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DI BELLA METHOD > FAQ > Frequently Asked Questions
1. Is it possible to associate radiotherapy to MDB treatment?
Radiotherapy applied targetedly and limitedly to the neoplastic focus is compatible with MDB treatment. Some of the MDB principles like vitamin E, D and C, retinoids and melatonin can significantly reduce most undesired side effects of radiotherapy.
2. In the event of surgical indications, are there any contraindications to employing MDB? On the contrary, if MDB is advised, how is it to be applied?
Radical cancer surgery has become today a more and more preferred medical treatment, thus confirming the awareness that chemotherapy is unable to eradicate the tumor. Under many circumstances MDB treatment may be associated to surgical removal of the tumor, keeping in mind that the tumor is only the maximum concentration in one point of a generalized and systemic disease. Therefore the eradication of a neoplastic focus may be useful especially if preceded by MDB treatment for a couple of weeks, as this would dramatically reduce the proliferation and invasion of tumor cell populations, which on the contrary surgery often causes to be easily disseminated in the body. Such potential dissemination and consequent metastases are definitely inhibited by MDB antitumor activity. Hence, surgery should be preceded, accompanied and followed by MDB treatment.
3. You often talk about highly toxic chemotherapeutic treatments causing cell death. Alternatively, you also talk about apoptosis. What is the difference?
The cell kill resulting from high dose levels of chemotherapy releases a considerable quantity of toxic metabolites which cause negative systemic reactions, including damage to nearby tissues. Conversely, apoptosis is an involutive process comparable to early and rapid cell ageing, without causing rupture of the cell membrane and without inducing toxic reaction.
4. Are there any statistics on MDB therapy?
Data on MDB treatment effects on lung, pancreas and bone cancers, glioblastomas, breast cancers, malignant and non Hodgkin lymphomas have been published on both Italian and foreign medical reviews. Other scientific data have been evidenced by the examination of over 500 medical records by three experts (CTU) appointed by the District Attorney’s Office of Lecce, in Southern Italy. You may find such data in the News section dealing with scientific evidence (or click here “225 MDB clinical records” to access the document). There is a wide range and variety of diseases examined, including numerous types of cancer treated with MDB evidencing significant therapeutic effectiveness without typical side effects of chemotherapy. Such effectiveness was evidenced by partial or total response, improvement in performance status or remission of severe diseases like pancreas cancers which responded to MDB in significant percentage. One should also consider that some patients - enrolled in 1998 for MDB clinical trials - with a life expectancy between 11 days and 3 months - survived for years with MDB treatment. Moreover, many patients under MDB treatment filed a petition to the court to have the therapy dispensed, as this was not granted by the National Health Service. The great majority of these sick people had resorted to MDB treatment after failure of chemotherapy and tumor progression. In such a case, a judge entrusts a physician, generally an oncologist, with the examination of a patient’s clinical records. Where the medical expert certifies that MDB treatment stopped tumor progression or resulted in remission, the judge orders the local health center (ASL) to administer the therapy. Because the number of court decisions granting MDB treatment has exceed 1,000, this means that there have been at least 1,000 cases examined by a medical expert certifying in court evidence-based effectiveness of MDB treatment.
5. For how long should MDB treatment be employed?
There exists no time standardization of MDB treatment which should be administered at the same dose levels until cancer remission. Once this goal has been reached, dose levels should be slowly and progressively reduced, leaving small doses of retinoids and melatonin to avert tumor recurrence - likely in a biologically “fertile” terrain.
6. Whom should one address to employ MDB treatment?
Physicians who have perfect knowledge of MDB therapy and have contributed to its dissemination (through a scientific publication, congress or conference) are but a few, partly because they have often been intimidated or hampered. Any request for MDB treatment, provided that adequate information on the disease in question is provided, will be responded to by e-mail.
7. How much does the therapy cost?
Using biological somatostatin-14 (i.e. consisting of 14 amino acids) sold at a price of about 18 euros per vial and taking into account all MDB components, MDB treatment has a monthly cost ranging from 620 to 800 euros. The employment of somatostatin analogues like (slow-release) octeotride depot, entails a significant increase in cost, as a single octeotride vial, covering one month treatment, is sold at a price of about 1,700 euros. The use of octeotride is not mandatory as it can be easily replaced by somatostatin. However it may be advisable under special circumstances and is undoubtedly more “user-friendly”, as one monthly injection of octeotride replaces the use of the syringe pump for 8-10 hours a day, every day. Some Italian regions like Apulia and Lazio have already dispensed the treatment. The Lazio region has already passed the resolution with a MDB dispensing circular. Emilia Romagna and Tuscany have also approved resolutions for dispensing MDB, limiting it however to disadvantaged social groups and to patients with cancer at an advanced stage. Initiatives similar to those taken in Lazio are being considered in other regions. Nationally speaking, a resolution submitted in Commission by some MPs aims at setting up a Parliamentary Committee to investigate the many irregularities that impaired MDB clinical trials. As a consequence, the Bindi ordinance – which declared MDB ineffectiveness based on inaccurate trials - would no longer be in force. This would pave the way for the national health service to dispense MDB, in consideration of the broad scientific evidence so far collected. For other updates go to the News section.
8. The www.metododibella.org website may provide counsel, medical advice and a list of reliable physicians prescribing MDB treatment.
Any such question is responded to by e-mail - info@metododibella.org - based on exhaustive and detailed information as to the histological nature and stage of the disease, previous medical treatments (surgery, radiotherapy, etc.) and performance status (quality of life) of the patient.An ever increasing number of physicians willing to provide scientific cooperation will help make this website all the more useful, accurate and reliable for those seeking information on the Di Bella Method.
9. While the costs of MDB treatment have been quantified, what are the costs of chemotherapy?
The average cost of chemotherapy cycles - differing substantially in composition - varies considerably according to the drugs used. Anyhow, the cost generally amounts to several thousands of euros for a number of cycles, and may even reach 50,000 euros. One may believe that chemotherapy is free of charge but mistakenly, as taxpayers, healthy and sick, actually pay for it by contributing to the state revenue. Other considerable charges may add up to such expensive treatments: for example a marrow transplant may cost over 50,000 euros. Its temporary and limited effectiveness, its inability to defeat cancer and severe toxicity makes the financial burden of chemotherapy even more irrational and unacceptable.
10. Is it true that even MDB therapy includes the use of chemotherapy?
This false statement was purposely made to generate confusion on the real effectiveness and action mechanism of MDB therapeutic principles. Importantly, one has to consider that many substances have a dose-dependent clinical response: while a certain effect may be obtained at 10 dose levels, exactly the opposite effect may be produced at 100 dose levels. For example, in the past restorative drinks were often prepared with micro doses of arsenic. It was known, though, that arsenic in high doses was lethal. Similarly, while cyclophosphamide used in chemotherapy intravenously up to doses of 10 grams produces a general cell-kill effect, causing the death of both healthy and cancerous cells, the same drug used in MDB therapy at one hundredth dose levels no longer results in cell kill but in apoptosis, whereby tumor cells die and are replaced by healthy ones.
11. What are the chances for the Di Bella Method (MDB) in treating a single and specific tumor pathology?
The Di Bella Method (MDB) has clearly showed beneficial effects in all cancer treatments, as all tumor pathologies have the same causal factors that respond positively to MDB, as much is widely and extensively confirmed by international medical and scientific literature on the subject. For instance, growth factors like GH hormone, prolactin or IGF-I and -II somatomedins, pro-angiogenic growth factors like VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor), EGF (epithelial growth factor), FGF (fibroplast growth factor) and NGF (nerve growth factor) have been widely recognized as potential activators of neoplastic growth and all of them are inhibited by MDB. Abundant scientific literature on the subject has confirmed the powerful inhibitory effect of somatostatin and its analogues. Therefore, when considering the causal factors that are common to all neoplasms, the rationale underlying MDB is scientifically well-established. The FDA recorded the use of somatostatin in treating some forms of cancer as early as 1988, and numerous publications include somatostatin indications for virtually all types of cancer. Importantly, MDB effectiveness is reduced, but not neutralized, where chemotherapeutic treatment has been previously employed. Chemotherapy alters biological terrain, while MDB restores it back to its natural status and this restoration occurs all the more easily and quickly, the lesser the severity of previous conventional treatment. Even disease stage is crucial to a prognostic evaluation of MDB effectiveness, as - especially when terminal patients are involved - the quality of life can be improved and survival extended, though damage caused by disease progression is often irreversible.
In memory of Prof. Luigi Di Bella, father of therapy known as Di Bella Method