Cancer Care: Medicine and More
Reported February 28, 2008
CHICAGO, Ill. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — Most treatments for cancer include chemotherapy, surgery or radiation. But rarely does the standard of care extend further. But a center in Chicago is using a unique way to fight cancer.
Three weeks after her youngest daughter was born, Gloria Cotaquispe was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer.
“That was kind of a shock, adjusting to having a C-section, a newborn, and being diagnosed with colon cancer,” Cotaquispe says.
Despite 10 months of chemotherapy, her cancer spread to her liver, lungs, and ovaries.
“I wanted to hear, ‘You’re going to get better,’ or, ‘You’re going to have a chance to get better,’ but I didn’t hear that at all,” Cotaquispe says.
Then she met Dr. Peter Tothy at the block center, who offered an integrative plan that combines the very best of complementary and standard medicine.
“This approach is a very active approach. We ask a lot of patients,” says Peter Tothy, M.D., an integrative medical oncologist at The Block Center for Integrative Cancer Treatment in Evanston, Ill.
Radiation, surgery, and chemotherapy are all used here. But just as important is massage, individualized diet plans, exercise and yoga — all done while patients get their treatments. Cotaquispe first had surgery — an option not offered by other doctors — then chemo. She’s changed her diet — no sugar, meat or dairy — and gets the many other treatments offered here.
“The change is really, to me, it’s dramatic,” Cotaquispe says.
Her CT scans agree. Her last scan shows the spots on her liver are shrinking. The spots on her lungs are gone.
“For the first time, I feel like, a normal 27-year-old should feel who has two young children,” Cotaquispe says.
Dr. Tothy is gratified, but not surprised.
“The survival outcomes that I’ve seen in this center are very dramatically different than what I would see otherwise,” Dr. Tothy says.
The Block Center engages in clinical research with university facilities across the United States and Israel.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Leni Kass
Public Relations
The Block Center for Integrative Cancer Care
Chicago, IL
(847) 229-8911