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THE MOSS REPORTS Newsletter (02/20/03)

 

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Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D. Weekly CancerDecisions.com

Newsletter #74 02/20/03

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Cancer and the Immune System

 

 

Opponents of complementary and alternative medicine

(CAM) sometimes claim that the health of the immune

system has nothing whatsoever to do with the control of

cancer. They will have a hard time explaining why two

transplant recipients recently developed melanoma from

kidneys donated by a woman who had been " cured " of

melanoma many years before. One of the organ recipients

died, while the other recovered.

 

 

Researchers are now suggesting that no one who ever had

melanoma should be accepted as an organ donor. The

reason? As this tragic incident shows, even a

supposedly " cured " cancer patient is not necessarily

free of the disease. Her immune system may be keeping a

small number of cancer cells in check, which could be

unleashed under the immune-suppressing conditions of

transplantation.

 

 

Admittedly, the transfer of cancer from a donated organ

to a transplant recipient is very rare, although it has

been seen before. In the case in question (reported in

The New England Journal of Medicine) researchers

discovered that the donor had had a melanoma lesion

removed 16 years earlier and was believed to be

cancer-free.

 

 

Melanoma cells apparently were dormant in the donor's

kidneys until the transplant, according to Dr. Rona M.

MacKie, who treated both of the recipients. The cancer

cells were able to flourish, she explained, because

immune-suppressing drugs had been given to the patients

to prevent rejection of the transplanted organs.

Without a normally functioning immune system, the

cancer reasserted itself.

 

 

In the present case, the 47-year-old Scottish donor

died in 1998 of what was thought to be a brain

hemorrhage. Her relatives, in agreeing to donate her

organs, did not mention that she had once had melanoma.

The kidneys were then given to a man and a woman, both

in their 50's. A year and a half later, the female

recipient was found to have melanoma and died. A few

months later, the male recipient was also discovered to

have melanoma.

 

 

When Dr. MacKie checked the identity of the anonymous

donor it confirmed her suspicions: both transplants had

indeed come from the same donor, who had a history of

melanoma.

 

 

The health of the immune system was critical to the

outcome for all three of these patients. For a long

time, a fully functioning immune system prevented

cancer from reasserting itself in the original donor.

The lack of an unhindered immune system also resulted

in the reappearance of cancer in the unfortunate

recipients.

 

 

 

Diarrhea May Protect Against Colon Cancer

 

 

In a surprising development, the bacterial toxin that

causes diarrhea was found to slow the growth of

dividing colon cancer cells, according to researchers

at Thomas Jefferson Medical University, Philadelphia.

They hope that this same mechanism can be harnessed to

fight cancer, without the unpleasant side effects.

 

 

What went unmentioned in news reports of this finding

was the fact that Coley's toxins (made up of toxins

from two different bacteria) have been used in cancer

treatment for over 100 years with considerable success.

They have even been researched by Jefferson oncologist

Rita S. Axelrod, MD (who discussed her work at last

November's CAM seminar at Jefferson).

 

 

*Please view photo of Dr. William B. Coley, the

formulator of Coley's toxins, at:

http://www.cancerdecisions.com/images/coleyatwork1.jpg

 

 

Jefferson's Dr. GianMario Pitari and colleagues at the

Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, studied the toxins

from E. coli, which is the main cause of diarrhea among

travelers. They found that E. coli produces a toxin

that mimics a natural colon process and provokes

diarrhea. However, the toxin also causes a flood of

calcium into affected cells, stopping colon cancer

cells from replicating rapidly. " The mechanism by which

this occurs is very specific and completely new, " said

Dr. Pitari.

 

 

The finding is " very exciting indeed, because it offers

a new insight into the pathogenesis of this disease, "

said gastroenterologist Emad El-Omar at University of

Aberdeen. " It takes into account a very obvious

constituent in the bowel that has been ignored by

mainstream research, namely the colonic bacteria, " he

told the British magazine New Scientist.

 

 

The researchers added toxins from E. coli to human

colon cancer cells in the lab. Scott Waldman, one of

the researchers, said that the toxin binds to receptors

on the cells' surface and triggers two events in the

gut. First, it causes diarrhea. Second, through a

different pathway, it allows calcium to flow into the

cell and slow its growth.

 

 

Dr. Pitari suggested that dietary calcium could block

tumor growth: " We propose blocking the pathway leading

to diarrhea, leaving only the positive effect. This

might provide a great opportunity to treat cancer

locally. It might also work synergistically with other

anticancer drugs. "

 

 

The latest findings could help explain a discovery made

a dozen years ago at Heidelberg University. There,

scientists (headed by biostatistician Ulrich Abel, PhD)

found that people who had common colds and stomach flus

were far less likely to get cancer than their

" healthier " counterparts. A total of 255 patients with

cancers of the stomach, colon, rectum, breast and ovary

were compared to 230 hospital control patients, who

were matched for age, sex, and region of residence.

Those who averaged three or more infections per year

over the previous five years were less than one-quarter

as likely to have cancer than supposedly " healthy "

people who had gone five years without a single

infection!

 

 

Perhaps having colds and flus give one a jolt of

natural home-grown " Coley's toxins, " which act as a way

of enhancing the immune system so that it can better

fight cancer. Abel's astonishing study came and went

and there is barely a mention of it, even on the

Internet. In any case, it's a consoling thing to tell

yourself, or your friends, as you suffer through a bout

of a winter cold or flu.

 

 

The bottom line from all these studies is that immune

resistance is extremely important in fighting cancer.

One should keep the immune system in good shape and not

agree to treatments that could weaken it, unless there

are compelling reasons to do so. In general, strongly

favor those treatments that build up, rather than tear

down, your precious immunity.

 

 

 

--Ralph W. Moss, PhD

 

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References

 

 

MacKie RM et al. Fatal melanoma transferred in a

donated kidney 16 years after melanoma surgery. N Engl

J Med 2003;348(6):567-8.

 

Transplanted organ is linked to cancer in two

recipients. New York Times, February 7, 2003.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/07/health/07KIDN.html?ex=1045823554 & ei=1 & en=297cb\

69841a6d41c

 

Havas HF et al. Clinical results and immunologic

effects of a mixed bacterial vaccine in cancer

patients. Med Oncol Tumor Pharmacother

1993;10(4):145-58.

 

Bhattacharya S. Diarrhoea may protect against colon

cancer. New Scientist, February 10, 2003.

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993372

 

Abel U et al. Common infections in the history of

cancer patients and controls. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol

1991;117(4):339-44.

 

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IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER

 

 

The news and other items in this newsletter are

intended for informational purposes only. Nothing in

this newsletter is intended to be a substitute for

professional medical advice.

 

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