I AM HealingStrong
Discover how to transform the most challenging chapter of your life with Jim Mann's inspiring podcast. As a stage 4 cancer survivor, Jim interviews famous musical artists like Tasha Layton, Ellie Holcomb, Katy Nichole, and Tim Timmons, as well as health influencers who beat incurable diseases like depression and addiction. Through humor and a renewed sense of purpose, guests courageously share their stories of overcoming the toughest times and learning to trust God. Tune in to Jim's powerful podcast to find hope and inspiration.
I AM HealingStrong
112: Healing Advanced Cancer Through Holistic Approaches | Dr. Francisco Contreras
Dr. Francisco Contreras, Director of Oasis of Hope Hospital, shares his insights on maintaining miracles in cancer care. His holistic philosophy prioritizes non-harmful therapies and the power of diet. Move beyond the traditional and embrace the compassionate approach demonstrated by Oasis of Hope, which is inspired by medical principles like "first, do no harm." He discusses his book, "The Art and Science of Undermining Cancer," and its intent to equip patients with the wisdom to make informed treatment choices.
Discover how drugs like Abdevo have sparked hope and healing, even as we acknowledge the diverse responses and financial challenges linked with targeted therapies. The conversation covers things like dendritic cell-based immunotherapy and the strategic use of low-dose chemotherapy to enhance alternative treatments, offering an insightful perspective on how to tackle advanced cancers.
In a world where mindset matters, the power of spiritual and emotional support in cancer treatment is undeniable. Experience the healing journey that intertwines faith and physical care, inspiring miraculous recoveries. Learn how the HealingStrong organization empowers individuals battling cancer to rejuvenate body and soul, fostering a community where hope and healing are within reach.
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Oasis of Hope
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And so one of the things that I tell my patients is that every outcome, from better results to complete remission, is a miracle, and miracles need to be maintained.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So let's say that you know you go through the therapy and the tumor goes away, and then you go back to your old ways and then the tumor comes back, and then you blame God because the miracle was not good enough. So miracles need to be maintained, and one of the ways is to reduce the possibility of this tumor, taking advantage of elements that make the tumor grow and proliferate, and diet plays a major, major role in that. A major, major role in that. And one of the reasons why in America, 50% of the population will develop cancer in their lifespan is because of the lifestyle. So changing that lifestyle is a very important factor to maintain a miracle.
Speaker 3:You're listening to the I Am Healing Strong podcast, a part of the Healing Strong organization, the number one network of holistic cancer support groups in the world. Each week we bring you stories of hope, real stories that will encourage you as you navigate your way on your own journey to health. Now here's your host stage four cancer thriver, jim Mann.
Speaker 2:Today I have the privilege of talking with Dr Francisco Contreras. He is the director, president and chairman of Oasis of Hope Hospital in Tijuana, mexico. How are you doing, dr Contreras?
Speaker 1:Doing very well. Thank you very much.
Speaker 2:Yes, I've heard a lot about you and your center and I can't believe I've not met you yet. But I appreciate this and I know you have a new book, the Art and Science of Undermining Cancer. Is that your newest?
Speaker 1:That is correct. That's the newest book and it's written in layman's terms. Oh, I need that. It gives you quite a bit of information about everything that is available for cancer patients so that they can make intelligent and informed decisions as to their cases and what to expect and how to choose the best therapies available for them.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's true, because when people get a diagnosis, obviously they're filled with fear and they just do whatever the doctor says. And if they don't have a doctor that sees the big picture, then they just go down a road of a lot of pain and quite often it does end up poorly. Thank God for people like you who see the bigger picture and realize that there's a whole lot more to it. You also have another book that I saw, called Look Younger Live Longer. I like that one because when I met my wife, I was 30. She was 21, and I always looked much younger. I literally had to show her my license to prove I was 30, because she thought I was her age. Now she looks younger and I look my age and older People think sometimes I'm her dad, which is really creepy. I might have to look into that book. Yes, that would be good. Yes, I need to look younger again. Well, tell me, give me a little background. You guys have been around for over 60 years now, right?
Speaker 1:Correct, and the origin of this was more philosophical than technical. The origin of this was more philosophical than technical. My father came to the conclusion that the reason why oncology was failing even back then was for lack of philosophical basis, and so he started his work based on two principles. The first principle was what Hippocrates, the father of medicine, said first, do no harm, because, especially in cancer, the treatments tend to be a lot more harmful than the cancer itself. And the second pillar was what Jesus said love your neighbor as you love your friends. So we say here at the hospital love your patient as you love yourself. And the impact of that is that we will never do something to a patient that we wouldn't do ourselves. And so those philosophical principles have dramatically changed the way a patient is treated. So it's treated with the therapies that are going to improve their quality of life and with therapies that are not going to be devastating for them.
Speaker 2:Right, and I understand Dr Tony. He was one of the doctors there. Right, he was our alumna. Yes, yeah, I was just talking to him recently. He said you two used to play tennis. Yes, who was the better tennis player?
Speaker 1:I think he was Okay.
Speaker 2:You're being modest, I'm sure. Okay, now my personal journey. I was diagnosed with melanoma stage four, and they told me I shouldn't live more than a month or two, which is very encouraging. They put me on immunotherapy, abdevo and I know when it does work. It works well and it worked well on me, thank God. In two months all the tumors shrunk. Of course, they kept me on it for two years, but it took care of everything, and that's been seven years now.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you for that. Yeah, I like that outcome. I have friends that had the same thing and their tumors doubled, which is not a good thing, or else there was no effect at all. So I know everybody is different, but they're going to give me one more MRI, coming up just to make sure everything is fine, they said, and then they're going to close the books on me. So I appreciate immunotherapy, but you have a whole department on immunotherapy, correct?
Speaker 1:Correct, correct, and I'm very encouraged by the fact that finally in the oncological world, the immune system is being addressed as forcefully as it is, and targeted immune therapy for checkpoint inhibitors has proven to be very effective in several kinds of tumors, especially in melanomas. So usually the combination would be Avivo and Yerboi, and the results have been very good. In fact, for advanced melanomas and even early stages of melanomas that are not surgically resolvable, our recommendation is going to be checkpoint inhibitors, as you have. There's another area of immune therapy that we have been working now for almost 15 years, which is the immunotherapy based on dendritic cells, and the mode of action is a little bit different than checkpoint inhibitors.
Speaker 1:So, if you want to look at it in a very easy way, a checkpoint inhibitor is like releasing your foot from the brake pedal releasing your foot from the brake pedal and our immune therapy is like putting the foot on the accelerator. So whenever we can combine both, we do. It's just not in our environment. It's not very possible, because targeted immune therapies are extremely expensive. Because targeted immune therapies are extremely expensive, so each one of the ones that you receive are around $10,000 every three weeks, every month, and so for most patients that's not possible because the insurance companies, if you combine with anything else, will not pay for those therapies. But at any rate, our immune therapy has been very, very effective and our results have improved significantly since we started using these very personalized type of vaccines Right Now, what kind of patients do you like to see?
Speaker 2:I mean, is it just anybody with cancer and they're full of fear and they don't know what to do? I mean, you see anybody, or do you specialize in a certain area?
Speaker 1:No, we treat all cancers. There are some type of tumors that respond better to one or other therapies. There are some malignancies that are extremely aggressive, and so the results are not the same. It will depend on how aggressive the tumor is and how advanced the malignancy is on a patient, because when you hear stage four, you get the idea that the patient is riddled with cancer, and that's not necessarily true. A patient with cancer of the breast with one minute metastasis in the bone is stage four, and a patient with cancer of the breast where all of the bones are involved is also stage four. So it varies dramatically on how truly advanced the cancer is, on how the patient is going to respond. But for instance, in breast cancer, even in very advanced cases with massive tumor activity, our results have been very, very encouraging.
Speaker 2:I do have a question about the chemotherapy because I know some people you know I've done a lot of interviews and some people are like I will not do chemo no matter what, just because the image that chemo has that you know it pretty much does more harm than good, and in lots of cases that's, you know that's true. But I know there are times that you do have to use chemo and radiation. Is that correct?
Speaker 1:That is very correct. There are some diagnosis where chemotherapy actually shines In our environment. For instance, whenever we have a patient with even advanced lymphomas, chemotherapy is a treatment of choice because the cure rate is around 93 to 95 percent. So that's what we're going to be recommending. The difference here at the OASIS is that we support the patients in such a way that the tolerance and response is much better because of that combination therapy. In leukemias, for instance, also the best treatment is chemotherapy.
Speaker 1:Then the other side is where we treat patients mostly with alternative therapies and natural therapies in aggressive tumors, where we use low-dose chemotherapy as an adjuvant to our therapy.
Speaker 1:Right, because the treatment is like a race, and when a patient comes to us with a very advanced cancer, massive tumor activity, if you're looking at a race, you're at the start line with the therapy and the patient is already 100 meters away from you and so you have to level the playing field in order to give natural therapies a chance.
Speaker 1:So we use sometimes radiation or chemotherapy to as stumbling blocks to the cancer so that we can level the playing field. So that's another way where we use chemotherapy. And there's a third one where we use very, very low dose chemotherapy to improve the possibility of the dendritic cell vaccine to work. So the way that is done is that we use very minute dosages of a specific type of chemo that reduces the amount of T-regulating cells, and those are the cells that actually put brakes on the immune system, like the checkpoint inhibitors. So we're going to be working to increase significantly the activity of the immune system, but then we have these areas where they're going to be break or they're going to be stopped. So we reduce the amount of those T-regulating cells so that the immune system can be more forceful in fighting the tumor. So there are several ways in which you can use chemotherapy to improve the outcomes of patients with advanced malignancies.
Speaker 2:Right. So the difference between what you do and just the regular conventional doctors and I'm not trying to talk bad about them, of course, but they've been taught and they kind of stay within that boundary. But because I had a cousin that was diagnosed the same time and I've told this story before but he was diagnosed with very early stage of prostate cancer. In fact they weren't even sure if it was cancer or not, they were watching it and then they realized it was. So they just chemoed him for over five years and told him it doesn't matter what he eats. In fact they told him to eat more donuts to get his weight up. And I have no medical training and I knew there was no logic to that. It doesn't matter what you put in there.
Speaker 2:And here I was with a much more advanced cancer and more aggressive, yeah, and I went to his funeral cancer-free and he's my younger cousin and it was so sad. But people have that mindset that well, I got to do what the doctor says because they have the lab coat, they're smarter than I am, and of course they are. But I love doctors like yourself who I mean you're smart, obviously, but you see the big picture. I mean you can use the tool of chemo, but then even if you do that and you do nothing else, it's just going to come back and get you, because there's something in your lifestyle, something in what you were doing before, that caused the cancer to progress like that right.
Speaker 1:And so one of the things that I tell my patients is that every outcome, from better results to complete remission, is a miracle, and miracles need to be maintained. So let's say that you know you go through the therapy and the tumor goes away, and then you go back to your old ways and then the tumor comes back, and then you blame God because miracle was not good enough. So miracles need to be maintained, and one of the ways is to reduce the possibility of this to her taking advantage of elements that that that make the tumor grow and proliferate, and diet plates. A may place a major, major role in that, and one of the reasons why in America, 50% of the population will develop cancer in their lifespan is because of the lifestyle. So changing that lifestyle is a very important factor to maintain a miracle.
Speaker 2:Right, I saw on your website you have a lot of stories from different patients. Are there any that kind of stand out, or maybe a recent one that came to you and they were had no hope from other doctors and things has turned around there at your hospital.
Speaker 1:Oh yes in fact, just very recently we we saw a patient that was sent home to die in three months and we just saw him for their fifth year of revision, completely tumor-free. And so at five years, we graduate our patients. They no longer need to come to us, they need to maintain their home protocol for life, but we don't need to actually administer therapy anymore. So we see many of those miracles and we praise God for them because we're good, but not that good. So we have many, many cases like that. But there are other types of miracles. So I saw a patient last month where she was just with massive tumor activity and I was telling her you know, the possibilities are there, we're going to fight for you and God can help you. I said, oh, god has already helped me. So he explained to me well, you know, I've been dealing with a daughter that has been an addict for many, many years and when I was diagnosed with cancer and I was told that I was going to die in a few months now my daughter is sober because she told me that she could not bear the thought of the mother dying while she was still in drugs. And she says all things come together for good. God used this and now my daughter is free of drugs and I'm just hoping for God to do whatever he wants to do with me. But the miracle has already happened and so there's many ways to look at good outcomes, because God is going to use these problems and the disease. All things come together for good.
Speaker 1:Lastly, we have also testimonies like that, another one that touched me in a tremendous way. The mother brought a son around 45 in a very, very advanced case, and we knew from the beginning that it was going to be very difficult for us to help this person. And I arrived one morning and the mother was telling me that the son passed away, and so I was sad about this. And she said but listen to the last words of my son. He said I came here looking for hope and I found Jesus, and so we are very blessed in many ways in God. How uses us to bless other people, so it's just difficult to explain, but God is with every patient and God is good, and God is good all the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, jesus, that's the ultimate hope, so that's a good find right there. Yes, yes, I know lots of people. They talk about oasis of hope and hope for cancer and they get them confused. They go that place in Mexico you know, I think I'm going to go down there and both great places. Of course, what can someone expect when they come to your place? How do you run them through the process?
Speaker 1:Well, I think that what separates us from everybody else here in Tijuana there's a number of clinics, and I can tell you that most of them are alumni is, first, that we have oncologists, actual oncologists, where most of the other doctors are general doctors with a lot of experience, but still, having studied oncology, you can then see both worlds and then determine what is the best for a patient. That's number one. Number two we're we're full-fledged hospital and and so we can treat, you know, many complicated cases or cancer patients can get complicated very easily and we are able to take care of them. And thirdly, we have a very, very sophisticated immune laboratory or immunological laboratory that enables us to prepare very personalized therapies for our patients, vaccines that are specific for that patient and specific for their tumor. So our patients here can expect to have everything in-house available for them.
Speaker 1:The other thing that I think that is very important and it's not available in many clinics is that for us, providing physical resources to cancer patients is not sufficient. Resources to cancer patients is not sufficient. Cancer patients have a tremendous need in the spiritual and the emotional realm. So we provide our patients with spiritual and emotional resources on a daily basis where, unashamedly, we present the person of Jesus Christ to them, and we have devotionals every day for our patients, with music and prayer testimonies. So I think that is really what separates us from everybody else.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wow.
Speaker 1:It's like a church there. Yes, yes. In fact, we probably have more conversions than many of the churches that are nearby.
Speaker 2:Now, are you in Mexico because there's so many things you can do there that you can't do in the States, or are you in Mexico because that's just where you live?
Speaker 1:just where you live. Well, that's where I live, and it's true that we can do many things here that cannot be done in America, and that's why so many patients come to us. But, having said that, we are abiding by Mexican law and we have established, over the 60 years, a good relationship with our authorities, because we do everything above board and everything that we do has a tremendous amount of scientific support behind it, and so we are respected very much by our authorities, are respected very much by our authorities, and, because of the work that we've done over so many years, we have gained respect worldwide for the type of work that we do.
Speaker 2:Wow, I want you to speak to something that I didn't realize until I got my own diagnosis, and I never thought all this has to do with anything, but over the period of interviews that I've done, the mental attitude of a patient is so powerful In fact, some people put it as like the number one thing in their healing process. Can you speak to that?
Speaker 1:Yes, I find that in most cases, the biggest enemy is the patient itself, your own mind, and the Bible talks a lot about how powerful our mind can be and how powerful our words can be, and so one of the things that I find very distressing is how doctors put the seed of death in the patients.
Speaker 1:The patient says, well, the doctor is the authority, they know I'm dead, and it's very difficult to bring them out of that position, and many patients actually die because the doctor told them that they were going to die.
Speaker 1:So that's why I'm telling you that patients need a tremendous amount of emotional and spiritual support, because life is about responses and we respond emotionally, and everybody has heard that emotions can be positive or negative. The truth is that emotions can be functional or dysfunctional, and you will respond emotionally based on your spiritual fortitude, because if I have Christ in my heart and I know that I'm going to be going to heaven, well for me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. So, no matter what, I'm going to be better, and so that takes the fear away and allows you, and you actually set yourself up for miracles, because the stronghold of cancer is fear, and if you have no fear. Well, it's like the cancer saying man, it's no fun being in this person anymore, I'm going to go someplace else. And I'm convinced that, because we put so much effort in providing our patients with spiritual resources, that we have a tremendous amount of miracles Right, basically miracles and so I can tell you very openly that our results are much better than anybody else because of those miracles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you have a biblical mindset, then you think positive. There's nothing negative about the Bible.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's one thing. When I had my diagnosis, of course I was actually at Disney World when I got the call, which is not a good combination there. But of course, immediately it filled with fear because you think your life is over. Especially the way they presented it to me. They seemed very concerned. I thought, oh, maybe I should be more concerned.
Speaker 2:But it was from that exact day on that I had all these God moments. I guess you could say that he just let me know that he was totally aware of it and he's got it taken care of. And the fear just left me and I'm like, wow, even if I did die, you know, this week I know where I'm going, it's going to be better for me. I'll miss, you know. I don't want to leave my family, of course, but still I know when I go to heaven I'll be like, okay, I'm fine with this, they'll be here soon enough. And then my mindset changed. And again I didn't know anything about the mindset. I just thought you know, I'm a happy guy, so that's just the way I am. But I think that helped a lot in my healing. Oh, yes.
Speaker 1:There's many studies that show that positive patients are going to fare much better than negative ones. That's already proven beyond any doubt. But when you actually provide spiritual resources to people, even negative patients will come to the conclusion that everything is in God's hands and everything is going to be the will of God, no matter what, and so that releases that fear.
Speaker 2:Yes, excellent. It always sounds better when a doctor says it, and you have a lab coat on right now, so obviously you know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1:Well, God knows what he's talking about. We just allow God to do his thing.
Speaker 2:That's right. Well, what do you see coming down the road? Anything new you want to talk about or you want to let us know about?
Speaker 1:I think that the advent and development of new techniques to prepare dendritic cell vaccines is a thing of the future, going into what is called CAR T cells.
Speaker 1:Car T cells are a lot more complicated.
Speaker 1:They're quite effective and they're out of reach, because one treatment is about $450,000 in America, and I think that in about a year, a year and a half, we'll be ready to produce CAR T cells in our laboratory at a cost of around $50,000 per therapy, which is still very expensive, but they're you know, they're going to be more available to many, many patients, and so that's one of the new things.
Speaker 1:Another thing that is more practical and that most patients can take advantage of is that we're going to be able to prepare, instead of one vaccine per time, six or 10 vaccines. That's going to bring down the cost of dendritic cell vaccines tremendously, where we're going to be able to vaccinate our patients just about every month at a very reasonable cost. And, of course, that is going to increase the response rate, because the more vaccinations you get, the better possibility. Right now, we're vaccinating our patients about every three months due to cost, and so once we have that available to patients, more patients are going to be eligible to vaccinate more often, and I'm convinced that our results are going to improve significantly.
Speaker 2:That's exciting. I know my oncologist. He's excited about all kinds of stuff because he seems to be on the cutting edge of stuff, which is really strange because, you know, I thought he was just a regular oncologist. But he's talking about diet and all the other things and he's not a big advocate of chemo by itself Correct. Of course, the things he's talking about are way over my head, so he might have been talking about that too. I don't know. I'm going to see him here in a month, so I'm going to find out some more information and even write it down this time. You said those are CAR T cells.
Speaker 1:Yes, how do you spell that? It's C-A-R dash T.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:I got it right. It's a special type of immunotherapy that has proven to be very effective, especially in leukemias. That has proved to be very effective, especially in leukemias. Again, it is a therapy of the future, but it's just terribly expensive. So I think that we're going to be able to bring that cost significantly down. That's going to be very helpful to many, many patients.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, dr Contreras, I appreciate all this. I know you're a busy man and if anybody wants more information, they just go to oasisofhopecom and it's all there. There's a lot of information there. I got lost in it for a while, but I appreciate all you do and thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 1:Thank you very much.
Speaker 3:And God bless you. You've been listening to the I Am Healing Strong podcast, a part of the Healing Strong organization. We hope you found encouragement in this episode, as well as the confidence to take control of your healing journey, knowing that God will guide you on this path. Healing Strong is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to connect, support and educate individuals facing cancer and other diseases through strategies that help to rebuild the body, renew the soul and refresh the spirit.
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