Treating cancer with light

I think one of the problems with the frustration in oncology is that once conventional doctors finish chemo, radiation and surgery, they don’t know what else to do … That’s it. They don’t have more options, so the patient feels frustration, hopelessness, and this is when they come to us.”

Seven Key Principles of Cancer Therapy

Hope4Cancer offers a comprehensive, customized approach to cancer treatment,⁵ focused around seven key principles:

1. Nontoxic cancer therapies such as pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) therapy, antimicrobials, anti-inflammatories, anti-angiogenic therapies such as hyperthermia and near-infrared light therapy, biological intravenous therapies such as vitamin C and laetrile
2. Immunomodulation
3. Nutrition, including diet and nutritional supplements
4. Detoxification (including the elimination of both negative thinking and bodily toxins) using coffee enemas, juicing, PEMF, vibrational therapy, herbs and near-infrared sauna
5. Oxygenation, including ozone and hyperbaric oxygen therapy
6. Gut microbiome restoration
7. Spiritual and emotional aspect of healing

As noted by Jimenez, “six of these principles, with the exception of nontoxic cancer therapy, apply to all of us. The treatment is really in the prevention.” Hope4Cancer also offers at-home treatment follow-up, which is really critical.

Patients typically stay at the treatment center for three to six weeks, but that doesn’t mean they’re cured in that time.

During their stay, they are given a customized program and learn how to implement it. But they still have to keep it up once they get home. In some cases, conventional cancer therapies will also be employed.

“Following these seven key principles is so important in integrating a truly holistic effect program,” Jimenez says. “That said, we’re medical doctors. I’m a naturopath also. Oftentimes, we have to do some conventional therapies to stop this aggressive tumor burden.

If a patient comes, for example, with a Pancoast tumor — this is a tumor in the upper part of the lung — it blocks the circulation to the brain. If you don’t give them spot radiation, five sessions, to decrease that, the patient’s not going to live. There are few, but there are some specific indications for radiation.

Pain is another one. I’d rather give five to seven spot radiations to the bone to reduce pain, reduce the likelihood of that bone fracturing or breaking, than having that patient be on narcotics or other tough pain medication …

After over 25 years of working in an integrative field, I want to empower. I want to have this information available, so that if you were just diagnosed with cancer, if you are in Stage 4 and have failed conventional therapies, [you know] there are options for you. There are always options. This is one of the main reasons for my writing this book, ‘Hope4Cancer.’

I think one of the problems with the frustration in oncology is that once conventional doctors finish chemo, radiation and surgery, they don’t know what else to do … That’s it. They don’t have more options, so the patient feels frustration, hopelessness, and this is when they come to us.”

Restricting Animal Protein May Improve Immune Function in Cancer Patients

Hope4Cancer incorporates almost all of the principles I know to be useful, and some strategies I was not aware of. Jimenez and I both belong to the Academy of Comprehensive Integrative Medicine (ACIM), which is where I first met him. Thomas Seyfried, Ph.D., one of the greatest cancer biologists in the world, whom I’ve interviewed twice, is also a member.

Many of Seyfried’s metabolic principles are now being adopted by cancer specialists, including Hope4Cancer. This includes restriction of animal protein in the initial phase of treatment. The rationale for this strategy is that animal protein can put stress on your immune function.

Jimenez stresses a “garden food plan” that focuses on whole, non-GMO foods that are easy to digest. While I do not recommend veganism, if you have aggressive, terminal cancer, it would probably be wise to avoid animal protein for a time and focus on lighter foods that do not trigger inflammatory responses. Avoiding lectins may also be advisable, as they too are known to cause inflammation.

“In my experience, cancer patients’ immune systems are of utmost importance. We know the reasons for that. Cancer cells like to evade the immune system. We can have an optimal immune system, but cancer steals cells.

This is one of Seyfried’s hallmarks of cancer. Cancer cells have found a way to shield or cloak themselves from being seen by the immune system,” Jimenez says.

“A tumor has two types of cells. Non-stem cancer cells make up about 99 percent of all the cells in a malignant tumor, lymph node nodule or mass. The 1 percent are called cancer stem cells. They exist in the primary tumor. In the primary tumor, these are of the epithelial variant. They’re epithelial cancer stem cells.

They leave the primary tumor, going to the extracellular matrix and then penetrate into the blood flow. This is how most cancers spread … They transition from epithelial to mesenchymal stem cells. In that way, they can penetrate the blood vessel wall. Once they’re in the circulation, that’s when we call them circulating tumor cells, because now they’re circulating freely in the blood supply.

These circulating tumor cells then form an embolus or a cellular arrest that fixates itself to the inner wall of the blood vessel. Now there’s a second transition from mesenchymal to epithelial cancer stem cells, and when they exit the blood vessel, they lead to metastasis — the breast cancer going to the liver, to the lung, to the brain and to the bone.

What’s interesting is that 80 percent or so of the research that goes on in cancer is on the primary tumor. But what is the cause of demise of a cancer patient? Seldom, with few exceptions, is it the primary tumor. It’s the metastatic activity. We have that inverted. We should be spending more funds and more energy on the metastasis process, not the primary tumor.

That said, in Hope4Cancer, we have a technology called ‘photodynamic infrared spectroscopy.’ This is using infrared light and … a sensitizer … called indocyanine green … We give it intravenously. It attaches to circulating tumor cells. The whole blood volume is checked in 17 minutes. It will pick up any circulating tumor cells in the blood. Then, using infrared light, we can kill and target those circulating tumor cells.”

The Importance of Metabolic Therapies

The basic concept of cancer as a metabolic disease is that cancer cells are distinctly metabolically different from healthy cells. They have dysfunctional mitochondria, which could be due to a variety of reasons but typically oxidative stressors.

Because of that, the mitochondria in cancer cells are unable to burn fuel normally, using oxygen, even though oxygen is present. Instead, they revert back to fermentation to produce energy, which is relatively inefficient but allows the cancer cells to survive and divide.

Metabolic therapies take advantage of this characteristic and essentially starve the cancer cells of their fuel, which is primarily glucose, but also glutamine, an amino acid found in proteins. The way you do that is by significantly lowering your blood glucose, typically through fasting or partial fasting. This also raises your ketone level, which, aside from being an ideal and preferred fuel for most healthy cells, are also anti-inflammatory.

Light Has Many Valuable Uses in Cancer Therapy

Once you’ve done that, other therapies can be integrated, such as hyperbaric oxygen, ozone and insulin potentiation therapy (IPT), the latter of which drives your blood sugar even lower to further starve those cancer cells. Jimenez also emphasizes the use of light.

“Light is so important,” he says. “For example, red light increases macrophages — increases their activation and their ability to engulf cancer cells and viruses …

Red light also increases oxygenation at the tissue level [and] healthy microcirculation. Green light decreases blood viscosity, which is that clumping of cells so that the red blood cells are not able to transfer oxygen to the tissue. Also, we see increased cellular energy, increased mitochondrial function with green light.

We use blue light to increase nitric oxide production [and] enhance telomerase activity … Cancer patients have shortened telomeres. As we age, those telomeres decrease in size. With blue light, it’s been shown to elongate these telomeres.

We have different ways of doing photodynamic therapy or photobiomodulation therapy, which is using light in all of its spectrum, from infrared to ultraviolet … We have infrared devices that can be done externally … It’s very good for external tumors and tumors that are palpable …

A new innovation is doing light therapy or photodynamic therapy intravenously … There is quite a number of substances, including vitamin C, curcumin and St. John’s wort extract that are enhanced and stimulated by light …

When someone is given intravenous curcumin, then we give them blue light. That enhances the effect. It starts to help those cancer cells produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) that are toxic to cancer cells. At the same time, you’re giving them ozone, or you premedicated them, if you will, with hyperbaric oxygen, so you have synergistic effects.”

Jimenez also uses light therapy in conjunction with fasting, IPT and low-dose chemotherapy, as many chemotherapeutic agents are photoactive substances as well. “When you’re doing the IPT process, in one vein you have two catheters going.

In one, you do the low-dose chemo, and in the other you do the light. So, you’re further enhancing the effect of the chemo,” Jimenez explains. Before this procedure, patients will fast for a minimum of 12 to 16 hours, depending on the condition of the patient.

Laetrile Therapy

Another therapy used at Hope4Cancer is amygdalin, also known as laetrile B17, a therapy developed by the late Dr. Harold W. Manner when he was at Loyola University. Jimenez explains its use:

“Intravenously, we bypass the gut. We use anywhere from 3 to 9 grams of amygdalin or laetrile B17 in an IV infusion. It’s still that workhorse in cancer therapy. I remember when I started working in integrative oncology in 1988. We used laetrile, nutrition and, oftentimes, shark cartilage … And many patients got well.

Now, of course, we know that people are more toxic in all aspects of the word, from the emotional to the physical. Laetrile still has a very important role. However, we use it more as an [adjunct] therapy, not as a primary therapy.”

Metabolic Therapy

I am currently in discussions with Jimenez, Travis Christofferson, author of “Tripping Over the Truth: The Return of the Metabolic Theory of Cancer,” and Seyfried to establish an advanced metabolic therapy at the Hope4Cancer clinics. While it would be useful for any stage of cancer, it would clearly work much better if the person has never received chemotherapy or radiation therapy.

Sadly, most of the patients at the Hope4Cancer clinic are already Stage 4 and have received these toxic interventions. The hope is to get more recently diagnosed patients who have yet to receive these immune-busting therapies that typically limit their chance for survival.

More Information

To learn more, be sure to pick up a copy of “Hope4Cancer: Seven Key Principles to Remove Fear and Empower Your Healing Journey.”

“Please avail yourself to this book. We talk about the fundamentals of cancer and healing. We talk about cancer. What causes it? How can we diagnose, screen and track it? And then we go into therapies. It’s quite a combination of many, many years of work, experience and travelling the world,” Jimenez says.

You can also find a lot of educational material on the treatment center’s website, Hope4Cancer.com. A printable PDF summarizing the seven key principles of cancer therapy⁶ can be found there as well.