Publisher's Synopsis
Professor Jonathan Nyce- a soldier in the war on cancer for more than four decades, much of his research funded by the National Cancer Institute- has discovered the cause of the aberrantly high lifetime cancer risk experienced by our species-40%, compared to 4% in virtually all other vertebrate animals. His research studies in dogs with spontaneous cancer revealed that they have a rudimentary form of an otherwise primate-specific, "kill switch" tumor suppression mechanism- co-evolution of similar species-specific mechanisms of tumor suppression that may have enabled dogs to become our best friends. Mice and rats, the species used for virtually all cancer research for the past 50 years, have no semblance of this primate-specific tumor suppression mechanism. This finding was extended in the Nyce laboratory to uncover a natural equation-the lex naturalis- that shows that cancer is a fundamental element of vertebrate speciation. This means that for the past 50 years and more, by using mice to study human cancer, we have inadvertently been creating drugs to treat mouse cancer, not human cancer. This explains why, over the past 27 years of research, two-year survival of cancer patients has improved by less than 7%, and appears to be at an asymptotic limit beyond which any further improvement may be impossible using current treatment strategies. The lex naturalis provides a different path forward-the "normalization" of lifetime cancer risk from its current, aberrant 40% to the 4% or less of other animals. Professor Nyce shows how this would be far preferable to a "cure," because it could prevent 90% of cancers from ever occurring. The lex naturalis also reveals exciting new strategies to treat cancer by triggering the natural "kill switch" in existing tumors- an exciting alternative to traditional chemo. This book is a "must read" for anyone who wants to understand why our cancer risk is so high, and how up to 90% of cancers might be prevented- including the future cancer diagnosis that YOU might receive- if we act on what the lex naturalis teaches.
