Alternative Treatments for Childhood Leukemia

If you're the parent of a youngster suffering from childhood leukemia, medical and pharmaceutical advances can't come fast enough. Treatments are getting better, but kids can't avoid experiencing painful side effects, as chemotherapy and radiation remain the most-often types of treatments used. To fight the disease on multiple fronts, clinical trials are being conducted around the globe--many of them employing alternative drugs, herbs, chemotherapy mixes and infusions. Allowing a child to participate in such experiments is a guessing game. Even doctors don't know which combination will work. There are alternative treatments being evaluated inside and outside of the scientific community.
  1. History

    • Alternative leukemia treatments (also known as complementary treatments in the medical community) have suffered short shrift when compared to other cancer research efforts. It's not that the disease is impacting fewer families--it's just that there has been a reticence to "experiment" on the young and seriously ill. That stated, clinical trials are expanding and today's pantheon of treatments run the gamut from mistletoe to complex cocktails of chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation.

    Types of All-natural Alternative Treatments

    • According to a recent study, the most often-used natural alternative treatments for childhood leukemia are vitamin supplementation, mineral supplementation, homeopathic remedies and mistletoe therapies. These treatments were most likely chosen by caregivers after undertaking research into over-the-counter methods recommended by those who believe that childhood leukemia should not be treated with dangerous chemicals. Relatively few medical doctors sanction these plant-based remedies. Those opting for them--a whopping 59 percent of those queried--did so without outside recommendations from the medical community.

    Antibody-based Therapies

    • The National Cancer Institute, a conduit for clinical trial tracking and data collection, is having success with clinical trials employing biologic therapies to kids suffering from childhood leukemia. These protocols use the child's own immune system to fight cancer. Laboratories extract substances from the child's body, then alter or supplement them with biological agents to fight leukemia cells. Learn more about this type of treatment by researching it under these titles: biologic therapy, biotherapy and immunotherapy.

      An offshoot of biologic therapy, monoclonal antibody therapy uses lab-created antibodies to create systemic cells that rally a child's immune system. These altered antibodies are versatile and can identify substances in cancer cells that encourage the growth of healthy ones. When the child's body receives an infusion of these antibodies, cancer cells are attacked and destroyed. Even in advanced leukemias, monoclonal antibody therapy has been shown to halt the advance of the cancer. Auxiliary to trials using infusions of antibodies alone, researchers subjected other patients to a cocktail of antibodies plus drugs, radioactive materials and chemotherapy toxins. Over time, results will be compared and added to the scientific community's treatment arsenal.

    Current Scientific Alternative Treatments

    • The parents of stricken children quickly become experts at complex terminology. They learn to differentiate Childhood Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) from Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MS) and Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia (JML). These three are just the tip of the iceberg, but as the most-often diagnosed types of childhood leukemia, you'll be interested in alternative treatment methods currently in use for each as well as a few others.

      Acute Myeloid Leukemoia (AML)
      Cases of AML are responding well to a mix of drugs known as intrathecal chemotherapy. AML subjects the young patient to consolidation and intensification of drugs during and after remission. Alternately, combinations of chemotherapy, chemotherapy plus stem cell transplantation, new anti-cancer drugs and monclonial antibody therapy are being mixed and matched in various combination. Children diagnosed with an offshoot of AML--granulocytic sarcoma--are receiving their alternative treatment as chemotherapy with or without radiation.

      Recurrent Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (RAPL)
      Children suffering from RAPL are currently receiving a variety of alternative therapies that include mixing and matching arsenic trioxide, infusions of monoclonal antibody treatments and a mixture of chemotherapy cocktails approved for clinical trials. Comparative trials are being conducted using chemotherapy with ATRA (All-trans retinoic acid) with and without the arsenic component.

      Childhood Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CCML)
      Found to be particularly responsive to stem cell transplantation, CCML best responds to drug therapy that includes Gleevec, an alternative pharmaceutical administered alone, with interferon or in conjunction with chemotherapy. When stem cell transplantation is used, lower doses of chemotherapy can be administered to produce a positive outcome, according to clinical trial results.

      Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia (JML)
      According to recent research findings, young people diagnosed with JML--particularly if they are newly diagnosed--will experience the best result if they are given a stem cell transplant. Additionally, trials following combinations of stem cells in conjunction with chemotherapy are very popular alternative treatments.

      Transient Myeloproliferative disorder (TMD)
      Parents whose children are diagnosed with TMD are considered fortunate because of all the childhood leukemia types, this is the only one that disappears on its own. Doctors wishing to accelerate the process are using transfusions, leukapheresis and chemotherapy as alternative treatments to cure the child.

    Alternative Treatments for Myelodysplastic Syndromes

    • As a byproduct of childhood leukemia and the harsh chemicals to which patients are subjected, children often experience symptoms such as infection, bleeding and anemia that require specialized treatment. These side affects can be mediated and eliminated using these alternative treatments: stem cell transplantation, a clinical trial of the latest anticancer drug approved by the FDA or a unique combination of chemicals delivered as a chemotherapy protocol.

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