Tag Archives: Online Support Groups

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research

The Tumor Micro Environment Plays a Role in the Spread of Liver Cancer

Tumor Studies
Tumor Studies

Despite recent advancements in cancer treatments, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of only a few forms that has seen a steady increase in occurrences over the past few years. Scientists have identified a significant difference in this form that could hold the key to reversing that trend.

What is HCC?

HCC is the most common form of liver cancer. Close to 750,000 new cases are reported worldwide each year and it ranks as the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths. In addition, large numbers of patients develop metastases or suffer from reoccurrence of the tumors.

HCC’s Link to Liver Diseases

While most cancers arise within relatively healthy tissues, HCC most frequently develops in livers that are chronically diseased due to hepatitis, inflammation or cirrhosis. This hepatitis-B virus (HBV)-associated HCC creates a microenvironment that contributes toward tumor growth.

Three scientists from the United States and China teamed up for a report on the topic that was published in the Beijing-based National Science Review. The article is a summary of the complex interaction in the HBV-associated HCC microenvironment and how it impacts the onset, progression and metastasis of the cancer.

What Does the Future Hold?

HBV in effect acts as a traffic cop for the intricate network of cells that make up the microenvironment. Scientists are encouraged that this function can be harnessed to help create a more effective treatment for HCC.

Many of the patients receiving our alternative cancer treatment have experienced remission of liver cancer as well as several other forms. Please contact us for more information about the Issels® difference.

Cancer Care Tips, Living with Cancer

Online Cancer Support Groups Offer Comfort to Cancer Patients

Cancer Support.
Cancer Support.

Thousands of people are touched by cancer every day; yet in the early days of diagnosis the feeling that you are alone in your struggle is nearly universal. A cancer diagnosis is an isolating event.

Patients and their families talk of feeling like the walls of their world are closing in on them. In the shock of dealing with their cancer diagnosis and coping with the overwhelming task of scheduling doctors’ visits and lab work, evaluating the potential effectiveness of traditional and alternative cancer treatments, making arrangements to start treatment, and managing all the changes cancer inflicts on their personal, family and work life, many cancer patients and their families tend to draw back from their normal support systems, increasing their feelings of isolation.

Many times newly-diagnosed cancer patients hesitate to share their diagnosis with extended family, friends or co-workers until they have a clearer picture of what they’re facing and how cancer might affect their ability to continue their normal activities. Often, cancer patients and their immediate families are so overwhelmed by their own fears and emotions that they are simply unable to also deal with the fears and emotions of others. While friends mean well, cancer patients can find their raw expressions of concern and sympathy uncomfortable and even embarrassing.

Despite all these difficulties, cancer patients and their families desperately need support. Cancer is a difficult battle that is impossibly hard to fight alone. Many cancer patients find the support they need in online communities where cancer patients and their families share their stories of hope and help lift each other up when despair strikes.

Next time: A review of online cancer support groups