This post is the third in a series about easy cures. The first two are: Most Cures are easy, trivial, and therefore ignored, and Most Infections are Minor, Easily Cured. Obviously cancer is a complex disease – and we should expect an exploration of cures to be complicated as well. This post is long.
TLDR Summary
- The majority of cancer statistics are negative, primarily used for prevention and fundraising, not for cures. Cancer research studies are normally designed, funded, completed, documented, peer reviewed and published without a functional definition of cure.
- Cancer is poorly defined. As a result, all claims of cancer cured can be dismissed or countered with claims of misdiagnosis, possible remission (also not defined) or simple NED (No Evidence of Disease) and no evidence of cured (NEC?).
- Cured is not defined medically nor scientifically for any non-infectious disease, therefore not defined for any case of cancer. Cured is also not medically nor scientifically defined for any non-approved (so-called ‘alternative’) treatments.
- The largest percentage of cases of any illness, including cancers, are minor, often trivial, and easily cured. Their cures are ignored – the illness was not important.
- at the same time, many cancers are deadly and many people die from cancers.
- Most cancers are easily cured, but all cancer cures are ignored at best, generally dismissed, or persecuted if promoted.
I was recently struck by a pair of opposing statistics on cancer and cancer cures:
- The National Institute of Health (NIH) National Cancer Institute website CANCER.GOV advises “In 2020, an estimated 1,806,590 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the United States and 606,520 people will die from the disease.… The most common cancers (listed in descending order according to estimated new cases in 2020) are breast cancer, lung and bronchus cancer, prostate cancer, colon and rectum cancer, melanoma of the skin, bladder cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, kidney and renal pelvis cancer, endometrial cancer, leukemia, pancreatic cancer, thyroid cancer, and liver cancer.“
Cure? The NIH Cancer.GOV gives a definition of cure: “To heal or restore health; a treatment to restore health.” Cancer cure is not defined. A search for “cancer cure” on the NIH page gives many links to the “Continuing Umbrella of Research Experiences (CURE) program,” which discusses CURE scholars, CURE leadership, CURE pipeline, CURE success, CURE honors, the CURE Distinguished Scholars Seminar, but no actual “cancer cures.” - The American Academy of Dermatology reports “Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States. Approximately 9,500 people in the United States are diagnosed with this cancer every day.… Skin cancer is also one of the most preventable cancers.“
Cure? The AAD does NOT use the word “cure” on their skin cancer page. The first two links shown for a “cancer cure” search are – cure denial articles about eczema and natural cures.
The NIH and AAD numbers are presented annually in once case and daily in the other. When we normalize them to the same scale, we can see that the NIH overall cancer statistics are significantly LESS, almost half the AAD’s skin cancer statistics. In addition, the NIH lists melanoma of the skin as the 7th most common cancer. This graph compares annual numbers.
The number of skin cancers reported by the American Academy of Dermatology is almost twice the total number of cancers reported by the office of the National Institutes of Health.
We might also notice that the NIH cancer statistics put melanoma of the skin in 7th place. Cancer.org says “Melanoma is less common than some other types of skin cancer, but it is more likely to spread.” – already we can see some weird inconsistencies in the statistics. It appears most cases of skin cancer are simply ignored by the National Cancer Institute. This is bureaucratic nonsense, not science. What do other organizations have to say?
Breast cancer is listed at by the NIH as the most commonly diagnosed cancer. BreastCancer.org says there are about 290,560 cases of cancer expected to be diagnosed in 2022. The Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) says, “Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women overall.” but later, “Breast cancer is the most common cancer among American women after nonmelanoma skin cancer.” Is it the most common? Or not?
Cure? A search for “cure” on the BCRF pages lists first – two links to fundraising, “Gymnasts Flip for a Cure” and “Gaming for a Cure.” References to actual cures? Nope. The first to links listed on BreastCancer.org – in response to a search for “cure” are “cure denial” pages. Every page on BreastCancer.org contains at least one DONATE button, and many contain two. There are no breast cancer cured testimonials in conventional medicine, although 5 year survival rates range from 99% for localized to 30% for distant. Are none of these cases cured? Cured is not medically defined for breast cancer.
PFC.org, the Prostate Cancer Foundation claims that prostate cancer is “the most common non-skin cancer in men in the U.S.,” with “in 2023 more than 288,000 men will be diagnosed” Challenging the NIH claim that the most common, in descending order, are “breast cancer, lung and bronchus cancer, prostate cancer…”
Cure? The Prostate Cancer Foundation uses the word cure on their page: “Please join us in this race to find a cure for prostate cancer and donate today.” Apparently, there is no cure. There are no testimonials of cured patients to be found here, although Cancer.net lists the 5 year survival rate as 97%. Are none of those cases cured? There is no medical definition of, and therefore no medical test for prostate cancer cured, so we don’t know. Even more mysteriously, the ten year survival rate as 98 percent. Does that mean our more recent advances in diagnosis and treatment actually provide less cures?
According to the Lung.org, The American Lung Association webpage, “235,760 people will be diagnosed with lung cancer in 2021.” The American Lung Association focus is on cancer deaths, not cures.
Cure? The American Lung Association says “there is hope” and asks for donations on every page. As with all cancer statistics, no testimonials are offered, and no cures are officially recognized.
Cancer Statistics
This graph shows the above statistics, with the addition of Childhood Cancers, in summary.
Why are our cancer statistic in so much disagreement? And perhaps more important, where are the statistics for cures?
Cancer Definitions:
The way we group cancers to create statistics is the first problem. When the AAD discusses skin cancer, they include all types of skin cancer. When the NIH lists cancers by frequency, the group lung cancers with bronchial cancers and rectal cancers with colon cancer, even as they appear to ignore the concept of skin cancer and only report “melanoma of the skin“, one of the least common skin cancers.
Part of the problem is the definition of cancer. There is little agreement on what constitutes cancer or a cancer. Here are a few (of many different) authoritative cancer definitions.
CELLULAR: “Cancer is a disease in which some of the body’s cells grow uncontrollably and spread to other parts of the body. ” – Cancer.gov, the National Cancer Institute. NOTE: although presented as a definition of cancer, this is actually a definition of metastatic cancer.
CURE is defined by the Cancer.gov as “To heal or restore health.” No definition is provided for “cancer cure.”
CELLULAR: “An abnormal growth of cells that tend to proliferate in an uncontrolled way and, in some cases, to metastasize (spread) to other areas of the body. Cancer is not one disease; rather, it is a host of more than 100 different and distinctive diseases.” Webster’s New World Medical Dictionary, 2008.
CURE is not listed as entry in this dictionary, much less a definition of cancer cured.
TUMOR: “a malignant tumor of potentially unlimited growth that expands locally by invasion and systemically by metastasis” – Merriam-Webster’s Medical Desk Dictionary, 1995 Note: Tumor are not necessarily cancerous.
CURE is broadly defined, ranging from “recovery from a disease” to “remission of signs or symptoms of a disease esp. during a prolonged period of observation.”
NEOPLASM: “a neoplasm characterized by the uncontrolled growth of cells that tend to invade surrounding tissue and to metastasize to distant body sites” Mosby’s Medical Dictionary, 2013, takes several pages to define cancer after that short summary. It lists the most common cancers in 2010 as prostate and breast, with melanoma in 5th place. Note: a neoplasm is not necessarily cancerous. “Unhealthy or uncontrolled growth” is key to any cancer definition.
CURE is defined as “restoration to health of a person afflicted with a disease or other disorder.” or “the favorable outcome of the treatment of a disease or other disorder.”
DEADLY: “a neoplastic disease the natural course of which is fatal” – Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary. This is simply wrong. Most cases of cancer are not fatal.
CURE is defined as “the course of treatment of any disease, or of a special case.” or “the successful treatment of a disease or wound.”
Merriam-Webster also defines cancer phobia, “an abnormal dread of cancer,” an important detail. The ICD – the International Classification of diseases also contains a code MG24.0 Fear of cancer.
Summary
Cancer is not medically defined. Current definitions range from a malignant tumor with potential for unlimited growth to a metastatic invasion which is normally fatal.
The definitions of cure range from no definition provided (Webster), to any treatment (Dorland), to a favorable outcome (Mosby), to restoration to health (health being not defined)
There is no medical nor scientific agreement on the definitions of cancer or cure, much less cancer cure.
Are there any truths about cancer cures?
Cancer Cases – Cancer Deaths
We can graph the number of cases per year for some common cancers, and the number of deaths, as in this image. We can see that, although Dorland defines cancers as normally fatal, such is simply not the case.
It is clear that most patients are not dying of these cancers. It that were the case, the number of deaths would catch up and match the number of cases per year, due to an accumulation of past cases. I have intentionally excluded skin cancers and all cancers from this image – because these would dwarf each specific type – and also because most are cured.
Below is a graph of Diagnoses/Year vs Deaths/Year for Skin Cancers and for all cancers (which mysteriously are fewer than the number of skin cancers). I have added Lung Cancer to give some perspective.
Clearly, most cases, over 60 percent, are not deadly. With skin cancers. the vast majority – over 99 percent appear to be cured.
Most Mild cases of Cancer are Cured
Most cases of cancer start as minor or mild disease. Therefore, many cases of cancer can be diagnosed and cured when the cancer is minor or mild. This is the same for most diseases. Catch them early and cures are common. Every disease starts small and grows. Cancers grow slowly, sometimes taking decades to reach a stage where medical treatment is warranted, as illustrated in this diagram.
Mild or minor cancers are often intentionally ignored. Some medical studies even question aggressive diagnosis, like practice of annual mammograms for all women, because the danger of treating an incorrect diagnosis is severe. Prostate cancers are seldom treated in early stages because they present little danger. Skin cancers, on the other hand, are often on the surface and can be treated and cured with little danger to the life of the patient.
Mild cancers and their cures, are generally ignored in cancer statistics. In general, cancers that can be cured, or are cured, are simply ignored. We have no statistics for any cancer cured. We measure cancer treatment statistics, but not cure statistics. Let’s look at some examples of cures.
Mild cases of skin cancer are cured in most cases:
“Surgical excision (of Basal cell carcinoma), ideally with a 4–5 mm margin, is the treatment of choice, with a cure rate of approximately 95%... Standard excision (of Squamous cell carcinoma) with a 4–6 mm margin is advised and the cure rate is approximately 90%–95%.” Davidson Medicine 24th Edition, 2022
Many mild cancers are cured in most cases:
Most patients with papillary and follicular thyroid cancer will be cured with
appropriate treatment. Davidson Medicine 24th Edition, 2022
Given the high cure rate and excellent prognosis of a majority of young and middle-aged patients with HL (Hodgkin Lymphoma), the aim is to maximize cure rates while minimising long-term treatment-related toxicity. – Davidson Medicine 24th Edition, 2022
Many mild cancers are never diagnosed, much less treated, much less actively cured. Autopsy studies often show that a patient who died of other causes had cancerous tumors – undetected, undiagnosed, that presented little or no danger to their lives. Our healthy nature cures many diseases and many cancers as well, by entombing them.
Many Moderate Cancer Cases are Cured
“Higher-risk patients are treated with ATRA and anthracycline-based chemotherapy.
The prognosis is excellent with 90% cure rate for patients receiving treatment. (Acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APML))” Davidson Medicine 24th Edition, 2022
“Surgical resection cures >90% of patients with stage 1 colon cancer. Adjuvant
therapy is not recommended.” Harrisons Manual of Oncology, 2008
“External beam radiation therapy (EBRT) regimens have essentially replaced APR as primary treatment (for anal cancer) and have allowed for a great majority of patients to be cured with preservation of the anal sphincter.” Harrisons Manual of Oncology, 2008
“Testicular cancer is by far the most common malignancy in men aged 15–35 years, and represents nearly 25% of all cancers diagnosed in that age range. However, due to the high cure rate of this disease, it represents fewer than 5% of cancer deaths during those ages.” Harrisons Manual of Oncology, 2008
Some Advanced Cancer Cases are Cured
Aggressive treatments can cure some advanced cancers – although the consequences of the cancer and of the treatment might be severe for survivors, even those who are cured. When a cure causes significant damage – we avoid the word cure because, although the disease is cured, the patient is seen as not-cured. Do we cure illnesses, diseases, or patients? The question is important, the answers are rarely debated. Defining cured, for most diseases, seems unimportant.
“Surgical resection cures approximately 80% of patients with stage 2 colon cancer… Surgical resection cures approximately half of patients with stage 3 colon cancer.” Harrisons Manual of Oncology, 2008
“Historically, 40–60% of patients with local-regionally advanced head and neck
cancer can be cured by existing regimens.” Harrisons Manual of Oncology, 2008
“There is a small group of highly malignant grade IV tumours that can be cured with aggressive therapy.” Davidson Medicine 24th Edition, 2022
But when these cases are cured, we avoid the word cure. Remission is a safe claim. NED (No Evidence of Disease) is its own proof. We have no medical technique to prove cured.
Some Advanced Cancers are Difficult to Cure
Many cancers are easily cured in the early stages, with cures being less common and more difficult when advanced cases are diagnosed. However, most cancers are detected in early stages. Advanced cases of many cancers are rare in comparison, although some cancers, like lung cancer and ovarian cancer are often not detected until they are advanced.
“Thymoma is a rare disease, with an incidence of only 0.15 per 100,000 person-years…. It is widely accepted that the cure rate of patients with encapsulated thymomas is excellent with surgery alone. However, in more advanced disease, the results reported in surgical series have included a variable percentage of patients undergoing adjuvant therapy” Harrisons Manual of Oncology, 2008
Many Cancers are Cured Regardless of Diagnosis Stage
“Stage no longer affects prognosis (of NODULAR LYMPHOCYTE PREDOMINANT HODGKIN’S DISEASE) as primary treatment leads to the cure of about 80% or greater of all patients at all stages of disease… The consequence… is cure of about 85–90% of the (Hodgkin’s disease) patients.” Harrisons Manual of Oncology, 2008
Some Cancer Cures are Difficult to Attain
Listening to or reading the fundraisers messages, we might believe we cannot cure any cancers, but no. Cancers are many and varied. We have found cures for many cases of cancer, just not all of them, and not every case. Just as we cure most cases of the common cold with health, sometimes a patient develops pneumonia or other complication and dies despite our best efforts.
“Ovarian cancer remains the most lethal of gynecologic malignancies in developed countries. Growing awareness of this malignancy, and understanding of genetic predispositions has lead to successful prophylactic oophorectomy in high-risk populations and intraperitoneal chemotherapy in optimally surgically cytoreduced patients increases the cure rate from a quarter to one-third of patients.” Harrisons Manual of Oncology, 2008
Harrison’s comments that the main ovarian cancer problem is detection: “Despite advances, effective screening and cure remains elusive for most women.“
“ALL (acute lymphoblastic leukemia) is predominantly a childhood cancer, with two thirds of new cases diagnosed in children under 15. Uniformly fatal until the 1960s, ALL is now cured in over 80% of children due to advances in chemotherapy. Adults diagnosed with ALL, however, continue to have a poor overall prognosis.” Harrisons Manual of Oncology, 2008
“For most patients, pancreatic adenocarcinoma remains highly lethal. Less than
5% survive 5 years after diagnosis… However, the cure rate with surgery is only 18–25% and most patients are not surgical candidates.” Harrisons Manual of Oncology, 2008
“Approximately 30% of patients undergoing complete resection of isolated liver or lung metastases will be cured.” Harrisons Manual of Oncology, 2008
When a case of Cancer Metastasizes, Cures Are Limited
“ultimately the overall prognosis for metastatic disease (melanoma) remains poor and treatment options remain palliative, with disease control as opposed to cure.“
Davidson Medicine 24th Edition, 2022
“No known cure exists for metastatic anal cancer, and there is limited data on active regimens for these patients.” Harrisons Manual of Oncology, 2008
Can we cure metastasized cancers? The paper Are 90% of deaths from cancer caused by metastases? reported that:
- “Numerous publications… have stated that metastases are responsible for 90% of cancer deaths…When looking into the references for this statement, however, it is unclear what data, if any, underlies this assertion.”
- Cancer related deaths can have many causes, including tumors that affect vital organs, systemic cancer treatments and their side effects of treatments, surgical complications and patient suicide, which might or might not be related to metastases in individual cases.
The paper concluded that approximately 63 percent of cancer death are cases where the cancer has metastasized. However, they did not analyze the number of cures of metastasized cancers. Are there different types of metastasized cancers? Do the types depend on the underlying cancer? Can any of them be cured?
It seems we know how to cure many cancers – but we don’t know we know. And we don’t know if we know how to cure a cancer that has metastasized . We don’t count cures, much less cures of metastasized cancers. Of course there are cure-rates for metastatic breast cancer, but no cured cases.
Cure Rates? REAL Cures? Just Remission? Or just a Cure rate?
It appears that most cases of cancer are cured. Are these cures real? How can we tell?
What if the disease is only in remission? Remission is not defined medically, until after a disease re-occurs. Because there is no definition of cured for most diseases, remission vs cure cannot be distinguished.
Cancer researchers don’t study cures, they study cure-rates. A cure-rate is a statistical measure of survival after a specific approved treatment for a specific cancer. Sometimes, a cure rate summary is prepared with multiple approved treatments. Cure-rates for non-approved treatments, however, are simply ignored – even when an approved and a non-approved treatment is used together. Like cures, cure rates for natural cures are never calculated.
A cancer cure-rate cannot be used to prove the presence or absence of a cure in any specific case. In fact, there is no medical nor scientific technique – at present – to prove a cure of any case of cancer until the patient has died of something else.
Without a scientific or medical definition of cured for every cancer – we can never tell the difference between remission and cure. It’s easy to claim remission. When there is No Evidence of Disease (NED) we often say the cancer is in remission. If it’s cured, we simply cannot tell.
Cure Avoidance?
I recently had lunch with a small group of retired co-workers. Two reported having cancer. Both were skin cancer. One was treated with a minor surgery – and there is no trace of it after several years. The other was treated with a newer immune system protocol being tested. This cancer also showed no trace after several years. However, neither of my co-workers used the word “cured.” I suspect their doctors avoided the word cured as well.
Our medical systems have a long history of regularly denying cancer cures. The very concept of cancer cure is avoided. Over 60 percent oncologists – according to published research paper “Use of the Word “Cure” in Oncology” – are hesitant to use the word cure with their patients and “Five percent of respondents believed that none of their patients will ever be cured.” This brings us back to the question: Do we cure the disease, the cancer, or do we cure the patient?
Research into alternative cancer cures is not just avoided, it is forbidden. This has been the case for decades.
“On April 17, 1952, the Dickinson County, Iowa chapter of the ACS (American Cancer Society) ran a full page ad in the local paper, ‘The Spirit Lake Beacon,’ asking the society to enter the new field of investigating cancer cure claims. They cited 4 such ‘cures.’ The chapter was expelled from the ACS.” – The Healing of Cancer, Barry Lynes, 1989
Throughout the history of medicine, even the history of modern medicine, there have been many claims of cancer cures and many testimonials of cancers cured. Today, testimonials are simply ignored – no matter what treatment was used. Our blindness to cancer cures in conventional medicine ensures that we are doubly blind to cancer cures in any alternative medical treatment or paradigm.
We have no medical nor scientific test to recognize any case of cancer cured. Therefore, we have no medical nor scientific ability to recognize the cause of any cancer cured.
Therefore, we have no medical nor scientific ability to recognize any cancer cured by a non-approved (so-called alternative) medical treatment.
We are blind to cancer cures – even as most cases of cancer are cured. If a cancer cure were discovered tomorrow, we have no medical nor scientific techniques to recognize it. Clinical studies of cancer treatments are consistently designed, written, approved, completed, peer reviewed and published WITHOUT any definition of or test for cured.
No current cancer research can FIND A CURE, because CURED is not medically defined. In 1894, it seemed that every disease would be curable. Today, it seems none are.
“The list of incurable diseases decreases every decade; the list of curable diseases now includes many which but a short time ago carried off thousands of victims annually; and the list of preventable diseases promises soon to embrace a very large percent……What then will be left to the jurisdiction of the profession if we are to give up the old belief that doctors are only to cure sick people“. JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association, March 17, 1894
Fifty, sixty, 100, almost 150 years ago we were surrounded by cures. Today, they have all disappeared. Were they real? Where did they go?
Cures have also disappeared from cancer research. The the 21st Century Cures Act known as the “Cancer Moonshot“ does not contain a definition of cancer cured and requires no definition from organizations asking for funding. The Nobel Prize in Medicine, in it’s 133 year history, has only been awarded for a cure once – for the discovery of penicillin.
Fundraisers avoid the CURE Word
“The mission of the American Cancer Society is to improve the lives of people with cancer and their families through advocacy, research, and patient support, to ensure everyone has an opportunity to prevent, detect, treat, and survive cancer.” The word CURE is not used. Their current marketing motto is: “Help us end cancer as we know it, for everyone,” apparently “cure cancer” is no longer in fashion. Are cancer cures too easy?
The mission of BreastCancer.org is “Our mission is to help people make sense of the complex medical and personal information about breast health and breast cancer, so they can make the best decisions for their lives.” The word CURE does not appear.
The Prostate Cancer Foundation mission “PCF funds the world’s most promising research to improve the prevention, detection and treatment of prostate cancer and ultimately cure it for good,” uses the word cure, but later says “Don’t listen to anyone, yourself included, who thinks, “Your cancer has been cured.” – cure denial.
We are surrounded by cures, while all of cures are surrounded by cure denial.
We need to Celebrate Cures, including Cancer Cures
Do we cure cancers? Is it a cure when natural healthiness cures the cancer? Is it a cure when a medical treatment cures a cancer? Is it a cure when an alternative treatment cures a cancer? It seems that many, perhaps most cases of cancer are easily cured. This should not be a surprise. It’s the same for many diseases. Most diseases, even most deadly diseases, start small and are diagnosed when they are not dangerous. Cancer is no exception.
Unfortunately, our cancer bureaucracies, and even the National Institute of Health, are not interested in cancers cured, nor in cancer cures. Why not?
to your health, tracy
Author: A New Theory of Cure
