|
Cancer
is not a local disease, but it may be a bump, lump, tumor, or
blood dyscrasia resulting from an invading virus or
carcinogen. Therefore, treatment is directed to cleansing
the body and the blood stream, as well as the liver, spleen an
bowel.
Since
one of the important functions of the body's immune system
is to eliminate all materials that should not be in the body, when
an embryonic cell becomes cancerous it is immediately recognized
as a foreign cell and is rejected and destroyed by the immune
system. Cancer and other degenerative diseases take hold in
the body and grow when the immune system is depressed or
malfunctioning. Therefore, anything that depresses the
immune system can eventually help lead to cancer. These
factors include:
|
|
Proverbs 26:2 tells us that there is
no curse without a cause. the seven factors listed above are
not all the causes, but they are the major ones. Reason
tells us that if something is causing a problem, the best way to
cure the problem is to remove its cause. Experience
tells us that there are certain things we can do to reverse the
course of disease, to help the immune system gain the advantage
again.
How Cancer Develops
A
Cancer is a cell that has lost its normal control mechanism and
thus has unregulated growth. Cancer can develop from any
tissue within any organ. As cancer cells grow and multiply,
they form a mass of cancerous tissue that invades adjacent tissues
and can spread (metastasize) around the body. Cancer
cells develop from normal cells in a complex process called
initiation, in which a change in the cell's genetic material
primes the cell to become cancerous. The change is in the
cell's genetic material is brought about by an agent call a
carcinogen, such as a chemical, virus, radiation, or
sunlight. However, not all cells are equally susceptible to
carcinogens. A genetic flaw in the cell or another agent,
called a promoter, may make it more susceptible. Even
chronic physical irritation may make cells more susceptible to
becoming cancerous. In the next step, a cell that has been
initiated becomes cancerous. Promotion has no effect on
non-initiated cells. Thus, several factors are
involved. Often the combination of a susceptible cell and a
carcinogen, are needed to cause cancer. In the process by
which a normal cell becomes a cancerous cell, ultimately its' DNA
undergoes change. Changes in a cell's genetic material are
often hard to detect, but sometimes a change in the size or shape
of a one specific chromosome indicates a certain type of
cancer. For example, an abnormal chromosome called the
Philadelphia chromosome is found in about 80 percent of the people
with chronic myelocytic leukemia. Genetic changes have also
been identified in brain tumors and cancers of the colon, breast,
lung and bone. A series of
chromosomal changes may be needed for some cancers to
develop. Studies of familial polyposis of the colon (a
hereditary intestinal disorder in which polyps develop and become
cancerous) have suggested how this might work in colon
cancer. The normal lining of the colon begins to grow more
actively (hyperproliferate) because the cells no longer have a
suppressor gene or chromosome 5 that normally controls the growths
of the lining. A slight change in DNA then promotes changes
to form an adenoma (a benign tumor). Another gene makes the
adenoma grow more actively. The subsequent loss of a
suppressor gene or chromosome 18 further stimulates the
adenoma. Finally, the loss of a gene or chromosome 17
converts the benign adenoma. Additional changes may make the
cancer metastasize. Even
when a cell becomes cancerous, the immune system can often destroy
it before it replicates and becomes established as a cancer.
Cancer is more likely to develop when the immune system isn't
functioning normally, as in people with AIDS.
|
