Subject:  Surgery vs Chemotherapy.....
Date:     Mon, 30 Mar 1998 050617 -0600 (CST)
From:     "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org>
To:       emfguru@hotmail.com
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Renowned Cancer Surgeon and Researcher Calls for Medical Community to Look to
New Approaches in Treating Metastatic Cancer

    SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 27, 1998--

    Relying on Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy Ineffective

    The conventional treatment of metastasized cancer (cancer that  has spread
from its initial point in the body) relying solely upon  chemotherapy is
inadequate and outdated.

    That's according to Dr. Donald L. Morton, medical director and  surgeon-
in-chief at the John Wayne Cancer Institute at Saint John's  Medical Center in
Santa Monica, California.  Dr. Morton, one of the  world's leading cancer
experts, told the World Federation of Surgical Oncology Societies meeting that
there is a growing block of evidence  showing that surgical removal of tumors,
combined with new treatments such as cancer vaccines, are proving most
effective in increasing  longevity.

    "There's a knee-jerk reaction among many physicians that once  cancer has
spread from the primary site, the treatment regimen can  only be chemotherapy.
They are wrongly ruling out surgery and  hurting their patient's chances of
survival," said Dr. Morton.

    Dr. Morton, the current president of the World Federation of  Surgical
Oncology Societies, said the evidence indicates that  conventional
chemotherapy is unsatisfactory, with responses to  treatment rarely complete
and five-year survivals less than 5%.   Furthermore, he added, chemotherapy is
toxic and far less cost  effective than surgery when considering the years of
life saved by  the treatment (as much as 300% more expensive than surgery).

    Dr. Morton believes that surgery should be viewed as  immunotherapy, and
cited studies indicating that the patient's  strongest ally in fighting
disease -- the body's own immune system

-- reacts more fervently following surgery than after a chemotherapy
treatment.

    "The most important factor in determining whether a patient may
experience long-term remission following surgery for metastatic  cancer is the
level of response from the body's immune system.   Clearly, the evidence
indicates that the surgical act may be  responsible for most surgical cures by
stimulating the immune  system," he said.

    Dr. Morton has spent the past 30 years working on treatments for cancer --
with special focus on melanoma, or skin cancer.  In fact, Dr. Morton pioneered
the world's first cancer vaccine, which has already  proven effective in the
treatment of melanoma patients at John Wayne  Cancer Institute, and will soon
go into the final phase of testing  for Food and Drug Administration approval
for commercial application.

    In Dr. Morton's research, the combination of surgery and cancer  vaccine
has yielded solid results on patients whose melanoma had  metastasized to
distant sites.  On average, approximately 40% of the  patients receiving this
dual therapy survive longer than five years,  while the number is just 5% for
patients receiving chemotherapy  alone.  Fifteen percent of patients treated
with surgery alone have a survival rate of at least five years.

    "As we look into the 21st Century, it s time for the surgeon to  return to
a predominant role in the treatment of metastatic cancer.   The lack of
significant progress during the past 30 years in the  treatment of metastatic
cancer by chemotherapy is unlikely to be  overcome without the assistance of
the surgeon," he said.


CONTACT:

Hill and Knowlton

Alan Elias, 213/966-5724





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Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html