Virginia V. Cherrix - Cherrix's Treatment

Cherrix's Treatment

Cherrix was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease in 2005 and underwent three months of chemotherapy, a standard medical treatment with significant side effects. Hodgkin's disease is highly treatable, even curable, type of lymphoma; 96% of young patients survive at least five years after conventional treatment.He said later that the side effects were so severe that he had wished he were dead during treatment.

In 2006, when the cancer returned, he rejected further conventional treatment and went to Mexico to receive Hoxsey Therapy (an herbal concoction based on the plants eaten by a horse with a cancerous growth in the 19th century), which has been illegal in the United States since 1960, after it was proven to be ineffective. His parents were charged with medical neglect as a result of this decision.

After the circuit court overturned the conviction of his parents in August 2006, Cherrix's treatment was supervised by Arnold Smith of Mississippi, a radiation oncologist with an interest in alternative cancer therapies. His treatment under Smith has included low-dose radiation therapy as well as a sugar-free, wheat free, organic food diet, and various vitamins, aimed at increasing his immune system's activity. Cherrix has cycled in and out of apparent remission under this treatment plan, with the need for a fifth round of treatments at the end of 2009.

In June 2008, Cherrix celebrated his 18th birthday and the completion of his requirement to report his medical condition to the courts.

In January of 2013, Cherrix's cancer returned. He is now stage 3B with a single cancerous tumor in his left lung.