There still remain many mysteries surrounding the immune system, and much is remaining to be learned. At present, the term ‘immune system’ is used to describe a complex series of body functions that more accurately could be described as three distinct systems with three distinct responsibilities. The term ‘immune system’ is currently used to describe all three of these functions; it is the responsibility of the immune system to i) Identify foreign antigens that are deemed to be enemies of the body. ii) Destroy these enemies of the body; and iii) Repair any damage that may have occurred during this onslaught. ( Enveloped within the repair aspect, is the immune system’s ability to ‘inflame’ the site with increased blood flow, a natural and vital component necessary to sustain the life of these newly generated cells by supplying oxygen and nutrients, as well as waste removal. The DNA model can account for the generation of new tissues, but not the accompanying modifications to the blood supply. An entirely distinct explanation must be employed that is thought to be happening simultaneously to account for the accompanying blood supply necessary to maintain the existence of these newly generated cells from the framework of the DNA model). It has been observed and acknowledged that there is a corresponding activity in the lymphatic system in episodes of cancer. Often it is observed that the cancer has spread to the adjacent lymph nodes, and a study of the individual’s lymph nodes is used to determine if the cancer has spread (metastasized). Yet the purpose of the lymph nodes is to serve as the center for production of phagocytes, which engulf bacteria and poisonous substances. Lymph nodes are a vital component of the immune system, and are always associated with immune system activity. In other words, with every non-cancerous situation, the enlarged lymph nodes indicates that the immune system is active and fulfilling its function. However; we are told in episodes of cancer, although it is acknowledged that the lymph nodes are active, the immune system is thought to remain inactive, and they are not fulfilling their function. Under the DNA model, it is not yet understood why the immune system would sit idle while events that it is designed to avert, takes place. No explanation is provided to account for how or even why the cancer employs the lymph nodes in the spread of the disease. From the framework of the scar tissue model, the lymph nodes would obviously be enlarged as the immune system was carrying out this work. But the present definition of cancer is thought to be having this activity take place without arousing an immune system response. If the cancer is to be defined as a defect at the cellular level as outlined in the DNA model, it is a necessary maxim to hold that the immune system is permitting the existence of these newly generated cells because it is unaware of their existence. From the framework of the DNA model the evidence that supports this observation is the fact that the immune system does not make any attempt to prevent this cancerous activity from taking place. The explanation for how these cancer cells do this requires that the cancer cells are bestowed a number of special abilities that are unique only to the cancer cells, all of which exceeds my level of gullibility. These special abilities are attributed to the cancer cells to help explain away why this event is being observed. This anomaly has never been adequately addressed and remains as a major conundrum of the present DNA model of cancer. It defies reason to accept that the immune system is doing nothing, and simultaneously accept that the lymph nodes are enlarged, but for a reason other than an immune system activity. A more credible explanation for this phenomenon is that the immune system is doing everything. If cancer were found to be a function of a defective immune system then this conundrum becomes a logical inference. The immune system will not attack the cancer because the immune system sent the cancer. The term ‘cancer’ should refer to a maverick arm of the immune system, i.e. the patient has a defective ‘repair arm’ of his or her immune system which has lost the ability to know when not to commence work on damaged tissues, and/or lacks the ability to know when to shut off this work once it has commenced. All of the anomalies that surround this disease would suddenly vanish if cancer were to be viewed as a product of a defective immune system. We would not have to address how the cancer causing antigens enter the bodies of some individuals, and not others. These ‘antigens’ are the genesis point and mark the birth of cancer from the DNA model yet still remains to be unobserved at the cancer site. We would not have to address how cancer can move undetected throughout the body and take up residence at a new location without being detected, or encountering any form of resistance along the way. The study of cancer would then become an analysis of the way in which various cultures treat their immune systems, which then paves the way for this malfunction to take hold. Cancer becomes much less mysterious if we simply take the point of view that the immune system is causing the lawless proliferation of growth, (since it is its job to do so,) and the immune system is also supplying the essential blood supply to support this newly generated growth, by way of inflammation (again, because it is its job to do so). To read the present accounting of how the cancer cells manage to build the infrastructure of a blood supply system to support the existence of these newly generated cells requires an unrealistic level of trust. The cancer cells are attributed with a host of special abilities unique to them alone, all of which are necessary to account for this event taking place within the confines of the DNA model. Yet at the same time, the philosophy in treating cancer patients with radiation and chemotherapy is from the belief that these are the weakest cells and will be the first ones to die. Why would these cancer cells which are deemed invincible, immortal, perpetual cells be expected to be the first ones to die? Mark Twain is quoted as having said “What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know… It's what we know for sure, that just ain't so.” Cancer could be viewed as the fulfillment of a two part equation. First, the individual must be in possession of a faulty immune system that is capable of generating cells without there being a need, and/or generating cells and not receiving the stop code. Secondly, this individual must then have their defective immune system directed toward and perform this non requested work on a specific group of tissues. Statistical connections have been difficult to extract using the DNA framework because the scientific community is only looking at half the equation, i.e. why the cancer cells are attacking a specific tissue. Currently, scientists are only looking at the hierarchy of cell types to come under attack, which produces only ‘links’ to lifestyle choices or environmental exposures, etc.. If we factor into this how an individual treats their immune system, then perhaps some concrete relationships could be observed, and the global mapping of cancers would have significance. From the framework of this new model for cancer, the global mappings can be understood, and they do tend to have significance. Immunosuppressant medications were developed to intentionally decrease the effect of the immune system in organ transplant patents, for the purpose of preventing the body’s defence mechanism from attacking (rejecting) the foreign tissues of the transplant operation. If the patient survives the operation, and overcomes the rejection, they will live longer lives then they would have, had they not had the operation. Unfortunately, the statistical evidence shows that the transplant patient will ultimately succumb to a bout with cancer. This phenomenon has scientists struggling for an explanation: “Scientists believe transplant recipients were already at risk for cancer because their weakened immune system could not keep healthy cells from becoming malignant”. “The use of immunosuppressants(cyclosporine) increases the chance cancer cells will divide and invade surrounding tissue. However it is not clear if cyclosporine can change normal cells into cancer cells researchers say” web search for ‘organ transplants’ Organ Transplant Drug Increases Cancer Risk Friday, Feb.12, 1999\ By using this new model for explaining cancer, we would predict that by creating a defective immune system, we increase the likelihood that some form of cancer will result. We would then have satisfied the first part of the two part equation. We have an individual with a weakened immune system that is capable of generating non requested tissues. All the other ‘links’ and ‘markers’ merely help to ascertain which of the numerous types of cancer the patient is apt to acquire. That is to say, the numerous lifestyle links, dietary links, and environmental links (physical carcinogens, chemical carcinogens and biological carcinogens.), all have a tendency to either promote any given tissue in the body towards cancerous activity, or to demote specific tissues away from being the likely candidate for cancerous activity. If the immune system is the root cause of cancer, then obviously it will be difficult to discover a cure so long as our efforts are focused on employing the immune system to attack itself. The immune system is designed to recognize and not attack itself. Perhaps this helps to explain why there are presently only treatments for cancer, and not yet any cures. If a weakened immune system has been shown to causes cancer, as in the cases of patients taking immunosuppressants, would it not therefore follow that a strengthened immune system, should overcome, or at least prevent cancer? There is a disturbing pattern with immunosuppressant medications which clearly establishes that there is a cause-effect relationship between cancer and a weakened immune system. It would be anticipated that a concrete cause/effect relationship between cancer and a substance would be the Holy Grail in the cancer research world. This is the one thing that I would expect everyone would have been searching for. But no one seems to be able to recognise this because it doesn’t fit with the DNA model. The DNA model is focused exclusively on the inner workings of the cell for the answer as to why it is reproducing itself relentlessly. When the malfunctioning immune system generates this relentless cell production from outside the cell itself, it is dismissed as an unexplained anomaly because it cannot be accounted for within the confines of the dogmatic view that cancer is happening at the cellular level. Cold-Hot; Inactive-active; benign-malignant. These are the differences between non life threatening benign tumours, and life threatening malignant tumours, specifically one is active (cancerous) and one is benign (scar tissue). It may turn out that the fundamental difference between a benign tumor and a cancerous tumor is in the timing of when they are being observed. If you discover a benign tumor (or perhaps we could call it a tumor ‘‘after-the-fact’’), the body has stopped, and there is a mass of fibrous scar tissue that is currently not undergoing any development. If however, you were to stumble upon this very same tumor as it was being manufactured, it would be deemed to be a cancerous tumor. If your body is capable of producing a benign tumor, it is capable of producing a cancerous tumor. In the benign tumor, the immune system began a repair process that may or may not have been required, but evidently it did in due course receive the ‘stop code’. In a cancerous tumor, either the cells do not receive the ‘stop code’, or it is being observed before it has received the ‘stop code’. I have never heard of an Oncologist saying to a patient “You’ve got some sort of tumor being produced, but let’s leave it be, and see if it doesn’t stop and become benign on its own”. If that same tissue were to be observed when it was inactive, it would simply be dismissed as a benign tumor that had previously been produced at some time in the past. It is dismissed as scarring, and is of no immediate concern, because it poses no danger to the patient. Everyone freely accepts that the inactive scar tissue was manufactured by the repair arm of the immune system. It should therefore be an easy inference to accept that cancer, or active scar tissue, or perhaps ‘runaway scar tissue’, is currently being manufactured by this same arm of the immune system, though be it a defective one. When medical professionals discover an active tumor being produced, they may opt to surgically remove the tumor and the offending cancer cells that made it (excision biopsy). As this radical surgery has not yielded the desired success rates, the medical profession has expanded the scope of the surgery to include the surrounding tissues (margin), believing that these tissues might also contain some of the stray cancer cells. They then close up the wound and hope that they have managed to remove all of the cancerous tissue. Now they must wait until the immune system has had time to heal up the surgical wound before testing the area, because the activity of the inflammatory nature of the healing process will read as ‘hot’. We then have the defective immune system, which may turn out to have caused the tumor to begin with, being invited back to the site, and being expected to heal up this surgical cut. Healing is what the immune system does. Therefore, this is an exercise for it. Often, the immune system heals over the surgery and then stops. The surgery was a success. Sometimes, however; the immune system doesn’t stop. The immune system continues to produce scar tissue, and rapidly divide the adjoining tissues without receiving the message that the task has been completed. The poor surgeon is mystified that he or she could have missed some of the cancer cells, and now they appear to have merely taken up where they left off. If the DNA model were to be true, that some carcinogen ventured to the site and caused a defect in the cell DNA, then this patient, now rid of the offending tissues, should mathematically be given the same bill of health as a non patient (i.e. someone who has never had cancer). But the statistics do not support this optimistic expectation. Quite often, the cancer patients who undergo surgery have recurrences at the original site. If the cancer returns but at another location, then the surgery would be statistically labeled as a success. Even with this clemency being granted, the statistics for the surgery are not too favorable. The apparent failure of the surgery has given birth to the suspicions that exposing the cancerous tissue to the air helps it to spread. Or exposing the cancer to the light of the Operating Room, perhaps, is what causes it to flourish. Exposing the cancer to the light and air is merely a necessary by-product of the fact that these cells have been operated on, and as a result, the immune system is re-invited back to the region to repair the surgical wound. The suppositions that the light or air has anything to do with any reoccurrence can be dismissed because surgeries that are preformed on patients, who have not been diagnosed with cancer, are not subject to similar incidences of tumors, despite also being subjected to the light and air. These patients do not have the first prerequisite, namely the faulty immune system that is incapable of generating the “stop code“. Even the supporters of the DNA model, acknowledge that cancer cells are in all of us (because the ‘spontaneous existence of matter’ is a hard concept to ‘sell’ and an absurd proposition). If we were to attribute this reaction to the light and/or air as yet another mystical feature enjoyed only by cancer cells, we would still need to account for why every surgery was not subject to the same level of reoccurrence. From the point of view of this new model, this anomaly would be addressed as follows; the non cancerous patient has a properly functioning immune system which still has the ability of knowing when to stop the healing process. In cancer patients, the immune system has already shown to be defective, therefore it should not be surprising to find out that sometimes it does turn out to be relentlessly continuing the healing process and in so doing, inflict the area with a new cluster of cancerous activity, despite how diligent and careful the surgeon had preformed.
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