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Is Cancer Contagious?

By Alan Cantwell, M.D.

Jackie Kennedy's rapid death from "Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma" cancer in May I994 shocked and saddened the world. Now officials of the American Cancer Society are hinting that some lymphomas may be caused by viruses. If so, are these viruses contagious? And how can we protect ourselves from them? What do we really know about the origin and cause of cancer? Are these new cancer viruses related to cancer-causing retroviruses like HIV (the AIDS virus)?

As a rich woman, Mrs. Kennedy-Onassis received the best treatment for her disease at one of the most prestigious cancer hospitals in New York. Yet, within 5 months of the discovery of her lymphoma, she was dead. Even in my most paranoid state I cannot conceive of any sinister aspect of her demise. However, it is a well kept secret in medical circles that the required treatment for cancer, particularly chemotherapy and radiation, can sometimes hasten the death of cancer patients. For example, one of my patients had "routine" treatment for Hodgkin's disease, which consisted of extensive surgery followed by radiation to the chest and abdomen. After he re covered from this, he was given an intensive course of chemotherapy. Within a year of his diagnosis, and less than four months after chemotherapy, he died. At autopsy, there was no evidence of cancer. His death was caused by fatal damage to his heart and lungs by the radiation treatment he received. How much of Jackie's death can be attributed to the treatment she underwent for cancer will never be known.

Cancer Mysteries

Cancer kills more American women than any other disease. Cancer of the breast is the No1 killer in Anglo, Black, Latina, Chinese and Japanese-American women. No one knows the reason for this. Jackie's cancer, Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, is among the top 10 most common forms of cancer in all races, except for Blacks. Again, no one knows why. Why do Chinese-American men have a high risk of liver cancer, when the disease is decidedly uncommon in other Americans? Why is the prostate cancer rate among Blacks in Los Angeles county 60% higher than in Anglos; and 80% higher than Asians? Why do Anglo men have a bladder cancer rate twice that of other groups? No one has an adequate explanation for these cancer occurrences.

Lymphoma Cancer

There are three major types of lymphoma cancer: Hodgkin's disease, Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and a type of lymphoma which affects the skin called mycosis fungoides. All lymphoma patients may experience similar symptoms. The exact type of lymphoma requires diagnosis by a pathologist, and depends on the microscopic appearance of the cancerous cells and tissue. The "classification" of lymphoma types is in constant flux and reappraisal. Strangely, the cancer cells of Jackie's Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma were reported as a new type called "Ki-1."

Hodgkin's disease is one of the very few forms of cancer that has long been considered as having a possible infectious origin. For decades, epidemiologists have recognized "cluster cases' of Hodgkin's. The actual number of cases was so high in certain communities that it was highly unlikely to be due to statistical chance. Even so, definite proof of a Hodgkin's disease agent has not been forthcoming. Some scientists are now suspecting a possible cancer causing retrovirus.

The Cancer Microbe

All this would not surprise my mentor, the late Virginia Livingston MD, who for 40 years claimed that various bacterial and viral forms of "the cancer microbe" were responsible for the infectiousness and possible contagiosity of cancer. Long before the discovery of the AIDS virus, she stressed care in the sexual arena, as well as the importance of hygiene, diet and supplements in the treatment of cancer. Her use of vaccines made from the patient's own cancer bacteria ultimately resulted in the condemnation of her cancer research and her treatment methods for cancer. Robert Gallo MD, the co-discoverer of the AIDS virus, denounced her scientific work as insanity.

Over the past century physicians have refused to believe that an infectious agent could cause cancer. In the 1970s, scientists proved that animal cancer viruses were capable of causing cancer, but there was no proof that viruses caused human cancer. Now with the discovery of cancer-causing retroviruses, such as the AIDS virus, doctors are reconsidering the idea. The history of modem medicine seems to prove Cantwell's law that "Most physicians are wrong in their understanding of most diseases, most of the time."

Why is Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma one of the fastest rising cancers in the U.S.? Is the rise related to drug use (legal and illegal), immunosuppression from environmental sources, or radiation effects? No one knows. My own published research into the cause of all three types of lymphoma indicates that "cancer microbes" are the infectious agent. My studies confirm Livingston's research, as well as the cancer microbe research of dozens of other scientists throughout the world who have implicated bacteria in various forms of cancer. This work is documented in my book The Cancer Microbe (1990). Over thirty of my published papers on AIDS, cancer, and other immunologic diseases, are available in medical libraries. And anyone hooked into a computer network can get abstracts of these papers through "Medlars 11," the National Library of Medicine's computer retrieval service.

The startling cancer microbe discoveries are ignored by the cancer establishment. Undoubtedly the recognition of a heretofore unnoticed infectious agent in cancer and AIDS would provoke havoc in medical science. Thus, cancer bacteria remain "in the closet" and the research "politically incorrect."

Death by Cancer

So many people have been done in by cancer at a convenient time in history that conspiracy buffs wonder if you can "give" people cancer. I recall the propitious cancer deaths of Jack Ruby, William Casey, Martha Mitchell, the Shah of Iran, Mae Brussell, and others. (Even O.J. Simpson was tested for lymphoma cancer in a swollen lymph node while imprisoned awaiting trial for murder.) Can you kill people by injecting them with cancer viruses and bacteria? Of course! No one in their right mind would want blood from a dying cancer or AIDS patient. Can you give a person cancer? If cancer in animals can be caused by injecting them with cancer viruses and bacteria, it would certainly be possible to do the same with human beings!

Cancer: One Disease or Many?

The American Cancer Society constantlv reminds us that there are many "different" kinds of cancer. This concept is highly effective in raising money for each type of cancer that the ACS promotes. But in reality there is a close relationship between certain forms of cancer, particularly lymphoma and leukemia (cancer of the blood). In the 1970s, virologists discovered that animal retrovirus infection (similar to the AIDS virus) could cause an increase in lymphoma and leukemia in the animals, as well as immunosuppression. In 1983, a year before the official discovery of HIV, Harvard veterinarian Myron Essex found that 25% of gay AIDS patients had viral antibodies to blood from a case of "human T-cell leukemia," caused by a new retrovirus called "human T-cell leukemia virus-1." When Robert Gallo announced his discovery of the AIDS virus in 1984, he believed the virus was related to this new family of leukemia viruses. Thus, he first named the AIDS virus "Human T-cell leukemia virus-3." Later, the virus was renamed HIV: the human immunodeficiency virus.

When the AIDS virus (HIV) was introduced into the gay community in the late 1970s, the incidence of Kaposi's sarcoma (a previously rare form of cancer), as well as the incidence of Non-Hodgkin's disease, began to skyrocket in HIV-infected gay men. Both types of cancer had previously been associated with immunodepression. For example, in the mid-1970s the normal incidence of Kaposi's sarcoma increased 400 to 500 times in transplant patients who were routinely immunosuppressed with prescribed drugs as part of the procedure. In 1981, the year the AIDS epidemic became official, Bijan Safai and Robert Good, scientists at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, declared a close association between Kaposi's sarcoma, leukemia and lymphoma. They proposed all three cancers be considered "as part of a spectrum of disease affecting the lymphoreticular system."

The American Cancer Society is unlikely to remind its contributors that treatment for one form of cancer can cause the formation of another "different" cancer. For instance, after chemotherapy about three percent of Hodgkin's disease patients go on to develop Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, or leukemia. Officially, the reason for these "second cancers" is unknown. Surprisingly, most cancer experts assume two different diseases are involved. They theorize that chemotherapeutic drugs depress the immune system, resulting in the development of "new" cancers.

Is Cancer Contagious?

Physicians now understand that sexually transmitted retroviruses, such as HIV, can cause cancer and immunosuppression. Nevertheless, doctors continue to tell patients (unless they are gay) that cancer is neither infectious or contagious. What about the transmissability of new retroviruses that have been identified in certain human leukemia cases? So far, the cancer establishment is not commenting. Do cancer viruses and the increasing rates of certain forms of cancer, such as Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, have a relationship to the AIDS epidemic? In the absence of a positive HIV test, I would say no. (Both Jackie Kennedy and O.J. Simpson tested negative for HIV.) In my book, Queer Blood: The Secret AIDS Genocide Plot (1993), I describe the genetic engineering of animal cancer viruses in the early 1970s that, in my opinion, resulted in the creation the AIDS virus. (Are there any PARANOIA readers who actually believe AIDS comes from African green monkeys?)

Man-Made Viruses

Whether one agrees with the idea that AIDS is a man-made epidemic, it is a fact that we now deal with viruses that are "natural" (so-called endogenous viruses); and viruses that are genetically manipulated, man-made, and "unnatural" (exogenous viruses). These laboratory-created viruses are now used as an integral part of the new gene splicing technology. Engineered and altered animal cancer viruses, such as the mouse leukemia virus, have already been used in human genetic experiments. If cancer viruses can be injected into people to make them well, they certainly can be injected into people to make them sick! Can genetically engineered viruses be covertly seeded into select populations for political and genocidal purposes? Was the "introduction" of the AIDS virus into the Black African population, and into the U.S. gay male population, a deliberate attempt to eliminate these groups? Govemment AIDS experts repeatedly tell us that AIDS began as a Black African disease when an African green monkey "jumped species." The U.S. public was initially told AIDS is a "gay" disease, caused by anal sex and drugs. But who can conceive of a Black heterosexual epidemic in Africa that transformed itself into an exclusively young white gay male epidemic in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco?

Recently a physician colleague referred a patient to me with a written diagnosis of "AIDS caused by homosexuality." This indicates how powerful and effective the government’s disinformation program has been in convincing the public (and some physicians) that AIDS is a gay disease. Now that 4 million men and women are infected with HIV worldwide, do people really think most were sodomized?

Coping with Cancer

Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis's death from cancer, despite access to the best treatments and doctors that money could buy, certainly justifies a degree of cancerophobia. Her rapid demise makes us wonder if her treatment killed her quicker that her lymphoma. (Some lymphoma patients live for many years.) But did she have any treatment options? If you had cancer, would you go against the advice and wisdom of a cancer expert? Who would turn down chemotherapy and radiation if they thought it would save their life? How do doctors separate the toxic effects of cancer from the toxic effects of treatment with chemotherapeutic drugs, surgery, radiation and sterids? Will doctors be able to save us if we are diagnosed with cancer? Can we catch cancer-causing viruses from our family, our friends, our lovers? Is this reason for paranoia? You bet it is!"