WHAT IS CANCER: INITIATION, PROMOTION, PROGRESSION AND DETECTABLE TUMOUR
Posted: under Cancer.
The tissue appears normal under a microscope, but important changes have occurred in the cell nucleus, or command centre. Proto-oncogenes, which regulate cell growth and development, are corrupted and switch off the restraints on overdevelopment. Oxidative damage, a major corrupter of DNA (our genetic make-up), can be minimized by nutritional means. The immune system, which searches out and destroys the corrupted cells, can be enhanced, and enzymes which detoxify carcinogens can be boosted. Promotion-Visible changes to the tissue can be detected under the microscope. This stage is sometimes referred to as a pre-cancerous stage and is reversible. Nutrition can help to strengthen healthy cell membranes, encourage communication between cells at sites called gap junctions (which is necessary for them to recognize their boundaries), enhance the immune system’s ability to cope with the pre-cancerous cells, and balance hormones in order to discourage cell proliferation. Progression-The tumour is still too small to be detected with the naked eye, but has begun to signal to the surrounding blood supply, encouraging it to link the tumour to the blood network, so that it can feed itself and eliminate waste material. This process is called angiogenesis. Some nutritional measures, as well as new drugs that are being developed, can help to interrupt this malignant form of blood vessel growth, and in so doing starve the tumour. Detectable tumour-This is the stage at which most breast cancers are discovered. To get to this point will have taken several years depending on the ‘doubling time’, or growth rate, of the cancer. This stage is deemed irreversible, and the treatment is usually surgical, with radiation, drugs and possibly hormone treatment as well. Nutrition can support the patient’s ability to manage conventional treatment and enhance the immune function to help deal with any cancer that the medical treatment may not have totally dealt with. It can change the circumstances that lead to the disease developing in the first place, thereby discouraging recurrence.*37\240\2*
