The media (persuaded by the drug industry and the medical establishment which are, sadly, much the same thing) often seems to believe that chemotherapy is the only way to treat cancer. They may be rich and powerful but they’re wrong. The Guardian newspaper in the UK recently told their readers that “the damage to healthy tissues tends to be temporary” and “side effects usually disappear once the treatment is over.” If The Guardian studies the evidence in this book, they may like to reconsider that advice.
Information is the currency and capital for everything worthwhile we do. But there is more misinformation about cancer than just about anything else. Much of the misinformation is deliberate and corporate and there is more fraud, more confusion and more lying in this area of medicine than almost anywhere else. Charities, which supposedly exist to care for patients, are too often simply part of the cancer industry, beholden to the international pharmaceutical companies which make billions out of selling drugs which do little or no good and which are known to kill people. I don’t know of any cancer charity which doesn’t have links (usually financial) with big drug companies. This is, sadly, by no means unusual. When specific charities and patient associations were first formed, they were usually dedicated to caring and campaigning for patients but, sadly, charities and patient associations in all areas of medicine have been corrupted by the money which big drug companies have available for so-called marketing programmes. In the global cancer industry, the charities largely provide marketing and public relations services while the drug companies control the research that is done. When commercially inconvenient results are produced, they quickly suppress anything which might be financially damaging.
Cancer is not a single disease. It is a word which describes a great many quite different diseases. The one thing these diseases all have in common is that there is an uncontrolled and disorderly growth of abnormal cells. It is quite normal for cells to grow and to reproduce. Every minute, in every human body, an astonishing ten million cells divide. Usually, everything goes well. The cells divide in the right way and at the right time. But when a cell becomes a “cancer cell” it grows and divides at an abnormally rapid rate. These abnormal “cancer cells” destroy or push aside the normal, functioning cells. If the “cancer cells” are not stopped they may spread to other parts of the body and take up residence in other, different organs. “Cancer cells” may be carried around the body through the blood vessels or the lymph channels. When a cancer spreads and appears in another part of the body, the new growths are known as secondaries or metastases. Cancer can also spread by “crab-like” outgrowths (hence the name “cancer”).
Cancer is not the unknown, dark shrouded mystery killer that it is often thought to be. We do not know enough to recommend a lifestyle which will enable all individuals to avoid all cancers. But we know enough to make a difference. If we make the decision to avoid those factors which research has shown can lead to the development of cancer, and to do those things which can strengthen our defences against cancer, then I believe that we can dramatically influence our susceptibility to the disease and we can reduce the chances of a recurrence. We can’t stop it permanently but we can adjust the odds in our favour.
Hellbound and Down 
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