disease-modifying versus chemopreventive properties

[Olga]

I want to point out that there are 2 different goals when people use CAM drugs (complimentary and alternative medicine drugs). One is preventive - the attempt of the person not to get cancer and the other is disease-modifying - to fight the established cancer or to slow it. If something is found to have cancer chemopreventive properties, it does not mean that it will also have the same positive effect on the people's established cancers. This controversy was already discovered in some cancers - like with the vitamins E and A controversial role in the lung cancer situation - helpful for non-smokers and harmful for the long term smokers that might already have undiagnosed small cancer tumors or precancerous formations in their bodies.
We are interested in the disease-modifying properties of the CAM substances, with the attention to their mode of action. Why is it important. CAM substances are usually have the same properties as the official drugs but they are administrated in the low dose, taken continuously.
Many of our patients are going to participate in the clinical trials - anti-angiogenesis agents, TKI, MTOR-inhibitors etc. As most of you probably aware by now, the problem with these drugs is the accrued resistance, when the tumors with the properties that escape the block of the clinical trial drug are able to progress uncontrollably. The same situation might happen when someone is taking the CAM substances with the similar mode of action. But there is more danger in it - If the mechanism of the drug on the clinical trial is similar to the CAM drug that the patient was taking before of the trial, then he enters the trial already having developed this type of resistance and it might ameliorate the efficacy of the drug on a clinical trial. Someone can actually loose their option to benefit from the more efficacious targeted therapy drug just because he tried/consumed tons of the sub-par CAM drug of the same class before.
It is also worrying that some of the studies with the targeted therapy drugs have shown the possible negative interactions of the consecutive administrations of these drugs so in reality not only the possibility to get the maximum benefit can be lost but also the harm can be done.