Cancer and the Immune System

Summary: Molecular Level Immune System Management

1. Cancer is as unique as the individual.

2. Cancer is a dysfunction of the immune system.

3. Protein is essential in the adequate functioning of the immune system. All protein is manufactured from amino acids.

4. Symptoms can be reversed by adjusting plasma levels of amino acids. With proper management of the immune system, a long term state of wellness can be maintained.

The Connection Between Cancer and the Immune System

What is Cancer?
The fundamental hypothesis that has driven ISM’s original research and therapeutic clinical protocol is that cancer itself is not a disease, but originates as a result of repercussions from the metabolic & immune system reactions of the body to genomic variations. Cancer, for example, is a complex disease, like diabetes, heart disease, and kidney disease. All complex diseases arise from combinations of changes that occur in the same cell over a period of time. To complicate matters further, there are many different types of cancer, each displaying different combinations of changes. Even within a single type, such as lung cancer or colon cancer, clinicians can identify subtypes, each marked by a unique set of changes.

Cancer is a disease process in which healthy cells stop functioning and maturing properly. A mishap occurs inside these cells…change, a mutation in the genetic blueprint, its DNA. The altered DNA makes copies of itself and passes its information and gene sequencing on to other cells, which then become cancer-prone. As the normal cycle of cell creation and death is interrupted, the newly mutated cancer cells begin multiplying uncontrollably, no longer operating as an integrated and harmonious part of the body.

Variations that occur in the coding and regulatory regions of genes result in harmful effects. These are called mutations. They cause disease because changes in the genome's instructions alter the functions of important proteins that are needed for health. For example, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, Huntington's disease, and hemophilia all result from variations that cause harmful effects. Source: National Cancer Institute: Understanding Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms, S. Greenhut, M.S. 2004

Cancer is also the result of multiple factors impinging on an individual’s mind, body and organic systems. Hence, focusing medical efforts on removing the tumor will most often not “cure” cancer. Many, if not most, cancer deaths come as a result of infection by bacteria, viruses and fungi – microbes that normally would be destroyed by the immune system. We are always developing small cancers that are recognized by our immune system and destroyed. The healthy body can normally handle individual carcinogenic influences, but when they become multiple and cumulative, the body begins to weaken, and this is the point at which harmful influences may gain the upper hand. Any factor that increases the growth rate of these small cancers gives them an advantage over the immune system.

The Immune System Response
Cancer cells are created every day in healthy human beings. Cancer cells in moderation are a legitimate part of nature. The difference between a person with cancer and a person with fleeting cancer cells is that in the latter, the immune system is able to eliminate the aberrant cells from the system before they are able to do any damage to the body or start an illegitimate growth process culminating in a tumour. When the immune system is not working well, the result is frequent or chronic infections, chronic fatigue and eventually cancer. The immune system response is the body’s way of cleaning up defective DNA.

Many oncologists and medical immunologists now believe that cancer emerges as a result of a functional breakdown or imbalance in the immune system. The immune system may produce too much of a particular substance and not enough of another, resulting in a diminished ability to resist cancer and other immune-related illness. The immune system has a way to assess whether normal cells have been transformed into cancer cells. This is the job of the specialized white blood cells known as T lymphocytes or T cells. Derived from the thymus gland, these cells travel throughout the body to detect unusual cells and tumour-associated antigens – foreign proteins released by tumour cells.

In the case of cancer, the body’s metabolic and immune system becomes severely suppressed, partly because of the systematic weakening brought on by the cancer process and partly because of the negative, toxic effects of conventional cancer treatments – chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation. If the body’s protective system is compromised to begin with, then cancer or other disorders have a much better chance of establishing and spreading. Having a strong metabolic and immune system gives an individual a significantly better chance of eliminating any wandering cancer cells or carcinogens before cancerous activity.

Life is About Balance
Life is about balance…cellular functions must be in harmony or disease results. The key to optimal health lies originally with our fundamental genomic make-up and is then supported in turn by our metabolic and immune systems. Metabolism is the sum total of all biochemical processes going on inside the body. The therapeutic goal should be to return balance and strength to all the body’s life sustaining functions, thereby helping to reverse cancer and other disease states or prevent a recurrence… Balance = Health

People often speak about "a cure for cancer," but cancer is not a single disease; it is a complex group of diseases that vary widely in their severity and the way in which they affect the parts of the body that they attack. Hundreds of factors can trigger cancer or promote cancer once it has begun to replicate. Conventional and non-conventional treatments that may work for one cancer may not have any effect on another. Similarly, each person has a unique genomic biochemistry and this must be factored in when treating a client. Tiny variations, called Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) in the coding and regulatory regions of the human genome result in harmful effects called mutations. They cause disease because changes in the genome's instructions alter the functions of important proteins that are needed for health.

Cancer and Cancer Treaments Can Weaken The Immune System
In cancer, what makes the metabolic and immune system weaken is a multiplicity of stress factors. In cancer, these stress factors are often referred to as carcinogens. Carcinogens include: chemicals, electromagnetic energy, faulty diet, free radicals, genetic pre-disposition, toxicity, radiation, parasites, strong emotions, and viruses. These are not so much the “causes” of cancer, as facilitators: they edge the body towards a condition of weakness, vulnerability, and immune dysfunction. SNPs may cause subtle changes in a group of genes that under normal conditions are latent, i.e., they are switched "off." But when a person is exposed to carcinogens, they can be switched "on." Since the proteins from these genes regulate how fast or how slowly the harmful agents are absorbed, bound, metabolized, and excreted from the body, even a small or subtle change in any one of them may alter a person's risk for cancer. In this condition, the ordinary production of a few cancer cells can gain the upper hand in the molecular life of an individual, and the cancer process is initiated. The cumulative effect of many carcinogens and immune-suppressing agents is a weakening of the metabolic and immune systems, thereby allowing cancer cells to proliferate. Source: National Cancer Institute: Understanding Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms, S. Greenhut, M.S. 2004

The difference between a person with cancer and a healthy individual is that in the latter, the metabolic/immune system is able to eliminate the aberrant cells and/or carcinogens from the system before they are able to do any damage to the body or start an illegitimate growth process culminating in a tumour. Source: Nature April 26, 2001, Robert D. Schreiber, Ph.D. and Autenrieth, I.B., Hein, J.

A strong metabolic and immune system can stop cancer by identifying cancer cells and carcinogens and mounting an effective attack against tumours and small groups of renegade cells that have spread from the original primary tumour. Natural killer (NK) cells, macrophages, and cancer cell killing T-cells are the main types of immune cells involved in the body’s protection against cancer. Their anticancer effects are particularly strong in the early stages of disease. The body’s lymphatic system (including thymus, spleen, and lymph nodes) is the primary route along with arteries and veins whereby these immune system cells travel to and identify cancer for destruction and removal. Other than water, the lymph system is comprised of 82% protein. All functions of the immune system are dependent on millions of different, specialized proteins. Amino acids are the building block of all protein. A body must have a full complement of amino acids before it can build protein.

During all stages of cancer growth there are disturbances in the body’s protein metabolism. (Source: Cynober, L.A., “Metabolic and Therapeutic Aspects of Amino Acids in Clinical Nutrition”, 2004 CRC Press) This may be a direct result of the Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) in the coding and regulatory regions of the human genome or a secondary result of the deterioration of the body’s metabolic ability to properly or adequately synthesize amino acids into protein. Protein is normally broken down into smaller nutritive units, called amino acids, which are then absorbed in the small intestine to be synthesized into proteins; these eventually become neurotransmitters (chemical messengers in the brain), functional hormones, antibodies, metabolic and digestive enzymes, cell membrane receptors and a myriad other structural components that the body needs for healthy functioning. The effective action of the body’s protein metabolism is critical not only for protein digestion, but also for processing essential micronutrients – both vitamins and minerals.

Surgery, radiation and chemotherapy each also strongly suppress and weaken the metabolic and immune systems, sometimes producing irreversible damage. When the immune suppressing effects of these toxic treatments are placed upon a body already weakened by chronic stress, pollution, faulty nutrition, and aging, it is easy to see why many cancer clients have a difficult time surviving conventional cancer treatments.