Cancer
The 100-plus diseases known as cancer share a common cause: the growth and spread of abnormal cells, which are created when the cells' genetic material is mutated though a process called carcinogenesis. This upsets the normal balance between the birth and death of cells — termed apoptosis — and creates a process of uncontrolled proliferation and tumor formation.
Causes of Cancer
Cancer can be traced to internal factors (genetics, immune conditions, or hormonal problems) and external factors (smoking or exposure to chemicals, radiation, or infectious agents). All of these things can act together or sequentially to create disease.
Who is at risk for cancer?
Cancer can strike anyone, but more than three-fourths of all cancers occur in people over fifty-five. When experts talk about risk, they're most often talking about lifetime risk: the likelihood that you'll develop cancer over the course of your lifetime. In the United States, men have a slightly less than 50-percent lifetime risk; for women, it's roughly one in three.
Normally, the cells throughout your body behave in an orderly fashion, growing, dividing, and dying according to schedule (replicating more quickly when you're young and slowing down to replace only worn-out or dying cells as you reach adulthood).
In most cases, if a cell's DNA is damaged, the cell will repair the damage or die. But if the cell survives with a specific mutation, it becomes cancerous. Cancerous cells don't die the way normal cells do; instead, they outlive normal cells and create millions of new cancer cells, which can create tumors and invade other areas of the body, a process called metastasis.
The Most Common Cancers
The American Cancer Society estimates that more than 1.4 million Americans were diagnosed with cancer — and 565,000 Americans died — in 2008. Cancer accounts for one in four deaths and claims more than 1,500 lives a day.
Nonmelanoma skin cancer is by far the most common type of cancer in the United States, with more than a million new diagnoses each year (about half of all cancer diagnoses combined). After skin cancer, the most commonly diagnosed cancers, in order of prevalence, are lung, prostate, and colorectal (in men), and breast, lung, and colorectal (in women).
Cancers of the breast and female reproductive system (including the cervix, uterus, and ovaries) kill about 69,000 women every year. Breast cancer accounts for more than one in four cancers diagnosed in American women.
Lung cancer is the biggest cancer killer in the United States, and the vast majority of cases can be traced to smoking. Tobacco use causes 90 percent of all lung cancer deaths and a significant proportion of deaths from other diseases. It kills 5.4 million people a year — and about half of the people who use it.
Treatment Options
Conventional medical treatment often involves surgical removal of the tumor and other affected tissues, radiation, and chemotherapy (treatment with drugs that kill cancer cells and stop tumor proliferation). In the case of hormone-dependent cancers (prostate cancer in men, breast and reproductive cancers in women), patients may be given hormonal therapies. The side effects of chemotherapy drugs include intense nausea and fatigue; hormonal therapies can increase the risk of other cancers and circulatory and liver problems.
Here are some herbal options, which in many cases can be used in conjunction with conventional treatments:
• Astragalus (Astragalus membranaceus) |
This herb relieves chemotherapy-induced nausea; research shows it can also boost immunity and inhibit tumor growth. |
• Cordyceps (Cordyceps sinensis) |
Extracts of the cordyceps mushroom have been shown to reduce tumor size, boost immune response, and improve quality of life in cancer patients. |
• Evening primrose (Oenothera biennis) |
This oil can improve the response to the drug tamoxifen in women with breast cancer (it also inhibits the action of a common cancer gene, thus hindering the development of tumors). |
• Ginger (Zingiber officinale) |
Ginger extracts can relieve the nausea caused by chemotherapy. |
• Grape (Vitis vinifera) |
Red grapes and grape products (wine and juice) contain a potent anticancer chemical called resveratrol. It's also sold as supplements derived from the Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) plant. Resveratrol appears to inhibit the growth of cancer cells and to induce apoptosis, and has shown promise in preventing cancer, as well. |
• Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum) |
Reishi mushrooms have been used to treat several types of cancer. Studies show that reishi extracts can stimulate immune function in advanced cancer patients and slow the spread of breast, prostate, and other cancer cells. |
• Saw palmetto (Serenoa repens) |
Preliminary research has shown that saw palmetto extracts may inhibit the spread of prostate cancer cells and speed their death. |
• Turkey tail (Trametes versicolor, Coriolus versicolor) |
Also known as coriolus, this mushroom can prolong cancer survival when taken during chemotherapy or radiation treatment. |
• Tea (Camellia sinensis) |
Green tea has been shown to help prevent numerous cancers and also prevent new blood vessel growth in cancers, inhibit tumor cell proliferation, and induce apoptosis in cancer cells. |
