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This article is about the use of Insulin Potentiation Therapy (IPT) for people with cancer. IPT has been known about for many years as a kinder, gentler way of using standard chemotherapy drugs, selectively delivering them to the cancer cells, whilst leaving the body's immune system intact.

Insulin Potentiation Therapy, generally referred to by the initials IPT, is an alternative treatment that uses standard, approved cancer-fighting drugs in much lower doses, thereby eliminating many of the debilitating side effects so common with conventional chemotherapy. The side effects are significantly reduced because the chemotherapy doses can be as low as 10-15% of the standard dosage.

IPT was developed by Dr. Donato Perez Garcia (1896-1971) in Mexico, who claimed it to be especially effective with breast cancer. Indeed, that if a cancer can be beneficially influenced by existing chemotherapy drugs, then IPT may also be effective, but without major side effects. Dr Garcia's work is today carried on by his grandson, of the same name.

The first clinical trial of IPT for treating breast cancer was undertaken in Uruguay and published in 2003. For the trial, insulin combined with the chemotherapy drug methotrexate in low-dose form resulted in significantly stabilising the disease, with reduced progressions, as compared with insulin or low-dose methotrexate alone. Other studies have been worldwide, although informal. In fact, although little known, IPT has been in use for approaching seventy years.

How does IPT work?

Insulin, which is created naturally in the pancreas, regulates many of the body's functions at the cellular level, the most well-known being the level of glucose in the blood. It is suggested that insulin also modifies the receptivity of cancer cells to being penetrated by chemotherapy agents. Cancer cells grow by secreting their own insulin-like growth factor and insulin itself which draw on the body's nutrients to multiply. In fact they possess many times more insulin receptors than do normal cells, and these receptors will respond to administered insulin, which in turn makes them hungry for glucose and thus more susceptible to chemotherapy medication. The chemotherapy drugs are thus able to target more precisely the cancer cells, leaving the normal cells relatively unaffected.

What's wrong with traditional chemotherapy?

It is generally recognized that, over time, regular chemotherapy dosages may so compromise a patient's immune system and organ functions as to prevent further treatment or even cause organ damage resulting in the patient's death. Cancer cells are highly active in fighting for the glucose found in the blood stream. With sixteen times the number of insulin and insulin-like receptors found in healthy cells, cancer cells absorb essential nutrients from the blood stream before normal cells can get to them. This is the reason that, in advanced stages of cancer, tumors continue to grow and multiply while the patient appears to waste away. In addition, because of the cancer cell's internal protection against toxins, normal chemotherapy doses need to be sufficiently large to force their way into the cancer cells. The result is the killing of many healthy cells in addition to the cancerous ones, frequently inducing in the patient nausea, vomiting, fever, hair loss, etc.

Benefits of IPT

* IPT works vigorously against cancerous tumors whilst being gentle on the patient, who continues to live a normal lifestyle during treatment.

* Standard chemotherapy medications are considered to work better in combination with IPT. As a result of the low dosage requirement and much reduced toxicity, the treating physician has greater freedom and flexibility in selecting and combining the various chemotherapeutic agents, resulting in a more highly optimized treatment.

* Due to the lower dosage requirements, treatments costs are significantly less than with standard chemotherapy.

* Side effects are relatively minor. There is no vomiting, no high fever, no vomiting and no hair loss. However, there can sometimes be a little initial nausea and occasional constipation.

IPT Side Effects

IPT causes a reduction in the blood glucose level. This is known as hypoglycemia and is an expected side effect of insulin therapy. Be in no doubt, hypoglycemia is a potentially dangerous state for the body, however it is a condition that is quickly and effectively controllable through the administration of intravenous glucose infusions. This is a standard component of the IPT protocol.

The information presented here is intended simply as that - to make you aware of available treatments which might be worthy of further and more detailed investigation. Readers should note that, whilst there are many individual anecdotal cases and studies over many years that suggest that IPT may be effective, there is at present no collection of scientific data to validate Insulin Potentiation Therapy as a treatment for malignant neoplastic diseases or cancer to the satisfaction of the United States FDA. As always, you should seek the guidance of a professional medical practitioner before taking any medications or undergoing any form of therapy.