Over the last few years there have been dramatic increases in the understanding of how cancer operates at a cellular level. There are now moves towards a more intelligent way of dealing with cancer that work with the body, and a gradual shift away from the toxicity of therapies like chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
This greater understanding has, in some quarters, changed the concept of what cancer actually is. A recent scientific paper suggests that a tumour has a lot of similarities to a wound, and has been likened to ‘a wound that doesn’t heal’. A wound induces rapid growth but then switches off the growth when the wound has healed – in cancer that ‘off switch’ fails.
We do know that a diet high in fresh fruit and vegetables can greatly reduce our chances of getting cancer, and also, being overweight can increase our chances of getting cancer. What has been missing up until now has been the fine detail of the processes involved.
(more…)