5 years cancer-free without Big Pharma
By Kathryn Reed
Five years is a milestone most cancer patients celebrate. It doesn’t mean the disease won’t come back, but it is a positive indicator.
Chemo, radiation, surgery or some combination is usually the medical cure. Not so for Steve Kubby. He attributes reaching the five-year mark to cannabis cryogenic extract.
This month the 70-year-old South Lake Tahoe resident celebrates being cancer free for five years.
At 21 he was first diagnosed with cancer. At 28 he was told he had terminal malignant pheochromocytoma. According to the Mayo Clinic, pheochromocytoma “is a rare, usually noncancerous tumor that develops in cells in the center of an adrenal gland.”
The rare disease is often fatal. He was give six months to two years to live, and told to get his affairs in order.
Steve Kubby and Nobia Monsaurt with the marijuana plants they use for medicine. Photo/Lisa Gresham-Gordon
“I went to the Mayo Clinic. They threw everything they had at it. Nothing worked,” Kubby told Lake Tahoe News. He defied doctors’ predictions, but the cancer was always there.
It was five years ago that he started using the cannabinoid.
Raphael Mechoulam, who discovered tetrahydrocannabinol is the most active ingredient in cannabis, had figured out cannabinoids are lost whenever cannabis is dried. That is what led Kubby to the cryogenic or freezing process. Kubby developed the process by using a plant from South America he had been breeding.
It’s non-psycho active, which means using it won’t make the person high. Kubby ingests the medicine, as opposed to smoking it.
“It can trigger adult stem cells. No one is using this method that we know of,” Nobia Monsaurt said. Monsausrt is an integral part of Kubby’s continued research into medical marijuana. They plan to be married this April.
They have a research team helping them refine the product, which one day the couple would like to bring to market.
Kubby had gone off the drug for a while, believing he was cured of cancer and not in need of it anymore.
In April 2016, he suffered a minor stroke. Kubby returned to using his special medicinal marijuana formula. He said it alleviated the lingering stroke issues, brought down his blood pressure and even decreased his prostate numbers.
The plan going forward — stay on the medicine indefinitely and continue to study the benefits with the hope one day the strain is available commercially.
It is great Kubby feels better.
HOWEVER, until there are peer-reviewed controlled studies this is not helping educate the public.
This is as irresponsible as those that claimed DMSO and Laetrile cured cancer. Scientific studies have shown there is no basis for this belief but people continue to blog about how it has cured them.
Cannabis extracts most notably CBD is showing potential for a VERY limited use in limited medical conditions. But the legitimate studies have just begun. This is a far cry from using the whole plant as a medical treatment as it has hundreds of chemicals and dozens of different cannabinoids (many of which are far from harmless.)
One thing that is abundantly clear is the link between cannabis and the onset of severe psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia and psychosis…as always be extremely weary of anecdotal stories of a miracle cure.
“Thanks for the update. You continue to have a remarkable history. Simply surviving all these years is extraordinary. To have done it with good health and evidence for regression, rather than progression, of your pheochromocytoma is, as you mention, unheard of.
“At some point your case should be fully described in the medical literature. Skeptics will, of course, point out that your case demonstrates a strong association, not definitive proof. However, cases like this can support a need to investigate further and attempt to better understand how cannabinoids may interact with cancer.
“Thanks for keeping me up to date.”
Regards,
Joseph M Connors, MD
Clinical Director, BC Cancer Agency Centre for Lymphoid Cancer
600 West 10th Ave, Vancouver, BC V5Z4E6