Cancer : an immune response through cell evolution

Abstract

It is suggested that cancer might be the body's immune response to particulate noxious substances (hence "carcinogen") which the ordinary defensive systems are unable to deal with. The response would consist in the survival and proliferation of mutated local tissue cells (cancer cells); on the principle of Darwinian evolution, which become actual or potential immunocytes against the carcinogen. Owing to a physical barrier, carcinogen can never effectually come in contact with these new cells, which therefore proliferate indefinitely as a parasitic colony of unicellular organisms. Should it be considered that there are sufficient grounds for accepting cancer as an immune response, it is suggested that treatment might take the form of immunosuppression. Large doses of carcinogen administered systemically might be able to produce immunological paralysis with disappearance of cancer cells. In the hope of liquefying the tumour's intercellular spaces to facilitate spread of carcinogens, it is suggested that the latter be administered together with hyaluronidase.