The Trophoblast and the Origins of Cancer
Jed Stuber, Reviewed by Ed Hill · Sep 21, 2010
Do you believe it is possible that the solution to cancer comes from nature, without chemotherapy or radiation, and without side effects? Drs. Nicholas Gonzalez, M.D. and Linda Isaacs, M.D. believe it does. For 24 years they’ve been helping people battle their advanced cancer, and in their book they report a 70 percent success rate, compared to near zero percent for conventional treatment.
In 1902, John Beard, professor of embryology at Edinburgh University, uncovered not only the likely origins of cancer, but also its solution. The authors of this book believe that when Dr. Beard identified “vagrant germ cells,” he actually discovered stem cells. These special cells can multiply by cell division and can differentiate into any type of cell needed. They can also divide and form gametes (reproductive cells).
Beard observed that these germ cells develop during pregnancy in the yolk sac, separate from the embryo. Then, at about week four, they make an incredible journey from the yolk sac, through the embryo to the genital ridge, where they’re incorporated into the gonads (reproductive organs).
But on their way, many of these cells get sidetracked, and end up lodged in all 200 tissue types throughout the body. There they stay, hidden away until needed to replace cells lost to injury, normal turnover, or aging. But should one of these vagrant germ cells be coaxed into dividing by some molecular signal, still undiscovered, they can form a teratoma. This strange and rare tumor is a mixture of different cell types (hair, tooth, cartilage, skin, etc.) randomly growing together. Teratomas prove that stem cells can form all the major cell types, even after lying dormant for years. The vagrant germ cell might also try to form gametes. A misplaced gamete, produced in this way could generate an invasive trophoblast, growing in the wrong place at the wrong time, which in turn becomes a malignant tumor mass.
Do you believe it is possible that the solution to cancer comes from nature, without chemotherapy or radiation, and without side effects? These doctors do.
Dr. Beard was first to report that in many respects this trophoblast in its early form, looks and behaves like a typical malignant tumor. It begins growing as a very undifferentiated offshoot of the primitive blastocyst (embryo at four days), its cells multiplying almost without control, as tumors were known to do even in Beard’s day. The trophoblast then adeptly invades the mother’s uterus, much as a cancer infiltrates host tissue of any organ, and it efficiently produces a dense blood supply—a requirement for any rapidly growing neoplasm (cancerous tumor). If the trophoblasts were allowed to continue their aggressive behavior, they would quickly kill mother and child with a rare, deadly cancer called choriocarcinoma.
But on the 56th day, an amazing thing happens. The fetal pancreas begins producing enzymes, obviously not needed for digestion. Dr. Beard observed that in all mammals studied, the day this enzyme production began, the trophoblasts started transforming from aggressive, invasive, undifferentiated cells, to more differentiated, non-aggressive, mature placenta cells.
Through a series of lectures and papers beginning in 1902, he proposed that since pancreatic secretions forcefully regulate trophoblast growth and character, these same enzymes could be, and in fact must be, the body’s main defense against cancer. By the early 1900s, believing Beard’s findings would be useful as a cancer treatment, physicians in numerous clinics around London began treating cancer with pancreatic enzymes from livestock. Success was realized in varying degrees. The lack of consistent results can be explained by the enzyme products available at that time, which varied widely in their cancer inhibiting quality. By the time Dr. Beard died in 1924, his enzyme treatment was largely forgotten, and he died in obscurity.
Then in the 1960s, an orthodontist, William Donald Kelley, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. It had metastasized to the liver, and he was given about one month to live. He didn’t want to die, leaving his wife and 4 children to fend for themselves, so he began experimenting on himself. He found that when he took large amounts of digestive enzymes, he felt better, and his palpable tumors seemed to shrink. He ended up living another 42 years, and helped thousands of patients overcome their cancers.
About the time Kelley was in his prime, Nicholas Gonzalez began his medical schooling. He was intrigued by Kelley’s success. With encouragement from his mentor and professor Robert A. Good, M.D., PhD., the Director of Sloan-Kettering, he began a five-year study, interviewing over 1,000 of Kelley’s patients. He was impressed by the number of terminal patients who were alive and well five, 10, and 15 years later.
In the early 1980s, when Dr. Gonzalez was in medical school at Cornell in New York, he was taught that all cancers arose from mature, differentiated cells in the various tissues of our bodies; and that through some bizarre unknown process, these cells turned into primitive, undifferentiated cells with a whole new set of abilities including the capacity to invade, migrate, and create new blood vessels needed to sustain the growing tumor. Though no one could explain how such a series of implausible events might happen—how a mature healthy differentiated cell might so completely transform—the experts all knew that cancer happened just this way.
But the tide is beginning to shift. In 2003, a group at the University of Michigan announced their startling findings that the culprit in breast cancer may not be mature differentiated cells, but breast stem cells, again reproducing without their characteristic restraint. The discovery, reported the week of February 24, 2003 in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also may explain why current treatments for metastatic breast cancer often fail. Max S. Wicha, M.D., an oncologist and director of the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center says, “The goal of all our existing therapies has been to kill as many cells within the tumor as possible. This study suggests that the current model may not be getting us anywhere, because we have been targeting the wrong cells with the wrong treatments.” He goes on to say, “Thus, effective therapy, and perhaps prevention, would need to focus on the stem cell underlying a cancer. Killing a tumor’s differentiated cells, but not its driving stem cells, may explain why patients have tumor shrinkage that has no impact on their survival.”
A dozen amazing case studies are included in this book. One patient in August 1982, was found to have inoperable pancreatic cancer metastatic to the liver. Oncologists told her no treatment could cure her, and she should “get her affairs in order.” Her prognosis was nine-15 months at most. In September 1982, she got a second opinion at Mayo clinic. Her discharge summary read: “… I would favor simply observation since we know of no known treatment that will necessarily prolong her life. Since she is feeling well at the present time, I did not feel justified in making her symptomatic from the side effects of chemotherapy.”
Once home, she began investigating alternative cancer approaches. In December 1982, she began the Kelley program. Within 6 months, she returned to working 18-hour days, 7 days a week, running the family gas station. When she referred a patient to Dr. Gonzalez’s office in the mid-1990s, she reported excellent health with no sign of cancer. As of mid-2009, she has survived 27 years with a disease that usually kills in 3-6 months.
One of Dr. Gonzalez’s patients is a 64-year-old woman with a strong family history of breast cancer. In the fall of 1986, she was diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in the left breast. A lumpectomy was performed, removing only the cancerous tumor. With no evidence of metastasis, additional treatment was not recommended. She did well until July 1989, when a mass was detected in the right breast. Following removal, cancer was also discovered on the liver, and in the bone. She began chemo with CAF, a very aggressive protocol which she tolerated poorly. In late 1989 after completing three of six proposed cycles, she refused further treatment. In spring 1990 she sought a second opinion at Stanford. They recommended that she resume CAF, but she refused. She began Dr. Gonzalez’s program in April 1990. She was quite ill, with chronic liver pain requiring morphine for comfort. She reported fatigue and malaise lasting many months before she finally began to improve. When she returned one year later, she felt much stronger and her abdominal pain had largely resolved. Feeling so well and assuming she was cured, the woman discontinued her protocol without the knowledge of Dr. Gonzalez. In July 1991, she suffered a grand mal seizure. A CT scan revealed metastatic lesions in the brain. Doctors recommended radiation to the brain, which she refused. She resumed her nutritional program with renewed dedication, and never had another seizure. Less than a year later in April 1992, CT scans of the head and abdomen showed her brain and liver tumors were gone. Since that time, she has had up and down compliance, but her terminal breast cancer has not returned. She is reported to be in excellent health, now 19 years after her original diagnosis.
Dr. Gonzalez says, “God designed the body to work well, and when the body produces a tumor, it has a purpose. Many think of tumors as the enemy to be destroyed. We believe that the tumors are a sign that the body is too filled with toxins, either from inefficiently metabolized toxins from the body itself, or environmental toxins like heavy metals or pesticides. These toxins can overwhelm the liver’s ability to process them, backing up and confronting the body with an enormous load of toxic waste that (we believe) produces tumors. Tumors are like accessory livers, the body’s main detoxification organ. They are actually the body’s intelligent defense to sequester, store, and neutralize severe metabolic wastes.”
Dr. Gonzalez treats many types of cancer, and other illnesses such as allergies, auto-immune disorders, and chronic fatigue. The cost of everything involved in their cancer treatment, including doctor visits and supplements, is about 1/20th that of conventional therapy.
Ed Hill and his wife Kathy have been Samaritan members since 2003.