wesixcooks,
We use Jarrow's Cucrcumin 95 formula. Thorne also has superior products. I (this is CV, mpser's wife) use l-methylfolate and other supplements from Thorne, so I will look into their curcumin.
You didn't ask me about cimetidine (aka Tagamet in the US) but I will chime in. I had asked my husband's oncologist about that but she blew me off. I pressed the subject with his surgeon and sent him the following information, cc'ed below, and asked why no one had prescribed it for him pre-surgery. From what I have read, the recommendation is to use it for a week pre-surgery and for ten days right after surgery. His surgeon read what I sent him and prescribed 800mg 2x/day for the week pre-surgery and 800mg/day for the following ten days. Some people take it long term but husband doesn't want to get reliant on it and end up causing GERD.
I didn't mention cimetidine as a supplement because I would consider it more of a pharmaceutical "drug" because it is patentable. Techinically, cimetidine is N-cyano-N'-methyl-N"-{2/(5-methyl-1H-imidazole-4-yl)methylthio/ethyl}guanidine. In fact, it had been patented and the patent expired in 1994. Some interesting history on the subject:
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/17/busin ... -ends.html . I believe that the patent expiration plays a large role in why cimetidine is not widely prescribed despite its efficacy.
Cimetidine inhibits cancer cell adhesion by blocking the expression of an adhesive molecule—called E-selectin—on the surface of cells lining blood vessels (Eichbaum 2011). Cancers cells latch onto E-selectin in order to adhere to the lining of blood vessels (Eichbaum 2011). By preventing the expression of E-selectin, cimetidine significantly limits the ability of cancer cell adherence to the blood vessel walls. This effect is analogous to removing the velcro from the blood vessels walls that would normally enable circulating tumor cells to bind.
Cimetidine’s potent anti-cancer effects were clearly displayed in a report published in the British Journal of Cancer in 2002. In this study, 64 colon cancer patients received chemotherapy with or without cimetidine (800 mg per day) for one year. The 10-year survival for the cimetidine group was almost 90%. This is in stark contrast to the control group, which had a 10-year survival of only 49.8%. Remarkably, for those patients with a more aggressive form of colon cancer, the 10-year survival was 85% in those treated with cimetidine compared to a dismal 23% in the control group (Matsumoto 2002). The authors of the study concluded, "Taken together, these results suggested a mechanism underlying the beneficial effect of cimetidine on colorectal cancer patients, presumably by blocking the expression of E-selectin on vascular endothelial [lining of blood vessels] cells and inhibiting the adhesion of cancer cells." These findings are supported by another study with colorectal cancer patients wherein cimetidine given for just seven days at the time of surgery increased three-year survival from 59% to 93% (Adams 1994).
There has been previous discussion on this board about cimetidine which I found very helpful:
viewtopic.php?t=49454I am also looking into PSK for husband:
One prominent natural compound that can increase NK cell activity is PSK, (protein-bound polysaccharide K) a specially prepared extract from the mushroom Coriolus versicolor. PSK has been shown to enhance NK cell activity in multiple studies (Fisher 2002; Garcia-Lora 2001). PSK’s ability to enhance NK cell activity helps to explain why it has been shown to dramatically improve survival in cancer patients. For example, 225 patients with lung cancer received radiation therapy with or without PSK (3 grams per day). For those with more advanced Stage 3 cancers, more than three times as many individuals taking PSK were alive after five years (26%), compared to those not taking PSK (8%). PSK more than doubled five-year survival in those individuals with less advanced Stage 1 or 2 disease (39% vs.17%) (Hayakawa 1997).
In a 2008 study, a group of colon cancer patients were randomized to receive chemotherapy alone or chemotherapy plus PSK, which was taken for two years. The group receiving PSK had an exceptional 10-year survival of 82%. Sadly, the group receiving chemotherapy alone had a 10-year survival of only 51% (Sakai 2008). In a similar trial reported in the British Journal of Cancer, colon cancer patients received chemotherapy alone or combined with PSK (3 grams per day) for two years. In the group with a more dangerous Stage 3 colon cancer, the five-year survival was 75% in the PSK group. This compared to a five-year survival of only 46% in the group receiving chemotherapy alone (Ohwada 2004). Additional research has shown that PSK improves survival in cancers of the breast, stomach, esophagus, and uterus as well (Okazaki 1986; Nakazato 1994; Toi 1992).
Given the uproar here in an earlier thread when my husband mentioned he was on the fence about chemo, I am not surprised in the least at how few respondents are taking supplements.