Cancer: disease of civilisation

Part 2: Causes of cancer

There are as many forms of cancer as there are different types of cell in the body. And there are many agents that can cause a cell to become cancerous. They include viruses, carcinogenic (cancer causing) particles in the air we breathe and the food we eat, ionising radiation — x-rays from medical machines and gamma radiation from the earth we live on and ultra-violet radiation from the sun. Even a hard knock, a cut or other source of inflammation can begin a cancer's growth.

Within our bodies we have an extremely competent and effective defence against invasions from outside. Replicated cells are new but they carry on their cell walls the correct code and they are recognised by the immune system as 'Self' — being part of us. Organisms from outside the body, carry on their cell walls a foreign code, and are recognised by the immune system as foreign — 'Non-self' — and attacked mercilessly. This attack by the immune system is so powerful that it can destroy a transplanted organ completely in a very short time. The problem in the case of cancer cells is that they teeter on the brink of Self and Non-self. Finding the answer to this problem is crucial to survival and it borders on the philosophical as much as the medical: where is the dividing line between Self and Non-self? Unfortunately, as far as the immune system is concerned it seems that, in many cases, a cancer cell is still regarded as Self, albeit slightly eccentric, and so it is allowed to survive and flourish.

This is the problem our immune system faces once a cancer has established itself. It is vital, therefore, to prevent that establishment by avoiding, as much as possible, things that have been shown to start a cancer or promote its growth.

Cancer: a disease of civilisation

It has long been known that there exist enormous differences in the frequency of different types of cancer in various populations throughout the world. History shows that each type of civilisation, like each social group and each way of life, has diseases which are peculiar to it. While this fact is well recognised by medical historians, its explanation is a matter of controversy. Is the reason for the variability in incidence of disease to be sought in peculiarities of human constitution, in genetic traits that make some people more susceptible or resistant to the disease? Or are environmental factors more important when determining the types of diseases are most common in a given community?

Fortunately, the past still survived until well into the twentieth century in the form of several populations who had remained almost completely isolated, and whose mode of life differed profoundly from that of us in the industrialised countries. In other words, these primitive peoples could be used as control groups for a study of what modern civilisation has done to us. But the time for studying the surviving primitive populations is getting short because ancient social structures everywhere are disappearing or are being grossly altered.

No cancer — from the Arctic to the Equator

For over a century and a half, medical missionaries, anthropologists and explorers searched in vain for cancer among the primitive peoples they visited. The Inuit (Eskimos) have probably been isolated as long as any primitive people. Indeed, many still had a Stone Age culture until just a few decades ago, and they therefore provided excellent material for anthropological studies.

It was remarked upon by all who studied them that 'Cancer is not to be found among the Eskimos.' Dr. Samuel King Hutton was a board member in the management from London of the Moravian Mission to Labrador during the first half of the twentieth century. Writing of the Labrador Eskimos in 1925, he says:

'Some diseases common in Europe have not come under my notice during a prolonged and careful survey of the health of the Eskimos. Of these diseases the most striking is cancer. I have not seen or heard of a case of malignant new growth in an Eskimo. In this connection it may be noted that cookery holds a very secondary place in the preparation of food ? most of the food is eaten raw, and the diet is a flesh one; also that the diet is rich in vitamins.'[1]

In his book, The Northwest Passage, Roald Amundsen's writes: 'My sincerest wish for our friends the Nechilli Eskimos is, that civilization may never reach them.'[2] (Emphasis in the original.)

The Inuit were not alone in being free from cancer; away from Western civilisation cancer-free societies were ubiquitous. From the tropical frontier Dr. Albert Schweitzer wrote in 1957: 'On my arrival in Gabon, in 1913, I was astonished to encounter no cases of cancer . . .

This absence of cancer seemed to me due to the difference in nutrition of the natives as compared with the Europeans.'[3] In 1915, Dr. Frederick L. Hoffman wrote an 826-page volume, The Mortality from Cancer Throughout the World.[4] Under 'Cancer among Primitive Races'Hoffman reports that:

'The rarity of cancer among native races suggests that the disease is primarily induced by the conditions and methods of living which typify our modern civilization . . .  cancer is exceptionally rare among the primitive peoples. . .'

This rarity of cancer in the Nineteenth Century was not restricted to primitive populations. In his important book, Cancer: Civilization and Degeneration, Dr John Cope discusses the early eating habits of the English and the rarity of cancer at the time. He notes in particular that cancers increased in England as the consumption of meat declined. [5]

References

[1]. Hutton, Dr. Samuel King. Health Conditions and Disease Incidence among the Eskimos of Labrador. Poole, England, 1925.
[2]. Amundsen, Roald. The Northwest Passage. London and New York, 1908.
[3]. Schweitzer, Dr. Albert. Preface to Cancer: Nature, Cause and Cure by Dr. Alexander Berglas. Paris, 1957.
[4]. Hoffman, Dr. Frederick L. The Mortality from Cancer Throughout the World. The Prudential Press, Newark, New Jersey, 1915.
[5] Cope, Dr. John. Cancer: Civilization and Degeneration. London, 1932.

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