The Gac fruit

The Gac fruit mostly found in Vietnam and some parts of the world is a very potent fruit in nutritions.

Gac fruit is rich in the antioxidants beta-carotene, lycopene (seventy times more than in tomatoes), and zeaxanthin. It contains the highest concentration of beta carotene of any known fruit or vegetable (ten times as much as carrots). Beta carotene is a reddish antioxidant that shows up in a host of fruits and vegetables, from apricots to pumpkins. It converts to vitamin A in the body, and has a variety of protective properties.


A Japanese study reported in the International Journal of Oncology suggest that the Gac fruit has properties to manage cancers.

Read the full report by Medicine Hunter from Fox news in this link

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/02/22/gac-strange-powerful-fruit/


I have been taking Gac fruit daily for the last two years. Call me for more information.

Allen Lai

Feel Good Feeling Good

Me in February 2013

Hurray I am a happy person, happy because I am feeling good. I was diagnosed with Prostrate Cancer towards the end of 2009. My PSA was 27 and by biopsies showed stage 3 Local Advance with a Gleason Score of 3 plus 4.

I was treated in HUKM KL by Oncologist Encik Mohammad Azrif, now with Prince Court Hospital KL. Dr Azrif told me the magic words. It is curable. He prescribed a dual modality of Radiation Therapy and Hormone Therapy.

I started with my first injection of Zoladex on 14 January 2010 and continued to received Zoladex every three months for three years. My last Zoladex was administered on 8 November 2012.

My first Radiation Therapy started on 14 April 2010 after three months from my first Zoladex. My Radiation Therapy was prescribed for 32 daily sessions with weekends off. Zoladex was continued for three years.

 My recent visit to the Oncologist was a happy moment. I was feeling good. My PSA at Nadir was 0.02. Nadir is the lowest and most stable PSA reading post treatment. Dr Azrif correctly understood my cancer and applied the correct modality to address the cancer. He was right when he said it is curable. Thank you Dr Azrif.

What is next?

For the last three years I researched deeply into cancer treatments and gained as much knowledge as possible. It is imperative that I must continue the fight against the Cancer in me. There are so much literature and stories from the health industry. All very informative, supportive and means well. But I had learnt to sieve through the myriad of information.

The bottom line is my body immune system will have to take over the fight.  I must activate my first line defence. A second round of conventional treatments will be very harsh and harder to manage, particularly if cancer has spread and caused secondary cancer in other parts of the body.

 I am very grateful to my Oncologist Dr Mohammad Azrif and all the staff of HUKM for their wonderful treatments, support and management towards a successful cure for me.

I am feeling good.

Allen Lai

The Definitive Guide To Cancer

Hi all,

The Definitive Guide to Cancer - An Integrative Approach to Prevention, Treatment, and Healing in its third Edition is another Must Read Book about Cancer.

 It is very well researched and documented by world renown authors; Lise N. Alschuler, ND, FABNO, and Karolyn A Gazella. The book also has a 10 members editorial board.

The book is very concise, clear and comprehensive and covers all aspects of the disease, its prevention, treatment and healing. Chapters are also dedicated to specific cancers.

Google the book for more description

Allen Lai

The Definitive Guide to Prostrate Cancer

Hi all,
I had just finished reading The Definitive Guide to Prostrate Cancer by Dr Aaron E Katz, MD.
This is the most uptodate book on Prostrate Cancer and I personally recommend all to read it. You may want to buy a copy for future reference.

Dr Katz's writing is very clear and explains what we should do at each stage of our treatments and progress. He provides an holistic surveillance and approaches to pre cancer conditions and post treatment for survivors.More importantly Dr Katz describes all the risks and side effects to be expected with each protocol.

A Must Read book for those who have Prostrate Cancer and for those who knows somebody who has Prostrate Cancer and wish to help him.

Google the book for further descriptions.


Allen Lai

Kong Hee Fatt Choy

Hi all,

A Happy Chinese New Year to you and your family. May the good year of the Snake brings you cheer and good health aways.

Allen Lai

2013 The Good Year

Hi all,

Yes 2013 will be the beginning of the good things to come.   Strong and worrisome reports have surfaced that Chemo treatments actually does not cure cancer. It will activate our good cells to excrete a protein called WNT16B to feed the cancerous cells. Chemo kills both normal cells and cancerous cells indiscriminately, but after a time chemo is no longer effective. Protein WNT16B sustains tumur growth and resistance to further treatment. This finding and report is by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and published in Nature Medicine.

Chemo which is the standard mother killer of cancerous cells is no more. This finding was completely unexpected, BUT it is the most important finding in the century. For now we know why Chemo is only effective for short periods, some as short as 4 months extended lifespan.

Now we know and now we can fix the problem. Medical science is very advance , particularly in genetic and epigenetic research. There is hope that Chemo will actually work in the near future. Scientist are franticly finding effective antibodies to make chemo effective again.

But for now Chemo is the only preferred medical treatment for Stage 4 cancer patients. It may be a temporary solution that Chemo Dosage needs to to be lowered and administered within a shorter break for recovery period.

The best complementary treatment is to improve our own body immune system with good diet, nutrition, supplements and plenty of exercises.

Google WNT16B for full reports on this findings. For all of us, this is a blessing in disguise.

Happy New Year 2013

Allen Lai

Merry Christmas And A Happy New Year

I wish all my friends A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year. Best Wishes and Good Health always.

Happy holidays, do let your hair down and indulge in anything you wish to celebrate the festive season.

Each New Year will be better than the previous year.

Take care and Best wishes Always.

Allen Lai

NCSM Prostrate Cancer Support Group Annual Get-together

Sunday 16 December 2012. It was the time of the year to celebrate another successful year for our group. This time, both the support groups from NCSM and SJMC came together for our annual bash.

 The get-together was held at the Seri Pacific Hotel on Jalan Putra. The buffet lunch which was generously sponsored by the NCSM and was attended by about 50 people comprising survivors, doctors, radiographers and staff from NCSM and SJMC.

We had a stumptous buffet lunch and ate to our fullest. Yummy.

Let these photos tell the stories.

Till we meet again and again and again and again ........

Allen Lai

Anti-Angiogenesis Therapy

Hi all,

All cancer survivors fear a relapse of the disease which will almost cause metastasis or the spreading of the cancer cells unabatedly. Metastasis occur mainly due to our body's natural mechanism called angiogenesis.

Anti Angiogenesis Therapy stops angiogenesis. It blocks the pathway to feeding the cancer cells.

Watch Dr William Li explain in the Video link below.

http://www.ted.com/talks/william_li.html


Take care

Allen Lai

Autophagy

Under normal circumstance cells in our body maintain a high integrity of cell health. Our body has a natural process called Autophagy to eliminate damaged / mutated cells.

Cells Under Stress
Cells use autophagy to digest damaged or defective molecules, effectively eliminating the stressors like mis-folded proteins and damaged organelles that can threaten cell health, or in the case of hypoxia and serum starvation, devour existing proteins and organelles to generate key nutrients for survival. One process of autophagy involves the formation of a membrane around the damaged molecules, sequestering it from the rest of the cytosol with subsequent fusion with lysosomes. Autophagy is also thought to play a role in apoptosis or programmed cell death.
Autophagy—The Basics

How Autophagy Works.
When it comes to managing stress, our cells function like efficient machines, quickly assessing the situation and finding ways to adjust. Autophagy—literally, “eating oneself”—is one way that cells deal with typical day-to-day stress (misfolded proteins, aged or defective organelles) as well as unexpected disasters (hypoxic conditions, serum starvation, viral infections). The cellular machinery either digests the damaged or defective molecules, effectively eliminating the stressors that threaten cell health, or, in the case of hypoxia and serum starvation, devours existing proteins and organelles to generate key nutrients for survival.

Above article curtesy of Invitrogen.com.

Take care

Allen Lai

Fatigue

It was during one of my radiation session that I had naively asked my Oncologist if I could participate in the coming marathon. He nonchalantly replied "yes, if you still can"
Yes fatigue sets in pretty quickly during any type of treatments, be it surgery, radiation, hormonal or chemo. I never stood a chance even when taking small steps, one a time.

I was literally tired out most of the time after my 30 plus radiation sessions. Radiation had zapped up my muscle intensity. It took me a full year to regain some strength to jog up the slopes in my neighbourhood. Below are the explanation as to why we fagged out after treatments.

Fatigue is the number one side effect of cancer treatment. It is a side effect of surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and hormonal therapy. Health officials estimate that 90% of people experience fatigue during or after the treatment.

Recognize Fatigue

It is a lack of energy that develops suddenly or slowly over time from our activities of everyday life. It can be overwhelming and it is generally not relieved by rest or sleep.
The symptoms are:
- We feel like we have no energy
- We sleep more than usual
- We have difficulty of concentration
- We feel tired after nighttime
- We lack sexual desire
- We are irritable or impatient
- We feel lazy and not interested of our personal hygiene
We understand that those symptoms will lessen overtime once cancer treatment is over.

The Why of Fatigue

Fatigue during treatment can be related to cancer or the treatment. Many chemotherapy drugs cause fatigue by destroying part of our bone marrow which produce white and red blood cells. The white constitute part of our immune system where as the red carry the oxygen though our blood. Deficiency of one type of these cells will cause anemia.
Healing for surgery can also drain our reserve energy which translates into fatigue.

Contribution to fatigue

We eat less because of loss of appetite with change in taste, nausea, vomiting and mouth sores. We can become dehydrated with diarrhea and vomiting.
Also cancer cells compete with normal cells for nutrients which can slow down the growth of normal cell.

Coping with fatigue

Some ways to decrease or manage fatigue is to adjust our diet, reduce our stress and increase our physical activity.
We can plan short rest period and conserve energy for our important things. We can use light stretching session and exercise to counter fatigue.
Plan our day. We can do the most important thing first and the least important last. Space out activities. We are not doing an iron-man or women here.
Take enough continuous sleep like 8 hours straight. Remember that fatigue is temporary and our energy level will slowly improve as our blood return to normal.
Ask for help with housework, meal and errands. We are not alone and our team will gladly help us. Drink tea, we hydrate ourselves and fight cancer at the same time.

The above article is curtesy from cancerbattlefield.com. 

Take care

Allen Lai

Help DELL Computers to fight Paediatric Cancer

Hi all,
DELL Computers have come up with an innovative initiative to raise funds to do research for Paediatric Cancers.

Please watch the video as many times as you wish. Each time you watch the video, DELL contribute $1.00 for the research.

Visit

http://www.causes.com/causes/789392-powering-the-possible/actions/1672930?utm_source=causes&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WE612_981&causes_ref=email&template=newsletter_mailer%2Fnewsletter.

Thank you and please pass this video on for more contributions.

You can make the difference.

Allen Lai

Race for the Cure

Hi ladies,
Watch this inspiring video. 30 years of Moments and Milestones. Susan G Komen for the Cure. Watch Races for the Cure worldwide. I hope our Pink Ladies will organise a Race for the Cure here in KL.

See the video in U-tube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rPb71oIXIag


So proud of the you ladies in Pink.
Take care

Allen Lai

Ladies Know your drugs

Hi Ladies,
It is good to know what drugs are currently available for breast cancer. Know what each class of drugs are used and its side effects.

Visit Komen.org below for some current drugs:



http://ww5.komen.org/uploadedFiles/Content_Binaries/806-396.pdf

Take care

Allen Lai

T-DM1 - The latest drug for Breasts Cancer 2012

Hi ladies,

Good news,
T-DM1 combines with Hercepin will reduce a lot of side effects, including hair loss. T-DM1 is used for  treating the most aggressive form of breast cancer; advanced HER-2 possitive breast cancer.

T-DM1 contains an extremely potent form of chemotherapy that’s been around 20 years which we haven’t been able to use before because it’s so toxic. Clever new technology has allowed these two older drugs to be linked so that the chemotherapy  is not released until it reaches  the target.

curtest of Dailymail.com

Visit http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2211284/T-DM1-New-smart-drug-breast-cancer-extends-womens-live-months.html

Good Luck ladies. Fighting!!!

Take care
Allen Lai

iPhone / iPad Apps for people with Cancer

Apple Apps Store

In the fast moving world of smart phones, tablets and mobile tools. Apps contents are coming out just as rapidly. Thanks to programmers who had come out with some very useful apps for the iPhone/iPad.
Some good apps are free of charge. I managed to review some and would like to recommend some popular free apps that we can use. They are:

a. IchemoDiary
b. CaringBridge
c. Cancer.net Mobile
d. Breast Cancer Diagnosis Guide
e. Beyond the Shock
f. Keep a Breast

Go to iTunes/ Apple Apps Store and check them out. You will be glad you did.

Take care

Allen Lai

Loose that Fat

Hi all, Loose that fat. The pictorial below says it all.

If you have trouble loosing weight/fat in a healthy way. Call me.

Take care

Allen Lai

Recent FDA approved drugs for Prostrate Cancer 2012

Hi all,

I had relentlessly sought to know more about cancer and in particularly Prostrate Cancer to update myself and to share this knowledge. I have the skills and tools to browse the internet for the latest information and the basic aptitude to vet and discuss the issues presented. I am not a doctor in anyway nor a quack, But I do try my best to digest everything worthwhile and to share what is relevant. Below are some of the recently approved cancer drugs approved by the FDA.

Some of the recently approved prostate cancer drugs that have been shown to prolong life:

Provenge. A vaccine approved by the FDA in April 2010 that primes a man's immune system to attack an existing tumor. Sold by Dendreon. It costs $93,000 for a standard course of three treatments. Provenge is now available in Malaysia.

Cabazitaxel. A new form of chemotherapy, approved in June 2010, and sold by Sanofi-Aventis under the name Jevtana. The typical six cycles cost about $50,000.

Abiraterone. Approved in April 2011, and sold by Janssen Biotech under the brand name Zytiga, it deprives tumors of testosterone. An eight-month course of treatments costs about $47,000. Zytiga is now available in Malaysia.

Enzalutamide. Approved in August 2012, enzalutamide, sold under the name Xtandi and developed by Medivation and Astellas Pharma, blocks the ability of testosterone to enhance cancer growth. A typical eight-month treatment costs nearly $60,000.

Radium 223. Still awaiting FDA approval, this drug from Bayer HealthCare would carry radioactive particles deep into the bone where tumors are spreading, and kill cancer cells.

Most of the above drugs should be available in Singapore.

Sources: Lee Kalowski, Credit Suisse Group; Howard Scher, Memorial Sloan-Kettering; Philip Kantoff, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

For full treatments options, you may want to read the latest information from this website

www.ustoo.com/Treatment_Options.asp

Take care

Allen Lai

Cancer Treatment Options

Hi all,

This is a new website on cancer treatments, particularly discussing option treatments. It is good to review what are the options, but do take caution and common sense before any conclusion is made.
Always discuss options with your Oncologist before commencing to undertake any option. It may contradict whatever treatments you are currently prescribed.

This site however does give some good insight to what options are available. Do read the past postings.

Visit the website at http://www.can-cer.org/

Take care

Allen Lai

Fighting Cancer - A dual fight

Fighting Cancer is actually two fights in one. Firstly fighting the cancer cells and second, fighting the clinical treatments. The latter at times more difficult. This is my personal opinion as a soldier and fighter. We have to take all scenarios and factor in all considerations in winning the final battle. To survive. One can win in killing off all the cancer cells but still die from the harsh effects of the treatments.

Fighting Cancer cells is a tough fight and we need to harness all combat powers to win. And it is a winnable fight, whether it is a total destruction of the cancer cells or a total suppression of the cancer cells to submission. To do this there are many approved medical treatments and protocols to kill off the cancer cells. But there are no "good" nor "bad" treatments. The approach to treatments is dependent on many factors and conditions. Many survivors will attest that the integrated approach to treatment is the best course of action. Combining conventional treatments and complementary treatments do add synergy to the fight. Alternative treatments may seem attractive in the short term or to hopelessness, but with very high combat risks.

Fighting to recover from treatment needs lots of efforts and having a good body condition. Further adjunct medications do help in the short term, but again more side effects for the body to deal with. So before we decide what treatments to opt for in dealing with the cancer cells in us, we should firstly look at our body condition and fitness to withstand the treatment. Age and other ailments in the body are also main considerations to the choice of treatments. You are the best advisor to the choice of treatment. You should know your body conditions better than any doctor or oncologist. It is going to be your fight after the prescribed treatments. Your doctor can only monitor and assist you in a very secondary way. This is your fight. To improve your physique and body combat power to fight off the invasive treatment modalities. You would have a very short time to fight off the impacts of chemo, radiation, hormonal changes and loss of an organ after surgery. And most of the time our treatments will include more than one modality.

Both chemo and radiation have a protracted length of time inside our body. Producing free radicals, carcinogens and distorting our DNA every second.

Fighting off treatments is a protracted war.

Time is the essence in both the fights, against the cancer cells and recover from the treatments. But what we can do is to prepare for our body physique and fitness at all times. We cannot jump start fitness. The body needs time to develop to a new level of fitness. There is no way to an instant fitness. It actually need rest time to development time in gaining fitness. Unfortunately there are no shortcuts.

Early detection of cancer and early preparations to good health and body conditions are key to winning the dual battle.

Take care

Allen Lai