Bitter Melon & Choosing not to do Radiation

marianella7

I'm 26. Was diagnosed with Invasive Ductile Carcinoma in January of this year. Have already done the standard 4 rounds of AC and 12 of Taxol, plus mastectomy with lymph node dissection. I was told by my doctors (surgical onc, and regular onc) that the 7 lymph nodes I had removed tested negative for cancer and have no signs of metastasis. They both still insist on radiation however. Having had the year I've had, I really don't want radiation, not to mention the delay it puts on reconstruction (tissue expander is making me crazy), so I got to digging. I googled "alternatives to radiation therapy" and it wasn't til about the 3rd or 4th page of results that I found Bitter Melon. Or Bitter Gourd. Or scientific name "Momordica charantia." I think its also called "Bitter Cucumber?" Anyway, there's a TON of research backing the efficacy of this supplement in causing apoptosis, or cell death in tumors, cancer, etc. I purchased some 600 mg capsules and have been taking 1 daily every morning. Since what I had left were cells less than 1 mm in size, I decided to give it a shot instead of doing radiation.

Has anyone else out there used Bitter Melon as an alternative treatment for Breast Cancer??? Any results???

Tara17

hi ---i dont know anything about bitter gourd. But speaking for myself, i thought that node negative women didnt need radiation if they had a mastectomy ? Maybe a second opinion might be helpful for you

All the best to you

marianella7

yeah, I've been reading that. They want me to do it to wipe out the cells that are left and to prevent local recurrence.