Towards the middle of October 2002 I am called by the relatives of a 63-year-old patient. The patient is affected by carcinoma of the uterine cervix to which the doctors of the organization for terminal patients that have her in their care give a maximum life expectancy of about a month.
Discharge document of October 21 2002 (PDF)
I go to great lengths to explain to the relatives the therapeutic difficulties that exist when treating patients that are in such an advanced disease state. This is not because the sodium bicarbonate solutions are no longer effective, but because an endless number of uncontrollable events may intervene.
A first intervention, at any rate, can be performed only on the largest mass, while, for another mass which is in contact with the ileopsoas muscle and for other lesions that are in the liver, I warn them that it is necessary to wait for the evolution of the disease to decide if intervention is appropriate.
That notwithstanding, the relatives decide to proceed with my method of therapy.
The abdominal mass massively occupies the abdomen from the uterine cervix to the umbilicus, and it is in such an advanced stage that it infiltrates and compresses both rectum and urethras to the point that the implanting of two nephrostomachal apparatuses that allow the evacuation of urine is necessary.
Given the size of the mass, radiotherapists did not recommend even a palliative radiation therapy.
Report of the radiotherapists on October 9, 2002: (PDF)
Furthermore, a continuous fever is present, as well as a remarkable loss of weight and a persistent, painful symptomatology which is treated with analgesics.
After I visited the patient at home with the assistance of a radiologist colleague, it was decided immediately to position a catheter inside the mass for the purpose of draining the necrotic material as much as possible and subsequently to implement treatment with a sodium bicarbonate solution of five per cent in the attempt to destroy all the neoplastic colonies, and in the hope of producing cicatrisation of the neoplastic mass.
A treatment with sodium bicarbonate solution via vagina is also begun. After about two weeks, it is possible to inject only a few cubic centimetres of sodium bicarbonate. That indicates that a remarkable reduction of the mass has taken place and this assumption is supported by a descending transnephrostomical pyelography performed on November 15 2002 which reads a “regular flow of the calicopyelic cavities… the urethral constriction, at any rate, does not prevent the transit of the means of contrast which quickly reaches the bladder”.In other words, the patient begins to urinate in a natural way as well.
In the abdomen CAT performed on November 29 2002, the reduction of the mass is demonstrated.