PLAYAS DE TIJUANA, Mexico, Jan. 22, 2009 – The publication this month of “Hope, Medicine & Healing” heralds a new approach to cancer treatment.

“For too many years, we have labored in vain to find a cure for the disease,” Dr. Francisco Contreras and Daniel Kennedy write in the book. “A new approach is here, and it brings with it exciting avenues of change in regard to cancer treatment.”

That new approach is called Integrative Regulatory Therapy (IRT). Because cancer cells mutate more rapidly than healthy cells, they are constantly evolving and difficult to treat. That’s also one of the reasons why a “cure” for cancer remains so elusive.

IRT, developed by Contreras, Kennedy and the rest of the team at Oasis of Hope Hospital, combines many different therapies, conventional and alternative, increasing the chance of killing cancer cells or impeding their growth. It also features a different way of gauging the effectiveness of cancer treatment.

The goal of conventional treatment is eradicating the tumor. IRT focuses on the overall health of the patient, not the tumor. In many cases, oncologists at Oasis of Hope have found, patients can manage cancer like a chronic disease such as diabetes, adding years to their lives.

IRT is designed to destroy cancer cells, delay their growth and impede their spread. It employs chemotherapy and other conventional methods, but in concert with treatments that enhance their effectiveness and limit the side-effects.

“For more than two decades, I was an outspoken opponent of chemotherapy, but that was only because the treatment made patients suffer and rarely prolonged their lives for a significant amount of time,” Contreras writes in the book, published by Oasis of Hope Press. “Chemotherapy by itself is still of little value. However, chemotherapy that is used as one element in an integrative medicine regimen can be extremely effective.”

In recent years, the book says, “molecular biology has made a number of significant breakthroughs, helping scientists and doctors understand the nuts and bolts of malignant cells and their behavior.” Oasis of Hope’s scientists and doctors have used this new-found knowledge, combined with the experience of 45 years of treating cancer patients, to devise the IRT protocols.

Some of IRT’s components are highly technical, but others are as simple as diet and exercise. Together, they “have a powerful synergistic effect upon each other. … [working] together so that the total effect is greater than the sum of the forces.”

Preliminary results are extremely encouraging, showing signs of dramatically improving survival rates. For example, a table in the book shows that the two-year survival rate for patients who came to Oasis of Hope for their first treatment for breast cancer is double, 88 to 44 percent, the average survival rate for patients who received conventional treatment in the United States.

But survival rates are just one measure of success.

The book asks, “if people receive therapy that controls cancer growth so that tumors are no longer life-threatening and quality of life is restored, then who would worry about the presence of cancer? In ever increasing numbers, patients in our hospital are ‘beating the odds’ and experience increased longevity and improved quality of life. They are living proof that we can convert cancer from an unavoidable death sentence to a chronic but controllable disease.”

For more information, visit www.oasisofhope.com.

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