After undergoing chemotherapy for a time, in most cases a patient’s cancer will become resistant to the drug being used. In fact, the tumors will be resistant to all other chemotherapy drugs as well. This is a process called multidrug resistance (MDR), and it makes cancer very difficult to treat with conventional therapies.

The cancer cell does this by increasing production of a compound called P-glycoprotein, which pushes the drug out of the cancer cells. Once MDR is established, the cancer is practically impervious to all treatments, and it frequently grows much faster than before.

Another reason cancer becomes resistant to treatment is that it shuts off cells’ suicide genes, which normally kill cells that are in danger of becoming cancerous. The major suicide gene — called p53 — is suppressed (mutated) in more than half of all cancers, and probably functioning poorly in the rest.

The combination of mutated cell-suicide genes, immune suppression, and MDR allow cancer cells to grow freely, invade surrounding tissues, and spread to distant parts of the body. This makes the cancer incurable.

Natural compounds such as curcumin, quercetin, immune stimulants, CoQ10, and hesperidin can correct all these problems.

Studies have shown that curcumin, ashwagandha, and quercetin, for example, can reverse MDR — and make the cancer cells once again sensitive to chemotherapy.

Many flavonoids have been shown to make the p53 suicide gene start working once again, meaning the cancer cells will commit suicide.