The three words that nobody wants to hear: stage four cancer.
But those are the words I heard from a dear family friend just last week.
Of course, nobody wants to hear the word cancer in any form — unless, perhaps, you were born this very month, mystically relate to crabs, and have a wild fascination with stars predicting the future.
Zodiac signs, anyone?
Anyway, I’m a Virgo and I’m supposed to be careful and mature, so I’d like to toss the whole astrology argument out of the window right now. (I will say that I only make cancer jokes because humor is the only way I can deal with existential grief and pain.)
But speaking of predicting the future, while results may vary, cancer is rather clear when you break it up into stages.
From the American Joint Committee on Cancer:
Stage 0 This stage describes cancer in situ, which means “in place.” Stage 0 cancers are still located in the place they started and have not spread to nearby tissues. This stage of cancer is often highly curable, usually by removing the entire tumor with surgery.
Stage I This stage is usually a small cancer or tumor that has not grown deeply into nearby tissues. It also has not spread to the lymph nodes or other parts of the body. It is often called early-stage cancer.
Stage II and Stage III In general, these two stages indicate larger cancers or tumors that have grown more deeply into nearby tissue. They may have also spread to lymph nodes but not to other parts of the body.
Stage IV This stage means that the cancer has spread to other organs or parts of the body. It may also be called advanced or metastatic cancer.
Before you stop reading out of sheer panic, I’ll let you know that this column isn’t all about cancer. It’s about how to treat it and how to avoid false hope.
Oh, and I’ll also get to the financial point in a moment…
You see, the reason I’m going down this road is because I recently got a phone call from my father, who seemed distressed. A dear family friend of mine had recently been diagnosed with stage four colon cancer.
As I previously mentioned, that is pretty much the end of the cancer line — there are very few treatment options once the cancer spreads to vital organs.
Like anyone staring that kind of horror right in the maw, he started looking for every possible alternative. Among the many so-called “cancer cures” out there, cannabis came up pretty quickly in his research.
Since I’ve covered cannabis in both the financial and natural health worlds for almost a decade now, he reached out to me for my opinion.
Here’s a snippet of what I wrote back:
Dear ****,
It’s been a long time — it’s great to be in touch, though I’m sorry it is under these circumstances.
I’m sorry to hear about everything that you are going through, so I hope I can be of the least bit of help here.
I’ve been very encouraged at how far it’s come into the mainstream. I’ve met people all over the world that have used cannabis for various ailments to great success.
In my conversations with oncologists, natural doctors, and cannabis experts, the overarching theme is that cannabis works wonders for those in cancer treatment. That is mostly due to the fact that the THC increases appetite, reduces nausea, and can have some effective pain relief. It can also help getting to sleep.
I have a few different resources for you…
I’ll keep you in my thoughts and will send over anything I think could be of interest or help.
Sadly, I could not give him any firm data on cannabis’ cancer-fighting capabilities. That is mostly because the studies have not yet been done — cannabis is still on the schedule one list for drugs “with no medical value.”
It’s a damn shame, because there is so much we do not yet know about this ancient plant which has been used for over 5,000 years for medical treatment.
While we all know about medical marijuana and CBD by now, what many folks don’t know is that our bodies all have an endocannabinoid system — which is responsible for a host of bodily functions. It’s a completely untapped system — and market — for life-changing research. Thankfully, some brave companies have been doing their due diligence.
Scientists theorize that CBD, THC, and dozens of other cannabinoids in cannabis have complementary effects on each other, creating an interactive synergy referred to as the Entourage Effect. This synergy implies that the best cannabis medicine is one that uses all parts of the plant. In short, it’s a classic case of the whole — that is, cannabis — being greater than the sum of its parts — that is THC and CBD.
It’s been said the plant holds as many as 400 cannabinoids…
We have a way to go before we understand everything that CBD can offer.
There is a lot to unpack here, and I’m happy to announce that one company that I’ve been following has created the world’s first synthetic CBD formula that is specifically designed to work with that system…
While it may not cure cancer, the company already holds the patents to potentially fight certain types of cancer. It has produced a therapy that combines the CBD with a kind of anticancer “heat-seeking missile.”
It could cure 90% of the most fatal brain cancer.
I’m talking about Glioblastoma — one of the worst forms of cancer. A diagnosis with this brain cancer practically guarantees you’ll be dead within five years.
It’s what killed Ted Kennedy and John McCain.
Average life expectancy is less than one year.
If you target one certain gene — you can trigger an immune response to kill the cancer. In pre-clinical studies, it indefinitely extended the life of 50% of tumor-bearing animals.
Scientists gave it to mice with a terminal diagnosis.
They weren’t supposed to last more than a handful of weeks, at most.
No other therapy had ever produced survivors beyond 30 days.
With all other treatments, the survival rate goes to zero. But with this company’s treatment, over half the mice went on to live normal lives.
It’s the first time a company has ever produced a drug that allowed that many mice to survive brain cancer.
When you combine the killer cell with CBD and the company’s patented nanotech delivery system, we could start to see real progress.
You can learn more about this breakthrough here.
Nobody has cured cancer yet. In the meantime, all we can do is support the research to eventually do it.
