The Webster Dictionary lists this noun as one identifying a simple narrative dealing with supernatural beings, but it is also labeled as a story designed to delude or mislead. Without a doubt the second choice is the one applicable to the case presently being discussed.

As much as most members of the medical establishment love to identify themselves as superhuman if not supernatural creatures, the sad reality in today’s world is that they are merely very skilled story tellers. Unfortunately, in too many cases, the tales they weave for us are not enchanted nor leading to happiness. On the contrary, particularly in oncology, the applicable fairy tales lead only to devastation of everyday life and, much too often, tragedy.

One major tale that seems to go unchallenged, while producing great damage to the life of too many women at the physical level , but with devastating mental repercussions, is the assertion concerning the no-fail effectiveness of a double mastectomy. Such a horrifying form of maiming is glorified to the point of being hailed as a life-saving procedure, in spite of overwhelming evidence proving the contrary. The motivation for this unrealistic promise appears to be the creation of a purely soothing factor, in the process of coercing patients into accepting something very bad for their bodies, but recommended as good for their health.

In other words, the very idea of a double mastectomy, even with its initial presentation as a mere possibility , should be immediately rejected, without hesitation, and it should cause the patient to rush out of the physician’s door without any delay, in order to block any possibility of further discussion on the subject. The reason for such a reaction is to put an end to any possibility of mental manipulation and coercion by members of the medical establishment, whose school training includes acquiring the ability to scare patients into accepting the unthinkable.

In reality a double mastectomy, just like any other surgery, cannot stop cancer from spreading and /or returning. It can only mentally devastate a patient and make a bad situation worse, by causing more malignant tissue to grow over the scars and over what is identified as the chest wall. So why is a double mastectomy even proposed to most patients, even the ones with early stage cancer? Because that is the runner-up choice, which is presented by the attending oncologist to the patients almost as an operant response to the word combination “Breast Cancer”. This is done for reasons that can only be interpreted as productive to the Health Care Industry, because they are certainly not good avenues for the individuals seeking help.

If a Double Mastectomy is the runner up, who is then the prize winner in the oncological operant response contest? Of course (in all cases of cancer), the number one selection is the abominable word “Chemo”, whose full name is Chemotherapy; alias: unconditional poisoning. So where does this violent killer fit into the sequence of routine procedures, used in the “care” of cancer patients? Chemo seems to surface at any stage of the disease, as well as at different positions in the torture sequence, typical of cancer care.

Yet one particular excuse for its use constitutes Fairy Tale Number Two, in the medical series of stories provided to calm the patients’ natural opposition to painful and damaging procedures. We are referring to the claimed ability to shrink tumors, which is always invoked as the initial remedy, when early detection did not occur.

At this point we need to explain how and why this magic shrinkage of tumors takes place and why it is hailed as beneficial under said circumstances. As everyone very well realizes by now, chemotherapy kills unconditionally all cells in the growth stage. This means that all tissue and functions in the body are negatively effected, including the components and activities of the immune system. This produces the total, even if temporary, destruction of the patient’s immune system, along with many normal aspects of most healthy activities regulating the complicated mechanism of our body.

The introduction of a poison will kill indiscriminately malignant and healthy cells, and therefore will produce a temporary reduction in the size of the neoplastic growth. However it isn’t at all in the extent indicated by the inadequate testing being used today. The reason is that testing like PET scans and MRIs were developed to monitor unusual metabolic activities, present at the site of growing tumors. However ,that is not the only occasion when said tests give a positive result. Furthermore, since said activities are part of the immune system at work, with a destroyed immune system, no activity can be registered, rendering the testing totally useless and the actual condition, as well as size, of the malignant growth uncertain at best.

Consequently, subjecting the patient to surgery at this point isn’t really any better or safer than at any other time. Bleeding will still be present, generating massive amounts of floater malignant cells, which a malfunctioning immune system cannot possibly destroy. Even in the event that the cancerous growth was actually reduced in size after chemo, the surviving portion of the same tumor, following the poison’s attack, will resume its growth in full force, as soon as the patient’s immune system has recovered from the damage. Additionally, if surgery must be delayed until the patient’s health has at least partially improved, then the individual is pretty much in the same condition he or she would have been prior to chemotherapy, minus of course his or her general good health.

There are other Fairy Tales being presented to patients seeking solutions to their cancer problem, but we will leave that part of the discussion to the next newsletter. In the meantime, we would like to stress that the views presented here are not a figment of our imaginations, but are actual facts supported by both science and common sense. For this reason, they are exposed here with the hope that cancer patients will ponder on all the factors involved in standard treatments, before they allow their bodies to be ravaged.