Why Cancer?

By Ittyerah Tholath

Cancer is a mysterious killer diseases of the present time and the incidence of cancer is rapidly increasing in the world. This peculiar disease is characterized by abnormal uncontrolled growth of various tissues. The real cause for this abnormal growth is evading detection by scientists in spite of extensive research. Senior biochemists working on cancer are unable to grasp the fundamental cellular process in cancer and are looking for some creative thinking from young generation of scientists. This book is an attempt to expose certain interesting facts about cancer and to evolve a new line of treatment. Growth is a sign of life not a sign of death. Death in cancer is due to an error in the growth process. The unique links between the hallmarks of cancer and reproduction are explored and analyzed in this book. There are circumstantial, clinical, genetic, immunological and evolutionary evidence to prove that cancer is an unsuccessful attempt for asexual reproduction in humans. In fact there are many living organisms capable of both for sexual and asexual reproduction. In some of them one method is functioning while the other method is non functioning. Errors in reproductive process are common. The amoebic (Eukaryotic) heritage of humans is well accepted and perhaps an amoebic reproduction is manifested in humans when regular sexual reproduction is absent, defective or insufficient. Cancer often occurs when humans are old ,impotent and infertile. Cancers of reproductive & sex organs are much more common than cancers of other organs in spite of prophylactic removal of many reproductive organs. The immune systems (the watch dog of body) do not attack cancer because it is a reproductive process. When the watch dog does not bark or bite, it shows that there is no external invader involved. Interestingly cancer is not just a bunch of abnormal cells, but it contains normal blood vessels and normal nerve fibers. Hence it is a failed attempt to form an organ or an embryo. Besides cancer was nicknamed as 'somatic cell pregnancy' because of several similarities between carcinogenesis and embryo genesis.. Conversion of this inefficient and incomplete asexual reproduction process to an efficient process is the ideal solution for human sufferings due to cancer and old age. The book contains several relevant quotes from great men and more than one hundred important references..

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ittyerah Tholath
• Release date: Feb 10, 2018
• ISBN: 9781370190973

Ittyerah Tholath

Dr. Ittyerah Tholath Peter is an eye surgeon with over forty five years of experience in various capacities in four leading medical institutions in India. He is the holder of a M.B.B.S from Kerala University, M.S.( Ophthalmology) from BHU, and M.Phil. ( Hospital and Health System Management) from B.I.T.S. He had his fellowship training at St.Vincentius eye hospital in Karlsruhe, Germany. He was a Fellow of Royal college of physicians & surgeons Glasgow(FRCS) and International Medical Science Academy(FIMSA) . Dr.Ittyerah , has held various roles in his illustrious career, namely Clinical Registrar in Ophthalmology(BHU), Jr. Lecturer in Ophthalmology (C.M.C. Vellore.), Head of Department of Ophthalmology at Pushpagiri Hospital Thiruvalla and Little Flower Hospital Angamaly, India, He was President of Kerala Society of Ophthalmic Surgeons (KSOS) and Indian Medical Association (I.M.A.) Madhya Kerala Branch. In his literary capacity, he has previously held the roles of Chief editor of Journal of K.S.O.S. and Indian Journal Of Ophthalmology. The All India Ophthalmological Society ( A.I.O.S.),the Kerala society of Ophthalmic Surgeons (K.S.O.S.) and the Cochin Ophthalmic Club (C.O.C.) honored him with life time achievement awards for his outstanding contributions in the field of ophthalmic science.In his busy schedule he has managed to provide his services to the community through organizations like YMCA, Y's Men Club and Rotary Club, the latter honoring him with the Paul Harris Fellowship award for his leadership role in matching grand programs. The esteemed doctor has also held the role of President of Rotary Club of Angamaly and Y's Men Club of Angamaly, Kerala, India. He is continuing as emeritus editor of Indian Journal of Ophthalmology(IJO).He is an ophthalmologist with special interest in medical subjects beyond ophthalmology.

Book preview

Why Cancer?

(Lateral thoughts on cancer and human reproduction)

Dr. Ittyerah Tholath

Copyright 2018 by Ittyerah Tholath

Published at Smashwords.

Other titles by the same author.

Eye doctor ‘out of the box’ ISBN: 9781301878284.

Bewitching BHU, ISBN: 9781370165988.

Odda Days, ISBN: 9781005616984.

From inability to let well alone; from too much zeal for new and contempt for what is old; from putting knowledge before wisdom, science before art, and cleverness before commonsense; from treating patients as cases, and from making the cure of the disease more grievous than the endurance of the same, Good Lord deliver us

Sir Robert Hutchinson.

It would indeed be rash for a mere pathologist (ophthalmologist) to venture forth into the uncharted sea of endocrines (cancers) strewn as it is with the wrecks of shattered hypothesizes, where even the most wary mariner may easily lose his way, as he seeks to steer bark amid the glandular temptations whose siren voices have proved the downfall of many who have gone before

William C Boyd.

CONTENTS

Preface

Why cancer?

Notes

References

Preface:

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.

Albert Einstein.

Cancer is a frightening word for people all over the world. Modern medical, surgical, radiation and immune treatment have removed most of the thorns in cancer. But still it remains as a big medical problem and millions of people succumb after a lot of suffering due to cancer. A systemic analysis of global burden of disease study published in JAMA Oncology 2019 showed that globally the incidence of cancer was 24.5 million and death was about 9.6 million in 2017. And we know that an unknown number of people die of cancer without knowing about the existence of the disease. In spite of the good awareness among the public about cancer, early detection of the disease and better treatment facilities, deaths due to cancer are increasing day by day. People try to link development of cancer with various human habits and activities. As life expectancy is increasing the number of persons affected by cancer is also increasing, because age is the most important non - modifiable risk factor for cancer. The incidence and prevalence of cancer seem to increase as mankind ‘progresses’! According to the American Cancer Society, 4830 new cancer cases are being reported daily in the USA alone in 2019. The latest incidence of cancer is 448 per 100000 people in the USA. And the expected number of new cases of cancer per day is 5200 for the year 2021 for the USA alone. According to Cancer research UK, death from liver cancer in the UK increased by 80% between the years 2007 to 2017. Many relatively younger patients are getting cancer nowadays. The median age of development of colorectal cancer reduced from 72 in 1989 to 66 in 2016 in the USA. The lifetime risk of cancer is found to be approximately 50% in the developed western societies. And interestingly in Japan and S.Korea the primary cause of death seems to be cancer! The Indian share of cancer is also increasing as the country is progressing economically. According to I.C.M.R. cancer report (2020) cancer cases can increase by 12% in the next five years. The estimated number of cancers for the year 2025 is 1570000 in India. And according to W.H.O, with increasing life expectancy one in fifteen Indians is going to die due to Cancer. The total economic cost of cancer was found to be US, $ 1.16 trillion in 2010 as per W.H.O. There is a strong association between old age and cancer and one is tempted to assume that old age itself is the cause for cancer. In other words if you can avoid old age the majority of cancers shall disappear. But unfortunately the graying of the population is a sign of progress and throughout the world health departments are trying to increase life expectancy and reduce birth rate! And in ultra-modern society the population grows old without any young generation as heterosexual marriages are delayed and or denied while same sex marriages are getting glorified. Did our thinking and actions create the problem of cancer?

There are several questions unanswered or answered unsatisfactorily regarding cancer. Cancer is not only a dreaded disease but also a mysterious disease. It is not only a mammoth health problem but also an everyday growing health problem. Everybody knows that cancer is an unwelcome and uncontrolled growth. Why is cancer seen frequently in old age? Why should an uncontrolled growth occur in the body when normal growth has almost stopped? Why is there reactivation of telomerase enzyme, a eukaryotic ribonucleoprotein in cancer cells? If cancer is designed for death, why is there an increase in the apoptosis preventing protein (survivin) in cancer patients? Why is angiogenesis in cancer and cancer growth highly vascular like a pregnant uterus? How do the cancer cells (HeLa cells) of the mortal body become immortal? How does senescence cell promote aging but is protecting us from cancer? Why do ancestral gene regulatory networks drive cancer? Is growth a disease or a sign of life? Why do the patient’s T cells and immune systems refuse to act on and destroy the unfamiliar abnormal cancer rogue cells? How do cancer cells grow and escape from the attack of the immune system when accidently transplanted to another unrelated healthy person? How is there 2.2 times more chance for development of cancer in sterile men? Why does cancer develop frequently in ovaries when the ovaries stop releasing ovum? Why does hormone replacement therapy (HRT) cause breast cancer in women who have undergone surgical removal of their uterus and ovaries? Why should pregnancy reprogram breast cells to reduce cancer risks? Why should cancer breast develop frequently in women who have never breast fed an infant? How breastfeeding confers significant reduction (24%) in ovarian cancer risk, including high grade deadliest type? Why are birth prevention contraceptive pills enhance the breast cancers in women while they prevent to some extent ovarian and uterus cancer? Why does the drug (17a-hydroxyprogesterone caproate) used to prevent miscarriage in women increase risk of cancer in offspring and more risk in the male offspring? Why does the cancer of testes develop frequently when the man is sterile due to undescended testes? How is prostate cancer in almost all centenarian men? How early active sexual lives in men reduce the chances of prostate cancer? Why is there a 20% increase in prostatic cancer in men who have undergone vasectomy before the age of thirty-eight? Why does low ejaculation frequency and low sperm quality increase the risk of prostate cancer? Why is there more incidence of breast cancer when the first delivery and breast feeding is delayed more than twenty-five years? Why does breast cancer appear at an early age, when the menarche is at an early age? Why should a benign growth like fibroid appear more frequently when the uterus remains unused for reproduction for a long time after menarche? How tobacco could stop the growth of a fetus in the womb while it can enhance growth of cancer? Why is there a 53% increase in bladder cancer in women who smoke tobacco and had menopause before the age of 45? Why do tobacco smokers get stillbirths & lung cancer, while marijuana smokers do not get lung cancers? How can intoxicating marijuana can help to cure pancreatic and brain cancers as well as reduce the risk for head and neck cancers? Why do women develop cancer of the uterus (cervix) when the Human Papilloma Virus infects and grows at the only entrance of the uterus for the sperms? Why do cancer cells have large nuclei like the sperm? Why are childhood cancers more among children if they were products of an elderly father with poor quality sperms? Why childhood leukemia incidences increase when their mothers consume birth inhibiting sex hormones or tobacco? Why do the incidences of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS0) increase due to prenatal use of carcinogens like tobacco and alcohol? Why do men whose mothers smoked tobacco (a strong carcinogen) during pregnancy have lower sperm count? Why does obesity cause different types of cancers? Why has cancer in adults below 50 years have dramatically increased over the last few decades? Why is cancer the leading cause of death in prisons? And why and how obesity disappears when cancer spreads and advances? Why are hypogonadism and infertility often associated with obesity, the risk factor for cancer? Why is poly cystic ovary syndrome associated with sterility, obesity and endometrial cancer? Why do women often get obese after menopause? Why the Zika virus which eats fetal or infant brain cells and does not eat the adult brain; but happily eats the cancer cells of the brain (Glioblastoma) without disturbing the adult brain cells? Why do cancer cells continue to multiply and grow while normal cells stop growth when the purpose of growth is achieved? How do we explain the dormancy of cancer cells in the body for several years? How do we explain the link between inflammatory bowel disease and prostate cancer? Why does chronic stress accelerate pancreatic cancer growth? Why are there different types of stem cells in cancer growths? When there is 97% genetic risk for cancer formation in the human population (Almost everybody is genetically prone to develop cancer) can you consider it a genetic disease? Why is there genomic instability in cancer? What is the connection between cancer/testis antigens (CTA) and various types of cancers? Why are chorionic gonadotropins frequently produced by cancer cells? Why do cancer cells rely on a metabolic pathway of aerobic glycolysis of unicellular organisms for its energy requirement and growth (Ward burg effect)? And how will we explain spontaneous remission and cure of cancer? Why do married cancer patients with a partner alive have better survival chances than the unmarried cancer patients undergoing cancer therapy? How can an accepted effective treatment for cancer (radiation) become a risk factor for cancer? Why does cancer-like growth occur in certain people immediately after their death? Why are we not able to prevent cancer in spite of spending billions of dollars on cancer research and publishing more than four million scientific papers on cancer for the last several years? How & why cancer developed in the dinosaurs that lived on earth millions of years before humans started living on earth? Why can't several studies on cancer be replicated? While digging for better answers regarding these questions on cancer and reproduction, I stumbled on something unique. There is a definite relationship between cancer and human reproduction! The existing hypothesis on cancer cannot explain the link between cancer and reproduction. There are enough facts and findings related to cancer and physiology to prove that the genetically unstable cancer growth is due to a failed attempt for asexual reproduction in humans. I feel that cancer is the most misunderstood disease we are trying to prevent and cure. According to Sir William Bragg The most important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about it. Let us think in a new way.

It has been shown that the p 53 gene has a role in protecting a person from cancer (Cell Report). It has a tumor suppression role as well as prevention of sexual reproduction anomalies. Congenital neural tube defects like Spina bifida, a defect seen more frequently in women, seems to be prevented by the activity of p53 gene. Pax -3 regulates neural tube closure by inhibiting p53 dependent apoptosis. [1] This gene seems to correct an error of sexual reproduction as well as prevents a fatal and defective asexual reproduction (cancer) .The p 53 genes has another reproductive function of promoting embryo implantation through inducing expression of leukemia inhibitory factor. [2]. All these observations regarding p53 gene point to a definite genetic link between cancer and reproduction. The p53 gene is protecting the organism against cellular damage and abnormal cell division. The p53 gene seems to be a reproduction (both sexual and asexual) regulating gene and in that process it achieves destruction (apoptosis) of the defective asexual reproduction cells (cancer cells).

We know that cancer of reproductive organs, especially female reproductive organs (female body is the base of human body) is much more than the cancer of other organs. This high incidence of cancer is in spite of removing many healthy reproductive organs for prevention of cancer. The incidence of cancer seems to be more in people who are not using their reproductive organs effectively and sufficiently. This phenomenon can be explained as the organism is making an attempt to compensate for the deficiency in the sexual reproductive function by adopting asexual reproduction. The reduction in sexual reproduction in humans is leading to the natural activation of asexual reproduction. Unfortunately the attempt is unsuccessful due to genetic deficiencies. The numbers of both sexual intercourse and sexual reproduction are declining in the world day by day. We have created several laws and regulations to restrict sex and sexual reproduction. No other living organisms have such regulations on their reproductive function. Any situation, agent, or activity reducing sex, fertility and reproduction may increase the chances for development of cancer (asexual reproduction). Even a nineteenth century pathologist, Mr. John Beard had noticed a similarity between the invading tumor and the trophoblast, the precursor of placenta. In fact there are lots of similarities between early embryo development and tumorigenesis both at the level of biological behaviors and at the level of molecular basis. Lloyd J Old of Ludwig institute of cancer research New York described cancer a ‘somatic cell pregnancy’ and noticed primordial programs were reactivated in cancer.[3] So many links between cancer and reproductive processes have been observed by many research workers at different times. They seem to have thought that cancer is utilizing the gametogenic programs for its growth and survival in the human body. When we explore and link all these facts it shall become evident that cancer itself is a reproductive process which has gone wrong. And the ‘sex recession’ could be the major cause for the recent ‘cancer inflation’! There are several reasons for the sex recession besides the steady decrease in testosterone levels among adolescent and young US men - Urology times,2020,Jul.

This book is the culmination of my lateral thoughts*, initiated from an intuition. As a doctor I have observed that when we arrest multiplication of microorganisms with medicines, after some time the microorganisms develop drug resistance to the medicine and continue the multiplication (Antimicrobial Resistance). This microevolution or revival of reproductive function of the microbe is achieved by mutations. Reproductive function is so important that to sustain it organisms shall do everything possible including genetic changes. And similar mutations are seen in cancer formation also. An interesting observation in the ‘Molecular biology of the cell’ is that Cancer cells break the most basic rules of behavior by which multicellular organisms are built and maintained and they exploit every kind of opportunity to do so [4]. It means that cancer cells are behaving like a unicellular organism like amoeba probably to achieve the reproductive process of amoeba. It has been noted that the large cancer cells are eating the small cells in very aggressive tumors. (Cannibalistic cells).The gene expressions may be less complex as in prokaryotes. Even the metabolism of cancer cells is like that of multiplying yeast cells. In spite of such differences in the characteristics of cancer cells, usually our immune systems do not attack these abnormal cells, because the immune system knows that it is an attempt for reproduction. In this world we live there are trillions of living organisms which do not die on maturity, but divide and transform to two young organisms. A huge number of such organisms are living in our own body. Yet another relevant observation is that in a rose plant the beautiful flowers blossom from tender young branches (sexual reproduction), while we use only old branches for growing a new plant (asexual reproduction).But very old unhealthy branches are avoided because of their inability to effectively start the reproduction process.

In medical practice clinical diagnosis of a disease is difficult in many situations, and hence often we assign a few differential diagnoses as alternate possibilities. We do investigations to sort out the diagnosis. Often we succeed in making a correct diagnosis, but failures are possible in spite of sophisticated investigations. While making clinical diagnosis we follow the principle of common things first. When there are confusing and uncommon features in a patient, we often believe that it shall be an uncommon presentation of a common disease rather than an uncommon disease by itself. When we make a common diagnosis the probability of error reduces. Cancer as a disease is unique and different from many common human diseases. In nature errors and incomplete development of reproduction are fairly common. Reproduction is a fairly complex process involving different types of cell divisions in multicellular organisms. In humans there are several types of errors in sexual reproduction. Doctors perform cesarean surgery when there is a difficulty or error in the process of delivery of an infant through the normal routes. There are several instances of miscarriages, stillbirths, congenital anomalies of the newborn, ectopic pregnancies, gestational trophoblastic diseases (molar pregnancy) etc. In fact sexual reproductive defects and errors are increasing day by day especially when the first pregnancy is delayed. And the number of cesarean surgeries is increasing mainly due to the sexual reproductive error. Interestingly when we correct cephalo-pelvic disproportion by cesarean surgery, the incidence of such errors is increasing. Common flowers like rose & jasmine, and the common fruit like bananas & pineapple, are all examples of failed attempts for sexual reproduction in plants. In nature failures are frequent. When a tree produces thousands of seeds a few only become new trees. Similarly frogs, crabs, fish lay thousands of eggs and only very few become an adult organism. And many living organisms live only to reproduce and on several occasions the male organisms die as soon as they complete their role in the sexual reproductive process. These observations made me think that cancer is a defective asexual reproductive process of humans.

I know that it is easy to prove these associations and correlations of cancer and reproduction, but difficult to prove to everybody’s satisfaction that cancer is a defective reproductive process evolving out of the deficiencies in sexual reproduction. We know that when we inherit only a few genes of a biological process the inherited process could be distorted and defective. When we see several associations pointing to reproductive roots for cancer, we are tempted to believe that cancer is an attempt for asexual reproduction to suit the changed circumstances. Linking many such interesting observations in cancer patients, with the unique behavior of cancer cells, and the reproductive process in all living organisms, I have developed my lateral thoughts.

If we consider cancer as an unsuccessful attempt for asexual reproduction, many mysteries and enigmas about the disease shall disappear and a different approach for management of the disease shall evolve. This book contains a new explanation for the recalcitrant obesity of the middle of the body at middle age and its link to cancer. The book also contains few fresh explanations for the spontaneous remission and or cure of cancer. There are interesting scientific explanations even for the cancer observed in the dinosaurs’ fossils! Besides this there is an attempt to demystify the phenomenon of dormancy of cancer and genetic instability in cancer. The strains and sickness of the health systems throughout the world and the possible remedies also are discussed in this book. According to Alfred Russell Wallace A full and careful study of the facts of nature would ultimately lead to the solution of the mystery. This is true as far as cancer is concerned. Just by recognizing the natural cause and the biological mechanism of cancer development, most of the enigmas about cancer shall evaporate.

Medicine is not a perfect science like mathematics, physics or chemistry. Medical practitioners often do not have the certitude like mathematicians. In medicine one need not have all the signs and symptoms of a disease to make a diagnosis of that disease. The same disease need not be exactly like text book description in all patients and may not respond similarly to the same treatment. And there could be more than one reason for development of a disease and there could be more than one right method for treatment of a disease. Often treatment is symptomatic because either the cause is not known or cause is not amenable for correction. Besides this in medical practice the right and wrong change fast, as and when new knowledge is added. The wisdoms of today become the follies of tomorrow. Today’s dogma will be tomorrow’s error. This is often true in medicine. Generally medical men including me are vertical thinkers and would like to follow textbook descriptions and protocols for management of the diseases. But vertical thinking is not able to explain many things in the evolution of cancer. Scientists do not grasp yet the fundamental cellular process in cancer. And they want creative thinking by young scientists to find the real cause and the cellular process of cancer. Scientific publications on cancer are increasing day by day and the number of oncologists is multiplying every year. But the number of patients with cancer is rapidly increasing everywhere in spite of banning many carcinogenic substances and prophylactic removal of many cancer prone healthy organs. Hence there is a need for lateral (creative) thinking. We know that cancer is an extensively studied biomedical topic and interpreting all the data generated from cancer research is often difficult. More than four million publications in PubMed seem to be related to cancer! Cancer research is so confusing and frustrating that one cancer researcher commented that one should never, ever confuse cancer research with science. [5] Perhaps we need some amount of right brain thinking in cancer research. I think growth as we see in cancer cannot be intended for the destruction of an organism. Growth could be only for healing, repair of defects, increase in size, multiplication and procreation of an organism. Unfortunately there is a genetic error in this procreation process and the attempt fails. In other words the biological purpose of the growth in cancer is never accomplished. Hence the cells continue to grow, multiply and spread everywhere in an attempt to achieve asexual reproduction and this process of aggressive growth leads to the destruction of vital normal tissue and death. An attempt for new life fails leading to the loss of life!

The vertical thoughts on cancer are already available in all medicine and oncology textbooks and journals. Genomic instability is very often related to many types of cancers. Explosion and shattering of chromosomes to hundreds of pieces seems to trigger cancer formation. The collection of random genetic mutations theory is accepted by many in spite of Peto’s paradox. Most of the research in carcinogenesis is to find out how these mutations are occurring or to find out the nature of error in DNA replication. But why these mutations are occurring or why chromosomes are breaking into pieces is not well explained or explored. Is it really a random mutation? Are these mutations triggered by reproductive deficiency? Is this mutation part of a non-random cumulative natural selection process? These aspects are elaborated in this book.

Today it is only a procreation or asexual reproduction hypothesis regarding the origin of cancer. Tumor genesis seems to be an evolutionary process. It has been observed that altered interactions between unicellular and multicellular genes drive hallmarks of transformation in a diverse range of solid tumors [6] Cancer has been suggested to result from an atavistic process and cancer is a re-expression of the ancestral trait. This atavistic process happens often in an attempt of adaptation and correction of the shortage of sexual reproduction and embryogenesis in humans. I am trying to prove the fact that cancer is really an evolutionary throwback to asexual reproduction ( perhaps the reproduction of amoeba) and eagerly waiting to get my hypothesis accepted by the medical world! The hypothesis of cancer weakening and origin of Chan JCY stated ‘cancer developed when cell reproduction becomes defective because of active involvement of viral genes, in a process similar to genetic engineering’. He thought that cancer cells were amalgamation of genetically modified organisms [7]. And the hypothesis of Ruggiero, and Bustuoabad, stated ‘tumor cells would be the only one able to respond to the demand to proliferate in the organ of origins’ and they felt that it was biological sense (not nonsense). [8] Cancer stem cell hypothesis is an old concept revived recently. The hypothesis was that the tumor originated from either tissue stem cells or their immediate progeny. A tumor contains a cellular subcomponent that retains key stem cell properties. The authors claimed that there was experimental evidence also to support the cancer stem cell hypothesis. [9] I feel that all the three hypotheses are partially right, but cannot explain many characteristics of cancer. And the right part of each hypothesis can be explained well through the asexual reproduction hypothesis. Cancer makes biological sense and there is genetic modification to achieve the very important function of reproduction. The stem cells are germ cells concerned with the reproductive process. And the germ cells are attempting for asexual reproduction which is manifested as cancer, due to an error in the sophisticated reproductive process (due to the absence of essential asexual reproduction genes in humans). The asexual reproduction hypothesis can give simple and scientific explanations for most of the hallmarks in cancer as well as for the risk factors for cancer. The different types of evidence to prove the asexual reproduction hypothesis are discussed in detail in the book.

When cancer strikes, it is a big calamity in one’s life. Management experts say that there is an opportunity hidden in each and every crisis or calamity. Is there an opportunity hidden in the cancer calamity? Can we use the killer disease to kill death and degeneration? Why not transform the crushing crab to a fragrant rose? This aspect also is explored in this book. De-evolution is a possibility, but may not reverse through the same evolutionary path or route. It is important to know what cancer is before understanding why cancer. As you continue reading the book you will realize that ‘why cancer’ is transforming to ‘welcome cancer’ after human gene editing for asexual reproduction.

An abridged part of this book you can find as a chapter in my e book Eye doctor out of the box [10] published in January 2013. In the ‘Eye doctor out of the box’ cancer is not the main subject, whereas in this book cancer is the main or central issue. In fact this book is also the elaboration and expansion of a single important sentence in my brief article titled ‘Is there an alternative process to aging and death? It was published in the Journal of American Geriatric Society in January 2010. [11]

The red rose flower on the cover page is the example of a failed sexual reproduction in plants and cancer is a genetically unstable growth evolved while attempting asexual reproduction by mutations seen often when sexual reproduction is stopped as in old age ( the example of a failed asexual reproduction in humans and animals! )

Enjoy reading the book and please look for added evidence to strengthen the concept further. If you look for them you will find them. If you like the book, please do write a book review.

Dr. Ittyerah Tholath Peter.

Creativity is intelligence having fun Albert Einstein.

Why Cancer?

Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of cancer cell

Edward Abbey.

Abstract: We know that every living organism including humans shall do anything for survival, propagation, and perpetuation of the species. Active growth is a sign of life, not a sign of death. If sexual reproduction (or attempts for sexual reproduction) are absent or reduced considerably, attempts for asexual reproduction shall be made by humans too. Being a higher order organism the switching to asexual reproduction is difficult and time consuming resulting in an abnormal and genetically unstable growth called cancer. In other words there is abnormal growth in cancer, but cancer is not a growth disease. Cancer growth is not enhanced by growth hormones, but sex hormones can enhance cancer growth. Cancer can develop in any tissue of the body, but the majority of cancers are in the reproductive organs.( In plants often sexual reproduction and asexual reproduction start from the nodes) There are errors in cell division in cancer, but the error in cancer is not a random error. There are several mutations and inheritable genetic changes (epigenetic changes) in the genetically unstable cancer, but cancer is not a genetic disease. More than ten thousand mutations were recognized in cancers and many remain unrecognized, but cancer is not a conglomerate of ten thousand different diseases. There are metabolic alterations (aerobic glycolysis) in cancer, but cancer is not a metabolic disease. Obesity is a risk factor for cancer, but obesity often disappears when the cancer growth spreads and advances. Certain virus infections can predispose cancer, but cancer is not an infectious disease. And certain virus infections can cure cancer! There are abnormal cells in cancer, but cancer is not exclusively a bunch of abnormal cells. The aggressive abnormal cancer cells can grow anywhere in the body, but the immune watchdogs of the body ignore the abnormal cells.( In fact APOBEC3A enhances mutation of cancer cells.) Tobacco smoke is a major risk factor for cancer, but marijuana smoke is not. Cancer is rare in wild animals in the forest, but cancer could be seen in wild animals like Tasmanian devil and other animals at the verge of extinction. Due to the similarities between tumorigenesis and embryogenesis, cancer was nicknamed as ‘somatic cell pregnancy’, but there is no placenta, fetal hemoglobin or embryo in cancer. Growth is for creation not for destruction. Curiously cancer kills, but the HeLa cells derived from cancer are immortal! Different types of errors in reproduction are common in living organisms and humans are not exempted from reproductive changes and errors. Cancer incidence is increasing in the world as the ‘reproduction free period’ in human lifespan is increasing day by day. Every gene is connected with cancer because it is an error or aberration of the most important function of an organism (reproduction). Parthenogenesis seems to be easy in lower organisms and may be difficult in mammals, but not impossible. Absence of essential asexual reproduction genes in humans is preventing the transformation of cancer to new life. (There are several descriptions of parthenogenesis or asexual reproduction among humans in various mythologies!) Even though there is no grossly visible new life in cancer, it could be only an error during the microevolution to asexual reproduction.

The errors, mistakes and paradoxes in the existing hypotheses were exposed and more than ten proofs for the asexual reproduction hypothesis were highlighted. Majority of the risk factors for cancer can produce infertility or sterility - directly or indirectly, temporarily or permanently, partially or completely. Interestingly a spontaneous cure of cancer is possible, but it is not a miracle cure. It is only a ‘spontaneous miscarriage’ of the asexual reproduction or ‘somatic cell pregnancy’! The right and simplest way to explain cancer growth is by considering it as an intermediary during the evolution of asexual reproduction process. It is not just an error in a routine cell division. The probability of occurring identical random errors in cell divisions leading to development of a growth with all the hallmarks of cancer is very low. Whereas the probability of occurring identical errors (due to an identical genetic deficiency) shall be high at a particularly difficult step while developing or reviving a biological process. Hence the real cause for cancer