Should the Focus of Cancer Treatment be on Tumor Shrinkage and Removal

ByPrimary Researcher

Executive Summary

  • It is accepted by the medical establishment that the focus should be on tumor removal and shrinkage.
  • Information from studies calls this establishment view into question.

Introduction

The management of tumors is little questioned. The evidence presented in this article asks if it should be questioned.

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This interesting study was published in 2007, and the analysis of this study results is from the book Anticancer.

Important Point #1: Tumors Can be Active and Growing or Can Remain Dormant

A study published in 2007 in the journal Nature investigated the immune potential of completely ordinary mice deprived of Mighty Mouse’s extraordinary defenses.

Mighty Mouse is the scientists’ name for a mouse that displayed a very powerful ability to counteract being injected with cancerous cells due to its immune system.

Catherine Koebel and her team at Washington University in Saint Louis injected a number of normal mice with a tar that’s even more carcinogenic than that found in cigarette smoke.

As was expected, one group of mice quickly developed fatal tumors. But surprisingly, a group of surviving mice had no tumors at all. The researchers discovered that these healthy mice were, in reality, carriers of cancer cells but that these cells remained “dormant”—held in check by the immune system.

Dr. Koebel’s data indicate that when the immune system is weakened, microtumors are more likely to break free and begin to proliferate. The cases of Mary-Ann and George, discussed earlier, illustrate this “dormant tumor” concept. Catherine Koebel’s team demonstrated for the first time in a laboratory environment a radical new concept in the field of oncology. The results of their research suggest that cancer arises only from those cancer cells that find fertile “terrain” in which to grow. That is, cancer cells will flourish only within an individual whose immune defenses have been weakened.

This is why oncologists should focus much more on the immune system than they do.

Important Point #2: Changing the Focus of Tumor Management?

It may be primarily the lack of healthy defenses that allows otherwise dormant cancer cells to become aggressive tumors.