Naturally, our immune system fights off most cancerous cells. So the logical first question is: Why wouldn’t your body just call on the immune system to fight unwanted cells? Good question. In fact, your immune system does come in and kills off many odd-looking cells, cells that have the potential to form cancer. That’s why cancer-prevention measures like antioxidant-rich foods and vitamin D often work by strengthening your immune response. But your security network can be overwhelmed or even tricked. The challenge is that we don’t quit know completely how our immune system works，why our immune system can fight some of these thug cells but not others. A rapidly growing area of research stems from the use of vaccines to prevent cancer, inasmuch as some cancers can be triggered by viral infections (hepatitis can lead to liver cancer, for example.) It may turn out that viruses may play a more major role in the development and spread of cancer than anyone ever thought was possible.

In most cancerous mutations, these cells have some sort of genetic code that turns off your immune mechanism, so they can grow quickly or avoid detection. But cancer cells can also have a mechanism that makes them replicate very efficiently，making cancer stronger and faster than the normal cells in your body. While they grow quickly, they can’t grow by themselves. Just as a plant needs water or a child needs vitamins, cancer cells need nutrients to grow. The one thing that cancer want more than anything else is energy. If the cells don’t get it, then they actually kill themselves off because they’d outgrow their energy supply. So the most successful cancers，the ones that grow large enough to be detected and to be harmful often find ways to establish supply lines, such as attracting blood vessels to them. Once they create those supply lines, they have the means necessary to sustain themselves. And in cancer, that’s what gives them a lifeline to live and grow. Since they’re belligerent cells, cancer cells decide which blood vessels they want to take to other organs. They can surround regular tissue and dominate the organ they’ve invaded, and as they cluster together, they can form tumors-clumped masses of cancer cells to block the normal functioning of that organ.

The hundreds of types of cancers differ in the way they live, grow, and react to medication. But many cancers have similar characteristics. In some types of cancer, there are very clear causes. Lung cancer – the most common lethal cancer in both men and women – is overwhelmingly caused by cigarette smoke (though not all lung cancer is). More than 95 percent of people with lung cancer have smoked or been exposed to heavy doses of secondhand smoke, radon, or asbestos. What happens is, normal cells are repeatedly damaged by a toxin (in this case, hydrocarbons from the tobacco leaf that are formed with or without burning), so your lungs make new cells to repair and replace the damaged ones. The faster they need to work to replace and repair, the higher the likelihood that one of those typographical errors of duplication will take place，turning a normal cell into a bad one.

Though we don’t know the primary causes of some cancers, like breast cancer, we do know that there’s a large hereditary component involved and that an increased level of saturated and trans fat in your diet and obesity itself may influence cancer growth. Focus for these kinds of cancer needs to revolve around detection by both self-exam as well as more sophisticated diagnostic testing (though prevention through getting more physical activity and taking folate and aspirin seem clear). Mammograms and PET scans are valuable tools for showing small tumors (though they don’t prove cancer; only a biopsy can do that). And new tools for detection are constantly being developed (like Bicom bioresonance). The routine operative breast tissue endoscopy (ROBE), for instance, uses a viewing scope to magnify breast tissue up to sixty times its normal size and identify tumors 1/100th the size of what can be picked up on mammograms. With early detection of breast cancer, the treatment can usually be handled by a lumpectomy － the removal of lump.

But not all cancers are tumors or lumps，making them even more difficult to diagnose. Blood-borne cancers such as leukemia are not like tumors in the usual sense. Instead, abnormal white blood cells accumulate in bone marrow and crowd or starve out healthy white and red blood cells making your body unable to protect itself against infection and unable to deliver as much oxygen as you need. These blood-type cancers can destroy blood marrow and lymph nodes, and they destroy other cells that you need to live-up until the point that your blood marrow no longer contains healthy cells but consists completely of cancerous cells. A radical solution, which works for some cancers but not others, is to kill all the cells in your bone marrow and repopulate the remaining, barren terrain with bone marrow transplanted from a suitable donor.

Cancer cells have a stealth quality to them. They don’t possess the “sticky” quality that other cells have, so they can slip through their newly created blood vessels and spread to other parts of the body － very often to the liver, lungs, and brain where metastases frequently occur. So, typically cancer will escape to and grow in areas with lots of blood, which is why it’s common for cancer from one area to jump and grow in another organ. And cancer loves traveling through the lymphatic system (the body’s waste-disposal program) to the closest lymph nodes, which is why doctors always examine these areas carefully.

Disclaimer

These statements have yet to be evaluated by the FDA and MOH. These products have yet to be endorsed by FDA and MOH to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. The information provided on this site is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for advice from your physician or other health care professional or any information contained on or in any product label or packaging. You should not use the information on this site for diagnosis or treatment of any health problem or for prescription of any medication or other treatment. You should consult with a healthcare professional before starting any diet, exercise or supplementation program, before taking any medication, or if you have or suspect you might have a health problem. You should not stop taking any medication without first consulting your physician.