Fungal Connection to Cancer: Is Cancer Contagious?

[Guest guest]

This is another good article on connection of fungal infections to

cancer.

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Cancer and Its Connection to Candida

From: Is Cancer Contagious? By Holland, MD

http://www.mercola.com/2003/may/24/cancer_contagious.htm

I recently spoke with a nurse who was diagnosed, as an adult, with

leukemia. She endured the chemotherapy regimen her doctors

prescribed, only to suffer from a secondary fungal infection during

that time. The intensity and duration of the antifungal treatment

rivaled that of the chemotherapy. At any rate, she recovered from

both afflictions and went back to work.

Later, as a result of another workup -- which included a liver

biopsy -- for some returning symptoms she had, bad news was again

brought up. " Your leukemia has returned, " her oncologist told her,

and he proceeded to lay out the next line of chemotherapy drugs she

would have to take.

Given that her chances of dying were much higher now that her cancer

had returned, she opted to get a second opinion on her biopsy before

proceeding with her next round of chemotherapy. She took her tissue

sample to another hospital, and what she was told there was

absolutely stunning: " You don't have leukemia, " remarked the

pathologist, " what you have is a fungal infection! "

The scenario that her doctors figured was that her previous fungal

infection had returned -- a total possibility. But for this nurse,

more questions were raised. She thought, for example, " If they

diagnosed my fungal infection as leukemia this time, is it possible

that they were wrong the FIRST time? Was my leukemia really a fungal

infection to begin with, and was my so-called 'secondary' fungal

infection I had earlier really a full-blown manifestation of what

originally might have looked like leukemia? "

Of course, she would never get answers to these questions, for to

fully investigate thoughts like these might imply that a diagnostic

error was made on the part of either her initial oncologist or

pathologist.

Nevertheless, an intense six months later -- some of it spent in the

hospital -- of high-dose, powerful antifungals finally achieved a

cure for her fungal infection. Today, she is again back at work,

exuding more than ever with compassion for her patients. It really

struck me when she told me where she works, because in her case, her

occupation may very well relate to what she had suffered over the

past two years. It turns out that she works at a bone-marrow

transplant center, and is in daily contact with children with

leukemia.

Now, the thought of her " acquiring " something as grave as leukemia

would almost be preposterous to some. But the temptation to scratch

our heads and wonder about this is unbearable. What if she really

did have a fungal infection -- and NOT leukemia -- her first time

around? And if so, did she " catch " this from her precious little

patients?

Fungal infections not only can be extremely contagious, but they

also go hand in hand with leukemia -- every oncologist knows this.

And these infections are devastating: once a child who has become a

bone marrow transplant recipient gets a " secondary " fungal

infection, his chances of living, despite all the antifungals in the

world, are only 20%, at best.

And then the unthinkable thought arises: what if all of these

children didn't even have leukemia, but rather a fungal infection,

just as this nurse did? If doctors, in the 21st century, could

mistake a fungal infection for leukemia in this nurse, could the

same fate have fallen upon these children?

Doctors in general are not very good at diagnosing fungal infections

because their medical school training is based so heavily on the

role of bacteria and viruses in the area of infectious diseases.

Fungi have been a forgotten foe ever since the advent of

antibiotics. Once we had a drug that could kill bacteria, the

interest in and the study of fungi fell to the wayside.

Laboratories display the same difficulty in diagnosing fungal

infections: current tests for detecting the presence of fungi are

both terribly scant and sorely antiquated.

Despite these training and technical inadequacies, there have been

at least a few good reports that implicate the role of fungi in

causing leukemia.

For example, in 1999 Meinolf Karthaus, MD, watched three different

children with leukemia suddenly go into remission upon receiving a

triple antifungal drug cocktail for their " secondary " fungal

infections.(1)

Pre-dating that, Mark Bielski stated back in 1997 that leukemia,

whether acute or chronic, is intimately associated with the yeast,

Candida albicans. (2)

Finally, almost 50 years ago, Dr. J. Walter , in his textbook

of clinical mycology (the study of fungi, molds and yeasts), said

that " it has been established that histoplasmosis and such

reticuloendothelioses as leukemia, Hodgkin's disease, lymphosarcoma,

and sarcoidosis* are found to be coexistent [with yeast overgrowth]

much more frequently than is statistically justifiable on the basis

of coincidence. " (3)

*sarcoidosis is a disease characterized by granulomatous (an

inflammatory tumor or growth composed of granulation tissue) of the

skin, lymph nodes, lungs, eyes, and other structures.

Histoplasmosis is what we call an " endemic " fungal infection. It is

most commonly acquired in regions surrounding the Ohio and

Mississippi river valleys in the United States. One becomes ill by

merely inhaling the tiny fungal spores of this fungus. (For more

information on histoplasmosis and other endemic fungi, you can

visit: http://www.doctorfungus.org/). Three similar reports like

this over the span of 40 years should convince us to at least study

the role of fungi in cancers like leukemia a little more thoroughly.

The late Milton White, MD., did exactly this. He fully believed that

cancer is a " chronic, intracellular, infectious, biologically

induced spore (fungus) transformation disease. " (4) Using the proper

isolation techniques (involving saline instead of formaldehyde as a

tissue transportation medium between the operating room and the

pathology lab), he was able to find fungal spores in every sample of

cancer tissue he studied. His lifetime work has been routinely

dismissed as nothing more than an unproven postulate.

Regardless, wouldn't you expect all of this information to make

front-page headlines in every newspaper across the country, if not

the world? Instead, every one of these findings was merely a brief

mention -- only curious thoughts that one might entertain but never

take seriously.

The fact is, if leukemia and fungal infections " co-exist " so

frequently, and if an antifungal drug cocktail effectively cured at

least these three children of their leukemia, then I say we put the

brakes on right there. Is there a need to go any farther, except to

more deeply investigate the need for antifungals in treating

leukemia and not just the secondary infections that arise in the

course of chemotherapy?

In his book, The Germ that Causes Cancer, author and television host

Doug Kaufmann asserts that not only fungi, but also foods play a

role in the etiology of cancer. He has seen children become free of

their documented leukemia once the child's parents simply changed

the child's diet. Kaufmann's diet is base on the widely-published

problem of mycotoxin contamination of our grain foods.

Grains such as corn, wheat, barley, sorghum, and other foods such as

peanuts, are commonly contaminated with cancer-causing fungal

poisons, or " mycotoxins. " (5,6) One of them, called aflatoxin, just

happens to be the most carcinogenic substance on earth. If this is

indeed a problem, Kaufmann asserts, then cereal for breakfast and

soda pop for dinner may not be conducive to a cancer-free lifestyle.

A case in point: in a grain-based diet, we consume, on average, from

0.15mg to 0.5mg of aflatoxin per day. (7) Further, he states, it is

not the sugar alone that is the problem in our western diet, but the

fungal toxins that are found in the sugary grains. More than once

has Kaufmann interviewed a caller (on his health talk show) who

absolutely craved peanut butter and popcorn just prior to their

diagnosis of cancer.

Fungi are such a nuisance in carbohydrate foods in particular

because fungi need carbohydrates to thrive. Therefore, it is rarer

to see fungal contamination problems in foods like high-protein

foods.

Kaufmann goes on further to explain how even antibiotics may play a

role in the disease process. Antibiotics destroy the normal,

protective gut bacteria, allowing intestinal yeast and fungi to grow

unchecked. These internal, gut yeast make toxins, too. This can lead

to immune suppression, symptoms of any autoimmune disease, or even

cancer. " If the onset of any symptom or disease- cancer included-

was preceded by a course of antibiotics, " he maintains, " then look

for a fungus to be at the root of your problem. "

Holland, MD, Co-author, The Fungus Link, Infectious Diabetes.

20 May 2003, MediaTrition, Inc.