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What are some of the more established cancer clinics
in Europe? |
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If you
are researching cancer treatments outside of the U.S. for yourself
or a loved one, you may wish to explore your options by consulting
with several cancer clinics in Europe. Receiving cancer treatments
anywhere, and especially in another country, is a significant
commitment of money and time. You may wish to begin your research
process online, then engage in contact with individual clinics
through email and telephone communication, and perhaps through
in person site visits in advance of your final decision.
Cancer clinics in Europe may provide new treatment options to
patients. The following list of clinics does not serve as an endorsement
of all facilities listed.
Aeskulap Clinic
Brunnen, Switzerland
www.aeskulap.com
BioMed Clinic
Bad Bergzabern, Germany
www.biomed-klinik.de
Dove Clinic
Hants and London, England
www.doveclinic.com
Herzog Clinic
Hessen, Germany
www.fachklinikdrherzog.de
Hufeland Clinic
Bad Mergentheim, Germany
www.hufeland-klinik.de
Humlegaarden Cancer Clinic
Humlebaek, Denmark
www.humlegaarden.com
Institute of Warmth and Immune Therapy
Vienna, Austria
www.hyperthermie.at
Institute for Tumor Therapy
Duderstadt, Germany
www.immuntherapie.org
Leonardis Clinic
Bad Heilbrunn, Germany
www.leonardis-klinik.de
Lukas Clinic
Arlesheim, Switzerland
www.lukasklinik.ch
Mariposas Clinic
Malaga, Spain
www.mariposasclinic.com
Paracelsus Clinic
Lustmühle, Switzerland
www.paracelsus.ch |
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| What
are some important initial questions to ask when interviewing a
cancer clinic? |
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| The
Interview Process: Initial Questions to Ask Cancer Clinics |
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| 1. |
What specific treatments do you recommend
for me? What scientific evidence exists indicating efficacy with
those treatments? What is the experimental nature of the treatments?
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| 2. |
What is the safety profile and risks
associated with those treatments? How do you define the ratio between
the potential risks of treatments and the potential benefits? |
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| 3. |
How many patients have you treated with
my diagnosis? In your experience with my diagnosis, what have you
seen with time to response and specific types of response such as
stable disease, partial remission, and complete remission? How long
have those responses been sustained in patients? |
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| 4. |
Have you published your research results?
If not, why? |
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| 5. |
How did you come to develop your treatment
protocol? What discoveries throughout your career have informed
your current regimen? |
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| 6. |
What is your definition
of treatment success, and why? |
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| 7. |
What are some of the characteristics
of patients that respond to your therapies? |
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| 8. |
How do you monitor patient progress
and response rates over time? What tests would you recommend, and
how often? |
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| 9. |
What follow up care do you recommend
after patients finish initial treatments? |
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| 10. |
What is the estimated cost of my recommended
treatments? What is the cost of follow up care? |
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| 11. |
How many staff members does your clinic
employ? How many of them are medical doctors? How many of them are
oncologists? How many of them speak English? |
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| What
is the Type C coping style and how can I learn more about it? |
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| Maybe you’ve
heard of Type A behavior that has been associated with heart disease.
Type A behavior is generally self-centered, highly charged, competitive,
and overflowing with anxiety, anger, and hostility.
A significant amount of research indicates that cancer patients
exhibit Type C behavior, which is the polar opposite of Type A.
Unfortunately, this isn’t new information. According to
Cancer As A Turning Point (page
11), the clear link between cancer and the patient’s emotional
life history were commonly accepted in medical circles up to the
year 1900.
According to The Type C Connection
(page 39), Type C behavior patterns display most or all of the
following: |
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They are nonexpressors of
anger. Often, they were unaware of any feelings of anger, past or
present. |
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They tended not to experience
or express other negative emotions, namely anxiety, fear, and sadness.
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They were patient, unassertive,
cooperative, and appeasing in work, social, and family relationships.
They were compliant with external authorities. |
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They were overly concerned
with meeting the needs of others, and insufficiently engaged in
meeting their own needs. Often, they were self-sacrificing to an
extreme. |
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| Type C is
considered more of a coping style than a personality since these
individuals often developed their ways of being in the world as
a survival strategy. Fortunately, coping styles evolve, and many
individuals who are considered Type C learn new behaviors as they
heal.
Interestingly, people often embody a variety of characteristics
from throughout the coping continuum of Type A, to B, to C. The
middle road position is Type B where the individual expresses
anger and other emotions, meets their own needs first and also
responds to that of others, and feels relaxed.
Excellent resources about the Type C coping style with strategies
for healing include the following: |
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The
Type C Connection: The Mind-Body
Link to Cancer and Your Health by Lydia Temoshok, PhD, and
Henry Dreher |
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Cancer
As A Turning Point: A Handbook
for People with Cancer, Their Families, and Health Professionals
by Lawrence LeShan, PhD |
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The
Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo |
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Cancer as a Turning Point
conferences and other resources http://www.cancerasaturningpoint.org/ |
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Healing Journeys free conferences
and other resources http://www.healingjourneys.org/ |
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| What
are some facts about healthcare in the United States? |
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Approximately 45.7 million
Americans, or 15.3 percent of Americans, were uninsured in 2007.
After steadily climbing for 6 years, the number of uninsured Americans dropped by more than one million compared to the previous year. The United States spends
more on health care than other industrialized nations, and those
countries provide health insurance to all their citizens. (U.S.
Census, August, 2008) |
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In 2004, health care spending
in the United States reached $1.9 trillion, and was projected to
reach $2.9 trillion in 2009. (Health Affairs, February, 2006) |
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About a third of all health
care spending nationwide pays for bureaucratic overhead. (Harvard
Medical School) |
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In 2004, the United States
spent 15.3 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health
care. It is projected that the percentage will reach 20 percent
in the next decade. Health care spending accounted for 11.6 percent
of the GDP in Switzerland, 10.9 percent in Germany, and 10.5 percent
in France. (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development,
2006) |
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The United States ranks
far ahead of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD) 30 member countries in terms of total health spending per
capita, with spending at 6,100 USD, more than twice the OECD average.
In the United States, government revenues fund only 45 percent of
health spending, which is well below the average of 73 percent in
OECD countries. Private insurance account for 37 percent of total
health spending in the United States, which is by far the largest
share of OCED countries. (OECD, 2006) |
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The World Health Organization
(WHO) ranked the United States health care system 37th of 190 countries,
well below most of Europe, and trailing Chile and Costa Rica. The
United States ranks 72nd in the WHO rankings of performance on level
of health. (WHO) |
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The United States ranked
among the bottom of industrialized countries on healthy life expectancy
at age 60. Americans spend more years lived in poor health resulting
from chronic illness or disability. (OECD, 2006) |
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Approximately 100,000 Americans
die annually from medical errors. (Institute of Medicine, 1999).
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Premiums for employer-based
health insurance increased by 7.7 percent in 2006, which is the
smallest increase in seven years. Premiums rose by over 9 percent
each year between 2000 and 2005. All types of health plans, including
health maintenance organizations, preferred provider organizations
and point-of-service plans, showed this increase. Since 2000, employment-based
health insurance premiums have increased 73 percent, compared to
cumulative inflation of 14 percent and cumulative wage growth of
15 percent during the same period. (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, August, 2004 |
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The average employee contribution
to company-provided health insurance has increased more than 143
percent since 2000. Average out-of-pocket costs for deductibles,
co-payments for medications, and co-insurance for physician and
hospital visits rose 115 percent during the same period. (Institute
of Medicine, 2004) |
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Millions of workers in the
United States don't have the opportunity to get health insurance
coverage. A third of firms in the United States did not offer coverage
in 2004. Nearly two-fifths, or 38 percent, of all workers are employed
in smaller businesses, where less than two-thirds of firms now offer
health benefits to their employees. (Kaiser Family Foundation) |
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| Do
you have questions for Jeannine about health and healing resources
for cancer? |
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