When Cancer Spontaneously Disappears
Have you ever wished that someone’s cancer would magically disappear? For dozens, maybe hundreds of patients each year, this is exactly what happens. It’s called spontaneous regression, and it has medical science baffled
While it may sound like a fairytale or, at best, a one-in-a-million anomaly, cases of spontaneous healing from cancer have been documented in the scientific literature for hundreds of years—with surprising frequency. In 2002, more than four articles were published on the subject in medical journals in an average month.[i]
From the case of “St. Peregrine’s tumor” that disappeared in the 13th century[ii] to a recorded remission case in Paris in 1742,[iii] the phenomenon of spontaneous regression of cancer has long baffled doctors and, undoubtedly, delighted patients who, in many cases, went on to lead healthy lives without a recurrence of cancer.
While cases of spontaneous and complete healing from cancer are not always the norm, they have been accepted as medical fact. What no one can explain—not even the physicians who attended these miraculous cases—is how or why it happens.
The National Cancer Institute defines spontaneous regression from cancer as: A decrease in tumor size or extent of cancer in the body, without any apparent cause.[iv] Thanks to a modern medical system that prioritizes invasive surgical procedures and pharmaceutical interventions over understanding the body as a self-healing mechanism, science has cleared up none of the mystery in recent years.
The War on Cancer Is Failing
With $175 billion projected to be spent treating cancer in 2020,[v] the failed war on cancer has spawned a successful industrial complex involving not just doctors and patients, but hospitals, governmental agencies, nonprofits, pharmaceutical companies, and a host of other specialized service providers and equipment manufacturers. Despite this hyper-investment, researchers have concluded that today’s cancer patients have no better prognosis than patients treated 50 or more years ago.[vi]Despite the grim and discouraging realities of allopathic medicine’s approach to cancer treatment, there are numerous examples of cancer making an abrupt about-face and retreating, without conventional interventions.
What follows are several recent cases of spontaneous cancer regression that stimulate intrigue and inspire questions regarding why and how they occurred. Perhaps more importantly, such cases also serve as inspirational examples of what’s possible when your body’s powerful self-healing mechanisms are triggered.
Can Faith Heal Cancer?
A case of spontaneous healing was published in 2014 in Oxford’s Quarterly Journal of Medicine,[vii] detailing a previously healthy 74-year-old Irish woman who was referred to a dermatologist for treatment of a rash on her lower leg that had persisted for three months. Weeping wounds and discoloration of the skin between the knee and the ankle were determined through biopsy to be squamous cell carcinoma, a form of skin cancer.
Treatment options discussed with the patient by the primary care team included above-knee amputation, radiation therapy, and systemic chemotherapy, none of which were desired by the patient.
At a 12-week follow-up appointment, doctors observed a clinical reduction in the number and size of lesions on the woman’s leg. At 20 weeks after initial presentation, all the lesions on her leg had resolved and there was no cancer detected on PET [positron emission tomography] scans of her leg or elsewhere in the body. The patient returned every six months, and after 18 months the patient remained disease-free.
While the hospital care team was unable to explain the cancer’s sudden and complete reversal, Alan Irvine, the patient’s doctor at St James’ Hospital, Dublin, said that his patient did not require a medical explanation. She attributed her miraculous healing to God’s grace and the simple act of kissing a religious relic in a moment of faith and devotion.[viii]
Is Injury a Stimulus to Self-Healing?
A 2019 research paper[ix] from the Department of Radiology at Shiga Medical Center Research Institute in Japan, describes a case of spontaneous regression of T-cell lymphoma in a 74-year-old man who presented with persistent abdominal pain.
Enhanced CT scan [computed tomography] revealed multiple low-density lesions in the liver and spleen area and blood tests indicated the presence of malignant lymphoma. A whole-body PET/CT scan further revealed bone lesions; subsequent surgical biopsies of two liver tumors confirmed the diagnosis of hepatosplenic T-cell lymphoma.
One and a half months after biopsy, the patient presented at the hospital for a PET/CT scan prior to beginning chemotherapy. The scan showed the complete disappearance of all lesions. With no lesions to treat and new bloodwork showing normal levels, the patient was released without any active treatment.
Doctors involved in treating the patient had no explanation for the spontaneous regression other than to hypothesize that the excisional biopsy could have been a “triggering trauma” that stimulated the self-healing mechanism. This asserts that the patient’s immune response to the relatively minor trauma of a surgical biopsy may have been the cause of this spontaneous cancer regression.
Can Natural Supplements Incite Spontaneous Cancer Regression?
A 2020 case report presents an incidence of spontaneous regression in a patient with an invasive tumor on the base of the skull called a clival chordoma.[x] Chordomas are potentially life-threatening tumors that are typically removed surgically, then treated with focused radiation.
At the time of diagnosis, the patient’s scans revealed two masses centered in the nasopharynx measuring nearly nine centimeters in circumference. Pre-operative imaging taken two months later showed that the mass had spontaneously regressed by nearly 62 percent, to a total size of just over three centimeters. The patient had undertaken no therapies in the interim between diagnosis and preparation for the surgical procedure.
Due to the significant reversal of the tumor, surgery was no longer indicated, leaving doctors to speculate as to whether natural food-based supplements could have been responsible for this patient’s “miraculous” spontaneous regression. The patient had been taking a regimen of herbal and oil supplements that were available in health food stores.
Cancer Reversal: A ‘Phenomenal’ Immune System Response?
This case centers on a confirmed diagnosis of breast cancer after a routine mammogram.[xi] Biopsy results identified an invasive carcinoma in the left breast of a 72-year-old female patient with type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. The procedure, performed by core needle extraction, further showed that the dense breast tumor had already been subjected to a robust natural immune response by the presence of activated cytotoxic T-cells in the tumor area.
The patient’s cancer treatment began with diagnostic biopsies on day 27 after initially presenting to the medical team. These biopsies confirmed cancer and a rapidly growing axillary metastasis in the left-side lymph nodes. On day 83, less than two months after the initial cancer diagnosis, the patient presented for removal of the tumor and affected lymph tissue.
After the procedure was performed, specimen mammography showed that the lesion and surrounding critical area were successfully removed. What surprised doctors was the fact that the 82-gram mass showed no residual cancer and no lymph node metastases were detected at this time. Repeated breast imaging was performed on day 131, showing no signs of residual disease of the breast.
The case was labeled a spontaneous regression of a high-grade, triple-negative breast cancer with axillary metastasis, something that the authors called “a surprising phenomenon.” The patient had undergone no changes in diet or medication routine throughout the entire treatment period and professed to no alterations in these habits for many years prior to diagnosis of cancer.
Histological samples of the tumor showed that the patient’s innate immune system response to cancer had been aggressive, with virtually every tumor cell coming into direct physical contact with anticancer lymphocytes. The medical team had no definitive explanation to offer for the cancer’s spontaneous regression but suggested that tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes may have been responsible for spontaneously overcoming the cancerous growth.
Programmed for Health or Disease?
A study published in 2020 reviewed the biological and clinical features of 20 instances of spontaneous regression of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).[xii] The multidisciplinary team of researchers from the UK described spontaneous regression as “a recognized phenomenon in CLL” but admitted that “its biological basis remains unknown.”
The review identified that all spontaneously regressed tumors displayed a genetic profile characterized by down-regulation of certain metabolic processes, including the MYC gene associated with the formation of cancer, as compared to non-regressing CLL.
Additionally, spontaneous regression was associated with reversal of “T-cell exhaustion features,” including reduced apoptosis, or cellular death, and increased T-cell proliferation. Far from uncovering the magic bullet for spontaneous regression, the thorough review produced little more than novel insight into the phenomenon.
The research team concluded that spontaneously regressing cases of CLL “appear to undergo a period of proliferation before entering a more quiescent state and that a complex interaction between genomic alterations and the microenvironment determines disease course.” In plain speak, they merely observed that in these cases, the cancer initially proliferates, then regresses, and the causes and the processes of recovery are highly individualized to each patient.
Can Cancer Simply Fade Away?
In January 2020, a case report of spontaneous regression of lung cancer was published in the peer-reviewed Cureus Journal of Medical Science.[xiii] Authors noted that cases of spontaneous regression are rare for non-small cell lung cancer, contributing to a poor understanding of the phenomenon, however, it is of great interest to patients and providers.
To better understand the pathogenesis of spontaneous regression, the authors presented their experiences with a 73-year-old man who regressed without treatment. The Caucasian male patient was a long-term smoker with a history of low-grade, non-invasive bladder cancer that had been recently treated. Symptoms included shortness of breath and difficulty breathing when exerting.
A CT scan of the chest revealed a solid mass in the left lower lobe of the lung. A PET scan taken three weeks later confirmed a solid nodule consistent with primary lung cancer, with no evidence of metastatic disease. Subsequent fine-needle aspiration confirmed squamous cell carcinoma.
The patient was evaluated for surgical lung resection and radiation therapies, but transportation issues prevented the patient from making medical appointments.
At a 10-week post-biopsy appointment, scans showed a marked decrease in the size of the lung mass. The patient, in consultation with the medical team, decided to postpone further treatment until a three-month follow-up imaging session was conducted. After 12 weeks, the patient’s CT scan revealed further reduction in the size of the lung mass, now half its original size.
Reasonably, the patient continued to delay medical interventions considering the promising healing trend. Two additional scans were performed at three-month intervals, followed by a six-month scan, all of which showed continued diminution of the mass, with no evidence of active disease. Further blood tests supported the findings of spontaneous and complete cancer regression.
Powerful Meta-Analyses of the Breast Cancer Literature Show Spontaneous Regression of Tumors Not Uncommon
But case reports are only individual cases, and isn’t spontaneous regression of breast cancer exceedingly rare? Not necessarily.
In fact, all the way back in 2011, I reported on a powerful meta-analysis published in Lancet Oncology that found invasive breast tumors often spontaneously regress when undiagnosed and untreated. Titled, “Natural history of breast cancers detected in the Swedish mammography screening programme: a cohort study,” wherein the following conclusions were made:
“Because the cumulative incidence among controls did not reach that of the screened group, we believe that many invasive breast cancers detected by repeated mammography screening do not persist to be detected by screening at the end of 6 years, suggesting that the natural course of many of the screen-detected invasive breast cancers is to spontaneously regress.”
In a previous published analysis, these same scientists reference the Wisconsin Breast Cancer Epidemiology Simulation Model, as additional evidence for the spontaneous regression of breast cancer in ~40% of initiated breast cancers:
“[Wisconsin Breast Cancer Epidemiology Simulation Model]…uses a stochastic simulation to replicate breast cancer incidence and mortality rates in the US population during the period 1975 through 2000, when screening was introduced. To fit the observed statistics, it was necessary to postulate that approximately 40% of initiated breast cancers fell in a class of so-called limited malignant potential, ie, tumors that “progress to a maximum of approximately 1-cm diameter, dwell at this size for 2 years, and then regress if undetected.”
Consider also that we have spent the past decade focusing on the non-malignancy of commonly diagnosed ‘breast cancers’ such as ductal carcinoma in situ, which sadly are still treated today as though life-threatening if not lethal. The standard of care for DCIS often relies on highly aggressive and often traumatic procedures, including radiation, chemotherapy, lumpectomy and mastectomy. This, despite the National Cancer Institute’s expert panel findings that DCIS should be reclassified as a “benign or indolent lesion of epithelial origin.” Estimates are that over 1.3 million women had their breasts unnecessarily treated and/or removed in the past three decades due to the aggressive over- and misuse of mammography screening programs, and a fundamental misunderstanding in breast physiology and pathology.
The takeaway here is to be exceedingly careful of overdiagnosis and overtreatment, as well as with accepting uncritically the prognoses of the conventional medical system which are so powerful that they create something of a curse (medical hex) and/or self-fulfilling prophecy. When we outsource our power to the physician like some kind of white-robed priest-of-the-body, and forget that our bodies have extraordinary capability to heal themselves– yes, even cancers — we forgo an opportunity to address and resolve the root causes of our symptoms, which is the real art and science of a humane, enlightened medicine. The key is acknowledging that spontaneous regression (which is to say, immune-mediated regression) of breast cancer — or any disease — can only be made possible if one chooses to facilitate that process. The standard of care, as it’s called, is actually similar to the Bush era war doctrine of preemptive war. Within this fear- and aggression-based model, a suspicious tissue is considered and treated equivalently to a malignant one, and is targeted for destruction, often using — ironically and poetically — weapons grade chemical and radiation technology.
In contradistinction, a precautionary, informed consent model requires that newly diagnosed patients be aware of the true risks and benefits associated with an intervention, including even diagnostic procedures which carry their own significant risks, especially in the case of x-ray mammography which can plant the radiobiological seeds of cancer within the very patient it is trying to prevent and detect early. We believe the power and the choice to decide your health destiny should be entirely yours.
Republished and adapted from GreenMedInfo.com.
References:
[i] Jessy T. Immunity over inability: The spontaneous regression of cancer. J Nat Sci Biol Med. 2011;2(1):43-49. doi:10.4103/0976-9668.82318 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3312698/
[ii] Jessy T. Immunity over inability: The spontaneous regression of cancer. J Nat Sci Biol Med. 2011;2(1):43-49. doi:10.4103/0976-9668.82318 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3312698/
[iii] Le Dran HF. Traite des operations de chirurgie. Paris: C. Osmont; 1742. [Google Scholar]
[iv] Jessy T. Immunity over inability: The spontaneous regression of cancer. J Nat Sci Biol Med. 2011;2(1):43-49. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3312698/
[v] Peter P. Yu, MD, FACP, FASCO. Challenges in Measuring Cost and Value in Oncology: Making It Personal. Open Archive. Published: June 27, 2016. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jval.2016.04.017
[vi] Jessy T. Immunity over inability: The spontaneous regression of cancer. J Nat Sci Biol Med. 2011;2(1):43-49. doi:10.4103/0976-9668.82318 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3312698/
[vii] Foley C. Spontaneous regression of cutaneous metastases of squamous cell carcinoma. Q J Med 2014; 107:61–63. doi: 10.1093/qjmed/hct162
[viii] BBC.com, Future, Cancer: The mysterious miracle cases inspiring doctors. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20150306-the-mystery-of-vanishing-cancer
[ix] Nakamoto R, Okuyama C, Oka S. Complete Spontaneous Regression of Hepatosplenic T-Cell Lymphoma After Surgical Biopsy. Clin Nucl Med. 2020 Feb;45(2):e88-e91. doi: 10.1097/RLU.0000000000002782. PMID: 31652159.
[x] Bander ED, Kocharian G, Liechty B, Tsiouris AJ, Schwartz TH. Spontaneous regression of a clival chordoma. Case report. Acta Neurochir (Wien). 2020 Feb;162(2):433-436. doi: 10.1007/s00701-019-04107-9. Epub 2019 Nov 12. PMID: 31713157.
[xi] Cserni G, Serfozo O, Ambrózay É, Markó L, Krenács L. Spontaneous pathological complete regression of high-grade triple-negative breast cancer with axillary metastasis. Pol J Pathol. 2019;70(2):139-143. doi: 10.5114/pjp.2019.87105. PMID: 31556565.
[xii] Kwok M, Oldreive C, Rawstron AC, Goel A, Papatzikas G, Jones RE, Drennan S, Agathanggelou A, Sharma-Oates A, Evans P, Smith E, Dalal S, Mao J, Hollows R, Gordon N, Hamada M, Davies NJ, Parry H, Beggs AD, Munir T, Moreton P, Paneesha S, Pratt G, Taylor AMR, Forconi F, Baird DM, Cazier JB, Moss P, Hillmen P, Stankovic T. Integrative analysis of spontaneous CLL regression highlights genetic and microenvironmental interdependency in CLL. Blood. 2020 Feb 6;135(6):411-428. doi: 10.1182/blood.2019001262. PMID: 31794600.
[xiii] Shatola A, Nguyen KN, Kamangar E, Daly ME. Spontaneous Regression of Non-small Cell Lung Cancer: A Case Report and Literature Review. Cureus. 2020 Jan 12;12(1):e6639. doi: 10.7759/cureus.6639. PMID: 32064211; PMCID: PMC7011577.
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