Fascinating Aspects of Glycobiology—Part 13 (Cancer)

Larry A. Law

Most people don't really know what cancer is. Some people think they are only at risk if it is in the genes. Some think they catch it like a virus. Some feel it is a chemical carcinogen they were exposed to. And some people think it is just an unlucky, random bump or lump. There doesn't seem to be a consensus even after spending billions of dollars on research over the last 5 decades. 

What Cancer Isn't

Cancer authorities don't seem to be able to identify what it is or what causes it. Removing a lump with surgery, treating a tumor with radiation, or poisoning people with chemotherapy doesn't seem to do it. Even when the doctors declare, "We got it all," in most cases the cancer comes back—and often with a vengeance. That's because the lump wasn't the cancer in the first place. These approaches never address the immune system imbalances that caused the cancer. Those problems are still there. Surgery, radiation, and chemo are not the way to health. "It's like cutting off your nose to get rid of a cold; it doesn't solve the real, underlying problem...Cancer is the symptom of a sick body." ​

What Cancer Is

G. Edward Griffin has written several books on cancer. Of all the authorities I have consulted, I think he comes closest to accurately describing cancer. Allopathic medicine insists that cancer is caused by something like genetics. Alternative medicine says, "Cancer is not caused by something. It is caused by the lack of something. The lack of something, a breakdown in the body's normal ability to remain healthy...cancer is nothing but healing gone awry." He explains that just scratching our hands scrapes off hundreds of cells. Our body responds to this injury by triggering the mechanisms to start growing new cells. This is a natural healing process in motion. When the cells are finally replaced, they send signals out to the body saying, 'That's enough, stop now.' "But if the signals are not working right, the message doesn't stop the healing. It just continues to heal and heal and overgrow into a lump or bump. Is that the cancer? No, that's just a symptom of the cancer. The cancer is why the signals didn't work. There's something wrong with the signaling mechanism." Bingo. The immune system is not working correctly because the glycan signaling system, which constitutes the glycocalyx of these cells, is missing sugars. (The picture below shows macrophages attacking and trying to destroy a large cancer cell supplied with an extensive blood supply.)

Altered Glycosylation

The National Academy of Science has explained that "altered glycosylation is a universal feature of cancer and contributes to pathogenesis and progression." This means that when glycans are not correctly placed on the cell receptors, autoimmune and degenerative diseases will result. When cells do not communicate properly, the immune system gets confused. The immune system eliminates abnormal cells every day of our lives until one day it stops. We are not aware of the problem for 5 to 35 years, depending on how rapidly the cancer is growing. But the signaling mechanism has failed, and the sugars are the literal key that unlocks the door to cellular health. (The picture below depicts natural killer (NK) cells from the immune system trying to find a way to attach to cancer cells so they can destroy the abnormal cells.)

The Number 2 Disease Killer of Americans

According to the American Cancer Society, 609,820 people in the United States are estimated to have died from cancer in 2023 (1,670 deaths per day). This is an increase from 2022 projections most likely resulting from the side effects of the experimental mRNA COVID-19 vaccine which caused an explosive growth in recurring cancer. While overall cancer is the second leading cause of death, notice that cancer is the leading cause of death for men and women between the ages 40 and 79 (a 40-year span!), and also, men between the ages of 60 and 79.

Additional statistics include the fact that 98% of all cancers metastasize and form secondary cancers. At least 90% of all cancer deaths are due to metastatic cells. This is why surgery and radiation are not effective. By the time of diagnosis, the cancer cells have already metastasized, making chemotherapy the only viable medical intervention. Chemotherapy is not effective except in a few cancers. Chemotherapy is ineffective 97% of the time. Taking all cancers together, chemo increases the odds of living 5 years after diagnosis by only 2% (61% to 63%), and that 2% increase is skewed by the positive chemo results from a mere three cancers: testicular cancer (40%), lymphomas (13%), cervical cancer (12%). 

Despite the medical system's emphasis on genetics as the cause of cancer, only 5% of all cancers are strongly hereditary. A study conducted by G. Hyland, M.D., and D. Miller, M.T., of Medcenter One, Department of Radiation and Oncology, in Bismarck, North Dakota, in June 1999, but never followed up with NIH funding, documented the effects of sugar nutrients on radiation and chemotherapy. The pilot study found that sugar nutrients: 1) did not inhibit tumor cell destruction by radiation and chemo. The nutrition actually enhanced their success; 2) sugar nutrients exerted a protective effect on normal cells and prevented excessive radiation and cytotoxic damage; 3) they induced reductions in tumor mass in malignancies that were resistant to all standard treatments; 4) they improved the quality of life for patients by reducing toxicity and side effects from radiation and chemotherapy. 

Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell Therapy

In an endeavor to find a new treatment for cancer, researchers are adding a genetically engineered glycoprotein antenna to the outside of each T-cell removed from cancer patients.  The cells are genetically engineered to express CARs created to bind with a particular glycoprotein (antigen) on the patient's tumor cells. Chimeric means it is made up of lots of different parts and pieces genetically engineered into a single, new glycoprotein receptor. When the artificially engineered, altered T-cells are transfused back into the body, these receptors help the T-cells find the particular glycoprotein and kill the cancer cells. Since altered glycosylation is a feature of cancer cells, researchers hope this means they have some unique glycoproteins/cell antennas on their surface that are not in common with normal cells. If they can target them uniquely, they could destroy them with the body's altered T-cells.

Preliminary results were encouraging. An initial study involved 50 children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and researchers reported that 82 percent of the children achieved complete remission after three months. Overall survival was 89 percent after six months and 79 percent after 12 months. However, there were extremely high fevers and inflammation because of the large amount of immune system chemicals generated to wage the war. Most patients developed a cytokine release syndrome—a total body inflammatory response. Immunotherapy uses the body's own ability to attack cancer. Unfortunately, while there are impressive rates of response, nearly half of those responding patients relapse within 1 to 2 years after CAR-T therapy. 

Scientists are hopeful that as the technical ability of glycobiologists improves, the problems associated with this cancer-fighting therapy might improve. After 50 years of the same old approach (cut, burn, poison), immunotherapy represents the best hope outside of prevention that cancer researchers have ever seen.