Care Oncology designed an off-label drug protocol, the COC protocol, to enhance the standard of care for cancer treatment and improve survival times; this involved an attack on the metabolism of cancer cells weakening their ability to feed and spread; they used the same four drugs for all cancers: A REVIEW.
Care Oncology launched in 2014 using four drugs off-label with the aim of restricting a cancer’s ability to feed and grow.
N.B. Care Oncology in the UK appear to have closed their doors. Ten years after starting, they have shut. No research results were ever received by CANCERactive.
We did send a few people to them in the first two years of their operation, but we felt the 'one-size-fits-all' approach was too limited and even potentially dangerous and so we stopped recommending them. Their justification for the same four drugs approach was that, "These medicines target cholesterol, glucose and the glycolysis process, which impact on the metabolism of cancer cells and the immune cells around them"
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What is an off-label drug?
When a drug is approved by NICE or the FDA for use, it has been through Clinical Trials showing it performs and has limited side-effects. This drug cuts blood sugar in diabetics; this one kills parasites like fluke in humans. And so the label on the bottle details what it should be used for.
However, once a drug is approved, a doctor is reasonably free to prescribe it for anything, using his medical judgment. This is using the drug 'Off-label’ for something actually not originally approved. It is done with steroids all the time in Hospitals; while they are approved as anti-inflammatory medicine, they may be used to stimulate appetite, although they are not approved for that use.
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The Care Oncology Protocol, or COC Protocol
The Care Oncology Protocol, which was patented and trade-marked, used four common medicines, not originally intended for cancer treatment in humans "All of the medications used in the COC protocol are well-understood and have few side-effects", according to Care Oncology.
Some oncologists around the world - from the USA to Australia - have adopted the COC protocol despite the patents and lack of published results.
We repeatedly suggested, and still do, that both the oncologists and the patients looked at the objective reviews on off-label drugs on the CANCERactive website before taking any off-label drugs.
The medicines used by Care Oncology were:
* Metformin an oral diabetes medicine that helps control blood sugar, particularly in people who are overweight. Care Oncology usually use 500 mg, twice per day.
We have repeatedly warned that we had research showing Metformin as a cancer treatment is inconsistent - it appeared good for Er+ve breast cancer, but potentially might increase cancer activity in TNBC. It was similarly a concern in research for BRAF cancers (many melanoma and some CRC); and two meta-studies showed no effect with Ovarian cancers and other studies showed no benefit with certain blood and lymph cancers. Metformin also increases cancer-driver Homocysteine levels and can negatively affect the human microbiome.
Go to: Metformin in cancer treatment
* Atorvastatin, called Lipitor in the USA. A statin usually used to treat people with abnormally high lipid levels, especially LDL and triglycerides, i.e. 'bad’ fat. It is Lipophilic and so crosses membranes reducing lipids not just in the blood but also in the tissues. Care Oncology usually used up to 40 mg, once or twice per day.
Following a research study from Australia which showed that women with Melanoma, CRC and Breast cancer gained on average four extra years of survival if they took the Lipophilic statin, I looked for the reasons for the limited gain. The Mayo Clinic website is clear - Lipophilic statins reduce CoQ10 levels - this can result in Myopathy (weak muscles) in the short-term. But there is research showing that low CoQ10 increases the risk and aggression of certain cancers. Like the Mayo Clinic, we suggested patients on a lipophilic statin took up to 200 mg of CoQ10 a day. Care Oncology laughed at two of our patients when they told them.
Go to: Atorvastatin in cancer treatment
* Mebendazole a medicine used to treat a number of worms and fluke that can infest humans. MBZ damages tubulin, which is in microtubules through which food and energy flows. These are found in parasites and cancer cells. Care Oncology usually used 100-200 mg per day for a month, then stopped for a month during which time they used Doxycycline.
Go to: Mebendazole in cancer treatment
* Doxycycline a tetracycline antibiotic that is used to treat a wide variety of bacterial infections from acne to syphilis and from UTIs to gum disease. It is sometimes used to prevent malaria. There is a little research showing it can attack cancer stem cells reducing stemness by 63% in vivo. Care Oncology usually rotated this drug with Mebendazole one month each. The usual dose was 100 mg daily for a month.
We warned that Doxycycline is an antibiotic and so damages the microbiome (one study suggested it 'scarred' the gut), and the Human Microbiome Project and other studies have shown that patients with cancer are unlikely to get better until their gut microbiome gets better. Doxycycline in one US study was used to 'wake up' dormant breast cancer cells.
Go to:Doxycycline in Cancer Treatment
Very occasionally a fifth medicine was prescribed:
* Flarin is an anti-inflammatory for pain relief and is a lipid formulated ibuprofen. Care Oncology use a dose depending upon the situation of 200 - 400 mg 3 times per day. As long as you are not contra-indicated (e.g. on blood thinners), there's a lot of research on how a small dose aspirin (75-81 mg) can help, especially with Atorvastatin.
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Clinical Trial - The Metformin Protocol
As the best known drug, Metformin also sometimes gives its name to the protocol - The Metformin Protocol.
"The Care Oncology Clinic designed the COC protocol to complement and enhance the standard-of-care therapy."
You can take the protocol at the same time as you are taking orthodox medicine, or you can take the protocol on its own.
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COC Protocol results?
Care Oncology did produce some results (for example, on Brain cancer, Glioblastoma or GBM). Typically, survival post-operation is on average 15 months. Care Oncology claimed to have doubled this. However, we tend to suggest other off label drugs for brain cancer, ones such as Professor Ben Williams used to beat his GBM. In the late 1990s, Williams beat his Brain cancer in 18 months using Mebendazole in conjunction with other off label drugs, Cimetidine, Tamoxifen, Melatonin and Accutane.
We suggest that more flexibility is definitely needed. Brain cancer spreads down the nerves, not through the lymph. There are oestrogenic factors at work. Certainly other off-label drugs can be useful with other cancers - research suggested Propranolol with Ovarian cancer, Loratadine with breast cancer; Dutasteride with Prostate, LDN with Colorectal cancer, Ivermectin with breast cancer. Sometimes the useful drug is not licensed for use with Humans. Animal parasite killer Fenbendazole appears to have more research on a larger variety of cancers than Mebendazole. Other times, the research is 'by accident' e.g. Patients given Heparin during operations survive longer than those where it is not used. Why not go to our review: Building an off label drugs protocol
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Care Oncology: 'changing the face of cancer treatment'?
Chris Woollams comments, "This is a tricky question. Did they? There is no doubt that Care Oncology have cause a widespread interest in off-label drugs or repurposed drugs. I have no doubt they have extended some survival times, and even saved lives.
Patients are interested because sometimes treatment options are limited from the start (GBM), and other times they are facing a 'terminal’ prognosis with little orthodox options left.
Doctors are interested because here are medications that can be used today they have been approved for use with humans. Why spend ten years inventing a new drug when one seems to exist already?
The basic premise starving a cancer is absolutely correct. For example, saying cancer patients should restrict glucose and stop glycolysis is nothing new of course the skeptics came after me for saying exactly this in 2011, two years before Care Oncology was born. But even now, Doctors and nurses in Hospitals bow to Big Sugar and the fizzy drinks manufacturers filling their Vending machines, and deny the truth!
So, all praise to COC for putting this out there and on the map.
I have one little concern and this is not a criticism at all of Care Oncology more a 'Side- effect’.
Increasingly patients are now talking about 'pathways’ or 'cancer pathways' and frankly, some are getting all wound up about them and which off-label drug they should take. Facebook groups publish 'protocols’. A lot of the patients are running out of time and become quite aggressive when a layman like me says that I don’t know which off-label drug fits the pathway. (Frankly, I doubt most oncologists know any better.)
And drugs - especially adding four off-label ones to the three or four a patient already takes - can yield a dangerous cocktail. No one should attempt this without proper supervision.
Be clear also: Very few off-label drugs have even good research, others have next to none, especially in human trials. Frankly, in some cases, there is far more research on the anti-cancer effects of Turmeric and Berberine.
Bottom line: This is not a DIY venture! Nor should it be over-claimed.
PLEASE - contact someone who knows what these drugs do and how they might interact with those you are already taking and your supplements.
Go to: Personal Prescriptions with Chris Woollams - feedback and comments