What the Block Center Patients Have to Say

“The difference between the cancer patients at the Block Center and our own cancer patients is like night and day.” This was told to me by a nurse at the radiology department of a major hospital in the Chicago area.  

My name is Father Paul Vota. In October 2007 a well-known hospital in the Chicago area with a famous cancer center told me that I had stage four cancer of unknown primary source. They told me that my cancer was incurable and that I had six months to live.  

I was thinking to visit the Mayo Clinic when, providentially, a friend whose wife had had cancer, told me about the Block Center. His wife suffered terribly from the side effects of chemotherapy from a Chicago area hospital. She was able to finish her therapy at the Block Center with minimal side effects. 

After a three-hour initial meeting with the doctors and staff of the Block Center I knew that I wanted to be treated there. What impressed me was their knowledge of cutting-edge  chemotherapy with the combination of natural supplements and medicines to reduce the side effects of chemo. They also impressed me with their insistence on a “cancer unfriendly” diet.  

To give an example of their effectiveness, there is one type of strong chemotherapy which patients at most hospitals can receive only four to five times before the side effects are intolerable. I have received that same chemotherapy twelve times at the Block Center because the side effects are greatly reduced. And since my cancer is aggressive I need an aggressive chemotherapy. Many patients elsewhere can’t do that. 

In June another CAT scan was taken. In comparison with the CAT scan I had initially taken nine months ago, it showed that my tumors are stable or reduced in size, some by as much as half and some have disappeared altogether. And remember, in October I was told that my cancer was “incurable”. 

I know that prayer is another important part of the equation, yet on the human level I would recommend the Block Center to anyone who is battling with cancer. I feel bad for so many cancer patients who are suffering terribly without need. Cancer patients are coming from all over the country and the world to receive relief, healing and hope at the Block Center for Integrative Cancer Care. 

Father Paul Vota