President Obama, I applaud your initiative to cure cancer. Joe Biden is a very capable person. However, it is not possible for America to cure cancer today. It is much less possible, yes, less than impossible, to cure cancer within the next 15 months. Cancer cures, today, are defined by 5 year survival. If you cure a cancer today, you can’t claim it was cured until 5 years have passed. Even Patrick Soon-Shiong’s Moonshot 2020 fails this test. If he’cures’ a cancer today, it’s not proven ‘cured’ until 2021.
There are many other reasons why it is not possible for America to cure cancer. The three fundamental reasons are:
- Cure is not defined for cancer.
- Cancer is a general class of disease. Only a specific case of an illness can be cured.
Note: Every cure is an anecdote. - Cancer cures are illegal.
When John Kennedy announced the moon mission, in 1962, he had a huge advantage over your search for a cancer cure. We can see the moon. It’s right there in front of us, every day. We can easily tell when we get there. It’s a simple, clear goal.
Curing cancer is not a simple, clear goal. Not only that, curing cancer is not possible, using current scientific and medical definitions of cancer, of cures, and of cancer cures. It is also not legal to claim a cure for many cures of cancer.
Why Define Cure?
Modern medical science cannot find ‘a cancer cure’ because ‘cancer cure’ and ‘cancer cured’ are not clearly defined. You can search the literature for a definition of cancer cure. There is none. The cancer establishment has decided to use ‘diagnosis birthday’ as a definition of cancer cure. It’s silly, but it’s the best we have today. If you are diagnosed with cancer, and you are cancer free after surviving 5 years – no matter what treatments you received, you are ‘5 year cured’ according to today’s cancer statistics. If your cancer returns after 4 years, you were not cured, but if it returns after 6 years – you were cured.
This, frankly, is total nonsense. Imagine if we used this model for other diseases? If a patient is diagnosed with diabetes, or arthritis, or obesity – and we cure the illness – we would then need to wait 5 years before we could claim they were ‘cured’.
We can only cure cancer when we create a definition that measures cured.
Defining Cure
How should cure be defined? It is necessary to define cure, before we can test if a cure is valid, test if the cure has worked. It is necessary to ‘define cure’, before we can find a cure. It is necessary to define cure, in order to validate a cure when one is claimed. Today, many people claim to have cured cancer. But with no definition of cure, no definition of cured. As a result, there can be no proof, only denial. Today’s scientific, medical systems can only prove ‘failure to cure’.
How should we define cure?
There are several useful definitions of cure, and of cured in medicine today:
- A cure is an action that stops the progress of an illness by addressing key causes.
- A cure is the healing the occurs before, during and after an illness.
- A cure can be a surgery that ‘cures’ damage or a disability caused by an illness. Note: Surgeries seldom cure illnesses with active causes, unless the entire cause can be surgically removed.
Cancer is a complex disease, with a large number of possible causes, and a large number of progressions. Each specific case of a cancer, each illness, has specific causes, and a specific progression, which depends on the cancer, on the health of the patient, on the treatments, and on the cure.
Some cases of cancers might be cured by Type 1 Cure – by stopping the progress of the illness. Many current cancer treatments attempt to stop the progression of the illness – without addressing the cause. The result, predictably, is remission of symptoms – the growth of cancer cells, but the cancer is not cured. It returns, but it never really went away. To cure a cancer by stopping the progression, we must address the cause of the progression, not just the progression.
In other cases a cancer has grown so far that surgery might be required to remove and repair the damage it has caused. Most cancers require healing to complete the cure. Some cancers might be healed, without surgical or other intervention.
Some cases of cancer might require all three types of cure for a complete cure.
It is important to note that no cure is a ‘thing’. Every cure is an action. Penicillin does not cure infections by itself. Penicillin only cures infections when it is taken in specific doses, for specific cases of an illness. We cannot ‘find’ the thing that cures cancer, no matter how hard we search, because the cure is not a thing.
Cancer is a Disease, not an Illness
We tend to use the word ‘cancer’ for two things, without thinking about it.
– Cancer is a disease, a class of illnesses.
– A cancer is a specific case of an illness.
But in medicine,t here is a clear difference between an illness and a disease – a class of illnesses. An illness is what the patient has, what the patient presents to the doctor, what the patient and the doctor wants to cure. A disease is what the doctor diagnoses, to aid in developing a prognosis and a treatment for the illness. Diagnosis, the act of naming the disease, puts the specific illness into a class of illnesses, giving it a disease name. But it is still only a specific case, an illness, not a disease.
Every illness has the potential to be cured, but no disease can be cured.
Every illness, every specific case of cancer, has specific causes and a specific progression. Each illness is cured only when the causes and the progression are addressed. A cancer is no exception.
But a disease, a class of illnesses, does not have a single cause that can be addressed by a cure. A disease, a class of illnesses, does not have a single progression, that can be addressed by a cure. The disease of cancer cannot be cured.
Only a specific case of a cancer can be cured. Every specific case is an anecdote.
Cancer Cures are Illegal
You might have heard of some cancer cures that are illegal. Conspiracy theories?
The fact that cancer cures are illegal is simple and clear. You can check the legality at your local USFDA (US Food and Drug Administration) webpage, where it is clearly stated: “The disclaimer must also state that … the product is not intended to ‘diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease,’ because only a drug can legally make such a claim.“. It is not legal for any substance or treatment, except an approved drug, to claim to have cured any illness.
If a non-drug treatment cures a cancer, it is not legal, according to the USFDA, to claim a cure. If we find a cancer cure, that is not a drug, it is illegal.
This severely limits our ability to cure cancer. Because the USFDA has clearly stated that only a drug can legally claim to cure any disease – there are no studies today of cures that are not drugs. Journalists might pretend that we are searching the jungles for plants that cure cancer. But the USFDA will not allow anyone to claim that a plant can cure cancer. Some people have claimed that the cure for their cancer was marijuana, or a herb, or a spice. But those are not legal cures. According to the USFDA law, a drug must be extracted, purified and scientifically tested – before anyone can claim it cures any disease, not just a cancer. At the same time, it is not scientifically possible to test a cure, because cured is not defined.
This is simply nonsense. We know the cure for scurvy is Vitamin C, preferably in foods. We know that the cure for progressive arsenic poisoning is to stop consuming arsenic. We know the cure for sloth (an illness perhaps not technically defined as a disease) is exercise. It’s easy to make a long list of illnesses that can be cured, but not by medicines. Many illnesses cannot be cured with drugs, they can only be cured with ‘health’. With healthy foods, often with healthy exercise of body, mind, spirit and even community, and sometimes only with healthy restraint of body, mind, spirit and community. Many iIllnesses cannot be cured with medicines, can only be cured with healthiness, with healthicines. But, according to the USFDA law, only a drug can cure an illness.
There is an entire class of illnesses that can only be cured with health, not with drugs. Many cases of cancer are clearly in this class. The World Health Organization classifies diseases into three categories, using the ICD10 International Classification of Diseases and encourages worldwide classification of all disease as either:
- communicable diseases, HIV, TB, etc.
- non communicable diseases : hypertension, breast cancer, etc.
- external causes of injuries : traffic accident, drowning.
Which is cancer? Most cancers are non communicable diseases. Some might be caused by a virus or other communicable diseases. But there’s a simple problem with non communicable diseases.
Non Communicable Diseases Cannot be Cured by Medicine
There are many, many non communicable disease. Each is caused by a lack of healthiness, and can only be cured by healthiness. Modern medicine studies illness to death, but it does not study healthiness at all. As a result, there are no cures defined, no cures identified for any non communicable diseases.
Every non communicable disease is currently classed as incurable by modern medicine. Medical texts do not list cures for any of these diseases. There are no tests for ‘cured’, for any of these diseases. If you cure your hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis – there is no medical test to prove the cure. The only cure for hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis is health. If you raise your healthiness – the illness disappears. If the illness disappears, it is because you raised your healthiness. If you check, you will find that even scurvy, a non communicable disease that we understand clearly – cannot be cured by medicine. As a result, most, if not all, medical texts do not use the word ‘cure’ for scurvy. Scurvy is a non communicable disease, therefore it is an incurable illness.
Many medical experts classify these illnesses ‘incurable’. This is simply giving up. It is not possible to prove that an illness cannot be cured. But, according to the USFDA, these illnesses can only be cured by drugs.
There are many people, today, who claim to have cured their cancers. There are even clinics who have claimed to cure cancer patients – although none in the USA. In the USA it is illegal to claim to cure cancers, unless you cure them with a drug, and most cancers cannot be cured with a drug. We’ve spend more than 40 years proving that.
Have any patients been cured of their cancer? We have no idea. Although there are many claims of cancers cured, there are no statistics. No one validates, or refutes claims of cancers cured in any scientific manner. If you cure your cancer, your father’s cancer, or your patient’s cancer, the cure will be ignored. The cancer, the patient, and the cure will disappear from medical statistics.
There is one final important point about cancer cures.
Medical Insurance Won’t Pay
Medical insurance is another reason America can’t find a cure for cancer, another reason we cannot cure many illnesses. Medical insurance pays for treatments, not for cures. If you are diagnosed with any non communicable disease – and you receive treatment – your medical insurance will pay for the treatment, as long as it’s on their list.
But if you cure your illness, or if your doctor cures your illness, or your mother cures your illness – your medical insurance will not pay for the cure, unless it is on their list of treatments.
Cures are not on any list. Only treatments are on the list, not cures. If the treatment cures your illness – your insurance will pay for the treatment. But if any treatment that is ‘not on the list’ actually cures your illness – your insurance will not pay for it.
This is, frankly, nonsense – and a waste of money. You can buy insurance to pay for treatments, and if you receive treatments – they will be paid for. But you cannot buy insurance that will pay for results. You cannot buy insurance that will pay for cures.
If you have a non communicable illness, current medical insurance is prepared to pay for the rest of your life, if necessary. If your illness is cured, there is no more need for treatments, no more need for payments. It only makes sense to pay for cures. It makes sense to pay more for cures, than for treatments that do not cure. Even though the USFDA says that only drugs can cure, it makes economic sense to pay for cures, whether they are a consequence of drugs, or any other treatment.
How can we Cure Cancer?
In light of the above, how might we cure cancer? We need to do several things.
- Define cure, and cured for cancer, and for every non communicable disease. We cannot search for cures, if cure is not defined. Once we define cured, we need to count cured, to keep statistics on cures, and use those statistics to improve our definitions.
- Allow medical experts to search everywhere for actions that cure. Today, cures are only legal if they are drugs. This is nonsense. It forces people who cure a cancer, to hide from the law.
- Insurance companies need to figure out how to pay for cures.
I wish you and your team success. I hope that your plans take us down the path to a cure for cancer. To head down that path, we need to define the goal. We need to define ‘cancer cure’ and ‘cancer cured’.
to your health, tracy
Tracy is the author of two books about healthicine:
