4 March 2021: The American Code Against Cancer

The American Code Against Cancer focuses on actions that individuals can take to help prevent cancer. Successful cancer prevention also requires supportive governmental policies and actions. Following these recommendations reduces cancer risk from 30-40%, and should produce substantial progress towards our strategic plan goal of reducing annual US cancer deaths from 600,000 to 100,000.

1. Do not smoke or use any form of tobacco.
2. Make your home smoke free.
3. Try to achieve a healthy body weight with a BMI of 25 or less.
4. Be physically active.
5. Have a healthy diet based on vegetables, fruits and whole grains. Limit sugar, fat, processed meat and red meat.
6. If you drink alcohol, limit your intake. Not drinking alcohol reduces your cancer risk.
7. Avoid too much sun, especially for children. Use sun protection. Do not use sunbeds.
8. Protect yourself against cancer causing substances in the workplace by following health and safety instructions.
9. Check that your residence does not have high radon levels.

10. For adults:
* Get a physical exam every 1-2 years to detect possible problems, discuss risk prevention and get needed tests, screenings and vaccinations.
* Get a one time screening for Hepatitis C if you were born between 1945 and 1965.
* Get an annual lung screening if you are a current or former heavy smoker age 55-80.
11. For adult women:
* Breastfeed your baby, if you can, to reduce your cancer risk.
* Limit use of hormone replacement therapy.
* Get screened for colon cancer, breast cancer and cervical cancer.
12. For adult men:
* Get screened for colon cancer.
13. For children:
* Get vaccinated for Hepatitis B and HPV to reduce cancer risk.

I have drafted this American Code Against Cancer based on the European Code AgainstCancer with modifications from the Centers for Disease Control-Lung Cancer Screening and the American Cancer Society-Liver cancer.

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Send comments to NatPernick@gmail.com.

26Feb2021: How Pancreatic Cancer Arises, Based on Complexity Theory

 

How pancreatic cancer arises, based on complexity theory

26 February 2021

This is the third paper in a series discussing the top 20 causes of US cancer death and how they arise based on complexity theory (see How Lung Cancer Arises-Pernick 2021 (PDF), How Colon Cancer Arises- Pernick 2020 (PDF)). We first discuss the population attributable fraction of pancreatic cancer risk factors and their mechanism of action, then integrate these mechanisms into our theory about how cancer arises in general and in the pancreas, and finally suggest curative treatment approaches for pancreatic cancer.

Highlights:

• Countering pancreatic cancer requires optimizing all factors affecting it, even if not directly part of the malignant process.
• Five “super promoter” mechanisms cause pancreatic cancer: random chronic stress (bad luck or cellular accidents); chronic inflammation; DNA alterations; immune system dysfunction (individual and “societal”) and hormones (insulin-IGF system).
• The 5 major causes / risk factors of pancreatic cancer are random chronic stress (causes 25-35% of cases); non O blood group (17% of cases); excess weight, particularly at younger ages (15%); cigarette smoking (15%) and type 2 diabetes (9%).
• Cancer arises in part because risk factors activate embryologic and inflammatory pathways in a manner that cannot be turned off.
• In the pancreas, tumor cell spread may occur even before a primary malignancy arises, explaining why advanced disease is often found at diagnosis.
• Treatment approaches should focus on network dysfunction not mutations; combinations of combinations of treatment to block multiple webs of network abnormalities; treating and monitoring key systemic network changes outside the primary tumor; enrolling all patients in clinical trials and creating stronger public health programs to prevent these cancers or detect them earlier.

Click here for the HTML version, here for the PDF download.

18Feb21: Curing Cancer – Part 8 – Strategic plan for curing cancer (as of February 2020)

 

 

This series is about curing cancer based on the principles of complexity theory. Follow my blog at https://natpernickshealthblog.wordpress.com.

It has now been 50 years since the war on cancer was announced by President Richard M. Nixon. This essay provides a strategic plan for curing cancer. 

 Part 8 – Strategic plan for curing cancer (link), Blog, PDF.

 

 

10 February 2021: Dustin Diamond dies of lung cancer

TV actor Dustin Diamond, age 44, died of widely disseminated (stage 4) small cell lung cancer only one month after diagnosis (NBC News). This essay discusses, in a relatively nontechnical manner, important aspects of this disease and prospects for future curative treatment (MedPage Today).

HTML: http://www.natpernick.com/CuringCancerDustinDiamondFeb2020.html

Blog: https://natpernickshealthblog.wordpress.com/2021/02/05/curing-cancer-dustin-diamond-dies-of-lung-cancer/

PDF: http://www.natpernick.com/CuringCancerDustinDiamondFeb2020.pdf

 

31 January 2021: Curing Cancer – Part 7 – Random chronic stress / bad luck as a major cause of cancer

 

This is my seventh essay about curing cancer based on the principles of complexity theory (follow my blog at https://natpernickshealthblog.wordpress.com). This essay discusses random chronic stress / bad luck, a major cause of pancreatic cancer (Pernick 2021) and lung cancer in nonsmokers (Pernick 2018).

Key concepts discussed are: (1) random chronic stress / bad luck is a major cause of cancer at some sites; (2) cancer often develops through rare bursts of activity in cells and their networks, not in a gradual, step-wide manner; (3) cancers due to random chronic stress may have better survival and other clinical differences compared to cancers due to traditional risk factors; and (4) due to the presence of random chronic stress, cancer will always be with us, although we can prevent some cases, we can detect it earlier and we can treat it more effectively.

Click here for the essay.

 

30 January 2021: Curing Cancer, Part 1 – Reductionism versus Complexity

 

Written: 8 December 2020

In 1971, President Richard M. Nixon announced the beginning of the US “war on cancer” (see President Nixon’s 1971 State of the Union at 15:03). Despite massive government expenditures (Kolata: Grant System Leads Cancer Researchers to Play It Safe, New York Times, 27Jun09) and testimonials that the war on cancer “did everything it was supposed to do” (NCI: National Cancer Act of 1971, accessed 10Nov20), cancer is still a leading cause of death (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2016, Cancer Statistics 2020), with high mortality from cancer of the lung, colon, pancreas and breast (Cancer Facts & Figures 2020).

Link to rest of article, PDF.

 

 

24 January 2021 - Curing Cancer - Part 6 - Key systemic network issues

My sixth essay about curing cancer based on the principles of complexity theory has now been posted at https://natpernickshealthblog.wordpress.com, which has new essays every 1-2 weeks. You can follow my blog at https://natpernickshealthblog.wordpress.com by entering your email address and clicking on the Follow button on the left hand side.

These essays are technical but I will highlight the major findings in a conversational style here. If there is interest, I can expand on this discussion. I am happy to answer questions about cancer in general or about my theories. Unfortunately, as a pathologist who no longer provides patient care, I do not have the training or expertise to answer “What should I do” questions, which may be more appropriate for oncologists.

Complexity theory analyzes systems with strongly interacting parts. This includes not only the human body but earthquakes, the stock market and the economy.

The predominant framework for understanding disease is reductionism - the behavior of the whole equals the behavior of the sum of the parts. Thus, treatment is about finding the “bad part” and fixing it. In contrast, complexity theory states that the interactions between the parts, in the form of networks, are vital to understanding how nature works. Human life is composed of thousands of biologic pathways that interact in a complex web. On their own, each pathway may perform a limited function, but together, they provide more sophisticated functions that enable life. They also change their overall patterns of behavior over time, starting as a fertilized egg that focuses on constant cell division, then forming a general body plan in the embryo, then differentiating into cells that provide the functions we are familiar with in our organ systems. As we enter childhood and adulthood, different pathways are shut down because their activation would be harmful.

My theory is that cancer is due to dysfunction in networks affecting not only the primary (main) tumor, but also in systemic networks that nurture and maintain the malignancy. Thus, curative cancer treatment must attack the dysfunction in these systemic networks as well as targeting the primary tumor. Many of these dysfunctional systemic networks involve the inflammatory system, which protects us against microorganisms and emerging cancer cells, and also repairs damage due to various types of trauma. The inflammatory system, similar to embryogenesis, is relatively unstable due to its ability to quickly “ramp up” when triggered by foreign substances or trauma. These triggers also start the process of resolving the inflammatory process - both occur simultaneously, so as the triggers are effectively countered, the inflammatory process is also diminished. However, cancer risk factors trigger inflammation through other processes that do not simultaneously initiate the resolution process. This means the inflammation persists indefinitely; its instability propagates (spreads) to other networks over years to decades, which ultimately promotes malignancy.

This essay discusses systemic networks that must be “normalized” and monitored to provide curative treatment.