I would like to thank my friend Sherlock publicly for all the help and support she has given to me in this period. Over the weekend I asked her for about a million studies on the effect of different non-toxic substances on melanoma, and she found them all for me. Now I just have to read them…(!).

I would also like to thank the readers and friends who have left comments here on the blog and the many others who have written to me privately with heaps of suggestions and links to various studies. A couple of readers even sent me some full studies. All this has been very very helpful, but most of all, your concern and kindness has really warmed my heart…Myeloma (and other cancer) patients doing research on melanoma…

What can I say but…thank you thank you thank you!!!

Now for the cat naming issue. Even though we really liked most of your suggestions (which we will save for our future cats), Stefano and I have decided to stick with the name that I had originally found for our new kitten…so she has been officially named “Pinga,” which means “turmeric” in Sanskrit. I mean, doesn’t it look as though some turmeric has fallen on her and stained her fur here and there?

Pinga is such a funny little creature…day before yesterday, e.g., I found her sitting in front of the washing machine watching our sheets go round and round…and round! Now and again she would get up on her hind legs and try to attack the sheets…I ran upstairs for my camera and got a few lucky shots…sooo cute!

There is no easy way to say this, so here goes: about two weeks ago, Stefano’s father was diagnosed with Stage III invasive melanoma, based on the biopsy of an itsy bitsy spot on his cheek, which, he said, didn’t bother him in the least but was “wet.” As soon as the biopsy results came in, my father-in-law was scheduled for more invasive surgery (=next week). Last week, therefore, he had a bunch of pre-surgery tests.

Then on Thursday my father-in-law went to see the oncologist/surgeon, Dr. G. (one of the best in Florence), who gave him the results of the CAT Scan: unfortunately, the cancer has spread to his lungs…

Stefano has been home all week with a bad case of bronchitis, which is being treated with heavy duty antibiotic injections and cortisone. And now…this bad news about his father…

Eh, I won’t hide that this has been a very difficult period for us…

Anyway, I have a few reasons for writing about this today.

1. I may find it difficult to answer all of my blog messages and contacts. I answered a whole bunch this morning, but it isn’t easy for me to concentrate these days, as you can imagine.

2. I won’t be doing any myeloma-related research in the next few days, unless something really spectacular falls into my lap. My focus, at least in the next couple of weeks, must be on melanoma. My father-in-law has asked me to go with him to see a second oncologist, Dr. P., on February 16^th. Incidentally, Dr. G. personally made this appointment (= three big cheers for the Italian public health service!!! First-rate work!).

Dr. P. apparently treats melanoma without using chemotherapy or radiotherapy or even surgery…we are not sure what he is going to suggest for my father-in-law, but I am going to ask for his opinion of curcumin and other things that I hope to uncover in the next week or so. I will be taking heaps of studies with me, of course. Never go to a doctor’s appointment empty-handed…

3. Finally, I would like to make an appeal…in particular to my blog readers with melanoma: please get in touch with me, especially if you are taking anything non toxic that has been beneficial. I really need your help, here…thank you so very much!!!

P.S. On a lighter note, our new kitten has been THE best possible treatment against depression and sadness. And to think that we adopted her just a few days before receiving the bad news about my father-in-law…talk about odd coincidences! Anyway, she is a laugh-out-loud little creature. Let me give you an example: yesterday, while Stefano and I were lying down after lunch, she came to sit on my chest and began licking my nose…then she opened her little mouth as wide as possible so as to fit most of my nose into it (obviously I do not have a big nose!)…and then, CHOMPPP!, she bit down hard before I could stop her…OUCH! Stefano and I both burst into laughter…

In addition to doing the cute and funny things that most kittens do, she is also a real sweetheart. She happily lay in my lap for hours yesterday as I played cards with my father-in-law. She also loves to lie on Stefano’s chest (or mine), purring, making funny faces and getting him to smile…and believe me, we don’t have much to smile about these days…

When I opened our bedroom door to let the new kitty out (for good!) on Tuesday morning, the hissing competition began…at times it was so loud that it seemed as though our house had been invaded by swarms of snakes. So much drama! Not to mention all the scampering and chasing up and down the stairs, see photo.

Yesterday things settled down somewhat, and today all seems to be calm. I have even seen Peekaboo and the little one eat side by side.  

News flash: we have decided not to name our new kitten “Pinga” after all. A blog reader wrote to tell me that in Spanish that word means, uhm…something that men have and women don’t (!)…so we are going to change her name to…well, we are not sure what, yet.

She is such a lively bouncy little creature that I was thinking about Peppy (from piperine, thanks Hans!).

Any other suggestions?

A blog reader’s husband, 38 years old, was diagnosed with solitary bone plasmacytoma last October. She asked me if I knew of any other reader…with the same diagnosis, of course…that was taking curcumin, resveratrol or any other supplements. I told her I would publish a post asking anyone with SBP to contact my reader by leaving a comment here…or send me a private message, via my e-mail address or my blog Contact form, and I will forward it to her. Thank you so very much!

I know she looks HUGE in these photos, but she is really a little bitty thing. This morning I picked her up and took her to the vet who confirmed her age: 4 months. Pinga was fine until the vet and her assistant tried to draw blood from one of her paws. At that point my sweet little bumble bee turned into a crazed writhing screeching hyena…the vets couldn’t hold her down, not even with a towel wrapped around her…no kidding. They almost gave up, but I knew we had to find out if she had FIV. With my help, they finally got a blood sample (and a few scratches to boot)…and I am happy to report that she got a clean bill of health. No fleas, either!

As soon as I got home, I shut our cats in a room and let her explore the rest of the house. Then I shut her in our bedroom with Stefano, who is home from work…yes, he has the flu (eeek! I am taking Sambucol and Manuka honey…prevention, prevention…). In the late afternoon, we began the slow and cautious introduction process. So far we have introduced her to three of our four cats, one at a time, of course…and yes, there has been a lot of growling and hissing, especially (and surprisingly!) on Peekaboo’s part. We thought that our amiable little Peekaboo would be the friendliest…boy were we wrong!!!

Today the cats have had only brief encounters…or rather, brief hissing and growling sessions…as for tonight, well, Stefano and I have decided to sleep in separate bedrooms. He will sleep with Pinga and Mr. Flu, and I will sleep with the other kitties. I know that may sound extreme…but cat lovers, especially those with multiple cats, know how these things go…it will be fine in the end, but it will take a few days…

Yesterday, it almost goes without saying, we adopted the little white kitty (see previous post). We didn’t bring her home immediately because we want her to be seen by the vet first (= tomorrow morning). So today she is still in her friendly foster home. Since she was found out on the street, we want to make sure that she doesn’t have anything, disease or parasites or whatnot, that might harm our other kitties (I am sure she doesn’t…but we cannot take that risk). I therefore still don’t have any photos of her. Tomorrow, tomorrow…

Have we chosen a name yet? Well, since she is a white cat with a few splatters of orange on her head and back, as though a bit of turmeric had fallen on her by mistake!, I wanted to name her “Curcuma” (=”Turmeric” in Italian)…but Stefano wants to continue our “P” tradition…(our other cats are Puzzola, Piccolo, Priscilla and Peekaboo).

So this morning I looked up the word “turmeric” in other languages and found “Pinga” and “Pita,” from Sanskrit. For now, Pinga is in pole position…but we are open to any “P” suggestions…Private or Public…Pppplease let me know! 🙂

Premise. During the Xmas holidays, Stefano told me that he had had a weird sort of day dream, in which we adopted another male cat called Prezzemolo, which means “parsley” in Italian. So we decided on the spot that we would adopt the first cat in need. No hurry, though…!

Story. I have been going to the same pet store for years and know the owners very well. This morning I went there to get some cat food. As soon as I walked inside, A. (=one of the owners) exclaimed: “aaah, there you are! I was just thinking of phoning you to tell you that Signora P. has found your Prezzemolo!” She then turned to Signora P. and explained, “Margaret has four cats and wants to adopt another one.”

Signora P. and I fell into conversation, of course. She told me what had happened…in a nutshell, last week she took in a shivering and very hungry abandoned female kitten that was probably 4 months old…but she cannot keep her. She asked me if I would like to see the kitten (hello??? That’s like asking my cats if they would like some tuna…). So off we went to her apartment, just a short walk from the pet store.

First impressions are very important. I am convinced, you see, that our pets pick us and not vice versa (hi John! 😉 ). Well, as soon as she clapped eyes on me, this skinny little thing jumped right into my lap, purring like a locomotive. That did it…

So the long and short of it is that Stefano and I are going to see the kitten tomorrow at 4 p.m. And I am certain that, as soon as the little purrbox jumps into his lap, Stefano is going to forget about his dream of adopting another male cat. You will see…

I recently read an absolutely fascinating New York Times article (see: http://tinyurl.com/yfcshow) on how cancer research in the past couple of decades has been so focused on genetic mutations that other factors, namely the interactions between rogue cells and surrounding tissue, have been ignored…until recently, that is. In fact, I couldn’t even tell you how many studies I have read on the importance of the bone marrow microenvironment for the survival and growth of myeloma cells. Heaps!

Back to the article now…Of particular interest (to me, at any rate) are the paragraphs describing the experiments that indicated that cancer cells could become normal in the right environment (see “Struggle for Acceptance” and “Sleeping Cells Awakened”). Well how about that? Reversing cancer? What a stunning thought…

And also this excerpt: The basic idea — still in the experimental stages — is that cancer cells cannot turn into a lethal tumor without the cooperation of other cells nearby. That may be why autopsies repeatedly find that most people who die of causes other than cancer have at least some tiny tumors in their bodies that had gone unnoticed. According to current thinking, the tumors were kept in check, causing no harm.

It also may mean that cancers grow in part because normal cells surrounding them allowed them to escape. It also means that there might be a new way to think about treatment: cancer might be kept under control by preventing healthy cells around it from crumbling.

Wow…”cancer might be kept under control by preventing healthy cells around it from crumbling.” 

Yes, a fascinating read. Highly recommended.

In 2007 I wrote a post and page (http://margaret.healthblogs.org/antioxidants-and-chemotherapy/natural-cox-2-and-nf-kb-inhibitors/) on natural COX-2 inhibitors, which include curcumin, ashwagandha and boswellia (just to mention a few…). COX-2, or cyclooxygenase-2, is an enzyme responsible for inflammation and pain as well as an independent predictor of poor outcome in myeloma (see, e.g., this 2005 “Blood” study: http://tinyurl.com/2lvw9t). It also plays a role in other types of cancer (colorectal, breast, skin, head and neck, etc.) and is therefore one of the many targets of cancer therapy.

Well, I recently came upon another substance that has been found to inhibit COX-2. A Science Daily article (January 14 2010: http://tinyurl.com/yek5sbz) discusses a study on thyme oil, which can suppress the inflammatory COX-2 enzyme, in a manner similar to resveratrol […]. Thyme oil…like resveratrol?! Reading on…thyme oil’s major component -carvacrol- was the primary active agent. And tests showed that pure  carvacrol extracts decreased COX-2 levels […] by over 80%. Wow. For more information on carvacrol: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carvacrol

I looked up the actual study, of course. The abstract can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/yd4y69v The authors show that COX-2 promoter activity was suppressed by essential oils derived from thyme, clove, rose, eucalyptus, fennel, and bergamot […]. The full 2010 text is not available for free online; however, the full 2009 “accepted manuscript” can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/y9ytad2. Good enough. Yes indeed: like resveratrol, carvacrol from thyme oil was found to be a major suppressor of COX-2 expression […].

Compare the anti-COX-2 activity of thyme oil with that of other essential oils: thyme (65%), clove (40%), rose (30%), eucalyptus (25%), fennel (22%), and bergamot oils (21%) […]. The authors tested other oils, such as lavender, lemon, linseed, olive, sesame etc., but did not find any COX-2-inhibiting effects.

According to the study, thyme oil has anti-microbial, anti-tumor, anti-mutagenic, anti-genotoxic, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, angiogenic, anti-parasitic, anti-platelet, anti-hepatotoxic, and hepatoprotective properties. Quite impressive, eh?

Well, I will now update my Page on COX-2 inhibitors…by the way, we can apparently make our own thyme oil…I am still looking into that and would be glad to receive any suggestions…

P.S. The World’s Healthiest Foods website has heaps of information on thyme: http://tinyurl.com/yh3hvee It is here that I learned that just two teaspoons of thyme a day give us more than 60% of the recommended dietary allowance of vitamin K…not bad at all!