Oncologists consider brain cancer to be one of the deadliest cancers, but Karon Beattie, a cancer survivor, has compiled a reference book containing in excess of 350 alternative cancer treatments that thousands of cancer patients have used to overcome their condition, including brain cancer.

Beattie gives accounts of people surviving brain cancer by natural treatments. She states that these treatments are not within the FDA’s jurisdiction, resulting in low awareness among doctors.

In one example, Beattie reports that some physicians have used a nutritional supplement to achieve complete remission of aggressive, stage IV cancers that had metastasized.

Specifically in regard to brain cancer, her book, “Natural Cancer Treatments That Work”, describes how a British doctor successfully treated a Grade 4 brain tumor with a herbal mixture. The patient is alive two years later, long after oncologists had predicted.

Beattie also details a patient whose brain tumor vanished completely after taking a combination of nutritional supplements known to stop the spread of cancer cells, preventing metastasis. This seems an astonishing outcome for a cancer given a poor prognosis by oncologists.

Further, Beattie gives 131 first-hand accounts of people who beat brain and spinal cord cancers using alternative and natural treatments. If stories like these are factual, why are the treatments not used more widely for brain and other cancers?

According to Beattie, even though the creators of the treatments listed in her book are respected health scientists, few of the treatments have been formally assessed in human clinical trials. Why? There is little financial incentive for drug companies in natural treatments that they cannot patent, yet thousands have successfully used the treatments. Beattie also suggests that many doctors may not know of these treatments because they are only familiar with treatments regulated by the FDA. Many of the alternative treatments she lists involve herbs and vitamins that are beyond the FDA’s jurisdiction.

These intriguing accounts will be hard to ignore for cancer sufferers and their loved ones in their efforts to survive cancer and retake their lives.

Stage 1 of melanoma is thin and the epidermis usually appears scraped. This stage of skin cancer is subdivided into two other categories. These additional categories describe the thickness of the tumor. Stage 1a is less than 1.0 mm and has no ulceration. Stage 1b is less than 1.0 mm but has ulceration. It is also considered to be in stage 1b if it is 1.01 – 2.0 mm even if it does not involve ulceration. In this stage and stage 2 the melanoma has not yet spread to the lymph nodes.

Stage 2 is also subdivided into three more categories that signify the thickness and the existence or non-existence of ulceration. The tumor in stage 2a is 1.01 – 2.0 mm with ulceration or 2.01 – 4.0 mm without ulceration. Stage 3b has a tumor thickness of 2.01 with ulceration or a thickness of more than 4.0 without ulceration.

When this type of skin cancer advances to stage 3 a significant change occurs. At this stage, the melanoma tumor has spread to the lymph nodes. This is a much more serious stage of the disease because when healthy, the lymph nodes fight disease, cancer and some other infections.

Patients with stage 3 of this cancer have melanoma that has spread into lymph nodes near the primary tumor. This stage also involves in-transit metastasis that has skin or connective tissue that is more than 2 centimeters from the original tumor. However, at this point it has not spread past the regional lymph nodes.

In stage 4, the melanoma has spread to lymph nodes that are a distance from the original tumor or to internal organs. These organs are most often the lung, liver, brain, bone and then the gastrointestinal tract.