Cancer & Fungus

Posted by Dr Sircus on April 15, 2012 | Filed under Cancer, Medicine
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Cancer is a fungus, can be caused by a fungus, or is accompanied by late-stage fungal infections, and now the Mayo Clinic confirms this. They are not the first to say so though. Many, even from the official world of orthodox oncology, recognize the similarities of cancer and fungal infections, the decay that ties these two together in a dance that all too often ends in miserable death.
The Mayo Clinic[1] is saying that a fungal infection of the gastrointestinal tract mimics cancer and inflammatory bowel disease. The invasive fungus, Basidiobolus ranarum, is typically found in the soil, decaying organic matter and the gastrointestinal tracts of fish, reptiles, amphibians, and bats.
Patients with this fungal infection had non-specific symptoms such as abdominal pain or a mass that could be felt on examination. Before a conclusive diagnosis of the fungal infection was made, most patients were thought to have abdominal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease or diverticulitis. Surgical resection of the area of involvement and prolonged antifungal therapy successfully treated most patients.
Interestingly, a few years ago researchers at Johns Hopkins were surprised that the drug itraconazole, commonly used to treat toenail fungus, can also block angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels commonly seen in cancers. Tumor angiogenesis is the proliferation of a network of blood vessels that penetrates into cancerous growths, supplying nutrients and oxygen and removing waste products.[2] Cancer researchers studying the conditions necessary for cancer metastasis have discovered that angiogenesis is one of the critical events required for metasteses to occur.[3] In mice induced to have excess blood vessel growth, treatment with itraconazole reduced blood vessel growth by 67% compared to placebo. “We were surprised, to say the least, that itraconazole popped up as a potential blocker of angiogenesis,” says Dr. Jun O. Liu, professor of pharmacology. “We couldn’t have predicted that an antifungal drug would have such a role.” Itraconazole was found to reduce the numbers of circulating cancer cells, prevent the worsening of prostate cancers, and delay the need for chemotherapy. However, it has serious side effects when given in the necessary high dosages that include hypertension, low potassium levels and fluid retention. These side effects require treatment with other medications. Effects of high doses of itraconazole could lead to heart failure.[4]
For two decades John Hopkins has recognized the increasing frequency of severe fungal infections in patients with neoplastic diseases. Most fungal infections are caused by the commonly recognized opportunistic fungi Candida spp and Aspergillus spp, and the pathogenic fungi Cryptococcus neoformans, Histoplasma capsulatum, Coccidiodes immitis, and less often by Blastomyces dermatidis. However, recently newer pathogens such as Pheohyphomycetes, Hyalohyphomycetes, Zygomycetes and other fungi of emerging importance such as Torulopsis glabrata, Trichosporon beigelii, Malassezia spp, Saccharomyces spp, Hansenula spp, Rhodotorula spp, and Geotrichum candidum have appeared as significant causes of infection in this patient population.
Dr. Tullio Simoncini does not say that cancer is caused by yeast; what he is telling the world is that the cancer is a yeast overgrowth. What causes the cancer (or a yeast-filled tumor) is another thing. Simoncini has always insisted that tumors are white because they are fungi. Some have made fun of him, but looking around at the extremely sparse information about the subject, I ran into one person saying:
If someone had asked me a year ago what color the inside of a tumor was, I would have guessed red and gray. When they did the biopsy, I asked to see the tissue specimens: five quarter-inch to half-inch strings of vermicelli (Italian for little worms) with little streakings of blood. They didn’t look evil to me, just strings of fat. The entire mass was white inside as the pathology report stated.
Specialists in throat and mouth cancer say that cancers can be red or white patches: any patch that appears randomly and is red or white in color could be a mouth cancer symptom. The white patches in the mouth are called leukoplakia and the red patches are called erythroplakia, which are pre-cancerous conditions. Though these red or white patches are not always cancerous, it could be the result of a fungal infection caused by Candida called thrush.[5] Thrush will lead to a red patch that often bleeds after the white patch disappears. A small amount of this fungus lives in your mouth most of the time. It is usually kept in check by your immune system and other types of germs that also normally live in your mouth. However, when your immune system is weak, the fungus can grow.

Fungal Mycotoxins

It just so happens that a toxin produced by mold on nuts and grains can cause liver cancer, according to University of California Irvine Researchers. And a French case-control study of 1,010 breast cancer cases and 1,950 controls with nonmalignant diseases found that breast cancer was associated with increased frequency of mold-fermented cheese consumption.[6] Fungi produce mycotoxins, which can kill us or cause cancer.
Dr. Wang and Groopman from the Environmental Health Sciences Department at Johns Hopkins published on the effects of mold toxins on DNA in Mutation Research, a leading cancer journal.[7] They said mycotoxins with carcinogenic potency include aflatoxins, sterigmatocystin, ochratoxin, fumonisins, zearalenone, and some Penicillium toxins. Most of these carcinogenic mycotoxins are genotoxic agents. Aflatoxin is a potent genotoxic agent, is mutagenic in many model systems and produces chromosomal aberrations, micronuclei, sister chromatid exchange, unscheduled DNA synthesis, and chromosomal strand breaks. Most strikingly, the relationship between aflatoxin exposure and development of human hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer) is demonstrated by studies.
Harrison et al. (1993) examined human breast cancer tissue for evidence of the presence of aflatoxin. The researchers examined human DNA from a variety of tissues and organs to identify and quantify aflatoxin DNA-adducts. Such adducts are considered to be proof of the mycotoxin’s presence in a particular tissue. Aflatoxins may in fact be a risk factor for cancer induction in a variety of organs in man, in the same manner as that of cigarette smoking. [8]
DNA from normal and tumorous tissue obtained from patients with cancer of the breast was examined. Tumor tissues had higher aflatoxin-adduct levels than did normal tissue from the same individual. The result of this study verifies the presence of carcinogenic aflatoxin within the cancer tissue and thus implicates aflatoxin as a cause of breast cancer. That is the same as saying cancer is a fungus or is caused by a fungus and this is what Dr. Simoncini has been saying all along.
Intensive Care Units are particularly on alert with immunocompromised and oncology patients for fungal infections. “Patients with brain tumors used to have a life expectancy of 3-12 months, but better treatment has allowed them to live a bit longer,” said Brenda Shelton, clinical nurse specialist at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. “The last two brain tumor ICU patients we treated died of infection, not of their disease. One patient had a rare fungus, and the other had candidemia. Years ago, you would not see most of these fungal infections in patients with brain tumors because they would not live long enough.”
“The biggest misconception is the belief that fungal infections are rare,” Shelton said. “Another misconception is fungal infections are like every other severe infection. They are harder to manage, harder to eradicate and more frequent than people realize.” One of the most common complications involved in treating patients with hematologic cancer is fungal infections.
Aspergillus niger fungal infection in human lungs produces large amounts of oxalic acid, which is extremely toxic to the blood vessels and which may cause fatal pulmonary hemorrhages. Consequently, oxalic acid (calcium oxalate crystals) in the sputum or lung specimens of patients is also an indication of an Aspergillus infection of the lung. These calcium oxalate crystals are the same as the calcium oxalate found in breast cancers. The presence of oxalates in the breast is indicative of the presence of fungi interwoven within the stages of breast cancer development. Since humans do not make oxalic acid themselves, this is an appropriate conclusion.[9]
Dr. Robert Young states, “Bacteria, yeast/fungi, and mold are not the cause of a cancerous condition but are the result and the evidence of cells and tissues biologically transforming from a healthy state and to an unhealthy state.” Dr. Young astutely observed that, “over-acidification of the body leads to the development of chronic yeast and fungal infections and ultimately a cancerous condition of the cells and tissues.”
If one has cancer, chances are pretty good that one also has a fungal infection to one degree or another.
According to The Home Medical Encyclopedia, in 1963 about one-half of all Americans suffered from an “unrecognized” systemic fungal condition. Far more Americans suffer from fungal infections today as antibiotics, hormone replacement therapies, and birth control pills continue to be consumed like candy. Thus more and more children are becoming infected with candidal meningitis or viral meningitis, which means their systems are suffering under the weight of fungi who put out an assortment of poisons—or mycotoxins.

Sodium Bicarbonate is an Antifungal Agent

The current controversy over sodium bicarbonate and its use in oncology might be relatively new but baking soda has a long history of helping people get through the worst medical conditions. The Eloquent Peasant, an Egyptian literary work dated around 2000 B.C., refers to a peddler selling natron, a natural blend of sodium bicarbonate, chloride and sodium carbonate used in mummification, just one of hundreds of uses this compound has been put to. Baking soda’s first widespread use was probably as a leavening agent for bread and other baked goods. It has been used commercially since 1775, although the now-famous Arm & Hammer brand wasn’t introduced until 1867.[10]
Sodium bicarbonate (Na2HCO3) is recognized by most as ordinary baking soda, which is found in deposits around the globe. Its backbone characteristic is to maintain balance of carbon dioxide, bicarbonate and pH. Sodium bicarbonate is available and sold in every supermarket and pharmacy in the world and is widely used in emergency rooms and intensive care wards in injectable forms but is sold as a common household substance that is used for hundreds of different things.
Read my book, Sodium Bicarbonate, and see that something as inexpensive as baking soda will outperform the most expensive pharmaceuticals. Across a wide range of disorders, including cancer and diabetes, we find conclusive evidence and plenty of theoretical backing to suggest that sodium bicarbonate is a frontline universal medicine that should be employed by all practitioners of the healing and medical arts for a broad range of disorders that are afflicting contemporary man.
[1] H. R. Vikram, J. D. Smilack, J. A. Leighton, M. D. Crowell, G. De Petris. Emergence of Gastrointestinal Basidiobolomycosis in the United States, With a Review of Worldwide Cases. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 2012; DOI: 10.1093/cid/cis250
[4] Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions (2011, June 2). Antifungal drug delays need for chemo in advanced prostate cancer, study suggests. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 9, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2011/06/110602122353.htm
[6] Le et al. (1986)
[7] Mutat Res. 1999 Mar 8;424(1-2):167-81.
[8] Does Aflatoxin Exposure in the United Kingdom Constitute a Cancer Risk? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1567057/pdf/envhper00412-0095.pdf
[10] Baking soda, used since B.C., is better than effervescent; sodium bicarbonate – good old NaHCO3 – is moving out of the refrigerator and into an amazing array of commercial products from shampoo to industrial cleansers. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n17_v11/ai_16862358/