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#152202 07-18-2012 01:11 PM
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Does anyone have any pesonal experiance with the Gerson Clinic? My husband received chemo & radiation treatments in 2010 and has had clear check-ups since then. YAY!! We are both afraid this may come back someday and the doctors not be able to treat him again since he had so much radiation to his throat. We read that there are several risk factors, all of which put my hubby in the highest risk for him to not survive to 5 years. We would like to do something to prevent it from coming back. We read about Gerson and have watched several PBS specials on it. It sounds like a GREAT place to go to prevent disease. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.


T3 N3 squamous cell carcinoma of the right base of tongue. He was treated with induction chemotherapy followed by definitive chemoradiation, which he completed in December 2010. non-smoker, non-drinker.
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Oh, wow, the Gerson therapy is discussed on the website Quackwatch. I don't think that any doctor would recommend it. In fact, I am rather doubtful that PBS would have a program about it. Please look it up on Quackwatch for the complete scoop.


Female, nonsmoker, 70, diag. 5/09 after tongue biopsy: stage IV. Left hemi-gloss. and left selec. neck disec. 30 lymph nodes removed May 20. Over 7 weeks daily rads. with three chemo. PEG removed 12/4/09 Am eating mostly soft foods. Back to work 11/09 Retired 4/1/11. 7 clear scans! Port out 9/11. 2/13. It's back: base of tongue, very invasive
surgery involving lifestyle changes. 2/14: Now speaking w/Passey-Muir valve. Considering a swallow study. Grateful to be alive.
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I do not have personal experience with the clinic you mentioned. Is this a chain of treatment centers? When I did a quick internet search I found some not so flattering things about this facility, including mentions on quackwatch.

The longer a person is post treatment, the higher the chances a recurrence will not happen. The top NCI cancer centers have a multi disciplary team based approach where a patient is cared for by a team of experienced professionals. Being treated at one of these places is usually the best way to get treated. Thats not to say some smaller places dont have experience or success in treating oral cancer patients. I know its next to impossible not to worry about a recurrence but worrying wont change what could happen to any one of us. Go out and try to make the very most out of every single day and have a positive attitude. Cancer is like a thief and will steal your time away from you. Time spent worrying or even considering the "what if's" is time that could have been put to much more positive uses.

Im not one to be concerned about odds or numbers as I shouldnt be here. Ive been thru oral cancer 3 times and the 3rd time around it finally sunk it and I went about living my life without the constant fear of being sick again. Even when it did come back for the 3rd time I went out and made the most out of every day and took my children all over the place on family adventures. My logic was if I was not going to make it then my kids would have some great memories they would never forget of good happy times we spent together as a family.

Here is a quote from Brian Hill about odds of recurrence "While oral cancer has a higher recurrence rate than most other cancers, it is not inevitable that you will get it again. The first two years post treatment have the highest risk, at five years the statistics for most oral cancers to end up in recurrence drop to about a 13% chance."


Quackwatch Gerson Clinic


Christine
SCC 6/15/07 L chk & by L molar both Stag I, age44
2x cispltn-35 IMRT end 9/27/07
-65 lbs in 2 mo, no caregvr
Clear PET 1/08
4/4/08 recur L chk Stag I
surg 4/16/08 clr marg
215 HBO dives
3/09 teeth out, trismus
7/2/09 recur, Stg IV
8/24/09 trach, ND, mandiblctmy
3wks medicly inducd coma
2 mo xtended hospital stay, ICU & burn unit
PICC line IV antibx 8 mo
10/4/10, 2/14/11 reconst surg
OC 3x in 3 years
very happy to be alive smile
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While the administrators let people ask about bogus and fake cures on the OCF forum, they also let me say plainly that they are cruel frauds. Please don't take this post personally, but I have found that people want so much to believe in this nonsense that the polite posts just don't get through to them and even worse, give regular readers the false impression that "its open to discussion".
There can be no rational dispute that the Gerson Clinics are complete and utter frauds that have been giving false hope to cancer patients for almost 70 years. There are no "true and official" Gerson clinics in the United States, only. in Hungary and in Mexico according to the Gerson Institute in San Diego which runs a so called Health Restoration Clinic where they explicitly state
[quote]As it is not a treatment center, we cannot accept guests who are sick. If you are ill and wish to begin the Gerson Therapy at a treatment center, please apply to one of the clinics for treatment.[/quote]
Of course since anybody can buy the DVD and claim to be doing Natural cures based on the principles of Gerson, there are plenty of places peddling this nonsense.

You need to face facts, not live in some delusion.

First of all, it is no longer true your husband has so much radiation to his throat that he could not be treated again for a recurrence. I had 72 GY of radiation the first time and there was no problem with my getting another 25 GY when I had a recurrence. I seriously doubt your husband had more radiation the first time than I did. So God forbid, it comes back, he can still have more radiation and chemo. I did and I'm still alive.

Okay, I can understand how you could be fooled, but look at the facts. Since 1947 every medical body that has studied Gerson's claims or his books has concluded they do not show any evidence of preventing cancer. Yes, it also advocates eating healthy food but so does everybody. Plus there is no one magic diet like Gerson claims.

Do you really think that coffee enemas cures Cancer or prevents it from coming back? Gerson theory does.
The PBS specials focused on the incredible claims they make , the propaganda movie the Gerson cult members made and it's DVD and in no way validate or substantiate this totally false cancer cure.

Gerson clinics are NOT a great place for anything except to buy false hope at exorbitant prices since Medicare, Medicaid, HMOs and every US insurance company refuse to pay for what has been shown time and time again to be a particularly cruel hoax on cancer patients.

Charm

Last edited by Charm2017; 07-18-2012 04:58 PM. Reason: toned it down

65 yr Old Frack
Stage IV BOT T3N2M0 HPV 16+
2007:72GY IMRT(40) 8 ERBITUX No PEG
2008:CANCER BACK Salvage Surgery
25GY-CyberKnife(5) 3 Carboplatin
Apaghia /G button
2012: CANCER BACK -left tonsilar fossa
40GY-CyberKnife(5) 3 Carboplatin

Passed away 4-29-13
Charm2017 #155399 10-01-2012 01:52 AM
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I don't mean to revive this topic, but I just wanted to comment here because I have actually talked to the people at the Gerson Clinic in Mexico. I know, silly. When I first became concerned about the possibility of having OC I was terrified of the standard treatment and looking for any way out.

I wanted one thing from these people, and that was proof. They had so many success stories on their website, and a blog from someone who was supposedly cured. Now, I know that they can't give me information about patients, but I gave them consent to give out mine to anyone who might be willing to talk to me about their treatment and how they were cured.

Now, for me personally, if I were cured from any disease for a fraction of what standard treatment costs with none of the side effects, I would be telling everyone about it. EVERYONE. I would be touring the country giving speeches, showing all of my testing before, during, and after. They would have to off me to keep that s*** a secret.

Before I asked for this, I was receiving phone calls and emails from them several times a day. They pursued me constantly from the moment I contacted them. They offered to have someone pick me up here in San Diego and bring me to the clinic. I got to speak, supposedly, with one of the doctors. After I asked them if they could possibly give one of their successful patients my information to have them contact me, I got dead silence. I was told that wasn't possible and they pursued me no further.

I continued to call and email, offering options for ensuring they would have no confidentiality issues, they were uninterested and I never heard from them again. They didn't even offer to attempt it. If that isn't a red flag (aside from the others, of course) I don't know what is.

Anyhow, just wanted to share my experience and add another angle of insight to the topic. I really wanted to believe it was legit, but there was simply no way for me to convince myself after all that.


33 yr old female, former smoker of too many years.
Currently awaiting results of a neck ultrasound.
Penny_T #155408 10-01-2012 06:58 AM
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Penny

THANK YOU for sharing your experience with this major RIP OFF.
Yes, their website and their US sales center is full of falsehoods. Regular readers of OCF know I go ballistic when some new poster joins OCF and "shares" their delusional thinking of a woo woo cure. Some of them are truly clueless and just asking but since more of them are passive/aggressive types who are using "what do you think" as a guise to spread their magical thinking, unfortunately my posts are similar to radiation: killing the cancer and the good cells too. But it's important that the OCF forum remain a reliable source of valid information unlike almost every other cancer forum with a "whatever" attitude.
Based on your comments, you might enjoy a well reasoned expose of the fallacy of the "hidden cancer cure" at one of my favorite web sites: Science Based Medicine"
Hidden Cancer Cure fallacy
Thank you again for helping spread the truth about these wicked wicked people who prey on our fears.
Charm

Last edited by Charm2017; 10-01-2012 07:01 AM. Reason: typos

65 yr Old Frack
Stage IV BOT T3N2M0 HPV 16+
2007:72GY IMRT(40) 8 ERBITUX No PEG
2008:CANCER BACK Salvage Surgery
25GY-CyberKnife(5) 3 Carboplatin
Apaghia /G button
2012: CANCER BACK -left tonsilar fossa
40GY-CyberKnife(5) 3 Carboplatin

Passed away 4-29-13

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