26 Special Edition Q and A Part 1.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix
26 Special Edition Q and A Part 1.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Speaker1:
Welcome to the Cancer Secrets podcast. Changing the Cancer Paradigm. Hosted by Dr. Jonathan Steagall, a medical doctor and cancer specialist practicing in Atlanta, Georgia, deeply affected by his grandmother's death from stomach cancer, as well as patients he cared for in medical training, he realized there has to be a better way to treat cancer. Dr. Stegall has a unique and innovative approach to treating cancer called integrative oncology, combining modern medicine with alternative therapies personalized to each patient. This podcast is designed to educate, support and give you a positive voice you can trust. We invite you to join us on this journey as we seek to change the cancer paradigm.
Speaker2:
Hello and welcome back to the Cancer Secrets podcast. I'm your host, Doctor Jonathan Stegall. This is season two and episode number 26. In today's episode, I'm going to answer some listener questions that were submitted through our website at Cancer Secrets. If you're new to this show, please go back and listen to my introductory episode to learn more about me and my vision for this podcast. As always, we encourage you to listen with a loved one or friend. Learning and enjoying the show with a community will be more impactful than doing so alone. Today's show is going to be a great one as I tackle some questions that are commonly asked and many people are wanting to know the answers to.
Speaker3:
Hi, doctors to go. My name is Audra and I'm from Illinois. I've read your book and just listen to your podcast on breast cancer. And I just had a couple of questions I didn't hear you mention about radiation. I have had lumpectomies in both breast with no lymph node involvement, and I'm now doing radiation. So I guess my question is, I know you addressed the hormonal therapy. I'm post-menopausal. So I will be taking aromatase inhibitors if if I decide to kind of. I guess my struggle with it is that after surgery, with no lymph node involvement and now doing radiation to eradicate any remaining cancer cells, why is it really necessary to go ahead and also take hormone receptor pharmaceuticals when I believe that the estrogen in my body can be controlled with diet? So I'm just wondering your opinion on that, and I would love to hear back from you.
Speaker2:
Thank you, Audra. This is a great question. Thank you so much for asking this. As many of you know, breast cancer is one of the cancers that is frequently driven by hormones. So when we think about hormone driven cancers, we think about breast cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, endometrial cancer. But breast cancer specifically is commonly fueled by hormones. And we're talking about hormones. We specifically mean estrogen and progesterone, and we can't exclude testosterone either. So the fact that we know from a good biopsy or surgical sample whether or not the cancer is what we call hormone positive or not does give us very helpful information. So in the case of your cancer, I'm assuming a biopsy was done initially when you were diagnosed, which told you whether it was estrogen receptor, which we call either positive or negative and also progesterone or PR positive or negative. And so I'm sure your cancer was found to be R and possibly also PR positive, meaning that hormones fuel the cancer. So the conventional way to approach that would be to obviously surgery. If you're a surgical candidate and I'm glad you had surgery, a lot of people ask, well, should I have surgery or not? Certainly if you are a good surgical candidate, meaning the the tumor is something that can be removed surgically with minimal complications. Absolutely. Have the surgery. It's very important to get the the cancer source out of there. So I'm very glad you had surgery.
Speaker2:
There's a lot of misconception out there from people who wonder if surgery spreads cancer or makes cancer worse. There's really no credible evidence showing that it does spread cancer. And in fact, people who avoid surgery when they're good surgical candidates frequently will see their cancer progress to a later stage cancer. And of course, and we're starting to talk about stage three. And for cancer, the prognosis is not as good. So I'm glad you had surgery. The radiation is something that a lot of people also are concerned about, whether or not the radiation is going to kill cancer like we want it to. And also more a more common concern is will radiation cause collateral damage and damage healthy cells and create an increased risk of cancer elsewhere? That's a hard decision. And I know it's one you probably wrestled with a lot, Audra, because radiation can help us get to cancer cells that maybe weren't reached via surgery or certainly in patients who aren't surgical candidates. Radiation can be an important tool. Radiation has come a long way. We are able to target it a lot better than we used to in the past. You in the past, we would radiate an area and there would be a lot of collateral damage in the surrounding area where to the point now with radiation, whether it's conventional radiation, which is which uses photons, photons or the newer form which is sometimes used, which is called proton therapy, they're slightly different.
Speaker2:
Both can be targeted very well to the area we're trying to treat. You know, radiation now includes not only a radiation oncologist but a radiation physicist. And usually there are some other people on the team as well who actually sit down with the aid of computer modeling and actually map out the the approach and the dose of the radiation. So radiation has come a long way. So I am not anti radiation at all. However, I do think we need to be careful with its use because radiation can cause collateral damage and it does increase risk of cancer down the road. So I think we have to weigh the necessity of treating the cancer that we know is there now. And we certainly don't want to under treat the cancer that's there now. But. As we need to to do all we can to eliminate it. But we also don't want to unnecessarily expose the body to radiation that's potentially unnecessary and then increase risk of cancer down the road. So it's a very tough decision. It's a personal one. Again, I'm not against radiation, but I do think we need to be careful and really talk through all of the pros and cons of that for each patient and his or her situation. So, Audra, I think you probably did the right thing to have radiation. I know you probably wrestled with that.
Speaker2:
It sounds like you did the right thing to have that. And so now you're at that point where you've had surgery, you've had radiation, your doctors are probably telling you that you are cancer free or in remission. I would caution you, though, because you really can't say that certainly if your scans look clean, that would be what we would call remission or no evidence of disease. However, if you've listened to the podcast before, you know that we not only need to be looking at large areas of cancer involvement, which would be tumors or lymph nodes, but also smaller areas of cancer involvement. And that can be what's known as micro metastases, where there are little small deposits of of cancer cells kind of clustered together, not large enough to be seen by imaging, but certainly enough to to be a focus of cancer or even more commonly cancer circulating in the bloodstream. We know that the cancer cells in patients with extremely early stage cancers all the way up through very advanced age for cancers are likely to have some form of circulating cancer cells in the bloodstream. So we call these circulating tumor cells. A subset of that is cancer stem cells, but those are floating through the bloodstream in most cancer patients and are a main vehicle by which cancer spreads to other locations. So, you know, the surgery is not going to get those cells, obviously, because they're in the bloodstream, although surgery does reduce the the amount of those cells that will be released, because if you leave a mass in there, it's going to continue to release these circulating tumor cells and cancer stem cells, whereas if you take the mass out, you're going to greatly reduce the potential for additional ones.
Speaker2:
But we still need to get to the circulating cancer cells that are already present in the bloodstream. Radiation, unfortunately, does not accomplish that for us either. So we need to think about systemic therapy. So that could be chemotherapy. That could be intravenous vitamin C, that could be intravenous mistletoe. I think ideally we're going to use all of those in the right combination for most patients. But in your case, being an earlier stage cancer, they probably did not recommend chemotherapy. You may not need chemotherapy at your stage. However, they did recommend some treatment to block hormones. Which actually gets me to the the real answer to your question, which is knowing that hormones fuel the cancer, I do think it's probably worth taking some of the medications to block hormones. And and the way we do that does vary based on the diagnosis and the age of the patient. So in breast cancer, I don't know how old you all you are, Audra, but I know a younger patient who is pre-menopausal, so still having a regular menstrual cycle. It's a little more complicated where we have to actually suppress the hormones at the pituitary level to actually basically puts you in a chemical menopause.
Speaker2:
So that would be with a drug like Lupron, which is also called loop light. And then in combination with that, using a medication like Tamoxifen or a remote X generic for remote access anastrozole to also help block action. And those work a little bit differently. But, but some combination of those is usually used in the pre menopausal setting. And then for women who are post-menopausal who are no longer having a menstrual period, it's a little more simple. It would either be usually a single agent such as a remote ex. There are some other ones as well, but those are designed to whatever estrogen is there to help block the formation of that. Again, that's a very personal decision on whether to block hormones. I know in a perfect world we would not be blocking hormones because God gave us hormones for a reason and they're needed. And when we don't have them at their normal physiologic levels, we may have side effects. So that's a big concern with a lot of patients is, well, if I block my hormones, am I am I going to feel like myself? Am I going to be tired? Am I going to have low sex drive? Am I going to have hot flashes and night sweats and mood swings? And the answer to that is, yes, you may it really varies from patient to patient in terms of how blocking those hormones affect them.
Speaker2:
Some breathe through and do fine and others will have more significant side effects. So, Audra, unfortunately, I can't comment specifically on on what you should do, not only because I don't know how old you are, but also because I shouldn't give any medical advice over the, the podcast. But, but typically, you know, when, when it's a younger patient who has a strongly hormone positive cancer. I do. Amend using the the pharmaceuticals to to block the hormones. And basically you put the patient into a chemical menopause. And the reason I say that is not because I take that decision lightly, but because we really just don't have anything comparable in the natural realm that can accomplish that. For us, the fear is if there are cancer cells there, whether it's circulating in the bloodstream or many times, you know, after surgery, even with clear margins, there can still be some breast tissue affected by cancer that has been left behind. And we see this with lumpectomies and also mastectomies, patients having recurrences in breast tissue there. So so let's assume there are still some cancer cells there in one form or another. They are going to be using those hormones as fuel if it's an estrogen or progesterone positive cancer. And so the fear is if we leave those cells, they're able to use hormones for energy and fuel. You know, is the cancer going to progress and recur? And so I think it's a risk to just leave those cells there without the pharmaceutical treatment.
Speaker2:
I do think there are some good natural things that can be done. I really like the supplement Dim Dim, which stands for Die and Oil Methane. It comes from cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts. It does have an anti estrogen mechanism in that it helps safely metabolize estrogen so that the estrogen can be broken down into a safer pathway rather than a more harmful cancer promoting pathway. So I think that's very helpful. I recommend that patients take that along with the pharmaceutical hormonal treatment. And then also gut health is very important. We do know that a lot of the hormones are metabolized in the gut. And so making sure patients have good gut health on a good probiotic, you know, certainly eating a healthy diet is a part of that as well. I do feel that a plant based diet is probably the best way to go, certainly in these cases as well. But I don't think nutritionally we can really block hormones, so we need the help of pharmaceuticals for that. So I'll try. I hope this is helpful. I know is a much longer answer to your question than you probably intended, but I really wanted to get into the details of all this, not only for your benefit, but also for for people who may be listening.
Speaker4:
Hello. My name is Chris. Yes. And my mother had breast cancer and lung cancer and is currently going through a general oncologist at Integrative Health. So I had her listen to your program. I would change some of her thought patterns. My real question for you is what are your thoughts on dental health, such as, you know, root canals and their impact on health and potentially cancer? I saw a recent Netflix program on dental and root canals, and there was some linkage there. They they they indicated it can be very bad and of course, can lead to lead to ill health, including cancers. I just wonder if you have any thoughts on that and whether it's an entire episode or just something you mix in. At some point. Good to know. Thank you very much. So my first time calling in. So again, thanks for all you're doing. Take care. Bye.
Speaker2:
And our next question is from Chris. Chris is mom is dealing with breast and lung cancer. Chris, I'm very sorry to hear that. I'm assuming that it's primary breast cancer that has spread to the lungs, although it wouldn't be unheard of to have, you know, two different cancers in the same patient. So it could be a primary breast cancer in a totally separate lung cancer. That's unrelated to that. But regardless, your question is a great one. What are Dr. Segal, what are your thoughts on dental health, especially related to root canals and how they affect overall health? So this is an outstanding question. I think dental health is very, very important not only for our overall health, but also when we're talking about cancer. You know, on a very basic level, we know that, you know, oral health is important. Good oral health is important for preventing, you know, throat cancers and mouth cancers and things like that. Obviously, we know that smoking and, you know, tobacco and things like that cause a higher risk of mouth and throat cancer. But your question is a good one in that it's not only talking about that, but also just cancer in general. So there have been some really good studies on oral health and cancer risk. And unfortunately, you don't hear this a lot from oncologists. You normally hear this from dentists. But if you look at the research, we know that poor oral health is related to an increased risk of multiple cancer types. We've seen it linked to breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, stomach cancer. And my hunch is that poor oral health increases risk of pretty much all cancer.
Speaker2:
And again, we don't have a formal study on that, but it just makes sense to me with all of the bacteria and viruses and other things that we're exposed to in our mouth, whether it's from food we eat or air we're breathing in or whatever, we're very exposed to a lot of things in our mouth. And so we're having to process that. And so so healthy teeth, healthy gums certainly play a role in that. And so the studies that we have available look at certainly gum health in terms of periodontal disease. Patients with periodontal disease have higher rates of multiple types of cancer. And then in root canals, I think are a very important question because many people out there have had a root canal. I have heard the study. I don't know how much of a study it really was, but I've heard the statistic, rather, that people who have had root canals are at extremely higher rates of cancer. I think the stat is that, you know, like 98% of people that have cancer have had a root canal in the past. I don't know that that's true. I don't I don't know where that study comes, that statistic comes from. I've never read a study on that exactly. But I do think it's an interesting idea because obviously a root canal is being done to address an infection in or around a tooth, which sounds like a great thing because we obviously don't want infections to persist in the mouth. However, there's been a lot of concern, especially in the alternative medicine community, that root canals actually contribute to cancer forming.
Speaker2:
I think we have to be careful with statistics because, number one, we we need to make sure they're based on truly good data. But we also need to keep in mind the difference between correlation and causation. It's easy to look at a study that shows a correlation between one, one symptom or one event and an outcome. But it's another thing entirely to have a study that proves causation. So with the link or the supposed link between root canals and cancer, even if that's a good study that showed that, you know, 97% of cancer patients have had a prior root canal, we don't know from that data whether the root canal caused cancer. I mean, we can we can do that with a lot of things. I mean, we can say that 90, 97% of cancer patients have worn sunglasses in the past year. Well, that's maybe true, but that doesn't mean that wearing sunglasses causes cancer. So we have to be very careful when we look at data. So again, I would love to look at the actual study that supposedly linked root canals to cancer. I've looked for it in the past and have not been able to find it, but I've certainly seen that statistic shared online in various settings, usually, usually on Facebook or somewhere. So I'm assuming the documentary that you watch to mention that statistic, and I have not seen the documentary either, but I will try to check it out because I think it's an interesting idea in terms of dental health and root canals and cancer risk.
Speaker2:
So so patients do ask me about this a lot in terms of. I've root canals and I tell them if you have an infection in your mouth, definitely think you need to address it. I have concerns that a persistent infection in the mouth not being addressed is going to cause future problems down the road. So I do think it's worth addressing. A root canal is not anyone's idea of fun. However, I do recommend people have a root canal when it's recommended by their dentist. Ideally, it will be done by what's what's known as a biological dentist. So a dentist who has additional training beyond the normal dental training to really be aware of the specifics of mouth health, more natural approaches in terms of of doing the root canal. Biological dentist is also going to be very aware of the risks of certain metals in the mouth, whether it's mercury, amalgams or something else. They're going to generally use safer materials when they do their procedure. So so my recommendation would be definitely see a biological dentist. And if he or she recommends a root canal, do it because it's probably needed. The pros outweigh the cons and certainly is going to save the mouth health. I'm not convinced that root canals per se may cause cancer, but I definitely do think that good oral health is important for just overall health as well as as reducing risk of cancer. So Chris, I hope this helps in Chris for you and for Audra.
Speaker2:
I want you to know I'm praying for both of you guys. And thank you so much for sharing your question with us. And if anyone else listening has a question to ask, please take advantage of the feature on our website that allows you to leave a voicemail with your question. You can go to Cancer Secrets dot com. Click on the podcast tab at the top of the page. And over on the right side of the page, you'll see a little tab where you can click to leave us a question and it will prompt you to leave a voicemail which we will receive, and we'll make our best effort to answer your question, ideally on the air, because I know your questions are questions other people probably have as well. So thank you in advance for submitting your questions and thank you for listening to the podcast. I hope you found this information to be helpful. I truly care about you and wherever you are in your cancer journey. I'm humbled by the listeners we have from countries throughout the world. Thank you so much for listening. As always, please subscribe to the Cancer Secrets podcast to be notified when new episodes are released. If you're enjoying these podcasts, please take a minute and provide a review on iTunes. Finally, please share the podcast with your family and friends. All previous episodes are available for free on our website. Cancer Secrets dot com. We have some great episodes coming up, including an interview with cancer survivor and best selling author Chris Walk. I look forward to next time.
Speaker1:
Thank you for listening to the Cancer Secrets podcast. If you were encouraged by this show, please share it with a loved one or friend. Help support the show by leaving us a rating and review on iTunes. The more reviews, the more friends like you can find the show. Finally, to learn more, visit us online at Doctor Stay Google.com. The Cancer Secrets Podcast. Changing the Cancer Paradigm.
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