Conventional breast cancer treatments versus alternative

Breast cancer is constantly in the news: over and over one finds articles about studies proving that this or that is a risk factor for breast cancer, or this or that drug or this therapy decreases breast cancer deaths by certain percent etc.  And no wonder it is talked about a lot: the incidence of breast cancer has been climbing, so that now every 1 woman in 8 gets it in her lifetime, and it the most common cause of cancer death in women between ages 18 and 54.

Many Americans have lately started using alternative cancer therapies in addition to the conventional ones.  This article discusses what conventional and alternative or natural cancer therapies are based on.

What is cancer?

Cancer cell is an abnormal cell that divides itself and multiplies without control.   This is caused by a mutation in the genes that control normal cell growth and cell death.  The mutations that change a normal cell into a cancer cell can be caused by radiation, carsinogenic chemicals, heavy metals, and free radicals, at least.

If this one cancer cell is able to freely multiply and reproduce itself, producing daughter cells, and those daughter cells then multiply etc., they usually eventually form a mass of cells, a tumor, or cancer.

Cancer cells can invade and damage nearby tissues and organs.   Cancer can spread to form tumors in other organs away from the original cancer site if the individual cancer cells enter the bloodstream or the lymphatic system.  This is called metastasis.  Breast cancer typically spreads to the lymph nodes in the armpit.

How do conventional cancer therapies treat breast cancer

Allopathic (conventional) medicine basically says that the cause of breast cancer is not known, and that one cannot prevent breast cancer, just lower one's risk of getting it.  The typical treatments offered are:

• Surgery is used to remove the bulk of the tumor.  It carries some risks, weakens the body temporarily, and is seen as vital in conventional cancer treatment.
• Chemotherapy uses toxic drugs to try to kill the cancer cells.  The drugs are designed to target cells that divide rapidly, which cancer cells do, but so do cells in your mouth, blood, eyes, lining of intestines etc.  Chemotherapy is therefore hard on your whole body.
• Radiation therapy uses localized radioactive radiation to try to kill the cancer cells in the most affected area.  The nearby normal cells are also damaged.
  It is doubtful whether radiation therapy with breast cancer really saves lives or not.  A study published in Lancet May 2000 found that while using local radiation to treat breast cancer reduces deaths from this disease by 13.2 percent, it increases death from other causes, mostly heart disease, by 21.2 percent.  While the breast area is irradiated, the radiation harms the heart, too.
• The drug tamoxifen blocks your own body's estrogen from working so it cannot promote the cancer's growth.  Tamoxifen truly works but on the downside it has menopause-like side effects (from blocking the estrogen) and also causes potentially life-threatening conditions like uterine cancer, blood clots in veins or in the lungs, and stroke. Consuming flaxseed might provide a safe alternative to tamoxifen.
• Mammogram is a picture of the breast taken using radiation (like X-rays).  The mammogram screening programs are seen as important in allowing the early detection of breast cancer.
  Recently there has been much discussion and confusion over whether or not mammogram screening really reduces breast cancer mortality and thereby saves lives.  A review study that analyzed several previous mammmogram screening studies found that many of were seriously flawed or contained a statistical bias, and some studies have shown no effect in saving lives. 
  For example, in a Swedish study of 600,000 women aged 50 to 70, the use of mammography screening was expected to bring about a 25-30% decrease in mortality.  But this didn't happen - the reduction in deaths was only 1%. (Laekaren Tidningen February 1999).

Curing cancer with alternative/natural therapies

Alternative medicine says that there is no single cause of cancer as such but that various factors hinder the body's natural ability to kill cancerous cells, and therefore a tumor can form.  The basic idea is that we all get cancerous cells in our bodies all the time, but in a healthy and clean body these bad cells don't cause any problems because the immune system destroys them, after which they get eliminated from the system.

For an individual cancer cell to become a tumor of millions of cells, several things have to go wrong.  First of all, radiation, or carsinogenic chemicals, or free radicals have caused a mutation so there is a cancer cell that starts to multiply.  Then some factors have weakened the body's immune system so these cancerous cells are able to multiply freely instead of getting flushed out.  And yet other things can directly stimulate the cancer cells to multiply.  Quite probably the body's natural cleansing or detoxification has been hindered, thereby helping cancer (this is where bras come in).

Some factors that cause the body to become unhealthy and unable to handle cancer cells, or that directly benefit the cancerous cells are:

• Nutritional deficiencies caused by inadequate diet, refined and processed foods, vegetables from nutrient-poor soil, poor digestion, drugs, not enough sunshine etc. Some of the most common deficiencies are omega-3 fatty acids, magnesium, selenium, vitamin D.
• Toxins from household chemicals, air, water, hygiene products, processed foods, pesticides, from parasites (many parasites produce toxins), molds, prescription drugs, radiation etc.
• Inadequate cleansing or detoxification of the body, constipation, overeating, lack of sleep, stress.

And there are many more.

People in the field of alternative medicine see cancer as largely preventable and curable.  The key to cure cancer is to help your body to get healthy and (internally) clean again, and remove those factors that are hindering this process and/or helping the cancer.  A healthy body eliminates cancer cells whereas where waste and toxins accumulate is a breeding ground for parasites, viruses, bad bacteria and cancer.

To treat cancer, alternative medicine uses detoxification, good nutrition, and numerous therapies and natural substancies that can boost the immune system or directly attack the cancer cells.

Actually, even allopathic medicine recognizes that ultimately the body itself has to kill the cancer cells to totally cure the cancer.  They know that after surgery removes most of the tumor mass, if there is even one cancer cell left and the conditions in your body are still favorable to its growth and the immune system does not kill the cancer, the tumor will grow back (as so often happens).

Of course the rationale is to use radiation and chemotherapy to try to kill of most of these cancer cells that the surgery couldn't remove.  But even after chemotherapy and radiation there are still some cancer cells remaining, so getting totally rid of the cancer still ultimately depends on the body's own ability to eliminate those 'bad guys'.  However, chemotherapy and radiation weaken and poison the body, making it harder for that cleansing process to take place - so it is prudent to make lifestyle changes and improve nutrition so you can help your body in its task to kill the cancer cells.

There's not enough room on this website to delve into all possible alternative cancer therapies; you can find information about them elsewhere.  But you can probably benefit greatly from the rainforest tree graviola, which was found to be an extremely potent cancer fighter in the 1990's.  The leaves of this tree, when consumed, are extremely effective against all forms of cancer - yet practically without side effects.  Graviola is 10,000 times stronger in killing colon cancer cells than Adriamycin, a commonly used chemotherapeutic drug.  And it selectively kills cancer cells without harming healthy cells, unlike chemotherapy.  Graviola is truly a miracle herb!

We hope women can make informed choices about treatment plans, and get reliable information about the alternatives besides or in addition to the conventional treatments.  Whatever you choose, remember to keep a fighting attitude and stay on top of things, don't get discouraged!  Get support from other people.  Cancer can be defeated.

See also:

Preventing breast cancer 1: Carbohydrates, Fats, Estrogen, Vitamin E, Soy.
Preventing breast cancer 2: Organochlorines, radiation, breastfeeding, oxytocin.

Sources & Resources