A corollary to “Cancer and the Immune System”

My friend sent me some musings (from Whole Health Source) on how our immune system is able to control cancer in our body.

At our recent MSTP summer retreat, we heard from Dr. Robert Darnell, MD, PhD, who is doing research on paraneoplastic syndromes (i.e. diseases that occur in conjunction with neoplasms/cancers). He focused on a set of neurological diseases, in which an individual experiences a sudden and rapid (<1 week) decline in cerebellar function. They wake up one day feeling a little dizzy. Within a day or two, they can barely stand, they have tremors & muscle spasms, loss of memory, et al., so they go see a neurologist. It turns out that the underlying cause is autoimmune dysfunction. These people actually have a small cancer somewhere else in their body that their immune system has kept under control for years. It is well-known that everyone develops cancers naturally; some people are just better at fighting them or controlling them than others. At some point, the cancer (in what seems to be a stochastic process, with our current understanding) starts producing a set of proteins that are only found in the cerebellum – a part of the body which the immune
system does not normally see. So these patients start producing antibodies to this “foreign” protein, and, if these antibodies penetrate the blood-brain barrier (which also does not happen very often), then the patient’s immune system starts attacking the cerebellum.

It’s this kind of research that makes me wonder what my genetic background is capable of. My dad has psoriatic arthritis (a genetically-linked autoimmune disease; a combination of psoriasis and arthritis), so there is a chance that I have those genes. But, even if I do, my genetic background (i.e. everything else in my genome) will affect how/when/if this disease manifests itself.

The immune system is one of the most poorly understood systems in human clinical biology, and yet it appears in every subspecialty of medicine. There are very few treatments that robustly improve immune
function. When someone has a skin disease (e.g. psoriasis or eczema), or asthma, or joint pain – all of which have an autoimmune basis – we just shoot them up with steroids, which provide temporary relief and
unacceptable side effects.
My dad found that his psoriatic arthritis can be controlled in 2 ways: infliximab and flax seed fiber. Infliximab is an antibody that binds, and thereby decreases, TNF-alpha – a key molecule that is secreted in
inflammation (and inflammation is a manifestation of an immune system flare up). He found that infliximab can control his disease for a few months, and then he starts getting flare ups (rashes, joint pain) again. At that point, he switches to hefty doses of flax seed fiber: a few tablespoons of freshly ground flax seeds every morning. Flax seeds are an incredible source of 18-carbon polyunsaturated fatty acids (specifically, a high ratio of omega 3s relative to omega 6s). Fatty acids – both saturated and unsaturated – are the substrates for several families of inflammatory signalling molecules, but the body has a harder time converting omega 3’s into inflammatory molecules (it converts saturated fats and omega 6’s relatively well). Consequently, keeping your adipose tissue well-stocked with omega-3 fatty acids can bring about an anti-inflammatory physiological state. Salmon also has a hefty dose of omega 3’s relative to omega 6’s (I think the ratio is even higher than flax seeds, but today’s fish also carry heavy metals and toxins). Omega 3’s are found in sprinklings throughout nature: whole grains (oats, wheat), nuts (almonds), olive oil, seeds (kiwi fruit seeds), milk fat, etc. Given the average American diet (bleached/processed grains; protein & saturated fat from land animals; highly processed dairy products), I think it’s no surprise that this country is a hotbed of autoimmune dysfunction.