How I beat GBM

This article is about Amy, a GBM brain cancer survivor, for whom orthodox treatment failed and so embarked on her own mix of complementary therapies around the Dendritic Cell vaccine therapy of Dr. Henry Friedman at Duke's, Carolina, who calls the successful package, 'Enlightened Medicine'.

Amy’s Story - Living Proof of the effect of Complementary Therapies on brain tumours.

American Airlines flight attendant, Amy Pomykal, credits a cornucopia of supplements from the Life Extension Foundation for her quick recovery from an aggressive, malignant brain tumour, alongside exercise, her faith and Dendritic Cell vaccine therapy.

Diagnosed in April 2002, she was running a marathon the following December, having had eight hours of surgery in May followed by simultaneous and unsuccessful chemo and radiation. 

Amy’s story is particularly poignant because she had escaped the fate of her 9/11 colleagues and was contemplating a career change and, at 32, starting a family with her husband, when she was struck down by anaplastic glioblastoma, or GBM.  "They basically told me my days were numbered. I felt like I was going to die", she recalls. "I couldn’t speak because of the tumour and I remember being angry".

Amy’s husband, a cautious and conservative man, became her treatment advocate, sharing the role with her sister Keri who took a more daring and enquiring approach. It was Keri who researched the Life Extension supplement programme on the net and acquired them in time to support Amy’s brain during radiotherapy and protect against potential memory loss. The pills and potions were so numerous they had to be stored in a fishing tackle box. Interestingly though, the list almost exactle mirrors a list assembled by Chris Woollams from reseach for his daughter Catherine who also had a GBM. It seemed to conserve her stamina during post-operative treatment too - she could still play tennis twice a week and kept her hair.   Running that race was not, Amy reflects, the brightest thing I’ve ever done, but I lived through it! She also used visualisation, imagining the tumour shrinking, herself growing older. "I prayed a lot for strength and the ability to make good decisions".

Knowing the prognosis was still very poor, Keri directed her sister to a cutting-edge clinical trial at the Brain Tumour Center at Duke University Medical Centre. The trial was officially closed, but Amy was given special dispensation by medical director Dr John Sampson. This trial involved culturing the patient’s dendritic cells with RNA from the tumour to produce a strong immune response against the cancer cells. Every fortnight for six weeks, Amy received her injections and three months later her scan showed marked improvement. Six months on, in January 2004, the tumour had disappeared.

Empowering patients with enlightened medicine

Dr Henry Friedman, co-director of the Duke Neuro-oncology programme takes a progressive attitude to complementary treatments like Amy’s. As long as she told her doctors what she was taking, and it wasn’t toxic, he was content. His belief is that empowering patients in their own care achieves the best outcome. "We have no proof that what she was taking might hurt her, and it might help. We don’t; know the answer," says Friedman.  "We could say the same things about what we’re doing. I think it’s enlightened medicine. It’s admitting where you don’t know what’s going to go on, but following the principle of ’Do no harm’".

Since her illness, Amy has become the mother of two children. She continues to take her supplements along with her anti-seizure medication. "I believe the supplements did a lot, and that I’ve done well because of them, and my mental attitude and my faith. I believe that I’m going to survive".

A further decade on, and this is still true.