Infected cells develop genetic changes that transform them into cancer cells.

A new study published in the journal Nature divides breast cancer into 4 genetic types.  One of the most deadly types, "basal-like" cancer, shows strong genetic similarities to types of lung cancer and to ovarian cancer.  A researcher is quoted in the New York Times as saying these similarities point to a common cause of the cancers.  I laughed out loud when I read this because they're all caused by infection and the cancers with the similarities they've identified are caused by a common organism infecting similar kinds of cells in the different organs.  It's right under their noses!

 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/health/study-finds-variations-of-breast-cancer.html?_r=0

I've noticed, reading these research reports, that cancer researchers are excellent at identifying the results of infection with carcinogenic organisms and even of finding treatments that are effective against these results, without identifying the underlying cause of the disease.  For example, Tamoxifen and Taxol, two of the most important breast cancer drugs, are potent antifungal drugs.  Breast cancer is caused by skin fungal infections.  Researchers somewhere discovered these drugs work against breast cancer without knowing why!  God bless them anyway - they've saved countless lives with their antifungal drugs.

It's important to note that early breast cancers are always intraductal - they form inside the ducts of the milk glands, which are open to the outside world through the milk gland openings in the breast nipple.  Fungal organisms on the skin enter the ducts through the gland openings in the skin and infect and transform the cells lining the ducts.  Breast cancer does not start in the deep breast tissue as you would expect if it were entirely a genetic disorder - it spreads to the deep tissue through invasion of the cancer cells through the walls of the ducts.

Statistically, breastfeeding before the age of 32 lowers the lifetime risk of breast cancer.  I believe it is because breast milk contains potent immune factors intended to protect the nursing infant but that also protect the breast ducts from the infection.  Breasts continue to make small amounts of milk for 10 years or more after weaning, so that increased immune protection for the breast continues indefinitely.  A mother who first nurses after age 32 may already have an entrenched infection which would not be affected by the presence of breast milk.

Cancer rates are rapidly increasing, especially in young people, because our American food supply is over-manipulated.  Our food is genetically modified (GMO) and contains chemicals and pesticides that our parents and grandparents were never exposed to.  The alterations in our food supply are also causing our epidemic of obesity.  The rest of the world isn't suffering these problems because they're still eating food that's wild-type, not scientifically altered.

Japanese women living in Japan have a low breast cancer rate but when they move to the U.S. they quickly reach the same rates of breast cancer as American women.  Obviously genetics are not the problem - these women are exposed to new environmental factors when they move to the U.S.  Japanese women consume large quantities of soy in their diets.  My Chinese physician tells me that consumption of soy outside of the U.S. lowers the risk of breast cancer, but soy grown in the U.S. significantly raises the risk of cancer because it is 100% genetically-modified.  To lower your risk of breast cancer in the U.S., you must eat wild-type or imported soy.

The genetic counselor I consulted for BRCA 1 and 2 testing told me that these breast cancer genes code for DNA repair.  The presence of the BRCA genes decreases the body's ability to repair DNA damage.  So women with these genes develop cancer at an earlier age.  These genes do not code for cancer.  They make women more susceptible to carcinogenesis.  From what I've read about the mechanisms by which fungal organisms infect mammalian cells, it makes sense that when fungal organisms trick cells into taking them up into the cytoplasm and the organism shuts off programmed cell death in the cell nucleus, DNA damage must occur during the process which the BRCA genes are unable to repair.  Perhaps shutting off cell death IS the DNA damage that cannot be repaired.

We develop cancer because our chemically altered, genetically altered food damages our immune defenses, allowing infections to proliferate, invade and genetically transform cells into cancer cells.

We must stop the genetic modification of our food, identify and eliminate the chemicals used in food production that weaken our immune defenses and identify and treat the infections that cause cancer without damaging our natural defenses in the process.