When you are acutely, chronically or terminally ill, as I am, you will do all you can to live as well as you can for as long as you can and, when your options are genuinely exhausted, to die as well as you can too.

There is a powerful myth, widely believed by cancer patients and their doctors, that soon a greater understanding of genetics will provide the tools to defeat cancer. Unfortunately this optimistic scenario is in serious trouble, yet few are aware of what has been happening.
The data coming out of the latest American genetic screening program, a 500 million dollar project called The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) launched in 2006 – has revealed that the gene changes within the cells of individual tumours are far more complicated and chaotic than anyone had anticipated.

As a 48 year old wife and mother with late stage cancer in my lungs, lymph nodes, bones and brain I had been quietly hoping that Lord Saatchi’s Medical Innovation Bill would make it through the House of Commons – unusual as that outcome may have been for a private member’s bill. But hey, he got it through the Lords, had The Telegraph backing his cause and won considerable support in the country, so there was some cause for excitement.

Here are some heretical thoughts about the war against cancer.
“It’s unwinnable. We not going to cure it and we don’t need to.”
“Everyone thinks being diagnosed with cancer is a calamity. It’s not necessarily the case. We can transform cancer from a dreaded killer to something we can live with.”

Professor Mina Bissell presents a fascinating challenge to the cancer establishment. She is a highly respected academic and leading authority on breast cancer at the University of California, where she is Distinguished Scientist with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Life Sciences Division next to UCB campus.

Like returning soldiers cancer survivors are usually given some sort of victory celebration. But as with soldiers for far too many that is just the beginning of a new and much more lonely set of personal battles. About a quarter of cancer survivors – 500.000 people in the UK – are dealing with the long term fall out from their treatment. (Read more…)

How about this for a crazy, irresponsible idea? If you’ve got cancer, cut the amount of carbohydrates you are eating down to no more than 25 grams a day (that’s just under an ounce) as a way shrinking the tumour and boosting your health into the bargain. (read more…)