Current Perspectives on Advances in Cancer Treatment
This page shares updates on promising directions in cancer care, including new treatments and supportive approaches that may improve outcomes. Researchers are exploring the use of mushrooms like Reishi and Coriolus to boost the effects of certain lung cancer drugs, while vitamin D supplements during breast cancer treatment may help improve response rates. Eating a high-fiber, plant-based diet has been linked to better gut health, reduced inflammation, and possible slowing of blood cancers like multiple myeloma. New hydrogel delivery methods are being designed to make chemotherapy more effective and gentler on the body. Scientists are also finding that imbalances in the gut microbiome may play a role in early-onset colorectal cancer, suggesting the value of approaches that support digestive health. In addition, simple exercises performed during chemotherapy may cut the risk of nerve damage and improve quality of life for patients.
Ganoderma, Reishi, and Coriolus Versicolor Mushrooms in Lung Cancer Treatment, May 2025 article
Lung cancer is the leading cause of death in the world. More than three-quarters of the disease can be attributed to non-small cell lung cancer. A subgroup of these patients has the oncogene EGFR, epidermal growth factor receptor, which promotes growth and progression of the disease. The development of EGFR kinase inhibitors has revolutionized non-small cell lung cancer treatment, but eventually, therapeutic resistance develops. In recent studies, the mushrooms Reishi, also known as Lingzhi, Ganoderma, and Yunazhi, Coriolus, appear to augment the effectiveness of the EGFR kinase inhibitor drugs by targeting resistance mechanisms and enhancing immune responses.
Vitamin D Supplementation
Preclinical studies are the testing of a treatment or drug before being given to humans, to evaluate its effectiveness and safety. Vitamin D in preclinical studies has been shown to increase cancer cell death or apoptosis, reduce cell growth, invasion, and metastasis, as well as the growth of new blood vessels.
Neoadjuvant therapy, NST, is therapy given before surgery and can include Chemotherapy, hormone therapy, or immunotherapy, and is designed to reduce tumor and/or lymph node size and make surgery easier.
A study from April 2025 is the first study to compare the effect of oral Vitamin D supplementation, 50,000 units weekly, on pathologic complete response(pCR) when used during neoadjuvant systemic therapy (NST) for breast cancer. A pathologic complete response is equated with longer survival.
The results of NST and Vitamin D supplementation showed a significant effect on pathologic complete response in breast cancer itself, but were not conclusive in axillary lymph node involvement, and did trend toward pCR.
High Fiber Diet and Multiple Myeloma
A human pilot study was performed along with a mouse study, both of which were designed to show the effect of a high fiber diet on the progression of smoldering multiple myeloma, SAM, and the diagnosis called abnormal proteins of indeterminate significance, MGUS, which are proteins associated with the development of myeloma. Myeloma is a plasma cell cancer, composed of the white blood cells that make antibodies. Plasma cells originate from the immune system's B lymphocytes.
It is a blood disease of unknown origin that is asymptomatic initially, but with progression, it affects the bone marrow where the cells are produced, causing bone pain, anemia, and kidney damage, where the proteins are filtered for excretion. A lifestyle of poor diet, elevated body mass index BMI, gut dysbiosis, insulin resistance, and inflammation is associated with disease progression.
In this study, patients ate a high-fiber plant-based diet for 12 weeks, followed by continued nutritional coaching on the diet for six months. During the time on the diet, people experienced changes that reflected a higher quality of life, lower BMI, and a lowered adiponectin/leptin, A/D, hormone level, which reflects improved metabolism, while a high ratio is linked to obesity and insulin resistance. It also created an improved microbial balance for the bacteria that create butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid that maintains gut health and improves immune function. The study was too short to reach significant conclusions, but in
the mice study, which followed a similar diet, it delayed progression to myeloma from 12 to 30 months, while 40% had no progression. The conclusion was that a high fiber plant-based diet provided a beneficial role of diet, the microbiome, and reduced inflammation that potentially could modulate disease progression in myeloma.
Hydrogel Delivery
Hydrogel-based infusion delivery systems are designed to hold large amounts of water, which can then allow it to carry a pH buffer, such as sodium bicarbonate. The idea is that the bicarbonate balances the tumor's acidic microenvironment, which, when present, is known to allow the cancer to spread by offering a strategy that can neutralize treatment. Then, along with the delivery system, the chemotherapy drug Adriamycin is added, allowing an effective conveyance of the drug to the targeted cancer, for more optimal treatment with fewer side effects than just a standard systemic IV infusion.
The goal, according to the researchers, is to reduce the ability of the cancer to spread by neutralizing its acid level protection, which diminishes treatments.
Adriamycin is used in many cancers, including breast, bladder, lung, ovarian, and some blood cancers.
An Association Between Gut Dysbiosis and Early Onset Colorectal Cancer (EOCRC)
In past decades, colorectal cancer was considered a disease of older people. Recently, the mortality from colorectal cancer occurring in patients less than 55 years old has risen by one percent. This has prompted G.I. specialists to recommend screening for colon cancer to begin at less than 40 years of age.
Risk factors for later onset colorectal cancer include obesity, smoking, excessive alcohol use, and diabetes, along with dietary associations of reduced intake of fresh fruit and vegetables and fiber, and increased intake of red meat and processed meats.
In EOCRC, there are mixed results regarding the influence of these risk factors associated with the onset of disease. Some studies have shown an increased risk with obesity or increased alcohol intake, but in a case-based study of 175 patients with colon-rectal cancer and 235 healthy adults, no association with any of the known risk factors for late-onset colon cancer was seen.
Most but not all colon cancer develops from pre-cancerous polyps that grow and develop into colon cancer. In EOCRC, almost half the people present without polyps, and thus have minimal or no symptoms until more advanced disease is present, making it more difficult to treat. Influences that now appear to be associated with EOCRC are alterations in the normal gut microbiome, called dysbiosis. Our beneficial microbes maintain the homeostasis of gut function, and imbalances from exposures to environmental toxins, antibiotics, highly processed meats, poor diet, and chronic stress lead to diminished digestive functions and secondary inflammatory reactions. These influences affect the needed beneficial/pathogenic bacteria ratios, alter gut barrier protection, and imbalance normal immune activity.
Their effects are related to:
High intake of processed meats containing carcinogenic nitrates increases inflammation and damages beneficial intestinal microbes.
Red meat has iron, which can damage the gut barrier and change the normal digestion of mucosal cells.
Large ingestion of animal products and processed meats also requires the production of larger amounts of bile that are needed to digest the fats, and with their elevation, results in increased production of reactive oxygen species and inflammation, which interferes with cell membrane function in the gut and disrupts energy production and healing of the cell membranes.
Specific pathogens can cause dysbiosis, which can inhibit normal immune T cell response and alter epigenetic responses in a way that favors the development of colorectal cancer cells. One example is a specific known pathogenic bacterium, F nucleatum, which increases abnormal genetic signaling, activating oncogenes and inhibiting normal T cell immune function.
Research on other possible microbial carcinogens is still limited in that only 30% of both commensal, or friendly bacteria, as well as microbial pathogens, have been categorized.
The benefits of a balanced Microbiome
Supports nutrient utilization
Improves the immune functions of removing cancer cells by identifying abnormal cells
Improves immunotherapy responses through our own supportive immune system
CONTROLS inflammation
Strengthens the mucosal barrier, preventing leaky gut, which allows damaging molecules to enter the lymphatics and blood, causing inflammation.
Beneficial microbes produce short-chain fatty acids, SCFAs, which are anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer; they support immune function and help heal the mucosal barrier.
Specific microbes in the lactobacillus family decrease inflammation and improve tight junction function of the barrier, along with increasing antimicrobial proteins for protection.
This article references treatment approaches to balancing the microbiome as a means to reduce the risk of EOCRC. They reference a well-known probiotic, VSL#3, which offers an enhancement of the microbiome diversity and improved immune function. However, discussed below are areas of gut activity that must be addressed in recognition of the complexity of treatment needed to restore homeostasis and potentially reduce these early colon cancers.
Integrative Approach to Healing the Gut can be offered by integratively trained physicians.
These recommendations are unfamiliar in conventional Western treatment protocols. Treatments can be personalized by using contemporary lab technologies to assess multiple areas of gut function rather than just assuming what may be useful.
The current approach to controlling and reducing EOCRC appears to be related to
These are areas of treatment that integrated physicians are well-trained and familiar with.
Eliminate harmful substances, which would include foods and toxins.
Replace diminished digestive support that may be needed, including digestive enzymes, hydrochloric acid, and/or bile.
Repair the gut barrier, or leaky gut.
Reinoculate the needed beneficial microbial strains and eliminate pathogens when needed, including bacteria, candida, parasites, and fungus.
Rebalance needed lifestyle modifications on a physical, emotional, and spiritual level.
The Use of Simple Exercise in Preventing Neuropathy From Chemotherapy
During Chemotherapy, the development of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) can create significant interference with daily activities and quality of life by causing pain and sensory changes, including numbness, burning, tingling, and significant balance issues due to changes in feeling in the nerves in the lower extremities.
Chemotherapy regimes that use oxaliplatin and the Vinca group of chemotherapies are associated with CIPN in greater than 75% of patients during treatment, and result in the development of chronic symptoms, post-chemotherapy in 50%.
It is unfortunate that Western medicine drugs have proven ineffective in preventing or improving this form of chronic neuropathy.
A study from Germany tested the effect of simple exercises during Chemotherapy and their effect on CIPN. One hundred and fifty-eight women were divided into three groups: a control group, a group that exercised on a vibration plate, and a third group that worked on improving balance on increasingly unstable surfaces. The women were followed for five years post-chemotherapy, which revealed that two times as many women in the control group had CIPN as the exercise groups, and that exercise alongside Chemotherapy reduced its incidence by 50 to 70%.