative combination of pharmacologic immune-enhancing therapies and low-dose chemotherapy to successfully reverse the course of the most deadly type of skin cancer – malignant melanoma – in an 80-year old patient in which the disease had spread widely. The patient's melanoma began on her left heel and eventually spread diffusely to her left leg, pelvic lymph nodes and lung. Dr. Mitchell Gaynor and his colleagues treated the patient with combined low but continuous doses of the chemotherapy drug Temodar, together with immunotherapy and nutritional supplements.
Dr. Gaynor is the principal author of the study, which is published in the Spring 2014 issue of Cancer Strategies Journal. He said, "This case study is very promising, as people with stage IV melanoma, which is the type this patient had, have a median survival rate of six to nine months. So far, the patient is doing well and is experiencing no side effects for 25 months with our innovative treatment."
He added, "I think cancer therapies will become less toxic, more focused, and far more effective. The doses of Temodar given to this patient were so minute they were almost homeopathic. Continuous low doses of chemotherapy or 'metronomic chemo' works by allowing cancer cells to regain the ability to die normally as well as inhibits new blood vessel growth in tumors."
Of the seven most common cancers in the U.S., melanoma is the only one whose incidence is increasing. Between 2000 and 2009, incidence climbed 1.9 percent annually. Melanoma accounts for less than five percent of skin cancer cases, but the vast majority of skin cancer deaths. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, on average, one American dies from melanoma every hour.
When Dr. Gaynor began treating the patient, she already had widespread metastases, and her previous doctors had prescribed hospice care. After a course of antibiotics for cellulitis, a bacterial skin infection, Dr. Gaynor started her on temozolomide, a chemotherapy drug; leukine, a drug that stimulates lymphocytes, the type of white blood cell that destroys cancer; proleukin, an immune-enhancing drug; and acitretin, a synthetic derivative of vitamin A, along with glutathione, a protein that stimulates apoptosis or cancer cell death; vitamin C given intravenously, which at high doses, causes toxic levels of hydrogen peroxide to form in cancer cells, and magnolia extract, a flower bud extract containing nutrients that have been found to augment the cancer- killing effects of chemotherapy.
Three months later a medical imaging scan showed the metastases had been substantially reduced or disappeared. Since then, the patient has remained in complete remission for 25 months and is tolerating the regimen without side effects. Dr. Gaynor said, "I am more optimistic than ever that both new immune-enhancing drugs and a deeper understanding of cancer gene expression will result in more successful outcomes, similar to this patient's."
Dr. Mitchell Gaynor is an assistant attending physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and clinical assistant professor of medicine at Weill Medical College. He is also founder and president of Gaynor Integrative Oncology, where he practices an integrative team approach to oncology using the best of allopathic and eastern medicine to develop the best treatment plan for each patient. Websites: http://www.gaynoroncology.com/ and http://www.gaynorwellness.com/