Product Description

Complementary vitamin supplement program for treating cancer and for supporting chemotherapy, radiation, and surgical treatments, with 100 case studies.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #415836 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 264 pages

Customer Reviews

Much more than just hope: Hoffer's cancer book is practical and thorough
Healing Cancer: Complementary Vitamin and Drug Treatments
by Abram Hoffer with Linus Pauling
CCNM Press, 2004. Previously published as Vitamin C and Cancer: Discovery, Recovery, Controversy. Quarry Press, 1999.)

Reviewed by Andrew W. Saul, Assistant Editor, Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine

Cancer may be humanity's most feared disease, and with reason. Healing Cancer: Complementary Vitamin and Drug Treatments, by Abram Hoffer and Linus Pauling, removes much of that fear, replacing it with clinically-tested practical nutrition. The book provides dozens of documented case histories of vitamin-taking patients who achieved significantly longer life, and vastly improved quality of life.

It is unethical to deny therapy that might be of value to the patient. Yet some politically powerful medical authorities continue to openly discourage cancer patients from taking large doses of vitamins. The number of cancer patients who have ever had their doctor recommend a therapeutic trial of large quantities of nutrients remains small. Says Dr. Hoffer: "Fixed ideas about the supposed `evils' of vitamin antioxidants must be one of oncology's most pervasive delusions."

The grounds for disparaging vitamins usually center on three inaccurate claims: 1) vitamins are ineffective against cancer; 2) vitamins interfere with conventional cancer therapies, especially chemotherapy; and 3) high doses of vitamins are directly harmful to the cancer patient.

It is time to set the record straight.

1) Controlled studies that demonstrate that vitamin C is indeed effective against cancer. Research done in Japan used over 30,000 mg of vitamin C a day. Research conducted by Dr. Hugh Riordan's team in Wichita, Kansas, used as much as 100,000 mg/day. And although focusing on vitamin C, Hoffer and Pauling discuss the value of other nutrients including niacin, the carotenoids, selenium, zinc, and more.

2) Vitamins, especially vitamin C, reduce the side-effects of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. The risk reduction aspects of enhanced nutrition, both pre- and post-op, are well established, and supplemented patients have faster, uncomplicated healing after surgery. Patients on a strong nutritional program have far less nausea, and often experience little or no hair loss during chemo. They experience reduced pain and swelling following radiation. Such vitamin-mediated benefits mean that oncologists can give vitamin-taking patients the full treatment, rather than having to cut the dose to keep the patient from giving up entirely. Full-strength chemo is more likely to be effective against cancer than reduced-strength chemo. A similar benefit is at work with radiation therapy: the full intensity of treatment is far better tolerated by an optimally-nourished patient. Perhaps most importantly of all, the authors assert that "Vitamin C increases the killing effect of irradiation and chemotherapy." Clearly vitamins, far from being detrimental, can make a most positive contribution to the conventional treatment of cancer.

3) Even at very high doses, vitamin C is an unusually safe substance. On the other hand, enormous doses of ascorbate selectively kill cancer cells without harming normal body cells. As antioxidant, collagen-builder, and immune system booster, vitamin C is vital to a cancer patient. Yet the blood work of cancer patients will invariably show that they have abnormally low levels of the vitamin. What is dangerous is vitamin deficiency.

In addition to a substantial reference section, Healing Cancer contains two appendices. The first is a statistical analysis of the data; the second a discussion of the adrenalin-adrenochrome system and cancer. An index is needed and should be added to the next edition.

Curiously, this book very nearly never saw the light of day. "Linus asked me if I intended to publish my data," Abram Hoffer said. "I replied that I did not. Linus urged me to do a complete follow up study of every patient I had treated. We began to write a book but we could not find a publisher in the United States willing to publish it. The topic was still too controversial. It contains all the original material Dr. Pauling had written dealing with each type of cancer, and a presentation of my data based on nearly 800 patients."

A patient's therapeutic response is the highest of all guiding principles in medicine. If it works, do it. If it seems to work, do it. If it does no harm, do it. If there were a sure cure for cancer, you would have heard about it. There isn't. But this bald truth just makes it all the more urgent that patients demand adjunctive vitamin therapy from their physicians. Support for high-dose vitamin C therapy is growing. Hoffer and Pauling were among the first to report its benefits. An oncologist you know could be next. Let him or her read your copy of Healing Cancer.