by Yeong Se;k Yee & Khadijah Shaari

In this segment, we reviewed a cancer textbook called “FUNDAMENTALS OF EPIDEMIOLOGY” written by Professor Philip Nasca, PhD, MPH and Professor Harris Pastides, PhD, MPH. Both are Professors of Epidemiology at different prominent Universities in the US.

Cancer Epidemiology, as you know, is the study of the factors affecting cancer, as a way to infer possible trends and causes. The study of cancer epidemiology uses epidemiological methods to find the cause of cancer and to identify and develop improved treatments.

In Chapter 11…Ionizing, Non-Ionizing and Solar Radiation and Cancer, Professor Harris Pastides elaborates on the source and dangers of ionizing radiation:

• Few causes of cancer are as verifiable as ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation is the most comprehensively understood cause of cancer. There is a vast body of experimental and epidemiological evidence documenting the carcinogenic potential of radiation exposure.

• Cancers caused by radiation are called It is widely agreed that the great majority of types of human cancer are capable of being caused by ionizing radiation given a sufficient exposure dose.

• Considering that medical radiation is the largest source of human-made radiation and that exposure to sources of medical radiation are increasing world-wide, it is understandable that there is interest in understanding the influence of medical radiation on cancer risk. Examples of patients developing cancer following the employment of X-rays for diagnostic purposes or irradiation treatment for various diseases have been known for a very long time..

• In 1955, The Lancet, a prestigious British medical journal, published a report by Court-Brown and Abbatt demonstrated that an increased incidence of leukemia following deep X-ray treatment for ankylosing spondylitis (a spinal deformity). In the mid-1970s, Smith and Doll reported a threefold excess risk of dying from leukemia among women treated with radiation for excessive menstrual or intermenstrual bleeding.

• Therapeutic radiation doses received by cancer patients are among the highest level received by humans. There is incontrovertible evidence from clinical follow-up studies that a wide range of organs can develop cancers caused by radiation used in the treatment of a primary cancer. 

• Overall, significant strides have been made in reducing the patient’s exposure to diagnostic and therapeutic ionizing radiation. Nevertheless, for most persons, diagnosis and therapy remain the most important source of exposure to ionizing radiation.

CONCLUDING REMARKS 

It is extremely tragic and incomprehensible that the medical (or cancer) establishment still uses ionizing radiation that is clearly proven and known to be carcinogenic (as established by the International Agency for Research on Cancer). 

It is also inconceivable that such conventional cancer treatments should cause so much pain, agony and money and then the patient has to suffer another form of cancer, heart disease or disorders to the bones, etc. Hence the cycle of treatment has to be repeated. 

Is this why conventional cancer treatment is referred to as “the Cancer Industry?”  

We welcome your opinion.