Lessons from Hippocrates: Time to Change the Cancer Paradigm

Abstract

The ultimate goal of all medical activity is to restore patients to a state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing. In cancer, it is assumed that this can only be obtained through the complete eradication of the tumor burden. So far, this strategy has led to a substantial improvement in cancer survival rates. Despite this, more than 9 million people die from cancer every year. Therefore, we need to accept that our current cancer treatment paradigm is obsolete and must be changed. The new paradigm should reflect that cancer is a systemic disease, which affects an individual patient living in a particular social reality, rather than an invading organism or a mere cluster of mutated cells that need to be eradicated. This Hippocratic holistic view will ultimately lead to an improvement in health and wellbeing in cancer patients. They deserve nothing less.

Why we do what we do. A brief analysis of cancer therapies

“…Therefore, the factual question remains unanswered: how can we truly cure cancer? We can only find the answer to that question if we accept that our current cancer treatment paradigm is obsolete (Galmarini, 2020[ 23 ]; Galmarini and Lucius, 2020[ 24 ]). The evaluation of the present paradigm shows many triumphs in basic and clinical research, but unfortunately, continues to fail in our goal of restoring a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing in most cancer patients.…”

“…It is necessary to integrate genetic, biological, clinical, psychological and social information into a new coherent framework or paradigm to transform it into knowledge and wisdom applied to the clinic that would lead to restoring cancer patients to their fullest physical, emotional, and social capacities. The new paradigm for cancer treatment should be based on this holistic view (Galmarini, 2020[ 23 ]). As the old “Masters of Medicine” said, we must treat patients, not illnesses.…”

Historia de la nutrición y el cáncer desde Hipócrates hasta el siglo XIX

“…Para las enfermedades leves, recomendó la dieta, el descanso y el ejercicio, seguido de los purgantes y del empleo de metales pesados. Los karkinomas, eran enfermedades más graves para las que sugirió la cirugía (7).…”

MiRNAs and Cancer: Key Link in Diagnosis and Therapy

“…Hippocrates naming the abnormal mass of tissue in stomach and uterus as "cancer" revealed the long-lasting exploration of human malignant tumors [1]. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has published the Latest Global Cancer Data, which indicates that in 2020, nearly 19,300,000 people were diagnosed with cancer worldwide.…”