Here's what I remember from the conference: Bloodroot has an affinity for morbid tissue, which is why it has been used for centuries in cancer treatment. Zinc chloride helps the herbs penetrate the tumor and accelerates the breakdown of the skin. The pastes are water based, the salves are oily. Judith sometimes makes them up, provides detailed instructions on how to make them, and provides the components depending on the person's proximity and need. She will not give them to someone who does not have a support system as the wound care and pain management can be time and energy intensive. She does not actually supervise the process unless the person lives in her neighbourhood as she has a full time nursing job. She does not charge for this but the understanding is clear that donations are welcome and patients are responsible for purchasing their own ingredients and supplies. Community Care Access sends nurses to do wound care. Judith has been working with Sat Dharam for several years. She is also a b.c. survivor who got railroaded into conventional treatment and happened to mesh her nursing training with West Indian herbology heritage with Ingrid Naiman and Dan Raber. Small localized breast tumors near the skin, and small skin cancers (all types) are the ideal candidates for this type of cancer treatment. Metastatic disease has been treated successfully, taking several years, but very very few people are willing to have painful open wound sites on a continuous basis. Judith prefers not to recommend black salve or bloodroot as it is very aggressive in breaking down skin and tumor tissue, resulting in bigger wounds sooner and of course more pain. A typical paste is bloodroot or goldenseal with zinc chloride, turmeric and other various herbs like galangal depending on the case. The pH is between 4 and 5.5., very acid. Slippery elm and water are used to bind the paste, or calendula and others to make the enucleating salve. Treatment is most successful of course if patient makes lifestyle, diet improvements, gets the spirit straight, and learns not to complain about the pain. Wound care is primary once the process is underway. Most patients also take herbs, Chinese or others like scrophularia, trifolium, yarrow, indigo, pokeroot, and sometimes an oral form of the paste or salve. Some proponents of the salves use them as a diagnostic tool, although Judith has not yet used them this way. A small amount of the paste or salve is applied and if there is a certain type of immediate response, it is indicative of active cancer. A mild response is just from local skin irritation and cancer can be ruled out. Judith is not sure of the accuracy of this, hence her reticence. She prefers that a patient have a pathology report and use the salves only when cancer is diagnosed. Significant inflammation throughout the entire breast can result when the paste is applied to what was considered a small local tumor. This indicates that there was undiagnosed cancer dissemination. (a slide graphically illustrated this) The salve treatment physically draws those dying cancerous cell clumps to the surface. The salves cause the skin to blister and form an eschar, like a scab but with an important difference: the eschar consists of dead tumor tissue, and will eventually fall off. This may happen within days (small tumor very close to the skin, or in the case of skin cancer) or take months (deeper tumor, closer to the chest wall). The necrotic tumor may resemble white gristle, or yellowish fatty blobs, or little pearly tumors varying from yellow to white. Careful visual inspection of the open wound after the first eschar falls off will determine whether more applications are needed. Any tiny tumors still left in the eschar bed must be looked for, and the process continues until all have surfaced and fallen off by themselves. In the case of the woman with Stage IV mets to liver, she was merrily recounting her symptoms of reversing the mets. She likened the metastatic process to flour sifting slowly through a bag of marbles. She also said she figured if the cells could travel up to her nodes and down to her liver, they could also come back to the breast! That got hearty applause. Three days before the seminar her eschar had fallen off the large wound in her right upper outer quadrant, with two visible tumors. The lab had confirmed that it was necrotic tumor tissue. Another patient, Carey, has recently begun salve treatments for a biopsy-proven tumor in the left outer lower quadrant. She was experiencing pain from the formation of the eschar but was dynamic and cheerful. Some breasts heal with minor scars, others lose a significant amount of tissue and are deformed. Nipple can be involved in the eschar, in which case it is lost. Sometimes the final scar bears no resemblance to the crater of the open wound. You can't tell what the final result will be until you get there. Lymphoma tumors have also been successfully treated. Here are some websites: http://www.cancersalves.com/ (Ingrid Naiman) http://www.kitchendoctor.com/ http://www.astroheal.com/ http://www.skincanceranswer.com/ (Dan Raber) Aliss T. Leonardleonard1@cs.com suggests: For info on salves, www.cancersalves.com www.altcancer.com Naiman, Ingrid _Cancer Salves: A Botanical Approach to Treatment_. Seventh Ray Press. www.northatlanticbooks.com Moss, Ralph W. (1998). _Herbs Against Cancer_. Brooklyn, NY: Equinox. Cancer Salve Clinic San Antonio TX 210-737-7337 Remember we are NOT Doctors and have NO medical training. This site is like an Encylopedia - there are many pages, many links on many topics. Support our work with any size DONATION - see left side of any page - for how to donate. You can help raise awareness of CAM.