‘Cancer Doesn’t Disappear Naturally’
After a cancer diagnosis, most of us understand that it must be fought with an often long and hard battle with treatments in order to free the patient of their cancerous cells or tumour. The 2012 Healthy Living Report however, tells us that the idea that “cancer doesn’t disappear naturally” is a myth, so what’s the truth?
The Healthy Living Report offers this as explanation “The disappearance of cancer is ‘spontaneous remission’, your body has the ability to remove the tumour when it’s no longer needed”.
Cancer Research has forecast that 1 in 2 people in the UK will receive a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime and so it appears in the national interest for us to come to clear and accurate understanding.
Although it is a relatively rare occurrence, around 20 cases are reported each year, it is certainly true that some cases of cancer have appeared to disappear with no, or inadequate treatment intervention.
The idea that cancer can not disappear naturally has definitely been proven to be inaccurate, there are many cases in almost all types of human cancer to demonstrate that this can happen, the phenomenon is indeed called “Spontaneous remission” (SR).
It is estimated that for somewhere between 60,000 and 100,000 cancer patients, only one will end in spontaneous remission. So how does the body go about removing the tumour “naturally”, that is without the adequate intervention of treatments such as chemotherapy, radio therapy or surgery that target cancer.
There are many factors that have been identified to lead to cancer remission, it is therefore by no means entirely ‘spontaneous’.
Often it has been associated with infections e.g. fungal, bacterial or viral. This is thought to be due to the immune response that is stimulated during an acute infection. The immune system appears to attack the cancerous cells also.
In the 1980’s a physician named Coley managed to treat his cancer patients with a vaccine containing two types of dead bacteria that would trigger their immune responses but not actually induce a dangerous infection. Many patients recovered from sarcomas that completely regressed following this treatment.
There is a very strong correlation between fevers and fever inducing infections in particular and observing spontaneous remission, it is thought to be the key indicator that the patient’s immune response will also be able to destroy the patient’s tumour.
There is plenty of evidence to support the “natural disappearance” of cancer as a result of the unrelated but beneficial stimulation of the immune response. There are case studies for example where after surgery to remove part of a kidney tumour, the rest of the tumour regresses on it’s own. This is likely due to the natural immune response involved in recovery after surgery.
There also seems to be some genetic factors involved, for example, type one neuroblastomas in children very often regress with no treatment. Type 2, which is genetically distinct, requires treatment and even then, only has a 40-50% survival rate. It is likely that the genetic difference is to blame.
Other postulations about SR suggest that it is a result of apoptosis (cell suicide) and is due to the actions of growth factors and oncogenes that control the rate of growth, or lack thereof, of the tumour. Changes in how these factors are functioning are thought to lead to the natural removal of the cancer.
The health report states that the tumour is removed by the body once “it (the tumour) is no longer needed”, this statement is most likely inaccurate. There has been no evidence to show that a tumour would ever be ‘needed’, i.e. have any benefits to the patient’s health, in the first place.
Although there are some arising controversial theories that cancer-causing genes are part our DNA because they were once useful and selected for, cancerous cells do not serve any purpose to the modern-day person.
There are countless examples of cancer disappearing ‘naturally’ or without any/adequate treatment. This is however not the case for the vast majority of patients.
It also is not a result of the body deeming the tumour no longer ‘needed’ and is more likely due to coincidental stimulation of the immune system and genetic factors.
References
[1] Koren T, 2012, ‘Myth Busting – Healthy Living Report’, Issue 5 https://moodle.kent.ac.uk/2020/pluginfile.php/238022/mod_resource/content/1/Myth%20Buster%20by%20Ted%20Koren%202012%20Issue%205.pdf
[2] Cancer Research UK, 2015, ‘1 in 2 people in the UK with get cancer’ https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-us/cancer-news/press-release/2015-02-04-1-in-2-people-in-the-uk-will-get-cancer
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[10] Jessy T, 2011, ‘Immunity over Inability: The Spontaneous Regression of Cancer’, PMID, vol 43-49 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3312698/
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[12] Markowska J, 1998, ‘Spontaneous tumour Regression’, PMID, vol 39-44 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9553321/
[12] Merali Z, 2014, ‘Did Cancer Evolve to Protect Us?’, Scientific American, vol 175 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/did-cancer-evolve-to-protect-us/
[13] Hejmadi M, 2016, ‘Why do some cancers suddenly disappear without treatment?’ Medical press, Oncology and Cancer https://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-06-cancers-suddenly-treatment.html