For over twenty years I have explained cancer's mysterious behavior in these simple terms. These ideas have been published in major medical journals and have never been challenged or refuted.
Patients survive cancer only if they can prevent the spread of tumor cells to other organs (metastasis). Thus, the real battle field is not in the organ where the cancer begins; the real battlefield is within the patient's own blood stream. Here an increasing shower of cancer cells are shed by the growing tumor into the blood. As the tumor goes, the numbers of circulating cancer cells increases.
Most of these cancer cells die. Many are attacked and killed by the patient's own immune system. If the primary cancer is removed before that cancer has spread to distant organs, the patient is cured of disease. (Regrettably, there are no tests available to detect microscopic cancer in distant organs.)
Patients treated with limited surgery may have microscopic cancer cells remaining near the site of surgery. These cells may multiple, growing into a new (recurrent) tumor. Again tumor cells are shed into the blood stream and, again, the battle between circulating cancer cells and the immune system resumes.
All available scientific research supports the following conclusion. The outcome of the second battle will be the same as that of the first.
Patients who did not develop distant metastases from their first tumor will not develop them from the recurrence. Of course, the recurrence must be removed in a timely fashion - before it exceeds the size of the original cancer.
There is no other published explanation for the enigmatic behavior of locally recurrent cancer following limited surgery.
This intricate process is described more fully in Chapters 2, 3 and 4 of The Cancer Breakthrough You've Never Heard Of. They can be downloaded at our sister site: www.cancerebook.com.
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