The following is provided mainly for those unfortunate enough to be faced with a similar medical situation.

Mom was diagnosed with Lung Cancer (specifically Adenocarcinoma - Non Small Cell Lung Carcinoma) in March of 2002. She had never smoked in her life. She had experienced pain in her back for roughly the prior year, but thought it was soft tissue that would heal. It turned out that when she was hospitalized with severe back pain, she had a partially collapsed lung (pleural effusion from the lung cancer) and a metastasis (tumor) in one of her rear ribs had completed destroyed the rib, thus causing her intense pain.

The initial course of action was for a surgeon to drain the fluid in the lining of her lung. That surgery was successful and her breathing improved over the next few days. Once she was stabilized we were able to get her out of the hospital and begin planning for her treatment.

The diagnosis was not good. Some told us she likely had 6-9 months to live and the statistics were not encouraging. Less than 5% with her diagnosis live five more years. Our first course of treatment was to begin radiation to the rib and surrounding spine area. The Radiation Oncologist explained to us that he would radiate the rib even though it had been destroyed by the tumor, in time the rib would actually grow back. She had some other bone areas with "hot spots" but they were longer-term matters.

We were also presented with the option of radiating the Lung and area around the lung, but our research indicated that radiation to those areas would be very risky and potentially cause more damage than it would improve. Mom was adamantly against that and we concurred, so we radiated only the rib area.

The biggest debate we had was over chemotherapy. The Oncologist prescribed a regiment of Taxol and Carboplatin. But the prognosis was not particularly attractive and we were not sold. Unlike some types of Cancer, in this case, the chemotherapy is not considered curative. In studies, people on the cocktail lived longer than those without it, but the chemotherapy comes with significant side effects (generally feeling awful and losing your hair among them).

Still, given the desperate situation, mom began the treatments. After her first three sessions, her white blood sells dropped to virtually nothing. At that point she decided to quit, given that it appeared that the chemotherapy itself was going to kill her, and in fact the oncologist agreed that the treatments had to stop. Mom decided she would never do chemotherapy again, even after she recovered. Fortunately, once we stopped the chemotherapy she improved and we began to pursue alternatives.

My sisters, my father, and I spent a lot researching mom's condition. One good source of information is publications by Ralph Moss. He is in the business of summarizing treatment options for various cancers and does a good job of summarizing and evaluation traditional as well as alternative treatment options.

But the most disappointing aspect was we simply could not find people that had had this diagnosis years before and were still alive to talk about it. A neighbor informed us that he had been getting treatment for Melanoma at a clinic in the Bahamas and encouraged us to investigate that option.

Then known as IAT Clinic, ITL Cancer Clinic was started to develop alternative treatments, but is located in Freeport Grand Bahama, partially to avoid the US government. That can be viewed as a questionable decision given that you'd assume the government oversees organizations and treatments such as these to protect US citizens, but others may sympathize with the founders rationale, that the Governments system is so cumbersome, and influenced by the drug companies that make billions selling chemotherapy drugs, that it stifles alternative potential treatments and makes it prohibitive for their backers to get approval to market their services.

Given Mom's diagnosis and the lack of logical alternatives provided by the oncologists, we pursued their Immuno-Augmentive Therapy as an option. Without judging their theory, at least they do have one study that shows patients of Mesothelioma (a particularly aggressive and deadly cancer) did significantly better on their treatment than without it. What sealed our interest and set the wheels in motion to take mom to the Bahama's was they could actually give us the name and phone number of an elderly woman that was still alive (and we subsequently talked to her) more than a decade after getting the same diagnosis as my mom (4th stage lung cancer).

So my sister and mom packed up and headed to the Bahamas for an expected 2-3 month stay. My sister went with my mom, and left shortly after helping get her settled and then I made a trip some time later. At the center they draw blood daily and she takes numerous shots (better explained on the web site by anyone interested), which are constantly reevaluated to determine whether the immune system is attacking the cancer cells.

She was given approval to leave the island after two rather then three months. But their treatment is an ongoing one, where you return every three months to get reevaluated and resupplied with the daily course of shots that you take for the rest of your life. When you leave you take a three or more month supply with you to use until your next visit.

The other development was my father found out about a then experimental drug named Iressa. It had shown some promise in Lung Cancer patients and was in clinical testing. We tried to get mom into a trial, but then were able to arrange purchase of Iressa overseas, so we did that and began Mom on Iressa. Over the next few months mom improved and began to return to a relatively normal life.

A longtime Registered Physical Therapist, she began taking and treating patients again. She continued making periodic trips to the Bahamas and several times she did radiation courses to bone areas that had metastasis.

After about a year on Iressa, the side effects of rashes and diarrhea became too much to handle and Mom stopped taking the Iressa. Plus it had been approved by the FDA by that point and was much more expensive to obtain.

In November of 2004 a new round of problems began. She started developing stroke symptoms like slurred speech and temporary facial paralysis. The diagnosis again was very troubling. Extensive testing revealed 60-70 tumors in Mom's brain. How long they had been there we did not know, but we knew we needed to do something and the only option appeared to be full brain radiation. We were concerned about the implications of that, but we really had no option and the radiation oncologist was upbeat about her potential for improvement.

So she went through another course of radiation treatments to the brain (along with some other areas that were showing some metastatic activity). The next few months were trying and tedious. The radiation to the brain causes the brain to swell, which can and did cause a whole host of problems. Those problems, like lightheadedness, slowed response, etc., continued several weeks beyond the radiation, but we held out hope that in time and with steroids and other medication she could pull through.

She then made another trip to the Bahamas (accompanied by her sister Arlene), where she continued the treatments and added an expensive cancer vaccine they offer. Miraculously, she returned a new women. The side effects seemed to be gone, she was thinking and acting normally again, and we felt like again she had a new lease on life. Subsequent MRIs should that the number of tumors in her brain had dropped to less than 10, a terrific result according to many.

She again returned to working a light schedule and we went on with our lives again hoping that we had bought more time, which we did. The final chapter began around November. Mom started experiencing problems with her bodily functions.

Mom started having trouble controlling her bowels and bladder. This was particularly difficult time our sister Zippora, who had been taking care of and living with Mom since she was diagnosed. We hoped the problems were temporary. Unfortunately they were not. We finally had her admitted to the hospital and extensive testing revealed that she had thousands of tumor cells and seeds up and down her spine. They were beginning to block the nerve endings that controlled her functions and that was why she was losing control of her body. Plus there was now a dime-sized tumor on her liver.

We had been given terrible news several times before, but this time was definitely the worst. This was the time we had to face the reality that mom was probably not going to survive much longer. That might seem obvious, but given Mom's beating the odds several times till then we probably had been taking these things for granted.

The oncologist said there was one option if we wanted to be proactive that might give us some hope. That was to have a neurosurgeon put a shunt directly in the top of her brain and then they could inject a chemotherapy called Methotrexate directly into her brain spinal column. He said 20% of patients show improvement from this treatment.

He also suggested we restart Iressa. Mom agreed and we decided to give it a shot. I remember thinking the last thing Mom needed at that point was to have a whole drilled in her head, but the decision was made and mom went through with it. She made it out of the hospital and continued to treatments, but we did not see any improvement.

We briefly considered another round of Radiation to a specific bone area, but decided this time it would be too much and it was unlikely to help. At that time the oncologist estimated Mom had from 1 to 6 months. She was admitted to the hospital again around the end of the year for a blood clot in her leg. The result of that was another set drugs (Coumadin).

Her health gradually deteriorated over the following months, but Mom kept going. We hired 24-hour nurses to care for her at home around the clock and at Mom's request, my oldest sister Michele took her into her guest house and took care of her.

She continued to deteriorate physically, but would not give up and even began consciously rejecting her mediations. My sister admitted her to the hospital for the last time at the end of April to attempt to improve her comfort level. At that time one doctor suggested that this had gone on too long and that we should give her enough drugs so that she would not be conscious and that she would pass away within 48 hours. But that was ruled out and Michele took her home and she survived another three weeks, thanks to better (but not overwhelming) medication. We all got to spend the time we needed to spend with Mom before she finally passed away on May 19, 2005.

We truly hope none of you finds yourself personally, or through a relative in a similar circumstance. But if you do, hopefully this will give you some answers to questions you may have. In Mom's case Chemotherapy wasn't successful and actually seemed to be detrimental. Radiation absolutely helped my mother. In fact, two years after the first tumor in her rib was radiated, the radiation oncologist looked at a new X-ray and seemed astonished in saying "it actually grew back." My sister said , but you told us it would. He said, yes, but it actually did.

Did the Iressa help? We don't know, but we are guessing yes. Recent research suggests that people with a specific characteristic respond to Iressa, others don't. Based on what I read awhile back there is no test for that marker as yet, but there should be a test in the future.

Did the alternative treatments in the Bahamas help? Most of us believe yes, and I can say it sure didn't hurt. Worst case, a trip to the Bahamas if you can afford it isn't a bad gamble for someone without many options.

Mom's passing was obviously tragic, but we've met so many others that didn't get nearly as much time as mom. We just have to hope that someday someone will figure out how to beat this disease.

Any questions can be sent to me at gary at fighton.com.