Our approach for caring of patients with cancer is unique at Mountain Blue. The diagnosis of cancer for any person is a life changing event. For the months and years to come, a person will have to, struggle to some degree or to an extent of degree with this diagnosis. Our goal initially is to control the cancer with the least impact on the patient, return the patient to normal life and sustain a life without cancer.
How to best control cancer? How to live their life to be as normal as possible?
Years of experience brought us to know that it is not only choosing the most precise treatment for each patient but also choosing the right dose of drugs and providing the supportive treatments and care.
We share with our patients knowing the fact that the current state of cancer treatments is short of what everyone wishes, and the impact of side effects from treatments on patient’s lives is tremendous. At Mountain Blue we realized that we have to modify the mainstream thinking about how patients should be treated.
It's important to know that, almost all the clinical studies were done are based on a philosophy that started in World War II with the acceptance to treat patients with the maximum tolerated dose. This concept really puts a patient in a place that's very difficult to live a normal life. To this date, almost all treatments implement the maximum tolerated dose as a way to treat cancer, expecting that it will provide the maximum benefit. Even though some clinical studies showed that using the maximum tolerated dose provides more benefits, other studies showed that it is not necessary the case. Certainly, using the maximum tolerated dose affects quality of life and decreased significantly meaningful survival. Our philosophy and practice at Mountain Blue is different. We believe in most effective dose or even the lowest and most effective dose as an implemented practice This dose is different from person to person and our challenge is to find the most proper dose for each person. Certainly, in all patients that were treated in the last almost 20 years, the right dose is far lower than the maximum tolerated dose. The dose of treatment varies within each patient over time, and we developed what is called dynamic dosing. This dosing differs based on how cancer is responding to therapy and how the patients and his or her lifestyle changes. Just an example for one of the parameters that changes dosing is how the cancer is behaving. If the cancer is more active, we change the dose to be appropriate for that situation. When the cancer is under control, we reduce the dose or even stop.
This dynamic change in how the cancer is treated makes the life of the person much more tolerable. And often we change treatment, not just based on whether a person is responding or not, but if the treatment is impacting their life or not. So, these concepts are extremely important in managing a patient with cancer.
The second important part of our management of cancer is the choice of treatment. Today, we have the freedom of having access to many different types of treatment for each patient. Some of them are older treatments. Some of them are newer treatments, some of them are more advanced and some of them are under the clinical studies. We choose it based on multiple issues:
1. type of cancer, which is obvious. 2. The genetic, biological and immunological composition of the cancer. 3. We also choose the treatment that fits best patient’s lifestyle.
We collaborate very closely with institutions around the country to evaluate each patient’s cancer very carefully and in multiple aspect to choose the right treatment. We do this not only at the time of diagnosis, but each time the patient’s cancer changes its behavior. When we have multiple choices, then we chose the treatment based on the patient’s life and health issues. If a person does fine work with their hands, we avoid treatments that will impact their work and life. If a person is around the children, we choose a treatment that doesn't impact them when they are close to proximity to people they love. If the patient has certain comorbidities, we choose the drugs and treatments that impact the least their other diseases. The choice of treatment is tailored to not only the component of the cancer but to the many aspects of a person life.
Since we implemented this practice, we were very surprised that it is associated with significantly longer survival and certainly better quality of life.
In addition to the choice of treatment and dose of drugs, we provide alternative precise therapy that fits every type of cancer and every patient differently. Based on long scientific research experience, we developed supplements that augment patient response to therapy. We get the help of natural products to make cancer therapy more effective and long lasting.
We also have a dedicated team that works diligently to minimize the financial impact of the cost of treatment on each patient. It doesn't mean that the person who has a diagnosis of cancer, that they have to give up everything in their life to cover their treatments. A diagnosis of cancer is life-changing, but it should not be life deteriorating, whether physically or financially. We try diligently to minimize the financial impact of cancer on patient’s life.
The diagnosis of cancer is life changing however, at Mountain Blue we do our best to make the life of each person, no matter how long that life is, a triumph.
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