Spontaneous Remission: An Annotated Bibliography

""The rare but spectacular remission of cancer persists in the annals of medicine...no one doubts the validity of the observation..." Lewis Thomas, M.D., Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital.

This book, written by experts in the mind-body connections, gives 1574 citations of cases of malignant tumors that either completely disappeared or partially disappeared. The sp;endid documentation of this book helps bolster your spirit when you or a loved one has been diagnosed with cancer. How does a complete remission happen? Special herbs? Chemo? Or is it all just a hoax?

The authors do note that a majority of the folks that have a spontaneous remission have had an acute infection with a fever prior to the remission, The theory is that the antibodies are just working "overtime" as it were, to defeat the tumor as well as the infection. This news is not particularly soothing however. Chemotherapy and radiation decreases the body's immune system, so high fever or an acute infection would be treated very aggressively in a cancer patient.

The authors also believe that spontaneous remissions are decreasing in frequency. They feel that this is in part to the use of antibiotics. Again, if a high fever would start the immune system into overdrive, an antibiotic would prevent that action.

There is much to be learned about spontaneous remission and this book is a very good place to start. It's well researched and documented and you don't need to be a M.D. or an oncology nurse to understand the information that is presented. I recommend this book highly for those of you interested in spontaneous remission case studies."
~ Written on 2003-02-18