The Dog Cancer Survival Guide (50 page)

“I used Apocaps as soon as I could get my hands on them. Our first dog, Shadow, was diagnosed with cancer and given 2-3 weeks to live. We changed his diet to the highest degree according to Dr. D’s advice, and he went on Apocaps as soon as possible. Shadow was with us for seven quality months, before he passed on in his own time. I am absolutely positive that Apocaps was an essential ingredient to this longevity. Our second dog was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer a year ago. He went immediately onto Apocaps, and we have celebrated his one-year anniversary from a cancer that has a best-prognosis of 3 months. He is fitter and healthier than ever. I am convinced that Apocaps gave both my boys the ingredients their bodies needed to support their health while telling cancer cells to take a long hike.”

– Susan Harper, High Wycombe, England

Dr. Johnson-Delaney was “very pleased” with the results of this first experience with Apocaps. She confided that she has lost her own hedgehogs to this same cancer, and has tried every tool avail-able. Apocaps was the first thing to enhance the hedgehog’s quality of life and even help with tumor regression.

Based on these results, Dr. Johnson-Delaney decided to expand her test and try Apocaps with ferrets, which, according to her “have the highest tumor rate of just about any mammal on the planet.”

Ferrets often can’t receive conventional treatments due to their size (less than one kilogram, or 2 pounds), and because they tend to suffer toxic side effects from chemotherapy. A common cancer in ferrets is lymphoma, and she found that using Apocaps seemed to hold these tumors in check if solid masses were detected. They didn’t grow, and most ferrets had a decrease in clinical symptoms – in other words, felt better than they had. One ferret in particular, did really well. His tumor was so large it was keeping him from breathing fully, and normally she would have suggested immediate euthanasia. Instead, she offered Apocaps, and based on her recent experience, the guardians agreed to try it. The tumor shrank enough so that he could breathe again, and he lived another four months.

As you’ll see in the introductory chapter in my From the Oncologist section, my mantra in cancer care is Consider Everything. As an oncologist and chemotherapy specialist, I do not turn to alternative medicine first, but I do work closely with holistic vets who do. As long as a non-pharmaceutical supplement is safe and may help the dog, I do not object to its use.

From a conventional oncological perspective, we have a lot to learn about Apocaps, especially about how they interact with chemotherapy and radiation. I am certainly impressed with the science behind Apocaps, and their promise as a sensitizer for chemotherapy and radiation.

You may or may not be considering conventional treatments, but Apocaps is worthy of careful consideration for use in conventional protocols and/or as a stand-alone supplement.

Her experience with lymphoma led her to try Apocaps with other tumors, and the results were even better. A ferret had a fibrosarcoma over his eye. These tumors usually grow so fast in ferrets that they take over the entire skull within two or three months, killing the animal. Dr. Johnson-Delaney reported that Apocaps slowed the fibrosarcoma’s growth tremendously. The tumor didn’t invade the bone, and she was still treating him six months later. He lived over ten months past the initial debulking surgery with Apocaps treatment.

These successes led Dr. Johnson-Delaney to try Apocaps in other species. For example, guinea pigs with inoperable mammary tumors and lymph node masses near the genitals are poor candidates for surgery, and there aren’t many other options for treatment. She put two guinea pigs with this same disease on Apocaps and saw significant decrease in the masses for each. One patient saw no growth or change in the masses even after six months. In another example, she used Apocaps in combination with debulking surgery and carbergoline (an anti-prolactin medication), and saw large mammary fibromas in rats reduce significantly, fail to regrow, or grow no larger. She’s even just starting Apocaps for birds with “benign” masses that are technically not malignant, but are inhibiting breathing, flying, or quality of life.

Overall, Dr. Johnson-Delaney reported, Apocaps gave comfort time and a good quality of life to her patients. They felt better, they played more, and her clients felt it was giving them more time with their pets. She hears from her clients that they are happy to have an alternative, particularly in older animals.

“We used Apocaps and our dog Tyler has more energy and was his old self once we started using them. When we first learned of them we bought four bottles and then for a while they were not available. A short while later they were reintroduced to the market and we bought them and the improvement in Tyler was incredible.”

– John Arquette, Fayetteville, New York

When asked point-blank if she was comfortable with the plant-based supplement from a veterinary pharmaceutical standpoint, Dr. Johnson Delaney’s response was unequivocal: yes. There are a lot of chemicals in natural, plant-based sources that have real, documented, physiological actions in the body, she pointed out. Vets routinely use glucosamine chondroitin, for example, and vitamin complexes. She also said some natural substances are just as effective as pharmaceuticals, but they are not patentable, so they slip through the cracks and “don’t make the evening news.” Dr. Johnson-Delaney went on to say that some other countries regulate natural substances and officially approve their use for diseases, because they are potent and viable therapeutics. Our own FDA only just recently began a process for regulating botanicals, and lags behind other countries in this regard. She further noted that nutraceuticals operate according to the laws of chemistry, just like pharmaceuticals do. When you look at these substances from a chemistry viewpoint and study their actions in the body, she said, it quickly becomes obvious what is therapeutic, and what is not.