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Cancer diseases are characterized by cells of the body becoming abnormal and
continuing to divide and forming more cells without control. So far, more than 100 types of
cancers have been identified. However, most common cancers are skin cancers that can be
developed in both men and women. For women, the most common cancers are breast
cancer and cervical cancer; in contrast, prostate cancer is the most common cancer for men.
As we know, cancers can be formed in almost any of the tissues or organs throughout of
the body. When cancers have developed into later stages, their enlarged tumors may
damage the surrounding cells and tissues or press the surrounding nerves, causing
inflammation. As a result, cancers can cause pain; sometimes, the pain is so serious, it is
unbearable to the patient. In particular, the final stage of the cancer’s development or its
spreading stage, called metastases, causes extreme pain because multiple organs or large
parts of the tissues in the body have been damaged by the spreading tumors.
One of the most prominent symptoms of cancer is pain. Many cancer patients are
asymptomatic: they may not know that anything is wrong until the pain symptoms appear.
Cancer-caused pain can be divided into several types, based on its effects on different parts
of the body or on different tissues and organs. In general, there are at least four major
different tissues and organs that are affected by pain, most likely caused by cancer: cancer
nerve pain, cancer soft tissue pain, cancer bone pain, and cancer referral pain.
Cancer nerve pain is the pain caused by damage to the nerves in the cancer tumor
surrounding areas. The damage to the nerves by cancer can be classified as biophysical or
biochemical. Biophysically, as the cancer grows big enough, it can press against the
nerves where the cancer is located, damage the nerves, and in turn cause pain. This type of
pain may be felt as a dull and lasting pain, as long as the cancer keeps growing.
Biochemically, most types of cancers release some toxic substances, or toxins, when they
grow, and these toxins can act as toxic chemical agents to react or damage the nerves of the
surrounding tissues or organs. As a result, the surrounding nerves may be severely
damaged, much like a nerve that is cut during surgery. Consequently, this type of pain is
felt more sharply and may last a long time, since the severely damaged nerve needs a long
time to heal if the cancer patient recovers from the disease.
Cancer soft tissue pain appears as many cancers form and develop in some soft tissues,
such as the liver, kidneys, muscles and breasts. In the beginning or early development, the
size of the cancers is usually very tiny, and they would not cause any pain. However, with
the development or enlargement of the cancer, the cancer cells form a cluster, or lump, to
become a solid tumor, distinct from its surrounding normal tissues. As we now know,
there is a lack of oxygen inside the tumor, probably caused by the rapid growth of the cancer
cells within the tumor. As a result, the cancer cells, within the tumor, may be in a state of
cellular anaerobic respiration, or lack of oxygen, and may expand into the surrounding
tissues due to the aggressive growth of the cancer cells. Consequently, the cellular
anaerobic respiration condition within the tumor and its surrounding tissues may alter the
cells from early aerobic to an anaerobic metabolic condition and create an oxygen debt.
This may in turn cause the tumor and surrounding tissues, such as the muscles, to cramp and
cause pain. In addition, many cancers, formed and developed within the soft tissues, can
also block the ducts of many organs, such as the pancreas and liver. These organs use the
ducts to send out substances or hormones which they secrete to regulate the metabolic
processes of the body. When the cancer cells grow into solid tumors and become large
enough, they can block the ducts and cause the swelling of the ducts, and in turn press the
nerve connected to the ducts, resulting in pain.
Cancer bone pain is probably the most painful sensation that cancer patients suffer.
The tumor developed within the bone may be of primary origin, or secondary origin, caused
by the spread of cancer from other tissues or organs to the bones. When the tumor
becomes large enough within the bone, there is no more room for the tumor to expand since
the outer layer of the bone is compact or hard bone which makes the bone strong; as a result,
the tumor will press the nerves of the bone and in turn cause extreme or sharp pain. On the
other hand, cancer cells growing within the bones may release toxic substances or toxins to
damage the tissues of the bones and cause pain. This type of pain may be felt by cancer
patients as a dull aching and throbbing.
Moreover, some cancers, for example, multiple myeloma, a type of white blood cell
cancer caused by an abnormal amount of certain white blood cells, called plasma cells, can
also cause pain of the bones. As we know, the plasma cells and other white blood cells are
our immune system’s defense cells which attack the invaders, the bacteria and viruses,
entering our body. The white cell-derived plasma cells can make specific antibodies for
the specific antigens developed from bacteria or virus-infected cells, and rid the body of
harmful substances. However, when the body is affected by the cancerous white cells, it
uncontrollably keeps producing many identical abnormal plasma cells, called myeloma cells,
even though the body really doesn’t need them to fight the infection. As a result, the
over-produced abnormal plasma cells may accumulate in the outer part of the bones and
form lesions or tumors and in turn cause pain.
On the other hand, the forming of the lesions, or extra bone, in the outer part of the
bones is in contrast with the process of bone loss caused by mycelia disease, usually in the
spine and ribs. As we know, after we become adults, our bones are constantly kept
renewed or balanced by an instrumental process of activation of osteoblast and osteoclast
cells within the bones: the former is to form the bone, and the latter is to lose bone or
reabsorb bone into the blood circulation. However, the myeloma condition can lead to
overproduction of a receptor activator called receptor activator for nuclear factor K B ligand
(RANKL). This receptor activator can in turn stimulate the activities of the osteoclasts and
cause more bone loss than bone formation. Consequently, bone is slowly broken down and
carried away by the blood, finally leading to the formation of porous bones. The collagen
and calcium-depleted porous bones would be very fragile and lack strength; thus, they are
easy to fracture and break, and in turn cause pain.
Cancer, like many other diseases, can cause referral pain. Referral pain means that the
pain we feel in a certain area of the body is not really where the pain originates; instead, it
may be located nearby or far away from the origin. For example, a cancerous tumor
formed in the liver in its early stages may cause the patient to feel right shoulder pain, even
though the pain originates from the damaged liver tissues. This is because the nerves in
the liver connect or merge with the vagus nerve in the right shoulder area.
Cancer diseases are very complicated diseases. Although years and years of research
by millions of medical scientists and doctors and billions of dollars have been spent to fight
these diseases worldwide, so far, we still have not yet found the silver bullet that can really
cure these terrible killer diseases. Probably one of most important reasons that cancer
diseases are so difficult to cure is that we still do not fully understand the cause of these
complicated diseases. Consequently, almost all the drugs and therapies that we have
developed to treat cancer patients tend to relieve the symptoms and complications caused by
the cancers or to extend the lives of the cancer patients for a little longer period. As we all
know, if we cannot solve the problem of the cause of the cancers, the drugs and therapies
treating the symptoms or complications of the cancers will only lead to temporary relief for
the patients since the cancers are still there; once they reoccur, the patients will suffer again.
However, fortunately, after years and billions of dollars spent fighting cancers, medical
scientists and doctors know more about cancers. They understand that in most cases of
cancer, the stem cells of the body play a very important role in the formation of the cancer
disease. The beginning human stem cells constituting of the embryos that were created by
the fertilization of the sperm and egg can orderly divide to form the fetus in the mother’s
womb and finally come out to the world, eventually becoming an adult. With the orderly
dividing development of the stem cells, the few beginning stem cells can differentiate into
the various whole organs of the adult body. However, every time each of the stem cells
divides into two daughter cells, one of them may still keep the potential nature of the stem
cell. This means that it has the ability to differentiate into cells of a different organ.
These remaining stem cells play a crucial role in repairing damage to the organ in which
they were located or in reproducing new cells as needed by the injured or damaged organs.
After the tissues of the organs are injured, either externally or internally, they can be
repaired or re-grown back to their original forms because we have the stem cells to do these
jobs.
Although the stem cells can reproduce the same type of cells as the organ in which they
were situated, they also still have the potential to differentiate to different kinds of cells
pertaining to other organs; as a result, a dangerous situation can occur if the stem cells of
certain organs affected or triggered by excessively high levels of certain hormones
circulating in the blood stream, differentiate into hormone-related type of cells that the
organs are not supposed to have, an abnormal phenomenon called ectopic hormone
production. For instance, if the liver stem cells, triggered by an overproduction of
hormones secreted by the pituitary gland, differentiate into pituitary endocrine cells rather
than reproduce the liver cells in the liver organ, then the consequence would be that the
pituitary cells may secrete their adrenocortico-tropic hormone (or ACTH) from the liver.
The ectopic ACTH production may cause the adrenal gland to release extra cortisol
hormone which the body does not really need. As a result, the increase of cortisol may
cause diabetes, hypertension, muscle weakness, thin and easily bruised skin, etc. At the
same time, the increased cortisol, coupled with the ectopic pituitary hormone secreted in the
liver, may also have an impact on the liver cells themselves, leading to the mutation of the
liver cells and the development of cancer.
In modern medicine, there are many therapies that have been developed for cancer
treatments by doctors and medical practitioners. However, the most common therapies
used now are still surgery and radio-chemotherapies. Consequently, many cancer patients
may be severely affected by the side effects of the therapeutic treatments, especially the
radio-chemotherapies. Although the radio-chemotherapies can kill or damage the cancer
cells of the patients, at the same time they can also harm or injure the healthy cells of the
body; that is why they can cause extreme weakness in patients, which in turn may delay the
patient's recovery from the surgery. In addition, radio-chemotherapy used even as a low
dosage in the body is just like a tiny nuclear-chemical war taking place in the body: there
would be dead, injured and poisoned cells or debris after the war. Therefore, the mess
caused by this battle has to be cleaned up in order for the healing of the body to begin.
The Reishi spore oil and Agaricus extract are considered to possess the medical functions of
both cleaning the toxins and tonifying the weakened body, especially for the cancer patients.
Also, the Seabuckthorn seed oil is pretty good in tonifying the injured and weakened body,
and especially very effective for patients' quick recovery from surgery and
radio-chemotherapies.