Cancer unchanged following vitamin C treatment

Sonia Howe's lung cancer has not changed since turning her back on mainstream medicine and treating it with vitamin C.

The 39-year-old embarked on the alternative therapy after being diagnosed with positive non-small cell adenocarcinoma, and after seeing friends and family losing battles with cancers following treatment with traditional methods of chemotherapy and radiation.

Sher was first diagnosed June 1, 2015 with the cancer, and given 18 months to live.

Almost 18 months on the alternative treatment, tests last week confirmed Ms Howes cancer had not grown or shrunk after undergoing twice weekly 90g vitamin C infusions.

"Absolutely everything is as it was," Ms Howe said.

"Nothing has changed, it is just the same. It hasn't spread, it hasn't got bigger or smaller."

Ms Howes said she always got nervous and upset when she knew tests were around the corner but read the results as a positive for her, her four children Keegan, 21, Layla, 8, Jade, 7, and Seaton, 5, and grandson.

"I know I am doing a job, and this is the right choice for me."

Ms Howes was moving to Galatea on November 26 after struggling to find a new rental in Tauranga, but will continue her treatments in the small Bay of Plenty town.

She would like to be able to increase the number of treatments she had in a week.

"I would love to be able to do them three times a week, then your body is saturated in vitamin C all the time and it stays in body 36 hours."

BOPDHB oncologist Dr Richard North confirmed Ms Howe's cancer had not changed, which was pleasing.

The cancer had been localised to areas which could receive radiation and chemotherapy, he said.

"This means she has a potentially curable cancer if given radical radiation and chemotherapy treatment. Currently Sonia has elected not to have this therapy as it is toxic and there are no guarantees it will cure her," Dr North said.

The average survival with stage IIIA ALK positive lung cancer was two to three years, although that depended on how much treatment a patient had and the response to that treatment, he said.

"Sonia's cancer has proved to be very slow-growing which suggests a longer-than-average prognosis, however we do anticipate the cancer will eventually spread and threaten her life without treatment."

To support Sonia Howes and her journey, please head to her Givealittle page, Support for Sonia.