Week Seven: Cell Biology and Cancer

1 and 2. How sophisticated is our understanding of cancer and How does a TCM approach to cancer differ?

I must say this topic is strangely synchronistic. I think I mentioned in class that my friend has recently been diagnosed with her second brain tumor.

So I have spent the last four hours reading about cancerous brain tumors. I have read about treatments, diagnoses, and the fact that "they" don't know what causes brain tumors (though some others have theories). I read story after story of people dealing with this diagnosis, or trying to find support when a loved one has this diagnosis. There have been a few miraculous cures as well, which is quite hopeful.

Western medicine knows how the cancer acts, what it looks like, and what the prognosis generally is, but they don't know what causes it, how to prevent it, or much about alternative treatments. Typically they focus on removal of the tumor and poisoning any remaining cancerous cells. There has been much research, and many research dollars, toward finding a cancer cause and a cancer cure. Without tons of success -- but some (someone diagnosed with cancer now has a greater chance of surviving).

Happily, I had the feeling that the researchers actually really care about finding a cure, and the neurosurgeons seemed to really care about their patients well being. A lot of patients reported how "warm" and "kind" their doctors were. That was good news. There are even some neurosurgeons who recommend that their patients seek acupuncture to help support the immune system through chemotherapy, and also as a way to cope with pain.

Then I searched for brain tumors and "Chinese medicine." The Chinese medical practitioners also suggested that acupuncture would be a good way to manage pain and boost the immune system.

Chinese medical practitioners seemed to have a greater confidence in defining what might cause cancer than the Western physicians did. The explanations had a lot to do with the body being out of balance and a stagnation of qi. Chinese medical theory speaks to treating the whole person when treating a cancer patient -- not just focusing on the tumor--balance the body and get the qi flowing and you will strengthen the body, allowing it to bring itself back into balance, and thereby creating less favorable conditions for growing cancer (in addition to strengthening the immune system).

The real question here, however, is how do you treat --in an emotional way-- someone who has been diagnosed with cancer? Especially when it brings up your own issues of mortality, fear of change, attempts to restrain the “bad” stuff in your life? How do you -- as a practitioner or a friend -- maintain open heartedness and not get too caught up in your own stuff? How do you remain solid, but not robotic? Helping someone to face a serious illness is a pretty heavy thing and requires a big heart and some wisdom, I think --whatever type of medicine you choose to administer.

3. Are our genes still being shaped by natural selection?

Though I’m not entirely sold on “natural selection” to begin with, if it has indeed been true in the past, it certainly is still true now. Just because we believe we have conquered nature does not mean we actually have. We are still part of nature. We are still animals. We might be more successful as individuals for the time being -- able to survive longer and to reproduce despite having physical maladies that might have killed us off in the past before having a chance to reproduce, but if you take a long view and view humanity as one gigantic organism, our “success” will ultimately lead to our downfall. Already people are starving from not enough food. And we are making the planet an inhospitable place for any life. Much of this is because we have been able to reproduce with such dazzling success! We will eventually succumb to the power of nature, even if we think we are tricking it for the time being.

Then again, maybe we are not still being shaped by natural selection....and maybe our opting out was not such a good idea.