But the treatment is only available in Argentina — the FDA hasn’t yet approved it

Several area residents are traveling to Buenos Aires, Argentina, for a radical and expensive new cancer treatment that uses no drugs or radiation and, for many, seems to work.

At the Regina Mater Clinic, a university hospital, patients receive injections of a vaccine made from their own blood and tumor cells, which have been put together to educate the blood’s dendritic cells on how to attack cancer.

The procedure costs about $50,000, takes up to eight months and is administered mainly to stage-four cancer patients, those who are considered beyond help by conventional medical treatments: chemotherapy and radiation.

"I’m healing pretty darn well and my energy is on the upswing," said nurse Laurie Shonerd, 53, of Medford, who for six years has battled breast cancer that metastasized to her liver and bones. "I know I’m getting stronger all the time. After years of this, we’re guarded, but optimistic."

Ashland building contractor Larry Medinger, who went to Argentina with prostate cancer, pronounced the verdict on his tumor: "That sucker is gone."

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Ashland High School student Whitney Chatfield, 16, flew today to Buenos Aires for the treatment on the now advanced tumors in her chest from Hodgkin’s lymphoma. She earlier endured chemotherapy, which did little to halt the disease.

Two lifelong medical professionals from this area — both of whom asked not to be named — said the procedure either did not work for them or has produced no identifiable results. One, a doctor, added that it would not be possible to recommend the treatment and both declined to have their stories reported here.

When Shonerd went to Regina Mater last April, her cancer had spread to her liver, ribs, spine and pelvis, showing up on a positron emission tomography scan like "worm-eaten wood," she said.

Upon her return here in October, her husband, Dr. John Shonerd, said CAT scans showed "all tumors were liquefied little vacuoles (empty cavities) and by that measure there is no evidence of cancer."

Dr. Shonerd cautioned that the procedure, called Autologous Dendritic Cell Vaccination, is no miracle cure. It is posting success rates of about 50 percent for breast cancer and 30 percent for other cancers. But he added, "That is far better than standard treatment and is progressively improving."

The procedure has been pioneered over the last 10 years by American-trained immunologist Dr. Gustavo Moviglia.

"He is brilliant and should get the Nobel Prize," said Laurie Shonerd. "It’s a wonderful opportunity and should be available here."

Dr. Shonerd said the treatment is "logical and has great promise." In a paper written for the Mail Tribune, he described the procedure, which attempts to mobilize and educate the immune system to fight cancer, much as a polio vaccine does for that disease.

"Several units of blood are taken out and large immunologically active dendritic cells are extracted from the blood, and the blood is returned to the body. A biopsy of the tumor is taken to get live tumor cells," Dr. Shonerd wrote.

"The dendritic cells are exposed to the live tumor cells and engage in a cellular recognition process. This is done outside the body in a culture medium. This becomes the whole-cell vaccine, which is reinjected into the lymph nodes. When lymphatic cells are given this recognition information by the dendritic cells, they go out and kill tumor cells."

The procedure is not yet legal here, but in an October 2002 visit and lecture in Ashland, Moviglia said he is attempting to get the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to re-examine its ban on the injection of live tumor cells into patients, so he can open clinics in this country.

Details of the procedure and outcomes are available on the American Society of Clinical Oncologists Web site (www.asco.org). Moviglia presented his findings at the ASCO convention last year.

The Argentinean clinic struggles under "very unfavorable conditions" with insufficient space, staff and funding, though the clinic is moving to a larger space, said Laurie Shonerd. "They are not getting wealthy," she added.

After the procedure, most patients experience flu-like symptoms and some have more severe reactions. Laurie Shonerd nearly died.

She went into a coma for two weeks, suffered edema and gained 50 pounds of water. She experienced failure of major organs and received full intensive care treatment, "literally snatching her from the jaws of death," Dr. Shonerd wrote.

Calling the post-operative experience a "medical disaster," Dr. Shonerd wrote, "It is difficult to gauge an exact dosage that will treat the tumor and not take the patient down so badly as happened in Laurie’s case."

Medinger, 63, flew down for treatment in November 2002, the same month he read of the procedure in Scientific American.

"I feel great. I’m the poster boy for the treatment," said Medinger, who was in early stages of his prostate cancer. "The tumor was reduced 90 percent by the second of six monthly treatments and I had little pain, only a dull ache that I handled with aspirin."

On getting his diagnosis, Medinger immersed himself in research. He was determined not to undergo the "barbaric and destructive" chemotherapy or radiation that "produce all kinds of collateral damage and desperately conflict with your overall health, even if they’re successful."

Speaking of prostate cancer sufferers he’s known, Medinger added, "First you see the men bald, then you see their obituary. A prostatectomy doesn’t work, because you basically have to give up your sex life and how many men are willing to do that? That alone was enough reason to fly to Argentina and go for it."

Medinger called the journey "a fabulous vacation, in which I took tango lessons, had great dinners for $3 or $4 and made a lot of friends." He spent $52,000 on the treatment, plus $20,000 on travel and expenses. His evaluation of the treatment and Dr. Moviglia is entirely positive.

"One person with a high quality intellect pursued this," Medinger said. "He stepped forward and did the research and work. He’s very directed. He started on pancreatic cancer — the worst kind. It’s a two- to four-month death warrant. He’s now got patients from that who are alive after five years."

The patients and their families in Buenos Aires form a close community, often dining together, donating blood to each other and finding or giving funds to continue the procedure, they reported.

"It takes adventurous types to do this," said chiropractor Rick McKay, of Wilmington, Del., husband of vaccine patient and nurse Mary McKay, 52, who went to the clinic last year with severe metastasized breast cancer, including multiple liver tumors. She became a friend and member of the continuing support system of Rogue Valley patients.

"Mary is doing great now. It’s nothing short of fantastic," said Rick McKay in a phone interview. "After 13 years of this, with chemo and radiation, our local doctors discouraged us about the vaccine, saying, nah, it’s not in journals, not published, not in trials.

"At the (Regina Mater) clinic, we got the opposite. They gave patients hope they could beat it and they weren’t blowing smoke up your dress. The care and concern they demonstrated were something much lacking in our system. You don’t get that hope here. You get four to six months."

Dr. Shonerd faulted cancer treatment in the United States, noting it is "primarily driven by research for highly lucrative medications which can extend life somewhat but rarely result in disease cures." The cancer vaccine involves no patentable drug but is created from one’s own bodily substances.

"I believe that any thinking person," Dr. Shonerd wrote, "would at least allow for this treatment in the U.S. on a compassionate care basis for otherwise untreatable stage-IV patients."

Teen’s last hope is this treatment

Whitney Chatfield, a 16-year-old Ashland High School student, left for Argentina today for her last hope against cancer.

Two years ago, Whitney began having trouble breathing. Her chest hurt and she didn’t feel well. In a difficult surgery — which included an accidentally lacerated lung — doctors found near her heart a large tumor, diagnosed as Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Whitney underwent a grueling round of chemotherapy, which is usually effective against lymphoma. Though it shrank the tumor, it didn’t stop the cancer.

Last summer, she flew to the Regina Mater Clinic in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for exams to determine whether she was a good candidate for the Autologous Dendritic Cell Vaccination, an experimental procedure that uses the body’s own cells to fight cancer.

Dr. Gustavo Moviglia, director of Regina Mater Clinic, declined, saying her cancer was then in remission. But last fall, the cancer turned aggressive and metastasized to her neck.

The Stanford University Hodgkin’s unit offered a bone marrow transplant, but it would include radiation and chemotherapy, cost $140,000, bring on menopause before age 30 and leave Whitney with a 50 percent chance of leukemia and an 80 percent chance of breast cancer. With all that, her odds of living still would not be high.

Her parents, Paul Nash and Ami Cline of Ashland, judged the bone marrow procedure too toxic, risky and invasive, leaving them with one option.

This morning, Whitney took that option. She and her father flew to Buenos Aires for six to eight months of cancer vaccine treatment. The treatment involves drawing cancer cells from her tumor and dendritic cells from her blood, then teaching the dendritic cells to attack the cancer and re-injecting them into tumors to battle the disease.

"I’m scared, yes, and nervous, but partially excited," said Whitney, a sophomore, before she left. "I really hope the treatment works and all goes well.

"I can’t do any more chemo. I did that," she said, her voice breaking. "It was excruciating, horrible. I was very sick."

Whitney’s parents have worked hard to raise money for the treatment over the last two years, organizing benefit concerts, raffles and mailings. For the vaccine regimen, Whitney needs $100,000. So far they’ve raised $38,000. While one parent accompanies her in Argentina, the other will rotate back here for more fund-raising.

"A lot of our decision was Dr. Moviglia himself," Cline said. "He’s a humble, compassionate man who has brought this (technology) about by his own hard work. Sometimes in the most naive place are the wonders to be found."

Whitney’s father said she doesn’t want to leave home and would prefer, of course, to "hang with her friends" and continue school and her guitar and piano lessons.

"Whitney’s spirits are high, but she’s really struggling now and starting to wane," said Cline. "She’s somewhat in pain, losing weight and having difficulty breathing. She’s been trying to hold herself together to get down there for treatment. Her spark is kind of dim."

Karen Loop, head of the Whitney Wellness Fund, said several donations of $1,000 have come in, as well as one for $2,000 and one for $10,000, with $100 being the most common.

"Whitney is an amazing, vibrant, smart, driven young woman who takes life very seriously," said Loop. "She deals with it with great maturity and a sense of humor. At the same time, she’d like nothing better than to be a regular 16-year-old girl and not be in this position."

For all involved in Whitney’s travail, the struggle has brought learning and a deepening of the appreciation of life and community.

"The community has been unbelievable," said Cline. "Whether Whitney lives or dies, it’s been such an opportunity for people to put themselves out here and give with so much love. It’s been very restorative."

Her friends have been "amazing, really here for me, expressing their emotions, being a great support system and I love them for it," Whitney said. "They’ve been my strength.

"This has changed me in so many ways. I have a lot more appreciation for life and the struggles people go through. It makes me appreciate each day. It’s been a real eye opener."

Said her father, "I don’t know if she understands the gravity of the situation. It’s been a long haul and we have even longer to go."

Donations to the Whitney Wellness Fund may be sent to Whitney Wellness, c/o Karen Loop, 164 Sixth St., Ashland, OR 97520. Loop may be reached at 482-9770.

E-mails may be sent to ami.cline@yahoo.com or paulnashchatfield@yahoo.com

For more information, see http://www.marblemountainranch.com/whitney.html.

John Darling is a free-lance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at jdarling@jeffnet.org.