Cancer

Introduction

Cancer is a widely prevalent disease is only second to cardiovascular disease a cause of death in Western Countries. The commonest cancers called carcinomas are malignant neoplasm of epithelial linings of organs such as the gut and the bronchi. Malignancies arising from the mesenchyme are called sarcomas is common in children. The third important group called leukemia and lymphoma.

The Causation Factors

Inheritance

Abnormal gene (e.g. dominant inheritance in retinoblastoma)

Environmental

• Smoking
• Ionizing radiation
• Drugs: alkylating agents
• Diet: aflatoxins
• Alcohol
• Occupation and chemicals

  Agent	Occupation	Cancer
  Ultraviolet light	Farmer, sailor	Skin
  Soot, tar, oil	Chimney sweep	Skin
  Beta-Naphthylamine	Chemical worker	Bladder
  Asbestos	Insulation worker	Mesothelioma
  Benzene	Varnisher, glueworker	Leukemia
  Vinyl chloride	PVC Manufacturer	Liver

• Viruses

Geographical factors may play a part in determining the incidence of cancer. Scotland, England and Wales have the highest death rate from cancers in the world.

Prevalence and Type of Cancers

Pathology of Malignancy

All tumours begin with one abnormal cell of which will transform into a malignant cell and grow slowly in the epithelium over a number of years. The growth then may become more aggressive and invade blood vessels. The next phase involves tumour-induced angiogenesis (neovascularization) of which allows tumour to grow rapidly and clinically detectable. Tumours initially invade their local surroundings, and subsequently infiltrate blood vessel walls and liberate cells into the circulation. These cells are deposited into other tissues such as the liver and lungs to form micrometastatic disease. The continuing growth of a tumour and the burden of metastatic deposits eventually kill the patient.

Treatment Response

Response to treatment can be either subjective or objective. A subjective response is perceived by the sufferer as relief of pain, malaise and depression etc. An objective response is one that the observer/medical specialist makes and quantified such as the size of a lump, the size of the spleen, or the width of a mediastinal shadow on a chest X-ray. The aim of treatment is to produce a complete response in a solid tumour, or complete remission in a haematological malignancy to achieve cure in sufferer. Table below indicates the response of tumours.

Survival of a patient for 5 years somehow is being used to be equated with cure. There are few classes of antitumour drugs used in the medical practice namely alkylating agents, antimetabolites, antitumour agents derived from plants, antitumour antibiotics, hormones and antihormones and alpha-interferons. However, oncologists and patients nowadays are in search of alternative treatment such as nutraceuticals, herbs and etc as part of treatment regimen to drugs or radiotherapy. MyHealthDriver.Com has developed a soy-based formulation with added wild-crafted blue-green algae (the Aphanizomenon flos-aquae-AFA) with the hope to improve the quality of life of cancer sufferers particularly in gastrointestinal disorders such as loss of appetite, dizziness, diarrhoea, nausea etc. Please visit main page on EnerFlex® plus AFA for details.

Chemotherapeutic agents cause a wide variety of toxic side effects and sometimes can be a severe one. Most therapeutic agents affect rapidly dividing tissues that are toxic to bone marrow, the lining of the gut and the hair follicles. On the other hand, drug resistance is said to occur when a tumour is no longer sensitive to a drug and begins to regrow as a result of “clone” or cells that has never responded to the drugs selected has become dominant, or because the tumour cells that were originally responsive are now able to circumvent the activity of the cytotoxic drug. Sometimes, the gene responsible for the production of the enzyme affected by the drug is reduplicated and more enzyme is produced causing the effect of the drug is diminished.

Nutrition and Cancer

It has been predicted that incidence and mortality of nearly all cancers are linked to diet and nutrition. For instance, stomach cancer seems to be associated with cultures with low consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables coupled with high consumption of spiced foods and high nitrate levels in food. Esophageal cancer associated with alcohol intake. Colon cancer is associated with high saturated fat intake and low fiber consumption. Rectal cancer has been linked to high total saturated fat intake and with beer drinking. Pancreatic cancer is associated with high total fat consumption and perhaps with excessive coffee intake. Liver cancer is associated with nutritional deficiency, and with consumption of contaminated foods with mycotoxins, particularly aflatoxin and hepatitis B virus.

Lung cancer is associated with low consumption of foods containing vitamin A. Breast cancer has been associated with high consumption of fatty diet, endometrial cancer with obesity and excessive high total fat consumption. Ovarian and prostate cancer with high total fat consumption with low vitamin A consumption coupled with excessive consumption of coffee and saccharin, and renal cancer with total fat and other dietary factors.

Cancers with Special Attention

The Leukaemias

Leukaemias are characterized by the proliferation of a single malignantly transformed progenitor cell in the haemopoietic system. For the acute type, if not treated, has a rapidly fatal course. Patient with acute leukemia survive for longer periods of time, and some are cured as modern treatments are more effective nowadays. As for chronic leukemia, it has a prolonged natural history, but the disease usually ends in death.

Acute leukaemia is categorized into two major types:
I. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)
II. Acute non-lymphocytic leukaemia (ANLL)/acute myelogeneous leukaemia (AML), and

Clinical Symptoms and Signs

The history is usually a short one and comprises of:

• Symptoms of anaemia/malaise
• Painful and enlarging lympphadenopathy
• Acute infections with manifestation of mouth ulceration, sore throat, pneumonia, perianal and skin infections
• Bleeding and bruishing
• Bone pain in Children in ALL
• Marked gum hypertrophy in ANLL
• Headache, nausea, vomiting and blurred vision due to raised intracranial pressure

Signs may include:

• Pallor
• Bruishing
• Bleeding gums and gum hypertrophy
• Lymphadenopathy
• Splenomegaly
• Hepatomegaly
• Haemorrhages in the optic fundi

Diagnostic Features

• Normochromic and normocytic anaemia
• White cell count may be normal or raised and very occasionally a few blast cells may be seen in the peripheral blood or none at all
• Platelet count is usually reduced
• Bone marrow shows a hypercellullar marrow with blasts in the trail of the fragments on the microscope slide
• If meningeal leukaemia is present, CSF sediment will contain blast cells

Survival

Children: Remission is achieved more than 90% of children with ALL. However, disease-free remission after 5-6 years is a much better indication overall survival of children with all types of lymphoblastic leukaemia varies between 40 and 60%. Children with blast cells showing the common ALL antigen (CALLA-positive acute leukaemia) may achieve higher survival rates ~70% whilst children with T cell leukaemia do very much worse than the average.

Adult: The remission rate in adults with ALL is in the region of 70%. However, long survival of more than 5 years is only 15-20%. In ANLL, the remission rates achieve between 75 and 80%. With the help of chemotherapy, survival at 4 years is of the order of 30%. And, if relapses are rare after that time, patients may well be cured.

Chronic leukaemia are usually of these conditions:

1. Chronic granulocytic leukaemia (CGL) – uncommon and occurs in middle-aged and elderly people. It is characterized by the presence of the Philadelphia chromosome

   Clinical signs

   • Anaemia
   • Bruishing and bleeding manisfestation
   • Pain or discomfort as a result of enlarged spleen that leads to gastrointestinal disturbance
   • Sweating, fever and loss of weight due to a high metabolic rate
   • Gout

   Diagnostic Features

   • Normal hemoglobin count, but eventually developed into normocytic, normochromic anaemia with an Hb of 9-10g per dl.
   • White cell count is greater than 50 x 109/L
   • The blood film shows an abundance of neutrophils, but myelocytes and even a few blast cells are present
   • The platelet count is normal or elevated
   • Hypercellular bone marrow with increased granulocyte precursors
   • Presence of Philadelphia chromosome
   • Low in leucocyte alkaline phosphatase (LAP)
   • Increase in levels of serum vitamin B12 and B12 binding protein
2. Chronic lymphatic leukaemia (CLL)- common in middle-aged and elderly people

   Clinical signs

   • Lethargy
   • Fever and sweating
   • Loss of weight
   • Moderate enlarged lymph nodes in the neck, axilla and groin
   • Enlarged liver and spleen but not usually massive

   Diagnostic Features

   • Mild anemia of the normochromic, normocytic type
   • The white cell count is more than 15 x 109/L with more than 40% are lymphocytes
   • Normal in platelet count

Aetiology

The causes of the majority of leukaemias in humans remain unknown but key factors can be due to the following:

1. Genetic factors
   1. Children with Down’s Syndrome (with chromosomal abnormalities) have increased risk of developing acute leukaemia
2. Environmental factors
   1. Radiation – survivors of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima
   2. Chemicals, particularly benzene
   3. Drugs (phenylbutazone) and chemotherapeutic agents such as alkylating drugs
   4. Viruses

Prostate Cancer

Benign Enlargement of the Prostate Gland

Benign prostatic enlargement occurs most often in men over the age of 60 years. However, recent studies revealed that it also occurs in men over 40 years too. It involves the growth or hyperplasia that affects the glandular and connective tissue elements of the prostate. This leads to enlargement of prostate and subsequently stretches and distorts the urethra, obstructing bladder outflow, and eventually the bladder becomes dilated and the muscle hypotonic. Reflux of urine from the bladder into the ureters and upper urinary tract may occur.

Clinical features:

• Frequent urination
• Difficulty or delay in initiating urination
• Reduced forcefulness of the urinary stream
• Incontinence may occur
• Development of stone disease and bacteria infection
• Some patients present with severe renal failure
• Colon Cancer
• Fibroid Cyst

Alternative Therapy in Cancers

Apart from radiotherapy and chemotherapy, nutraceutical approach using phytochemicals, antioxidants to some extends had been shown to be effective as adjunct therapy in some forms of cancers. Among the phytochemicals are soy isoflavones, soy saponins, soy protease inhibitors, nutraceutical agents such as A.F.A, vitamin A,C,E , folic acid and mineral Selenium are useful as part of the dietary plan for cancer sufferers. For details, please click on Antioxidants, AFA and Human Health, and Soy and Human Health on main page of www.myheatlhdriver.com. In the United States, more than 80% of cancer sufferers are in search of more than one type of alternative medicines, phytochemicals or any form of nutraceuticals products in addition to the radiotherapy and chemotherapy.