Oasis Of Hope Cancer Center

ONCOLOGIST CONTRERAS OPPOSES EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH:

“Oasis of Hope Hospital Uses Adult Stem Cells to Treat Cancer”

President Barack Obama will lift restrictions on embryonic stem cell research on Monday and sign a pledge to take politics out of science, the White House says, a clear repudiation of the approach taken by his predecessor, President George W. Bush. 

Dr. Francisco Contreras serves as director, president and chairman of Oasis of Hope Hospital. A distinguished oncologist and surgeon, Contreras is renowned for combining conventional and alternative medical treatments with emotional and spiritual support. 

“It is important to note that scientists have yet to find any practical use for embryonic stem cells,” says Contreras, who opposes embryonic stem cell research on religious grounds. “In contrast, adult stem cells have produced treatment for 58 disorders, from Parkinson’s disease to Alzheimer’s.” 

At Oasis of Hope Hospital, patients have received the benefit of adult stem cell therapy for several years, and scientists there are continually finding new applications for it, including cancer treatment.

The History of Oasis of Hope Hospital

The Oasis of Hope was founded by Dr. Ernesto Contreras, Sr. in 1963.  Dr. Contreras was a physician who graduated from the prestigious Mexican Military School of Medicine in 1939.  He was sent by the military to Tijuana in 1955 to be the first specialist in pathology and oncology in the northwest region of Mexico.

In the 1960s, Dr. Contreras was one of the most promising doctors in the field of oncology.  He was one of the founders of the Oncology Society and Pathology Society in Mexico.  He specialized at Harvard University in pediatric clinical pathology and was, at that time, a very well known and recognized orthodox physician.  However, in 1961, his life changed radically after traveling around the world with his wife, his eldest daughter and her husband.  They visited Pergamum, a city that reached its splendor in the third century before Christ. 

The ruins of Pergamum are located in Turkey.  A tour guide, knowing that Dr. Contreras was a doctor, decided to take him on an extended tour of the ruins.  He showed Dr. Contreras an ancient sanitarium.  It was very different from modern hospitals because the patients had to pass through three buildings.  In the first building, patients met with religious counselors.  They believed in the need to be evaluated spiritually.  In the second building, patients met with a psychiatrist of sorts who evaluated their mental state.  In the last building, they received a physical examination.  The concept inspired Dr. Contreras.  The hospital in Pergamum was a place for healing the whole person, not just the body.

In those days, Dr. Contreras practiced the “exact” science of medicine, effecting diagnoses with the help of the microscope.  After his voyage, he felt a tremendous burden to change the way he would treat his patients. After Pergamum, Dr. Contreras began to focus more on the patient than on the patient’s tissue samples.  He didn’t keep this discovery to himself, but began to divulge it to his colleagues in the medical society.  He wanted to discuss the idea of loving the whole patient, taking into account spiritual and emotional needs.  He reminded them of the atrocities effected by surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, and encouraged them to seek less aggressive, more natural and less toxic therapies.  These concepts were not embraced in the 1960s.  Dr. Contreras was at least 40 years ahead of his time.

Dr. Contreras did not waiver due to the lack of acceptance.  He became a pioneer in the practice of holistic medicine and alternative therapies.  He promoted the idea that orthodox therapies should be applied in a less aggressive form.  He promoted the idea that proper diet and detoxification were equal or superior to any therapeutic method, alternative or orthodox.  He instituted programs to help patients with their emotional problems.  He studied the causes of stress and sought ways to enrich the spirit of his patients.  As a result, the success of  Oasis of Hope has been better than that of the great oncology centers around the world.  Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Conteras, Sr., many people today enjoy  less aggressive and more natural treatments.

As Dr. Contreras, Sr. was a pioneer, he never received the benefit of external funding.  No one ever invested money into Oasis of Hope.  Dr. Contreras, Sr. started with one medical office.  When needed, he and his wife would hospitalize patients in their homes.  Often, Dr. Francisco Contreras, as a child, would give his bed to a patient and go to the neighbors to sleep.  Little by little, Dr. Contreras, Sr. and his wife would build what is now the Oasis of Hope Hospital.  It was built by determination and a vision of how a patient should be treated.  

The New Book by Francisco Contreras, MD. is coming Soon!

This new book called Hope, Medicine & Healing was written by an oncologist, Dr. Francisco Contreras, and a counselor, Daniel E. Kennedy, to empower readers over cancer by presenting 8 therapies that work together to overcome the failings of chemotherapy and support the needs of the whole patient–body, mind and spirit. Though some of the information is technical in nature, the book is so well written that it is easy to read and it includes patient testimonies and inspiring stories from Contreras’ Oasis of Hope Hospital.

Hope is transmitted through the total care provided to patients by the specialized team of doctors, scientists, nurses, nutritionist, counselors and prayer partners.

Medicine at Oasis of Hope integrates nutrition, diet, and natural therapies to form advanced research based protocols that are much more effective than traditional approaches to cancer.

Healing occurs when cancer is no longer the patient’s focus. Instead, the patient is able to engage in life to the fullest.

The new book will be coming out on January 2009, but on the mean time I will be giving you some chapter outlines in the next days.

Welcome to Oasis of Hope Cancer Center

Welcome to our new blog, here we will post news, articles, testimonies and coments from our patients as well as cancer patients looking for an alternative cancer approach or an integrative cancer treatment, please feel free to contact us at 1-888-500-4673 if you want us to publish your post.

God Bless

Oasis of Hope Hospital