Just Diagnosed with Cancer

Hey everyone,

I just received my biopsy results from Dana Farber confirming a suspected primary bone tumor of the femur. The cancer is called Ewing's Sarcoma and thankfully it has not metastasized(spread) to any other parts of the body. I am a 22 year-old male from New England who has used cannabis recreationally for about 6 years, and I expect to keep using cannabis throughout chemotherapy and probable surgery/radiation.
My questions are: Is anyone aware of specific strains of cannabis that are more suitable for the type of chemotherapy I will experience? I also have a few questions about obtaining clones (perhaps this is a no-no?). If anyone else has experienced this type of cancer or even cancer in general- any advice (especially concerning the medical cannabis issue) would be great. Thanks everyone.

So sorry to read your news, Freshheadies, but it sounds like you're getting excellent care through the Farber institute. You're young and have your cancer in an extremity, so they've already told you, I'm sure, that your prognosis is hopeful!

I'm going to let the medical cannabis resident experts address specific strains. Do you live in a medicinal cannabis state? If so, both the physician who gives you your recommendation and the dispensary can be particularly helpful in suggesting specific strains. Trying to get a specific medical strain on the street is going to be a more challenging proposition. From what I've been learning here and at school, people who use cannabis to help quell chemo/radiation symptoms generally find good anti-emetic (anti-nausea/vomiting) help from Indica or Indica-dominant strains, which also tend to help with pain. They can be more sedating, however. That's not a bad thing in your case. Don't rule out using prescription meds for the side-effects, too, because some of those work quite well.

I have a particular interest in cancer because I had a sister who had ovarian cancer. My cancer text says you'll probably be on alternate courses of vincristine, cyclophosphamide, and doxorubicin with courses of ifosfamide/etoposide mixed in, too. You can read about side effects of each of those medicines once they tell you what your specific meds will be. Hair fallout. Mouth sores. Nausea. Those'll be some of the main ones.

Here are a few links you may already have, and I apologize if you already do!

Ewing Family of Tumors Treatment (PDQ®) (Good general info)
Bone Cancer: Questions and Answers (a Q and A)
Bonetumor.org - The Web's Most Comprehensive Bone Tumor Resource

If I can be of any help in helping you translate anything you don't understand in medical literature, please let me know. I'm just a third-year med student, but I'm still very close to all the vocabulary study and am booking up in preparation for my board exams in another month or so. I'm sure your family must be worried as can be. (I have a son about your age, so it's not hard to put myself in your mom's place.) Let them do everything they can for you because, believe it or not, they need to feel like they're helping and loving you just as much as you need to feel that affection and support right now. Another thing I can recommend for both you and your family based on our experience with my sister is participation in any patient and family support groups they have at your medical institution. You're in a new club now, one not all that many people understand, and I expect you'll find that it's particularly helpful to talk to other club members when people who've not been through the disease aren't getting it.

I wish you all the luck in the world, my friend. Please let us know how you're doing!

I am a cancer survivor myself (Hodgekins Lymphoma) and I have to tell you that when I smoked during chemo I primarily smoked Sour Diesal.

It made me hungry, helped with my body pains, and it also gave me a mental boost. Pot made chemo, surgery and radiation far more bearable.

I am glad to hear that your cancer was discovered relatively early and I'm hoping that means successful treatment. Unfortunately, I am familiar with Ewing's Sarcoma and understand the severity of your disease.
I had lung cancer and lost my right lung almost 4 yrs ago. The chemo was much harder on me than the surgery, but MJ made a big difference, particularly with appetite and nausea.( Being stoned also made me feel better in general, as well as improving my attitude. It can't be measured, but it counts just the same.)
Getting high when you're sick isn't the same as tokin' up and enjoying the buzz as usual- it's difficult to enjoy anything when you're ill- but it does help with the way you feel, and I'll by God drink to that.

Hey fresheadies,

Please take a look at StormCrows post for more info on MJ and cancer:

http://boards.cannabis.com/medicinal...-everyone.html

Also, you might want to join the yahoo group "oleandersoup" and read some of the info there on the use of oleander extract in treating cancer. Basically, oleander extract is being used to treat various forms of cancer, even terminal cases. The FDA ran phase 1 clinical trials on it years ago, the only reason I know is because I was informed that doctor in Limerick (Ireland) was involved in the trials. They were very successful, perhaps too successful. Even though people with terminal cancer were given the "all clear" several months after the trials, no phase 2 trials ever commenced. Many people, including your doctors, will tell you alternative medicine is a load of B.S. And to be honest, a lot of it is. However, there are methods that do work. Before you make up your mind, just read up on oleander at the yahoo group and also check out phoenixtears.ca for more info on cannabis and cancer. You're in control now, no-one else.

Even if you do decide to do chemo, oleander extract has been proven to ensure you have minimal side effects and smoking a few spliffs will certainly lessen the nausea.

Take care,

Simon

P.S. Before anybody pips in and starts posting comments about people taking cash from vulnerable people, these forms of medicine are relatively cheap. You can make your own hash oil for nothing if you grow your own cannabis and the oleander extract can also be made for a few dollars if you wish.

Hey bud, probably Indica is the best way to go because it is 100% body while Sativa is cerebral. You want to probably stick with a soiless mix or soil your first grow. Can't really afford any mishaps because of cost and time and it sucks so you want to stick with a forgiving medium such as soil or soiless. You want to get some good lights and this for your personal use so you don't really need anymore than 200 watts and you want a spectrum of 5000K for daylight or veg and 3000K for bloom. You want to get organic fertz and I recommend Fox Farm. You can get your stuff on Amazon or maybe eBay if you have no access to organic nurseries or if identity confidentiality is a major issue. Dude, is there a bud that you get that you really like or you like the way it hits your nerves? If so maybe you can score some seeds from them. If not I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend Indica strains. Maple Leaf grows fast and easy. Anything with super fat leaves and thick stalks. Anything else let me know. I am big into closet cultivations. Also you don't want to grow more plants than what it is worth because of the Po Po or as I like to mistakenly purposely call them the Poo Poo. Oh you could get a 70/30 mix - Indica over Sativa if you want or you could grow one Indica and one Sativa. That way you have the best of both worlds. Sativa takes longer to grow though and it can be a little more difficult. It will not grow in uniform with the other one if you do that but I think that is probably the best all around you know? That way you have mental relief and physical relief available when you need it. :thumbsup:

Dude to be honest with you....you might not need the chemo if you grow super herbs. My Uncle's best friend has had some wicked experiences with chemo (breast cancer) and she is an entertainer so she's tough but I hate what she has gone through. I just thought it was uneccessary. I think it is important to stop the spread of the tumor and to try to minimize it but she basically is exhausted from the treatment. I just don't like what it did to her. There is a fungus that helps hair and skin to grow at least 10 times faster but I am not allowed to say the word on this forum I guess so hit me up if you want to talk, peace.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Aspire420

Dude to be honest with you....you might not need the chemo if you grow super herbs. My Uncle's best friend has had some wicked experiences with chemo (breast cancer) and she is an entertainer so she's tough but I hate what she has gone through. I just thought it was uneccessary. I think it is important to stop the spread of the tumor and to try to minimize it but she basically is exhausted from the treatment. I just don't like what it did to her. There is a fungus that helps hair and skin to grow at least 10 times faster but I am not allowed to say the word on this forum I guess so hit me up if you want to talk, peace.

---

Distributing unfounded medical information is dangerous, and stupid. There is no solid medical evidence showing high grade marijuana can cure cancer. Not liking what chemo did to someone IS NOT a reason to suggest someone skip it altogether. Ugh.

A friends mom of mine just died of colon cancer, my grandpa is coming out of surgery for prostate cancer, and my grandpa died of liver cancer.

I do fundraising walks every year to help the study of cancer.

I admire the will power of and give all my best wishes to all who battle cancer

Thumbs up to those who support the cause

Try to Stay Sunny, positive attitude for the win!

"Distributing unfounded medical information is dangerous, and stupid. There is no solid medical evidence showing high grade marijuana can cure cancer. Not liking what chemo did to someone IS NOT a reason to suggest someone skip it altogether. Ugh."

Medical evidence? Take a look here if you havent already:

http://boards.cannabis.com/medicinal...-everyone.html

Another good reason to "skip it altogether" would be mounting evidence that at least 25% of secondary cancers are caused by the chemicals in chemo, that stuff is so bad in so many ways. Its also been shown time and time again that people who dont have chemo often live up to 4 times longer than those that have it.

Its a crazy world we're living in folks.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by unknownsoldier

"Distributing unfounded medical information is dangerous, and stupid. There is no solid medical evidence showing high grade marijuana can cure cancer. Not liking what chemo did to someone IS NOT a reason to suggest someone skip it altogether. Ugh."

Medical evidence? Take a look here if you havent already:

http://boards.cannabis.com/medicinal...-everyone.html

Another good reason to "skip it altogether" would be mounting evidence that at least 25% of secondary cancers are caused by the chemicals in chemo, that stuff is so bad in so many ways. Its also been shown time and time again that people who dont have chemo often live up to 4 times longer than those that have it.

Its a crazy world we're living in folks.

---

It definitely is a crazy world where people say crazy things and do crazy things.

You are absolutely nuts to suggest that super herbs is the cure for thousands of types of a mitotic diseases.

Also chemo although harsh, isn't that bad with the supplement of herb.

It would be one thing to suggest perhaps forgoing chemo if a woman had stage I breast cancer doing a diet/supplement regiment. It's another thing to suggest this if someone had stage IV lymphomia hodgkins. In that case, metastasis has taken hold and sorry, herb doesn't stop it. Otherwise no one would have cancer. My cancer would've never spread if that were the case.

This is not just a crazy world where people say and do dangerous things. A couple of these are crazy, dangerous and medically irresponsible posts.

Thank goodness there are people here like THCBongman and Rebgirl who are testaments to the fact that traditional chemotherapies can and do effectively cure cancers. Thank goodness patients like the original poster of this thread listen to their legitimate doctors and take that advice, not absurd advice like that bit above about oleandar extract. My wife's in Houston this week doing prep for her board exams, but I'm going to ask another mod to look at a couple of the irresponsible threads above.

Be perfectly clear on this point. No one has found anything that works better for mitotic neoplastic diseases than traditional chemotherapies and radiation treatments. This combined with the fact that we have better and earlier diagnostics is why modern medicine is enjoying ever-increasing cure rates for cancer. Those rates will only continue to get better. There's incontrovertible pathological evidence that 95% of secondary cancers, by the way, are caused by primary cancers. We know this by simply looking under a microscope and seeing the original cancer cells when they've returned in new areas. It has NOT been shown that people who don't have chemo live four times longer than those who do. People who don't have chemo either die sooner or they live as long as they were meant to because they have slow-growing cancers that weren't destined to kill them in the first place.

Cannabis is good for treating chemo symptoms, but Katyowns is quite correct. No one has yet proven that cannabis is a cure for any type of cancer. In the links that Storm Crow loves to promote on this site, people need to notice that no where do any of those writeups StormCrow's links abstract studies in which cannabis isolates like synthetic THC and/or CBD are given to mice or affect cells in a petri dish in a seemingly positive manner. That's not the same thing as saying weed cures cancer. Not by a long shot. We seem to have hopeful evidence that the active ingredient THC has an impressive impact on glial cell death/glioma brain tumors. That's being studied in depth right now at a medical center in Spain. That's as far as the evidence goes--hopeful indications with some cells in response to isolated cannabis ingredients.

Educate yourself by talking to multiple oncologists- NOT by listening to the advice of would-be 'doctors' on the internet.

There is a lot of bullshit floating around, and this site has a policy of discouraging irresponsible medical and legal advice, which Aspire420 has already been formally warned about, ahem. Also your referencing treating cancer with one of the 'other substances' we don't discuss here is simply ridiculous... kind of like your explanation of how to hybridize roses, or your telling that landlord he could let tenants grow outdoors on his property without fear of the federal agents, lol... :wtf: If you can't get it right, don't pretend to understand.

Best of luck in finding a successful treatment for your cancer, but this thread is closed due to the dangerous advice being given.

Edit: There's one MD on this thread, and a med student in rotations... listen to Dave Byrd and Birdgirl's advice, which is based in solid medical practice, and discuss any alternative therapy that interests you with your oncologist.