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Paradigm Shifts In Cancer Treatment
by: Simon Mitchell

A paradigm is a sort of cultural, consensual pattern of thought or model of something. For example the ‘current consensus in scientific medicine’. Paradigms change, like the impact of Galileo’s work on disproving the flat-earth theory or Copernicus’ heresy that the Earth moves round the Sun. These new ideas met a great deal of resistance from orthodox philosophy but eventually gave rise to a changed perception of the world we live in.

We live now in a time of ‘paradigm shift’ which creates fundamental changes in our assumptions about the world, and even this contributes to modern stress! Although our physical sciences have discovered new fields of quantum reality, medical science is lagging far behind. Philosophy has traditionally been an important part of medical practice since the medieval days of Paracelsus, even Hippocrates, an ancient Greek (and originator of the Hippocratic Oath).

How we perceive the world and our part in it is central to how we perceive the role of dis-ease and our reaction to it. One of the present problems of finding effective cancer treatment within Western scientific medicine is a ‘paradigm gap’. There are different perceptions of the world at work speaking incompatible languages. These have deep roots in our philosophy. This gap is presently condemning millions of people world-wide to suffer treatments for cancer that are often as destructive as the disease itself.

Paradigm 1: The mechanistic view

This can be traced back to Descartes and other scientists such as Sir Isaac Newton. The universe is a vast machine and we are all cogs, all with our part to play in its function. The healthy body is a well made clock and if it goes wrong we simply take it apart and tinker with the insides until it goes again. If it breaks it doesn’t really matter because there are plenty more where that came from. Nothing exists unless it has been proven through logical methods.

cancer: something had gone wrong with this body, it has a lump. Cut it out and throw the lump away.

Paradigm 2: The anthropomorphic view

This paradigm is central to the philosophy of Darwinism and others who helped set humans as ‘apart and above’, or at the head of other life forms. Humanity is the supposed crown of creation, we are created to lord it over every other creature as ‘head of the food chain’. The planet is ours to dominate and exploit to our own demands. We must conquer every mountain and battle against disease. We are the most evolved and dominant species in a process of natural selection. We exist for no purpose and have just evolved through sheer luck. In this world our media fantasy industries create pigs and fish that can talk human. Animals are anthropomorphised through culture to have the same needs, desires and dreams as humans. The animals, forests, oceans and environment around us exist purely for our convenience. This paradigm is human self-centred and exploitative to everything including ourselves.

cancer: something has gone wrong with this body, it has grown an enemy inside it. I will root it out and battle with it.

Paradigm 3: The Gaian view (an emerging paradigm)

This paradigm started with Einstein and the science of energy. Its inception combines an age when we saw the first images of the Earth as a whole entity from space. James Lovelock and his search for life on Mars is a central figure in its development through his identification of the Gaia Hypothesis regarding Earth.

This planet we inhabit is a self-balancing, homeostatic system similar to our own as single biological entities. It maintains the optimum conditions for life despite our best efforts to pollute it. Our bodies are a miracle of biology, constantly flexible and adaptive but easy to harm. Anything we do to it or each other, we do to ourselves as we are part of the same ‘web’ or ‘circle’ of life. We exist for a purpose but do not yet know what it is. We are part of an evolving cycle of life, a happening miracle.

Cancer: something has gone wrong with this body, it is trying to tell me something. I will listen to it and get help to understand why it has happened and what I need to learn and do to get better.

About The Author
Simon Mitchell
This is an extract from ‘Don’t Get Cancer’a new ebook available only at: http://www.simonthescribe.co.uk/don’tget1.html

By Will Hanke Platinum Quality Author
Every few minutes a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer. The disease is the most common cause of death in women between the ages of 40 and 55, and there are more than 200,000 new cases of breast cancer expected in the U.S. alone this year (see www.nationalbreastcancer.org).

With staggering statistics such as this, no wonder that at the first sign of breast cancer—the typical symptom is usually a lump or other noticeable abnormality in the breast—many women automatically panic, assuming the worst.

But only about 8 of 10 lumps turn out to be cancerous. And even for the women who do end up diagnosed with the disease, there are still many options to consider for treatment.

If the breast cancer tumor is sensitive to hormones such as estrogen and/or progestin, hormone therapy is used. The drugs come in two different forms, pill or injection. Hormone therapy starves the cancer and hinders its growth. Tomoxifen is one such drug under this category, prescribed for women with hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer. Tomoxifen is a hormonal drug (usually the oneof choice for most pre-menopausal women). It has been shown to be less effective in some post-menopausal women versus other hormonal therapies.

Most first-time breast cancer patients generally assume they will end up using some sort of combination of surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiation. But there are lesser-known treatment options available, and the drug tamoxifen is one such alternative.

Tamoxifen is a drug used to treat hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer in women of all ages and at all stages. It’s normally taken once daily for up to five years. It’s also used as a preventative measure in women who have no history of breast cancer but who are at a higher risk for contracting the disease. These include older women and women with a family history of breast cancer.

Alternative therapies to treating breast cancer are becoming popular. They are sometimes used instead of or mixed with conventional methods. There has not been sufficient clinical research to support their safety and effectiveness. These alternatives include flaxseed and black cohosh, acupuncture, meditation and/or therapeutic touch, and other special restrictive diets.

It is vital for women to consider alternative therapies for breast cancer. You should research these options as much as possible and consult your health-care provider before trying any of the above-mentioned treatments for your breast cancer.
Will Hanke - EzineArticles Expert Author

The Breast Cancer Information website is updated often with new and different articles and is a leading informational website on breast cancer. New articles, help, and informational posts are posted daily.

Normal Cells vs. Tumor Cells by Lisa Ginger

Tumor cells vary from normal cells in several basic ways. First, the division of normal cells is tightly regulated by special cell signals. With tumor cells, it’s as if the signals are no longer produced or perhaps they are no longer received.

Research involving cells is often accomplished by removing the cells from an individual and growing them in a sterile dish with the nutrients required for their survival. Growing cells for research use is termed “cell culture”. Just by watching normal cells in cell culture it is obvious that their division is regulated by something. Normal cells in culture grow until the bottom of their dish is carpeted with the cell. The layer is only 1 cell thick. Once this density is reached, they stop dividing because there is no more space. If one cell dies, an adjacent one will divide to fill in the space. Additionally, normal cells will divide a certain number of times after which time, the division process halts. There are a certain pre-determined number of generations that may be produced and then there is no more dividing. Eventually, the entire culture will die.

With tumor cells, it’s a completely different story. Tumor cells will divide over and over, time after time; forever if supplied with nutrients. With enough time, tumor cells in culture will become a piled up mess. They lack order to their growth. It is as though tumor cells lose have lost the capacity to follow the rules and they divide (proliferate) out of control.

A second major difference between normal cells and tumor cells is that normal cells perform a special function or duty for the body. Healthy cells have specialized behaviors and serve a purpose. For example, lung cells have a specialized duty to perform while cells of cardiac tissue have a very different one. Normal cells taken from different tissues even have very different appearances. Tumor cells have a different appearance than normal cells taken from the tissue they are derived from. This is due to the fact that they have lost their specialized function.

Differentiation is the term given to describe the specialized function a given cell has. Differentiation and proliferation are closely tied together. In general, a cell that proliferates at a high rate loses some of its specialized function. The problem is, it really doesn’t have time to perform a specific function since its too busy dividing. Cells that perform a highly specific function (i.e. differentiated) have a lower rate of proliferation. Researchers are studying the possibility of making tumor/cancer cells differentiated so they might lose their ability to proliferate continuously. In theory, this would cause the tumor to stop growing.
About the Author

Our health is our most precious asset. Please review free cancer prevention articles at: Cancer Prevention Report

Cancer- The Real Facts by Lisa Hyde

Cancer has a fearsome reputation. Not without reason either. It is a disease that has not yet fully yielded to the skills and intelligence of medical scientists and doctors. And, as if the pain from the disease is not enough, the treatment for cancer, too, inflicts heavy suffering on the body.

Cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled and abnormal cell division. Cancer spreads in the body and destroys tissues when the cancer cells travel through the blood stream or the lymphatic system. The runaway growth of cells is caused by mutations to the DNA in the cells that makes the cells unable to control cell division. This mutation can either be inherited or acquired. The mortality rate in cancer depends on the type of cancer and where it develops.

Among cancers, lung cancer is the biggest killer, causing up to 3 million deaths every year worldwide. It affects the above-50 age group population most and is one of the most common types of cancers that occur in the Western countries. The main risk factor for lung cancer is smoking. Cigarette smoke, especially, contains several carcinogens. It is estimated that 80 per cent of all lung cancers are caused by smoking. The role of passive smoking in causing lung cancer is also being recognized by studies.

Another carcinogen that causes lung cancer is asbestos. This substance, which is widely used because of its fire-resistant qualities, causes a rare type of cancer called mesothelioma cancer. In mesothelioma asbestos lung cancer or asbestos cancer, malignant cells develop in the pleura, the outer lining of the lungs and the chest cavity.

The problem with asbestos cancer is that diagnosis is difficult. For one, the symptoms of mesothelioma cancer occur only 30-50 years after the exposure to asbestos. Second, the symptoms of asbestos lung cancer, such as shortness of breath and chest pain, are similar to those of many other medical conditions.

The incidence of mesothelioma asbestos lung cancer has increased in the last two decades. Still it is considered a relatively rare form of lung cancer, because the incidence rate is only 1 per 1,000,000 people. This could be as high as 7-40 per 1,000,000 in the industrialized nations. By contrast, the incidence of lung cancer is 1,000 per 1,000,000.

The common lung cancer treatments include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. However, the conventional treatment methods have not been very successful in the case of asbestos cancer, yielding only a median survival rate of 6-12 months after the presentation.

Again, surgery does not have much effect on small-cell lung cancer. A treatment method for lung cancer that has become increasingly popular in recent years is radiofrequency ablation. This technique is especially effective in destroying the cancerous cells inside the tumors. These cells are ‘cooked’ by inserting a small heat probe into the tumor. This technique is also non-toxic and causes very little pain for the patient.

However, there is hope for the cancer-affected. Scientists are developing new techniques of treatment, such as molecular targeted therapies, for lung cancer. Better and more effective therapies can be expected as scientists and researchers coax out more secrets from the human cells.
About the Author

Lisa Hyde-Barrett, a registered nurse and wellness advocate, understands the relationship between awareness and prevention and make breast cancer awareness a top goal! Please visit her site: http://www.support-cancer-awareness.com