We would like to share with you our clinical experiences of palliative treatment in advanced cancer cases during the last 16 years in our clinic with classical homoeopathy.
The department of homeopathy in Clinic Santa Croce, at Orselina in Switzerland was started in 1997, thanks to Dr.Dario Spinedi, the homeopath of international fameand still our chief physician.
During the last 16 years more than 8000 cancer patients has been treated in our clinic.
Many cancer cases are curable under homoeopathic treatment, especially at the primary stage, before damaging the immune system.
As showed by the graphs, the 42 % is constituted by the most advanced cases; more than the24 % are cases withmetastases to organs;about 12.5 % with local metastases; the 14 % has local tumors, and the 7% are operated patients ortreated and thustumor-free. This means that more than the 55-56% of patients is advanced cases.
We can see the same typical picture in almost all the advanced oncological cases. The diagnosis is a big shock and a bitter grief to the patient especially in recurrent cases with extreme fear of death, anxiety, sadness, frustration, total desperation and resignation. On the other hand, most of the patients have devastating side effects after surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Nowadays, many patients that have cancer die not only because of the disease, but also due to the side effects of the conventional therapies.
In advanced cancer cases it is hard to think of a cure, the quality of life is the main question in these cases. Important in this stage is to give a soothing palliation for their sufferings and a peaceful death without pain or anxiety.
WHO has given a good and detailed definition for palliation and that is in a short sentence is – the approach to improve the quality of life of the patients in life threatening illness in their sufferings in physical , psychosocial and spiritual level. In our experience during the last 16 years we can say that classical homoeopathy is the best palliative treatment in advanced and terminal cancer cases.
In these cases we can do two types of palliation depends on the condition of the patient, one is a short-termpalliation and the other is a long-term palliation.
Short term palliation is applied in terminal cases and may last from a few days to a few weeks and long term palliation may last from some months to some years.
Our way of work:When a patient announced to our secretariat, a reference doctor is immediately assigned to him and can take direct contact with a doctor, gets explanations about what the doctors will do for him and what are the perspectives.Afterwards,the patient is admitted in the clinic and the doctors proceeds with the first complete anamnesis, which lasts about 2-3 hours and in which every psycho-physical symptoms and the actual problems, the story of his past, his family’s story ,psycho-physical traumas, his excretions and secretions, every laboratory values and the CT scan and MR reports etc. are being recorded.
It is important to listen carefully the sufferings of the patient and it alone will give much relief to the psychological sufferings. It is also important that we do not damage the patient by our words and promising wonders and miracles. Consolation and long speech may aggravate psychologically.Just say,“I will do my best for you”
After taking the case, the doctor submits a copy of this first anamnesis to his supervisor and each one studies the case separately, which will be then discussed together onthe following day, to find a treatment plan or the so-called “protocol” according to the law of classical homeopathy. Our unique protocol is individual protocol, depends on the characteristics of each individual patient.
What is the aim of our treatment in advanced cancer cases?
- First helping to improve psychologically.
- Reduce the side effects of conventional therapies.
- To reduce the physical sufferings, such as the pain, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, lack of energy etc.
- To select an organotropic remedy in certain patients where an organ is particularly involved and making sufferings.
- To find a good remedy for long term palliation.
Example of some remedies and indications
| Psychological aspect | Acon – for the shock of the diagnosis. Ignatia – for the bitter grief of the notice of cancer. Ars.Alb – for the fear of death |
| Side effects of conventional therapies | Staph – for the side effects of operations. Phos, Nux.v, Cadm.S,Ars.alb etc. – side effects of chemotherapy. Phos, Rad.Br, X-ray,Cadm.Setc. – for the side effects of radiotherapy. |
| Physical sufferings | Bell, Bry, Euphorbiaetc. . . for severe pain due to cancer. Nux.v, ars.alb, Ipetc. . . for vomiting and nausea. Passiflora, Avena sat – for sleeplessness. |
| Organotropic remedy | Chel, Card.m – for liver involved sufferings Con,Phyt, Bellis P etc. . . . for breast cancer Apoc, Apis, Ars, Liatr.setc. . .Ascites. Calc.F, Calc.p, Hecla lava etc. pain and metastasis of bone. |
| Constitutional remedies | To be selected on the totality of symptoms. |
A remedy should be prescribed by giving the priority for the present complaints and always better to select a remedy through the repertorisation for short-term palliation.
For long-term palliation, the constitutional remedies or the remedies selected on the totality of symptoms are most effective. The constitutional remedy should be selected depending on the genetic psycho –physical constitution or the globality of the patient and is able to stimulate the vital energy and give more vigor to the patient.
After curing the acute sufferings we start to treat the patient either by an organotropic remedy or by the constitutional remedy depending on the case. Normally we prescribe the remedy, every day in 50millesimal potency / otherwise called Q potency for long-term palliation.
Meanwhile for short-term palliation our experiences shows that C 30 / C 200 potencies are better than Q potency. (Q potency should be given in water solution according to 6th edition of Organon)
Every day we do the visit, supervision, observation & evaluation of all the subjective and objective parameters and weekly team meeting and discussion regarding each patient in the clinic to determine and stabilize the treatment. After this period of stay, the treatment continues at home with regular feedbacks and follows ups of the case, always collaborating with their oncologists or family doctor.
We do two kinds of control parameters during the course of the treatment: one is purely at homeopathic level and the other one is at the clinical level. At the homeopathic level we take the parameters like pain, mental state, sleep, appetite etc. which will reflects directly on the energy level of the patient and thus on the quality of life. Meanwhile, at the clinical level, we take the parameters like the dimensions of the tumor, the size and number of metastasis, tumor markers, the laboratory values etc.
Have a look to the graph showing the patient’s energy level after 10 days of treatment. In the last 15 years we have observed that about 50 % of the patients has got improvement in their energy level from 10- 30 % after 10 days of treatment.
Energy, pain, psychological state, etc., improves in a few days after the right homeopathic remedy. Have a look to the graph showing the patients energy level after 10 days of treatment.
All the patients considered in this statistics are from 1997 until 30 august 2008, which mean that all the living patients in this statistics have at least 4 years survival after they have started treatment in our Clinic.
(L) Living (D) Died
About 83 % of the patientsundergo both a homeopathic and the conventional treatment, while the 17 % undergo only the homeopathic treatment.
It should be very useful for patients to be treated with conventional medicine and classical homeopathy, combining both therapies. In this way, many suffering can be avoided and survival can be increased.
Two independent experts of the Freiburg University published one of the important studies regarding the treatment of cancer with classical homeopathy based on the patients of our clinic.
They have concluded their articles as follows.
“We have shown that under homeopathic care sizeable benefits were achieved for patients’ Quality of Life, and also for spiritual well-being. The improvement was clinically relevant and statistically significant. It could also be seen in symptoms of physical and mental fatigue. Thus our data suggest that classical homeopathic care could complement conventional cancer care to the benefit of patients.
A case of short – term palliation
A man of 60 years old with cancer of pancreas in a very advanced stage was admitted in the clinic. Whole the body was yellow color, cachectic and with excruciatingpain, even though he was under five strong painkillers including morphine. He was so restless, extreme fear of death, and shrieking always with pain and telling that he do not want to die. He was so desperate and thinking of suicide. He could not sleep since several days.
Repertorisation
Therefore, we gave him Belladonna 200 in water every 10 minutes. After 10 times he sat on the sofa and slept until the next day. After these doses of Belladonna, he did not take even a painkiller. He became calm and talked with his wife, family members and friends. He enjoyed the last two weeks of his life and died in peace and without pain.
