I am not a doctor, scientist, or expert in anything. This content should not be construed as advice or recommendation, but is intended for entertainment and informational purposes only.
On December 23, 1971, President Richard Nixon signed the National Cancer Act officially declaring war on cancer. In the intervening 52 years, hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent trying to eliminate the enemy.
Universities have dedicated research centers that focus solely on cancer research and treatment. Every couple of years we learn about “blockbuster” new treatments that promise to extend lives, and possibly spell the end of certain types of cancers.
New foundations spring up like weeds raising more money and awareness (as if we weren’t aware already) and develop lucrative corporate sponsorships with fast food chains, sports teams, and the like. We wear pink ribbons and dedicate an entire month to breast cancer.
We cut, burn, and poison our bodies with the latest and greatest techniques and remedies to eliminate this invader, but what are the results of this seemingly never ending war on the scourge called cancer?
If we use cancer death rates as a proxy for success, then we would have to conclude that just like most of the wars the United States has embroiled itself in since WWII, the war on cancer has been an abject failure.
Mortality data sources: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/vsus.htm & https://wonder.cdc.gov/Deaths-by-Underlying-Cause.html
Sure the rate of cancer deaths has declined a bit since peaking in 1993, but we are still well above the death rate for the year in which the war on cancer was declared. How much of the decline in cancer deaths is simply related to the decline in rates of smoking?
And if we dig deep enough into the statistics, we would likely find that the incidence of cancer is continuing to increase.
On top of that, the overall death rate is little moved, so could it be that the people who are diagnosed with cancer are dying at the same rate as before, but from some other cause? For example, many cancer patients end up succumbing to heart disease that is often the result of damage related to the treatments they receive.
The overall mortality has been trending up since bottoming out in 2009, and exploded higher in 2020 and 2021.
Mortality data sources: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/vsus.htm & https://wonder.cdc.gov/Deaths-by-Underlying-Cause.html
Wasn’t 2021 the year that everybody got the magic juice shots that were supposed to prevent deaths? Can’t wait to see what the number is for 2022. Oh well, that’s a different story for a different day.
The effectiveness in cancer treatments is often described in terms of 5-year survival rates, and we’re told we must get regular screens for cancer in order to receive treatment earlier and have better odds of beating cancer. Why 5-year survival rates?
In Cancer Screening, Treatment, & 5-Year Survival Parts 1 & 2, I highlighted some data that was gleaned from a book called Risk Savvy that in part explored the statistical game that is played in the medical realm, particularly in the world of cancer treatment and mortality.
You can read the full posts here and here, but in a nutshell, the increase in 5-year survival rates from early detection and treatment are often a statistical illusion. In a review of men with prostate cancer and women with breast cancer, the age at which the average cancer patient died was effectively the same whether cancer was detected earlier and treated, or if it went undetected. It’s called lead time bias.
Why Fight a War On Cancer At All?
But back to the question posed in the title of the article, why are we fighting cancer at all? First let’s consider what constitutes war, and then we’ll ponder on exactly what is cancer.
Do we associate war with positive thoughts, and extending care and love? Does war make us happy or feel good? Of course not. Well maybe psychopaths and sociopaths would enjoy war and killing, but most of us usually don’t think that way.
War is negative, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. The objective is to kill more of them than they kill of us.
In the same vein, we view cancer as some outside force that has invaded our bodies. If cancer cells have spread, we imagine them as terrorists hiding out in our bodies where we must send special ops soldiers to root out these insurgents. So, we cut, burn, and poison our bodies in a scorched earth approach akin to a real life kinetic war with another country.
The problem is that cancer is not some invader from the outside. The cancer cells coursing through our bodies are our own cells.
Cancer cells are cells that were once normal, but have been affected in some way that cause them to mutate. By the way, no one is cancer free. Our bodies are constantly producing cancerous cells which are usually disposed of by a healthy immune system - our innate fighting force. Some tumors stop growing and sometimes disappear all on their own with no external intervention.
Cancer cells that begin to increase and amass into a tumor are a message that something isn’t right, and are actually the body’s way of trying to protect itself. They are a symptom of disease and not disease itself.
Interestingly, after 50+ years of war and research on cancer, conventional medicine doesn’t have a good grasp on what actually causes cancer cells to proliferate eventually becoming tumors and/or spread throughout the body.
Instead of focusing on how we can prevent cancer cells from growing and dividing, we find ourselves continually reacting to a cancer diagnosis. Early detection is not prevention, it’s simply finding cancers sooner. It does not determine whether or not these cancers may become problematic and necessitate treatment, but we often subject ourselves to treatments that may be worse than the disease anyway just to be safe.
When we declare war on cancer, we are declaring war on ourselves. All of the hate, anger, and fear that come with fighting are directed inward at our own body parts. Do negative actions, emotions, and thoughts help us heal?
Conventional treatments for cancer involve damaging the body and immune system further. Just removing or shrinking a tumor doesn’t change the underlying condition that caused it to grow in the first place.
Could treating the symptom (the observed cancer cells) and not addressing the actual source of the problem be the reason why attempts to successfully “cure” cancer are so fruitless?
And how do we make peace with ourselves after the cutting, burning, and poisoning not to mention the suspicion that we will harbor toward our own bodies?
I’m not suggesting or recommending any particular course of action. But what I am offering is that maybe we need to view cancer and how we approach it differently. We need a new perspective.
“Why me?” is the most pointless question to ask.
A more productive question to ask would be, “What is this cancer telling me about myself and the environment that I’ve created?” At least 60% of cancers are the result of poor lifestyle choices, and I would hazard to guess that the real percentage is far higher.
My hypothesis is that the physiological root cause of cancer is metabolic dysfunction resulting from toxicities and/or deficiencies due primarily to our own behaviors that allows cancer cells to grow and proliferate, and hampers the immune system. This is likely the same root cause of every other chronic disease. Genetics just determine how disease presents itself whether it be cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, auto-immune disorders, mental disorders, obesity, etc.
Cancer is another signal from the body trying to let us know that something is wrong and we need to make some changes. Instead of getting geared up to fight, we should be getting geared up to care for ourselves better, and stop taking life for granted.
In a way, we should express gratitude for cancer. That doesn’t mean we don’t want to take action, but let’s appreciate it for what it is and try to bring ourselves into balance.
What are the things we’re putting in and on our bodies that may be causing us harm? What are the thoughts we entertain consciously and subconsciously that may be causing unnecessary stress and harm?
We already suffer enough assaults from the world around us. Do we want to keep bringing the things, thoughts, and people into our lives that are more destructive than constructive?
Even if we live our lives perfectly (whatever that means) some of us will still develop cancer, and some of us will die of cancer. We all die of something eventually, so why not cancer? Unless we take our own lives, we have little control over how the end arrives, but arrive it will.
However, focusing on effective self-care and making necessary adjustments to our lifestyle choices significantly lowers the odds of developing, or dying from, cancer early, as well as, any other disease. We have an opportunity to take far more control of our physical, mental, and emotional health regardless of our current conditions, but we have to be the one making the choices - no one can do it for us.
Even in the face of a daunting diagnosis or tough times, we get to decide how we view the world. What would the outcomes be if we came at cancer from a position of love, compassion, and understanding instead of anger, fear, and destruction?