The cancer project

 

We are studying this area as the number of people affected by cancer is constantly increasing, especially in low-income countries. However, even the simplest standard cancer treatments are often not available to people living in these regions, let alone the results of latest research approaches. It is not surprising that the forecasts are accordingly poor. (CanTreat International, 2010). Based on the figures of the International Agency for Research in Cancer (IARC, 2008), half of all the cancer cases are found in low-income areas and two thirds of all fatalities occur in these areas, too.

The healthcare systems in richer countries are also often unbalanced. Within the UK healthcare system (NHS) this can mean that, depending on the region you live in, certain, potentially life-supporting cancer treatments are no longer paid for. Such circumstances would then leave the life expectancy rate of the patients affected hinging on their personal financial resources. Homeopathic treatment methods offer an alternative, as the applied medicines are not patent-protected and the costs are comparatively low.  Clinical experience such as the Banerji Foundation (P. Banerji & Campbell, 2008) or Cancer Clinic St. Croce (Wurster, 2009) show that homeopathy can be a way to effectively treat some patients or to control the disease (Gaertner et al., 2014), without causing any or very few side effects (Frenkel, 2010).

This information becomes even more significant considering the often-lacking medical infrastructure found in low-income regions as this type of therapy approach can be applied as an outpatient treatment, far from any hospitals or clinics.

 

 

What is our approach to cancer?

 

Within the agenda of this project, we examine the effects of all homeopathic remedies available on human cancer cell lines and on original tumour cells.  And this is how it basically works:  We stain single components of the cells, so that the resulting light signals can easily be read by machines. For example, certain proteins that play an essential role in activating the apoptosis programme (programmed cell death) can be stained. Others give information about the vitality of cells or their division behaviour. This is how we learn which medicines could potentially be applied in cancer treatments in low-income countries and that they should be investigated more thoroughly.