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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,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,
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:
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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