For generations, a definitive cure for cancer has been just out of reach. There are 9.5 million cancer-related deaths worldwide every year. The tragedy of cancer is that the treatment is often worse than the disease. 

Cancer drugs have side effects because their effects are not limited to cancer cells. The drugs attack any cells that are dividing quickly, especially cells in the bone marrow and the gastrointestinal tract. The damage to normal tissue leads to the familiar side effects of chemotherapy. Destruction of marrow cells leads to reduction in the number of circulating white blood cells and increased susceptibility of infections. Damage to the lining of the stomach and intestine causes nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Damage to hair follicles can cause hair loss.

For decades, doctors and researchers have been trying to figure out a way—without success—to deliver chemo agents directly to cancerous cells without harming healthy tissue. Dr. Matsumura, and his team of dedicated scientists at the ALIN Foundation, tried a different approach: protect the body by using antidotes to neutralize the damage to normal cells and negate the toxic side effects commonly associated with chemotherapy. These antidotes are already FDA-approved. Dr. Matsumura developed a novel method in their use that produced a powerful new therapy without the dosage-limiting side effects of cancer drugs. While normal cells are protected, cancer drugs can be employed in higher doses to eradicate the dividing cancer cells not protected by the antidote.

After years of extensive work in the laboratory, Dr. Matsumura created a strategy that enables the antidotes to protect normal dividing cells without protecting dividing cancer cells. This new toxicity-reducing method is used during chemotherapy. Side Effect-Free, Neutrophil-Potentiated Chemotherapy (SEF Chemo® – pronounced SAFE Chemo) requires that chemotherapy itself meet higher quality standards than today’s conventional chemotherapy centers. Berkeley Institute International, with its rigorous quality controls, even re-tests the potency of every batch of chemo agents used with SEF Chemo®.

SEF Chemo is designed not only to minimize toxicity, but also to make chemotherapy more effective. Usually, only a fraction of the cells in a tumor are directly and immediately destroyed during chemotherapy. Many more cells are merely damaged. These damaged cells can repair themselves, continue to multiply, and spread the cancer.

There is a well-known process within the body’s immune system, called the Neutrophil Cascade, in which one type of neutrophil cells circulate in the body searching for and marking sick and damaged cells. Other neutrophil cells dissolve these damaged cells. It is a mechanism organisms have evolved to rid the body of sick and aging cells. Conventional chemotherapy, however, destroys neutrophil cells in the marrow so that the only cancer cells that get killed during conventional chemotherapy are those directly and lethally hit. Cancer cells that are merely damaged survive, leaving the body vulnerable to the spread of cancer.

SEF Chemo solves this problem by protecting neutrophil cells, thereby ensuring they can identify and dissolve damaged cancer cells, and in that way, the patient’s immune system can naturally amplify the effectiveness of the therapy.

Where conventional chemotherapy may destroy only 60% of cancer cells in the body, SEF Chemo may destroy 95% of cancer cells. For this reason, we find tumors shrinking over weeks with SEF Chemo compared to months with conventional chemotherapy.

Bone marrow suppression is the side effect that most often prevents the use of higher doses of chemotherapy drugs. SEF Chemo reduces the toxic effects on the bone marrow and gastrointestinal cells, allowing physicians to utilize higher doses of cancer agents to eradicate cancer swiftly and thoroughly.

The stunning achievements of SEF Chemo are not solely based on strategies with cancer drugs. Over decades of experience, we have discovered patients facing a potentially fatal disease recover faster and survive longer when provided with strong emotional support. Due to Medicare and insurance guidelines, doctors and their medical staff are reluctant to spend extra time with patients. Our staff at the Berkeley Institute like to take a holistic approach to healing. Dealing with cancer is an emotional challenge and our centers hire and train staff members to be sensitive to emotional issues during therapy and to provide ample time and attention for complete patient care.

SEF Chemo research is ongoing. We’re continuing to evaluate the new therapy on diverse types of cancer. So far, SEF Chemo has had positive progress with various types of cancers but has achieved particular success with bladder, breast, cervical, colon, liver, lung, ovarian, pancreatic, and prostate cancers. Although clinical experience with this therapy is still considered developmental, the high response rates and results showing the therapy’s ability to eradicate numerous cancer types, has motivated the founding of medical centers practicing SEF Chemo world-wide.

Dr. Christi L. Ober, Dr. Scott Hsu-Storaker, and Dr. M. Rikimaru played critical roles in assisting Dr. Matsumura in the pioneering work of the new cancer therapy and enabling the laboratory breakthrough to become a lifesaving therapy.

Dr. Matsumura is a proud member of the following professional medical associations: