What Is Cancer? by Ty Bollinger- A review

I ran across this article by Ty Bollinger discussing cancer:

http://www.cancertruth.net/

But the article is full of many of the same old myths that have been circulated for decades.

The first myth is something I have even heard an allopathic doctor claim.  This is that we all produce cancer cells throughout our lives, but they are normally destroyed by the immune system before they can take hold.  There is no evidence to back this claim, but evidence to disprove it.  Cancer cells actually use several mechanisms in order to evade the immune system.  If we all produced cancer cells throughout our life then the majority of these cancer cells that evade the immune system would take hold and kill us.

Next he claims that the cancer cells take in glucose as a fuel and creates lactic acid as a waste product.  Cancer does use glucose as a fuel source, but it also uses several other fuel sources such as lactate and amino acids.  The biggest mistake though is the claim that cancer cells produce lactic acid.  Cancer cells DO NOT produce lactic acid, they produce non-acidic lactate.

Next he claims that the quick shrinkage of cancer by radiation and chemo is a sign of complete immune suppression, not "recovery" from the cancer.  Granted, the shrinkage of the tumor does not mean a successful treatment, but this does not mean complete immune suppression either.  Some forms of radiation therapy for example can reduce tumor size with minimal damage to the surrounding tissue.  And these forms of radiation therapy do not cause immune suppression.  Radiation and chemotherapy treatments can knock back the tumor in some cases through free radical formation, but these do not address the cause of cancer and often cannot kill all cancer cells.  This is why these therapies generally fail.

Next he claims that tumors fill with CD cells and macrophages that kill and devour cancer cells.  First of all CD cells include immune enhancer and immune suppressive cells.  More importantly though the immune cells that kill cancer cells are natural killer (NK) cells.  The problem is again though is that cancer cells have several mechanisms that allow them to evade the immune system.  This makes it nearly impossible for the immune system to find and kill cancer cells to begin with.  He clearly has virtually no understanding of how the immune system works.

Finally he claims that the consumption of cancer cells results in an inflammatory response, which is not true.  But then he goes on to say "cancer fighting agents that work with the immune system to facilitate both increases in CD-cells and at the same time being cytoxic (selectively killing cancer cells)".  First of all chemotherapy agents are cytoxic, but this does not mean they are specific to cancer cells.  Cytoxic means kills cells.  This includes healthy cells.  This is one of the reasons why chemotherapy has so many dangerous side effects.  Secondly, his comment contradicts his earlier comment.  Earlier in his article he states that the reduction in tumor size by chemotherapy and radiation therapy is a result of "complete shutting down of the normal immune response.  If this is a complete shutting down of the immune system then how is there an increase of CD immune cells?

I was just listening to his interview on Coast to Coast as well.  Found out that his background is not in medicine, but rather is an accountant.

I applaud the fact that at least he has been looking at some medial studies to try and learn about cancer.  But this does not make him an expert.  In fact, listening to the interview I heard numerous other cancer misconceptions being stated.  Again, this is why it is important for people to verify claims they read or hear when it comes to their health.  Just because someone makes a claim this does not make it true.  Many of the claims I heard him make sound like they come straight from the sales sites, especially alkaline sales sites.  Sales sites are generally very poor sources of information.

For example, cancer is not caused by acidity and baking soda or other alkalinizers do not cure it.