Blueprint to Beat Head and Neck Cancer: A Patient's Journey

Brad Power June 26, 2024 “It was not what I expected. I just wanted to survive it. ” – Robb Owen “Once I started filling all this stuff out, it jumped off the page. It’s a synergistic mix of everything together. The two prescriptions they gave me had key components in this. It wasn't just all- natural. It really was an integrative mix between natural and conventional. ” – Robb Owen “Half of my patents are up here behind me.

I had to go through that same thing coming up with something novel. This is why it didn't stress me out in what I did. I've had battles before with all kinds of doctors before with my own health where I've often been correct.

"Engaged patients get better outcomes" is one of our core beliefs at the Cancer Patient Lab. But what does a very engaged patient look like? We encourage advanced cancer patients and caregivers to get very involved in educating themselves about their disease so that they can be copilots with their medical team in making complex testing and treatment decisions.

Some patients and caregivers take it a step farther by leading their care decisions, sometimes disagreeing with the advice of their medical team, and carving their own path. If they are successful in controlling their disease, they are seen as "citizen scientist" role models by many. Consider the story of Robb Owen. He's a mechanical engineer by education and profession.

He is an artist, writer, and cancer patient “citizen scientist” activist by passion. He had never dabbled in the medical sciences until he got a diagnosis of stage 4a (metastatic) head and neck squamous cell carcinoma last October. He had heard of squamous cell carcinoma but knew very little about the disease. Two of his cousins had experienced head and neck cancers with one having a near identical incidence like his.

He used his cousins as reference points in advance of his treatment, then dove in and learned everything he could about squamous cell carcinoma in a few months from extensive reading of the medical literature available. He realized during his treatment that he was progressing remarkably better than his reference points. He began to ask direct questions of his oncologist.

” He didn’t like these answers, so he decided to solve this mystery on his own. He began studying the details of the blood markers the doctors used to track his progress, then studied his head and neck squamous cell carcinoma biochemistry. He had implemented a strict regimen plan including vitamins, minerals, hyper-hydration, drugs, stress mitigation, and exercise based upon a typical regimen he had utilized for several years.

Once he added the modified chemoradiotherapy program into his regimen, the tumor resolved in two weeks, and he ended chemoradiotherapy after three weeks, showing no evidence of disease (vs. the seven-week standard protocol). During his chemoradiotherapy treatment, he began cross-referencing how each component from his personal treatment plan interacted with components of the immune system and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

He realized that the synergistic benefits of this plan were the reason for his remarkable recovery. He had battles with his oncologist over his proposed treatment regimen. ” Robb responded, “I am risking my life more by remaining in the treatment because you are now treating a cancer-free healthy patient,” and stood his ground, ending the prescribed protocol.

” His doctor responded that he saw it often, but stated, “The only difference between those patients and you is that you stopped treatment so early. All patients previously either stopped portions of the treatment due to its debilitating effects on their body or they were terminal and wanted to live out the rest of their lives as normally as possible. ” His team is the group that submitted Robb’s case study to Mayo Clinic for review.

During his chemoradiotherapy, he didn't experience the typical side effects of standard chemoradiotherapy -- he did not throw up or lose any functional ability, and he was able to eat normally without taste issues with a modified Mediterranean diet and minimal side effects from the radiation (EBRT). Robb wrote a 109-page technical case study about his experience that he has shared with Mayo Clinic, Ascension St.

Vincent's Oncology and ENT tumor clinic, and oncologists and doctors around the globe. He has written a book about his problem-solving method that is currently in an editing phase. He is writing a patent for an oral and IV version of the treatment solution to be used prior to and concurrently with standard chemoradiotherapy protocols. What does Robb believe caused his exceptional response?

Brad Power This is the Cancer Patient Lab. I'd like to do a few housekeeping things before we get started. This is for informational purposes only. This is not medical advice. This is to give people information to take to their medical team. The Cancer Patient Lab is a patient-led community of volunteers, and we would greatly appreciate any donations. org. I connected with Robb Owen through Bapcha Murthy.

Robb had been in his cancer survivor group on Facebook. Robb immediately impressed me because he had looked at the guidance that he got for his cancer from his medical team and did the research. He's an engineer and a scientist. So he did his own research and decided that he wasn't so keen on what the standard treatment he was being recommended was.

When he did some research, he came up with an alternative, bounced that off his medical team, and they weren't so keen on it. He went ahead anyway, and got an exceptional response. Robb will do a better job of elaborating on that story. At the Cancer Patient Lab, we promote the notion that patients should be actively engaged in their care. We put Robb in the category of super patient, citizen scientist, or highly engaged patient.

He is a role model for the rest of us in the way that he's navigated his care. Robb Owen 2:26 I met with my doctor of osteopathy this morning. I'm now seven months NED (no evidence of disease), which is a very pleasant feeling. My journey started probably altogether maybe eight years ago when I noticed a lesion on my left temple and my right calf. Neither one of them bothered me, so I didn’t have a dermatologist or any of my doctors look at it.

In January of 2023 I noticed a lump in my right cervical triangle. But it didn't bother me. I didn't feel ill, and didn't look ill, and I let it go. I was busy with an awful lot of other stuff. It did not resolve. At that point, I noticed though I did add zinc gluconate to my regimen of vitamin C, B12, and a multivitamin. I ate a relatively decent diet of 20 superfoods a week. I felt good, and my body had plenty of energy.

I was doing multiple things and didn’t have the need to see my doctor. The tumor didn't resolve by May, and I decided I should discuss it with my primary physician on a televisit. He prescribed a round of antibiotics, and I took those, but the tumor did not resolve. I went back and saw him in person in June of last year. He had obvious concerns from his perspective but agreed with me to do another round of antibiotics and a penicillin shot.

Two weeks later the tumor had not resolved, so I followed up with a chest X-ray and bloodwork. The chest X-ray was clear. I'm a smoker, so his concern was that I possibly had lung cancer that metastasized into my neck. The chest X-ray was clear, and the bloodwork had some markers that were leaning to suspect there was cancer, but it wasn't anything outrageous. Everything was in normal range. 9-centimeter mass in my neck.

I followed up with a biopsy in September, and on October 5 was diagnosed with stage 3a squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. They could not find a primary source. By that time the lesion that was on my temple had resolved, roughly two months before my diagnosis, but I still had the lesion on my leg. I told the doctors about the lesion, but they did not investigate.

They were certain that my cancer had either started in my lungs or in my throat. HPV testing was negative, but they wanted to do exploratory surgery just to go in there and see if they could find something in my throat or mouth. They asked me to go off my supplements a week before surgery, in late October. The tumor hadn't grown in 10 months. I went off my supplements of vitamin C, B12, zinc, and multivitamins.

They did an MRI four days later, and the tumor had grown 21%. They performed surgery a few days later, removed my right tonsil and found no cancer. I started my supplement regimen again that evening after surgery. They followed up with another CT scan three weeks later, and the tumor had stopped growing again. I didn't think much of it because at the time, I knew next to nothing about squamous cell carcinoma.

I knew it was skin cancer, and that was the extent of my knowledge. About three weeks before I started treatment, I modified my diet down to just exclusively superfoods, based upon Mediterranean-style foods. 75 to 1 ounce of water per pound per day. I was very active, and still was not stressed about the situation. That was the other key.