Because of my background in science, and because I had never really studied alternatives, I was initially skeptical of their benefits but willing to give them a chance. The time from my initial diagnosis to beginning of radiation and chemo was only about two weeks and I decided not to start any alternatives, to see how effective the chemo would be. My thought was that if I got good results, I would not know what to attribute them to and I would be obligated to continue both. If I had known the bleak prospects for the chemo at that time, I might have started the alternatives first. My oncologist said there was a 40% response rate for the chemo, and I thought that was pretty good odds for an incurable disease. Only later did I discover that most "responses" were only stable disease or at best a slight regression.

So, in effect, my treatment was an experiment, with a 12 week control period of chemo only and no change in my primary tumor, followed by a 6 week experimental period with the addition of alternatives to the chemo resulting in a 50% shrinking of my primary tumor, and 3 months later, the total absence of any detectable disease.

My oncologist said I "was cured", but he did note that there could still be undetectable cancer cells remaining. He said that if there were a thousand cells left, and with a lung cancer doubling rate of anywhere from 45 to 90 days, it could be years before any more cancer would be detectable (billions of cells). Of course that assumes no further treatment. I will certainly take my vitamins, CoQ-10 and essiac for the rest of my life.

I was born and raised in Waukegan, Illinois. I am a National Merit scholarship finalist and received a 4 year General Motors Corporation scholarship to attend the Illinois Institute of Technology where I received my B.S. degree in chemistry. I then attended the University of Arizona for a year and a half of biochemistry study before being drafted in 1967. My army career consisted of two years in an army research lab at Natick, Massachusetts.

In the fall of 1969 I came to California for the first time to work for my former army supervisor in the diabetes research lab at UCLA. I was the lab manager for ten years at UCLA and for another 16 years at ____________ Medical Center up to 1995 when research funds dried up. Since then I have been lab manager at ___________ Research Corporation, a small venture capital biotech firm. I married shortly after I came to California and have twin stepsons, but have been divorced since 1985. One of my stepsons convinced me of the potential of alternatives shortly after I had begun chemo.

I enjoy the outdoors and my favorite pastimes are fishing and skiing. I like to take my outboard boat out in Santa Monica Bay or to the Channel Islands for fishing trips. I still enjoy the challenge of slalom and giant slalom ski racing on intramural level against other ski clubs. Another enjoyable hobby (really an addiction) is going to unclaimed storage auctions, buying unopened boxes and then auctioning my "finds" on eBay!

January of this year, I acquired a computer to go online and consequently spend a great deal of time trying to spread the details of my case. My webpages were made and maintained by Anne Harris, who hosted it on essiac-info.org. Using my material, Anne says it is a pleasure to work on my webpages because I am "so persnickety about accuracy and documentation".

My hope is that others may benefit from knowledge I gained during my battle with stage 4 lung cancer.

Good luck and good health!

Bob Karjala
August 24, 1999