If I Have Pancreatic Cancer, Should I Take Neem?

The simple fact about pancreatic cancer is that most people who are diagnosed with it will try just about anything to fight it. The prognosis offered by doctors is gloomy and hard to accept. About half of North Americans (and substantially higher percentages of Latin Americans and Asians) will attempt to use herbal medicines with or without the knowledge of their doctors when they are diagnosed with this disease.

If you are inclined to use herbal medicine for pancreatic cancer, neem at least has the advantage of not interfering with standard medical treatment. It acts on a different metabolic pathway in pancreatic cancer cells than most kinds of chemotherapy, and neem benefits include the facts that it reduces inflammation and fights certain kinds of infections. What we don't really know is how much of an impact it will have on the disease. At the right stage in this kind of cancer, early on, it really might help stop the spread of the disease beyond the pancreas. That doesn't mean that it would be OK to stop conventional medical treatment or that neem is enough to get the best possible result. Some oncologists are comfortable with including herbs in treatment, but no oncologist will use herbs as an exclusive treatment. 

Moreover, cancer patients should never hide their use of complementary medicine from their doctors. Suppose you really hit on the right treatment for your cancer. Don't you want your doctor to know that what you have been doing works so maybe, just maybe, some other cancer patient could also benefit? You might have to endure your doctor's skepticism, but if enough patients get good results, doctors actually do eventually pay attention. Maybe, just maybe, you will find your way into the small number of long-term survivors of pancreatic cancer with a combination of the best conventional medicine and the best complementary medicine.

What other natural medicines have potential to help in pancreatic cancer?

• The yellow-orange antioxidant curcumin, which is extracted from turmeric, may be helpful at certain stages of pancreatic cancer. As an antioxidant, curcumin works in exactly the opposite way from neem, but it also works on different pathways, so the two herbs wouldn't interfere with each other. Curcumin has been tested in Israel as a treatment for advanced pancreatic cancer in combination with the chemotherapy drug gemcitabine. When curcumin is used in combination with chemotherapy, it extends life in about 10 percent of cases. Maybe curcumin would work better if chemotherapy weren't used, but the researchers thought it would be irresponsible not to give their patients chemo because they felt conventional pharmaceutical treatment held some potential to extend life.

READ Curcumin or Cure-Cumin? Antioxidant in Turmeric Is Amazingly Useful

• Chinese herbal medicine won't cure pancreatic cancer, either, but an herbal formula known as Huangquin Tang at the Chinese herbalist's office or PHY-906 in a few herb shops can relieve nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. What this herbal combination can do is basically to help pancreatic cancer patients keep food down, but that also makes a critical difference in quality of life and survival time.