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 BREAST
CANCER IS UNCHECKED GROWTH OF ABNORMAL BREAST CELLS:
What causes cells to become abnormal and reproduce wildly? Damage to the
DNA, the brain of the cell, which causes mutations and activation of
oncogenes. Usually one mutation isn't enough; most cells must undergo
several mutations before they become cancerous. (Sometimes the mutations
must occur in sequence to create a cancer, sometimes random order will do
it.) What causes DNA damage? Radiation, free radicals, genetic defects,
electrical fields, chemicals, drugs, viruses, and metabolic stresses. |
INJURY TO THE DNA INITIATES ALL CANCER:
When mutations accumulate and oncogenes turn on, the cell is initiated.
It is abnormal, but not cancerous. Initiated cells are diagnosed as atypia,
dysplasia, or hyperplasia.
Damaged cells alone offer no threat to long life. To become threatening, the
abnormal cells must be promoted. Promoters bring the cells nutrients so they
can reproduce. (One of the strongest promoters of breast cancer is
estrogen.) Although promoted cells can disguise themselves so the immune
system won't recognize them, most of them are seen and eaten, or
encapsulated by the body so they do no harm. Promoted cells are called
carcinoma in situ.
According to Christiane Northrup, |
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M.D.,
in situ cancer cells are frequently found in the breasts of
women who die of causes other than cancer. And according to
Susan Love, M.D., breast cancer specialist, in situ cells are
reversible without invasive treatments and shouldn't be
thought of as cancers.
THE CANCER CASCADE: INITIATION, PROMOTION, GROWTH:
Promoted breast cells, no matter how many of them there
are, are not classified as invasive unless they spread out of
the tissues of origin and into the surrounding tissues. This
is the growth phase. When promoted cells enter the growth
phase, they begin to form a tumor and to recruit blood
vessels to help supply their immense need for nutrients. (The
tumor may grow so quickly that cells in its center die from
lack of nourishment.) The diagnosis now becomes infiltrating
or invasive carcinoma.
THE CANCER CASCADE CAN BE HALTED OR REVERSED:
Once a mass of abnormal, quickly-replicating cells has
created a network of blood vessels, |
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individual cancer cells can separate from the tumor and
travel to other parts of the body. Because the breast is not vital to
life, a breast cancer that stays in the breast is not life-threatening.
But if breast cancer cells get to the liver, lungs, bone marrow, or the
brain and continue to grow, they can hinder the functioning of processes
necessary for life. The body attempts to check this spread by locking
breast cancer cells in lymph node prisons and by sending immune system
cells out to eat traveling cancer cells. If cancer cells are found in the axillary lymph nodes, the diagnosis is aggressive or metastasized
carcinoma.
NINETY PERCENT OF CANCER DEATHS ARE FROM METASTASES:
Not everyone whose cellular DNA is damaged will get cancer. Why not?
All cells have the capacity to repair themselves or to shut down if they
are mutated or damaged. Good lifestyle habits and ordinary foods such as
lentils also reverse DNA damage.
SPECIAL IMMUNE CELLS EAT POTENTIAL CANCERS: |
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The wear-and-tear of life gives rise to so many mutated,
abnormal, initiated cells (even in a healthy person) that the
immune system forms a constant stream of specialized cells to
seek out and consume them. So long as the immune system is
strong, and well supplied with nutrients, initiated and
promoted cells can be harmlessly eliminated, checking the
possibility of cancer.
CANCER CELLS ARE IMMATURE YET REPRODUCE WITHOUT LIMITS. LIVING LONG
PAST THEIR NORMAL SPAN, THEY APPEAR IMMORTAL:
Building powerful immunity isn't always enough, though.
Cancer cells can trick the immune system into leaving them
alone, and they can replicate so rapidly that they overwhelm
the immune system with sheer force of numbers. One of the
reasons breast cancer is so difficult to treat is that cancer
cells are full of life. They no longer have the inner signal
that tells them to die after reproducing. Like the sorcerer's
apprentice, the woman with breast cancer finds herself with
cancer cells that replicate unceasingly. Cancer cells never
grow up and become productive members of their community.
They simply take up space.
BREAST CANCER IS NOT ONE DISEASE, BUT MANY:
Because there are different types of cells in the breasts (e.g., ducts and
lobes) and a variety of ways that a cell can be abnormal, there are many
kinds of breast cancers and many possible treatments. Of the two dozen
kinds of breast cancer know n, the majority originate in the duct cells.
(See illustration of duct cells, page 106 in my book, Breast Cancer?
Breast Health!)
Some breast cancers grow slowly, others quickly. Slow growing breast
cancers double in size every 42?100 days or more. Quick growing breast
cancers can double every 21 days. Pre- and peri-menopausal women tend to
have faster growing, more aggressive breast cancers (about 10?15 percent
of all breast cancers).
Post-menopausal women, who account for 60?80 percent of all breast cancer
cases, usually have slow-growing cancers, which rarely metastasize.
Microscopic examination of cellular tissue is the only scientifically
accepted way to diagnose cancer.
The first breast surgery most women will have is a biopsy. When there is a
suspicious finding on a mammogram or a palpable lump, there is no way to
rule out cancer unless a piece of breast tissue is removed and examined
under a microscope by a pathologist. If there is a diagnosis of cancer and
further surgery is done, the breast tissues removed are also sent to the
pathologist.
The pathologist can see cancerous cells if they are present and can
determine the type and state of the cancer by a variety of signs. These
findings are collected into a pathology report which will, to a great
degree, determine the treatment options that you will be offered.
Pathology reports are based on opinion as well as fact, so many women have
two, three, or even four different pathologists look at their tissue
samples and give an opinion.
To judge the "stage" of a cancer (see page 137, Breast Cancer? Breast
Health!), lymph glands are removed (excised) from the nearby armpit. Lymph
gland excision always cuts some of the nerves to the arm. Removal of the
lymph glands does nothing to treat or cure breast cancer, and may hinder
the body's ability to deal with cancer. Lymph gland removal can cause
numbness as well as pain, impaired circulation, swelling (sometimes severe
and long-lasting), and a life-long risk of severe infection. The more
lymph nodes removed, the more severe these side effects.
Lack of cancer cells in the lymph nodes doesn't guarantee that the cancer
hasn't metastasized (one-third of all women with negative nodes
nonetheless have metastasizing cancer), but a positive finding does
indicate that the cancer has metastasized and may be growing elsewhere in
the body.
IT IS DIFFICULT TO DETERMINE IF A CANCER WILL METASTASIZE:
Aggressive (metastatic) cancer requires more vigorous treatment than
invasive (non-metastatic) cancer. And treatment is more effective if
undertaken before the metastasized cells begin to form masses in critical
organs. But micro-metastases and small clumps of cells are extremely
difficult to find. What to do?
Orthodox treatments include: Surgery to remove the primary tumor.
Radiation to eliminate any other cancer cells in the breast tissues.
Chemotherapy to kill any other cancer cells in the body. (But those that
survive - and some always do - mutate and become invulnerable to further
chemotherapy.) And hormones such as tamoxifen to check recurrence and
metastatic growth.
Alternative treatments include: Caustic herbs and pastes to burn away the
primary cancer. Nourishing, tonifying, and stimulating treatments for
building immune strength. And a variety of anti-cancer compounds used
systemically to eliminate cancer cells in the breasts and elsewhere in the
body. Exercise and a diet of healthy food, nourishing infusions, healing
oils, and phytoestrogen-rich herbs to counter recurrence.
Does survival after a diagnosis of breast cancer depend on orthodox
medical treatments? Women who refuse such treatments do not die sooner
than women who follow orthodoxy, according to an old (1977), but still
valid, study by Hardin B. Jones, professor of medical physics. ("A Report
on Cancer" is available at the library of the University of California at
Berkeley.) |
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