Victory Over Cancer:
The Immune System and
Genes Working Together

Exciting New Revelations
Exciting new discoveries reveal that at least two anti-cancer defense systems of the human body work in tandem with each other. When seeking alternative care for cancer, people often try to use various modes of healing. Often we conceptualize these various healing modalities as separate and distinct from each other. For example, we are used to thinking of the immune system having certain effects, and other healing systems of the body having their own separate effects. However, new discoveries of science tell us that the immune system cancer defenses and the genetic cancer defense mechanisms work together.

How does the body fight cancer? What can we do to stimulate our natural healing forces to resist malignancy? Recent advances in medical science have revealed that the body has two primary weapons for fighting cancer. They are the immune system and the genes. However, this basic information was not understood until scientists began to unravel some of the deepest, darkest secrets of how cancer cells work. For many years, researchers were baffled by cancer. What exactly was the disease called cancer? How did the body fight cancer? The answers to these two crucial questions are now much better understood. This knowledge is giving new hope to cancer patients.

Understanding Cancer
Cancer cells are now known to be the descendants of normal cells which changed into an unhealthy form. Cancer cells have many unique properties which allow them to be very strong, resilient, and resistant to attack by the immune system. The immune system serves as our primary defense against bacteria, viruses and other foreign invaders. Physicians specializing in natural health methods have long held that maintaining a healthy, vigorous immune system is important in patients battling cancer. Practitioners of the natural healing arts employ many types of herbs and nutrients in attempts to strengthen immune function. They look for evidence of immune system augmentation via tests such as immune cell counts, and by directly visualizing the living immune cells in action. It is quite fascinating and exciting to watch once sluggish immune cells turn into larger, more active forms. Special high-power microscopes allow us to see the immune system cells and to observe their activity levels.

Substances found in nature are often used by holistic practitioners for their anti-oxidant effects, or their purported ability to stimulate the immune system. However, some of these same items are also able to induce genetic healing in cancer. Case in point is NAC (N-acetylcysteine). Widely used for it's potential antioxidant and immuno-stimulative properties, NAC is also an inducer of genetic healing in malignancy. It seems likely that many more multi-role nutritional supplements will be discovered with time.

Natural Killer Cells
One of the primary objectives of immune system stimulation is to increase the number and vitality of Natural Killer Cells. Natural Killer (NK) Cells are large immune cells which have been shown to attack cancer cells and cells infected by viruses. NK Cells destroy their targets by releasing substances that damage the offending cell, leading to an immune response that eliminates the cell. If Natural Killer cells target and destroy cancer cells, why does cancer exist? Two theories help to elucidate this question. The first is that there are not enough NK cells, or that they are not activated to a level required for a potent anti-malignancy action. The other theory states that NK cells rarely know to kill malignant cells because the NK cells were not specifically programmed by the body to do so. New cancer vaccines are designed to "train" NK cells to attack cancer cells.

In addition to directly killing malignant cells by exuding a chemical, NK cells may also induce killing of cancer cells by causing a powerful gene response within the cancer cell itself. This gene response is known as apoptosis. Apoptosis is the self-destruction of malignant cells. The central control mechanisms of all cells, including cancer cells, are the genes. Genes reside within the center of every cell, and from there control all the functions and activities of the cell. Malignancy can only occur if the genes are changed in ways allowing the cell to transform into a cancer cell from a normal cell. Apoptosis is a gene response within the cancer cell that results in the cancer cell going through a program of self-destruction. Natural Killer cells seem to be able to cause this self-destruction. Other natural substances also are known to favor the self-destruction of cancer cells.

R-A Therapy
Alternative practitioners utilize many natural substances in an attempt to induce both immune and genetic healing forces against cancer. The two main genetic healing forces known to fight cancer are apoptosis and re-differentiation. Re-differentiation, the "R" in R-A Therapy is an inborn genetic system by which the cancer cell may be able to revert back to a normal, non-malignant condition under certain circumstances. The "A" in R-A therapy stands for apoptosis. Apoptosis is sometimes referred to as "cancer cell suicide". The two genetic healing mechanisms often go hand in hand with immune system augmentation, and are used in conjunction with many other alternative modalities.

Working Together
The immune system and the body's gene defenses work together in an attempt to eliminate malignant cells. Many of the same natural substances which have long been used to stimulate the immune system have recently been shown to also help to induce our genetic healing mechanisms. Natural Killer cells, thought to be the single most powerful immune system agent to fight cancer, are thought to cause the death of malignant cells in part via their propensity to induce genes in the cancer cells that lead to the "self-destruction" of the selfsame cancer cells. The exciting new discovery that the body's two main defenses against cancer are closely related reveals to us the important role that natural therapies play, and engender hope for newer and better anti-cancer treatments.