Dr. Weeks’ Comment: We now learn in this new article from eBiomedicine that glial cells (part of the enteric nervous system in the gut) when exposed to secretions (not the genetic material from the cancer nucleus) of cancer cells (colon cancer) are themselves transformed into cancer cells. This flies in the face of the hypothesis that cancer genes are what drive cancer. The secretions and not the genetic material spread cancer.
Those who are reading the revolutionary work of Tom Seyfried, brilliant biologist at Boston College, will not be surprised. He reports that when the nuclear of a cancer cell in transplanted in to a health cell, no cancer develops but when the cytoplasm (the juice) of the cancer cell is transplanted into a healthy cell then that healthy cell develops cancer. The cancer is not genetic in its origin. The cancer genes are consequent to cancer and do not cause cancer.
Surprised to learn this? Well so are the scientists who receive over 90% of all cancer research funds which are directed at the red herring: cancer genes.
Smart scientists understand the old saying: “The genes load the gun but the environment pulls the trigger.” Otherwise stated, epigenetic (factors which influence genetics like diet, environment etc) are more clinically relevant than genetic predispositions. Considered a different way: the best poker player is not necessarily the one who is dealt the best hand but rather the one who can take any hand which he is dealt and play it better than the other players.
You are a tax payer. Your hard earned money is funding non-productive research – the effort to identify oncogenes – genes which cause cancer. Call up Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. the 16th Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) – 301-496-4000– and ask him to read Tom Seyfried’s article and suggest that he spend your money more wisely. Let him know that the real target to defeat cancer is NOT the cancer TUMOR cell but rather the cancer STEM cell. https://youtu.be/HHs5tkGW0P0 And let him know that the cancer tumor is just the symptom of a metabolic disorder. Cancer is a metabolic process and its symptom is the tumor. Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APwnkpD_BfI
Best book to understand this is: https://www.amazon.com/Cancer-Metabolic-Disease-Management-Prevention/dp/0470584920
Below, this new study reveals the importance of the enteric or gut glial cells in development of tumors and also lays the foundation of new treatment targeting for colon cancer. The study appeared in the latest issue of the journal EBioMedicine. The study is titled, “Tumor cells hijack enteric glia to activate colon cancer stem cells and stimulate tumorigenesis.”
Why is this significant? The authors comment: “enteric glial cells are active players of colon carcinogenesis and indicates that a better understanding of the molecular pathways involved in the bi-directional crosstalk between enteric glial cells and colon cancer (stem) cells may lead to the identification of new therapeutic targets for anti-cancer therapies.”
Here is the intriguing article: Tumor cells hijack enteric glia to activate colon cancer stem cells and stimulate tumorigenesis Valès, Simon et al. EBioMedicine, https://www.ebiomedicine.com/article/S2352-3964(19)30652-8/fulltext
(A red herring is something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important question. It may be either a logical fallacy or a literary device that leads readers or audiences toward a false conclusion).