First, I point out these two links,

http://www.asiabiotech.com/publication/apbn/11/english/preserved-docs/1117n18/1168_1185.pdf

http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2012/979213/

are interesting publications on which we can reflect together.

Second, it seems that the issue generally affects:

the activation or inhibition of various immune responses,

the psychosomatic dimension of disease also as consequence of lifestyles,

the ability to manage and regulate physiological aspects such as chronic pain,

the opportunity to improve the quality of life in cancer patient,

There are no reliable data to support this assumption

Cortisol levels may be the connection

Seems to be so, at least in part,

in literature, rather, we talk about complementary therapies,

the emerging data need specific validations (clinical and experimental level)

However, I think it is worth reflecting on this topic

Dear Kulvietis,

There is an interesting article that discusses mind-body interactions and its effect on carcinogenseis.

" Clinical Holistic Medicine: Induction of Spontaneous Remission of Cancer by Recovery of the Human Character and the Purpose of Life"

Regards,

Ari

Dear Kulvietis,

There is an interesting article that discusses mind-body interactions and its effect on carcinogenseis.

" Clinical Holistic Medicine: Induction of Spontaneous Remission of Cancer by Recovery of the Human Character and the Purpose of Life"

Regards,

Ari

At least for the opposite effect there is evidence: A long-term immune suppression (in transplantation patients) increases the risk for a Posttransplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD) with a later potential progression towards B-cell lymphoma. It is assumed that a common, latent EBV-infection in those patients enters the lytic cycle and transforms B-cells. Another clear example is Kaposi-Sarcoma in HIV-patiens (with impaired T-lymphocytes), immune-suppressed organ transplantation patients or patients after cytostatic chemotherapy. In all of them, usually latent KSV-virus become activated and the tumorigenic process starts.

And there is also evidence for an increased risk for cervical carcinoma (associated with human papilloma virus 16 and 18) in patients with HIV or immun-suppression.

In summary: A functional immun-system is important to prevent cells with a latently tumor-virus infection from activating the virus or from malignant transformation.

It has never been shown, though, that attempts to "strengthen" the immun-system can lower the cancer risk.

greetings

Michael

To reflect about mind-body and "cortisol-connection",

here's another really interesting article

http://www.mind-body.org/Bittman%20Immune%20System%20Study.pdf

The outcomes of Tai Chi, as mind-body intervention, are most relevant in terms of stress reduction, improvement of empathic attitudes, positive thinking, awareness of self perception,

from this point of view represent an opportunity to personally manage the relationship with cancer

http://digilander.libero.it/samsara.to/tcc-studies.pdf

I am not sure why I was sent this question. There are many who have far more experience than I in this area. One person that comes to mind is Prof. Patricia Carpenter of the Psychology Department at CMU in Pittsburgh..

That being said, my own 'intuitions' in this area are as follows:

I believe that the fundamental cause of many types of cancer is stress - both metabolic and psychological.. Techniques are now being developed by which we may quantify the health of a single cell. Quantities derived from our new understanding of dynamical systems (living systems are dynamical systems), are being applied such that we may now have an objective measure as to what it means to be healthy or diseased (see reference below).

One may argue that such approaches are limited to the metabolic domain and are not relevant to the psychological. However, recent theoretical work (and I include my own contribution) suggests the possibility that function and metabolism may actually be the same thing in ALL biological processes - including the brain. Such unified theories offer a means by which the psychological and the physiological may be more closely aligned. Although, perhaps, counter intuitive, such approaches greatly simplify the relationship between the emotional and the biological.

Within such a theoretical context, there is a necessary relationship between the metabolic state of the body and the metabolic state of the brain that equates to a 'logical sympathy'. The mind/body relationship becomes less of a dualistic problem and more of a complimentary dichotomy.

If these advances prove to be useful and relevant then it comes as no surprise that the stress relieving techniques that you have mentioned in your question would have a positive effect with respect to oncogenesis.

Davia, C.J (June 2006), "Life, Catalysis and Excitable Media: A Dynamic Systems Approach to Metabolism and Cognition", in Tuszynski, J.A, The Emerging Physics of Consciousness (The Frontiers Collection), Springer, pp. 255–292, ISBN 978-3540238904

Villorba, F; Van Piaggio, V.E (2010). "The role of mitochondria and mit-DNA in Oncogenesis". Quantum Biosystems 2 (1): 250–281.

First, eastern techniques, if done correctly, would not have negative outcome for the body. I believe that a great majority from all the practitioners, all over the earth, had positive appreciation. If we ask the question, further more, in order to find out if they would have positive outcome IN GENERAL, the answer is still positive, but for minor problems, or maybe some chronic diseases but not severe. If we ask the question related to cancer, which is such a severe illness then, unfortunately, the answer is almost, or closely to “no”, or at least it cannot be formulated within a sure “yes” or a completely “no”, if I wish to be very optimistic. In the great majority of cases, cancer cannot be cured, but what classical medicine can do is either prolong life expectancy, and/or rise the quality of life, and for some rare combinations, in which the tumor is maybe operable by surgeons and the patient is rapidly changing his diet/lifestyle (in a very profound manner) – then, there is hope. When healing occur, in some cancer patients, we don’t know exactly what is the physiological mechanism which, in so rare cases, favor the remission… and would be worth study. There are two ways to study: a) the sick people and try to make them healthy and b) the recently cured people in order to understand the mechanism (no matter what ways they used, either chemo, radio, mind, or other alternative methods. In all these cases, there should exist a kind of cell software mechanism which in certain conditions activate itself and induce some (kind of) apoptosis of the cancer cells or turn on the cancer cells into normal cells, or whatever. I am not a believer in a certain therapy or technique, but if I see proves, then I can talk about. In my own personal experience, the most hard-to-cure illness I had, was a lumbar discopathy (over 15 years) and some other less serious but chronic illnesses (migraines, rinythis, cholesterol, etc., detailed in my book) and what I did, … obviously include some diet/lifestyle changes, but much more then that. They were not good enough to help me, … however some temporary results had been achieved. The complete healing, I say again, in my own case, appeared only after a transphysiological mechanism had been started, which is based upon some kind of cellular biological transformation. But this is only a theory proposed for being studied, so we have no lab results and no explanations about how it works and most importantly, if it works the same on other people as it worked on me. So, for the moment, all I have is a theory, not a therapy. I had been practicing yoga over 16 years and I could not cure my illnesses, and my health continued to deteriorate until I came into a point where nothing can help me but my own resources which, presumably, my body could still have them. I know and I also knew, at that time, that the illnesses came due to a very precise cause but I could not avoid that not to happen. I just had not have the knowledge, the minimal self confidence, the practice, (or whatever I did practiced was not good enough for me, or was a misuse, or the practice was wrong) and I couldn’t have any permanent results. Now I am healthy again and the physiological mechanism which made me healthy, also made me better then before, because some new “settings” had been added to my physiology, since then (exactly February 3rd, 2006). There is more in my book.

I recommend the book Anticancer

Anticáncer: Una nueva forma de vida, Espasa Calpe, 2010, ISBN 978-84-670-3515-5

Please see the work of David Spiegel, M.D. he has a lot of studies on breast cancer and psychological interventions. See the brief write up in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Spiegel

I have serious doubts about the idea of stress (physical or mental) as a causative factor for cancer. Huge epidemiological studies have been done, which were able to identify chemical, occupational, genetic or environmental noxae which were able to increase cancer risk by as little as 10 or 20% (i.e. Odds-Ratios of around 1.1), which shows these methods were really powerful. But none of them found a link between stress and cancer frequency. If corrected for confounding factors such as smoking, diet, irregular sleep (**), people leading a stressful life have no higher cancer risk than people living under less stress. There are even tumor types which show the very opposite: catholic nuns (I guess they live a rather stress-free life) always had a higher breast cancer risk than average woman. During or after the dreadful world-wars in Europe (with undoubtly tremendous stress for most Europeans, but also Americans and Japanese), there was no general rise in the cancer frequency.

(**): There are very solid, reproducible epidemiologic studies that show that irregular sleep in woman working in alternating night-day-shift jobs increases mammary cancer risk (see for instance Davies, Mirick and Stevens in JNCI 2001). This is most likely due to the impaired production of melatonin, which is normally protecting against cancer.

I agree that stress reduction is important to maintain or regain quality of life in cancer patients undergoing standard therapy, and also to increase the patients compliance during treatment. But cleared off these indirect factors, there probably remains not much more than placebo from mind-body-axis.

Michael

...about interaction beetwen immune system and cancer risk,

here's three interesting articles

greetings,

Mauro

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1361287/

https://dermpath.ucsf.edu/dnld/faculty-path-lcoussens-pub3.pdf

http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2012/841810/

Catholic nuns may have higher rate of breast cancer not because of a stress-free life, but because of the absence of breast-feeding.

In answering this question, I would say that it is likely to depend on the type and initial cause of cancer. I would not discount "placebo" as Ester Sternberg, former director of NCCAM, has pointed out placebo is the activation of our innate healing capacities, and can be quite powerful. Aside from Ester Sternberg, you might also check the work of Dean Ornish who has worked in treating both cancer and heart disease with diet, lifestyle and mind-body practice.

If we do accept that these practices are helpful in treating or preventing certain kinds of cancer, I suspect that digging deeper we will find both mitochondrial and epigenetic mechanisms at work in the reversal or prevention process. I look forward to the day when we begin looking for precise changes as a result of specific practices.

In my own personal and professional experience, I have not seen any single mind-body practice functioning as a cure all. Especially in situations where individuals have been exposed to extreme health risks, such as extreme air pollution. I have seen many teachers and friends (expert or regular practitioners of meditation, taiji, and yoga) face cancer. Some survived and others did not, but in every case, I could see how their practices lent them the strength and equanimity to face treatment, optimize generativity, and accept their changing relationship with the universe. Certainly some powerful qualitative projects could be launched here as well.

Michael,

Just a quick one.

As it happens, I am a catholic (no longer practicing) and I can assure you, the image of serene nuns floating around on puffs of piety is an absolute myth.

Also, I did use the phrase 'metabolic and psychological' - from your comment it might seem that I said 'physical' rather than 'metabolic'. I think that you would agree that pollutants cause metabolic 'stress'.

I would like to pose a variant of the question posted, to satisfy the curiosity of a neophyte in this area(and based on Oliver's post). Is there some study that contradicts this assumption?

I do agree.

Also take a look at the MBSR related paper at http://jurology.com/article/S0022-5347(05)65535-8/abstract

There is some work done on brain preservation in the so called "good people" when compared to the "bad people". I think that our brain has more wonders than we can imagine. If I could suggest a very big work to be done, worldwide, it could be one that could compare personalities and cancer development.

You may read this article from CanFightCancer.com

http://www.canfightcancer.com/taichi-healing-for-cancer-patients/

For detailed explanation on the brain cheating mechanism and microcirculation, please read my theory below (see attachment).

Thesis Taichi Healing & Pao's Law of Exercise:

Yes, I will quote an example, two persons having same disease given same treatment respond differently, one is cured and other is not. You can read Deepak Chopra about mind body connection.

There are a lot of studies concerning psychotherapy with cancer patients. Mostly

cancer patients who recieeve psychotherapy has a better liefe quality and live longer

than controllgroups without getting psychotherapy. You may look at my papers

(Conference Proceeding: Verhaltenstherapie für Krebskranke

An overview of studies on Simonton training in treatment of cancer patients ( and some more )

but you will find moreif you do an paper research on this topic

sorry there are some" Tippfehlers"

Hi Amit , If two persons with the "same" disease given same treatment respond differently, the reason is most likely that neither two people are the same in terms of their genetic set-up and in particular in terms of their acquired epigenetic differences (those start to be patterned in an individual manner from very early embryogenesis on). In terms of cancer, molecular analysis of apparently identical tumors shows that they are always distinct in their genetic alterations. Therefore, if the two patients you describe are given the same therapy, its like treating two different systems with the same signals. And hence it is no surprise that the outcomes are different. This is exactly what Personalized Medicine is expected to overcome: to adopt the type of treatments to the individual patient and the individual tumor.

Maybe I am wrong, but I don't think that the mental and physiological stress caused by a cancer is so much different from patient to patient. I know of too many cases were cancer patients were fighting very bravely, continued their social life, remained professionally active or even increased their engagement. But the healing rate was not much better in these cases than in those who showed less mental power.

I wopuld suggest you try looking in pub med or PMC for:

psychotherapy with cancer patients.

Dear Karen Shatzman,

I agree with you on the aspects, that stress is the main inhibitor of the immune system and relaxation techniques help to remove this blockage.

However it is shown that neurotransmitters which are excreted under positive emotions (like enkephalins or endorphins) improve the performance of immune cells like the motility and cytotoxicity of NK cells:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14687720

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23432438

It is also shown that immune organs are inervated by autonomous nervous system (major component of the emotion response) and it regulates the immune cell activity:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1986730/

Review: "Immunoglobulin A had the strongest scientific evidence for positive effects from mind-body medicine":

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3516431/

There is a nice review with more aspects of neuro-immuno interactions:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16375977

Pranayama (breathing) techniques and immune system:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16387692

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19861570

You can also check the refs suggested in the answers of Gerald Pohler and Ari More.

I believe that modern reductionistic science has disintegrated the organism to separate components (cells, cytokines, etc) and we forget that the whole body is inter-related. If we look at the body in the holistic manner we miss the details, but we can understand general principles o human biology, e.g. when there is a danger the immunity is shut down and the energy is focused on "fight or flight" condition (dominates symphatetic nervous system), when the body is at rest it focuses on repair and growth (parasympathetic NS and related processes).

Thank you for your insights. I agree with most of your claims. However in vitro studies is one of the models to mimick the complex processes in vivo. You might not believe

that it works in vivo, but you can not deny this mechanism of action just by saying you don't believe it. It was just an example. I recommend to read a review of Wrona D. to discover other neuro-immuno interactions.

I understand cancerogenesis as the tumour growth which includes not just the growth of cancer cells but the angiogenesis, lymphogenesis, immunosupression, tumour innervation* and other physiological aspects as well.

What concerns reductionism, I think we live in the onset of interdisciplinary research as most of the cancer-studies concentrate at single molecule (or single factor) significance in cancerogenesis. These studies are probably driven by pharma industry. I hope that integration of different disciplines and viewpoints is inevitable to create efficient strategies fighting against cancer. Thank you for your ref.

* http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23599747

Dear Denis Samarin, thank you for your paper. It confirms that psychogenic factors contribute to the anti-tumor reactions of the immune system. Do you have some data how psychological treatment influence tumour growth or survival statistics?

Dear Keren Shatzman,

Thanks for the precious wisdom of your observations,

I basically agree with your methodological doubts.

I believe, like you, that we all agree in trying to propose a serious and documented scientific reflection.

If the scientific community hasn't been able to prove with absolute clarity a one-to-one connection between mind-body interventions and the improvement of immune system, this may depend on having made "wrong" questions or by the fact of not having used the most appropriate research instruments.

However, this should not prevent to think 360 degrees and seek outside the box.

Here's some links,

I hope that these articles do not fall within your category of "cherry-picking",

I think they are good reflections, useful to develop the ongoing debate,

a cordial greeting

Mauro

http://www.altjn.com/perspectives/stress.pdf

http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2004/974914/abs/

http://gemini.utb.edu/nurs3304_84/ASSIGNMENTS/Assignment%207%20Mind%20Body%20Physiology_5921200.pdf

http://gemini.utb.edu/nurs3304_84/Assignment_7_Mind%20Body%20Clinical%20Application_5921199.pdf

http://cancercontrolplanet.cancer.gov/documents/duijts_2010.pdf

Dear Vytautas,

As per my understanding from cancer biology I can say this, yes there is effect of such therapies on cancer biology and they can help to maintain the normal homeostatic mechanism of body while on the other hand as it is well accepted that cancer progression is very dynamic process and get affected by diet-n-life style about which we are discussion and hence think ultimately this is may affect on hallmarks of cancer cell such Austerity & Warburg effect, ECM-Cell-Cell Interaction, etc. and I question myself how to study the individualized molecular mechanism for these.

It has been found that some phytochemicals and herbal preparation from Indian traditional system of medicine shows promising activities to achieve these objectives. For ex. Curcumin acts on hundred of targets, and Tinospora cordifolia decreases the mylosuppression, increases host defense mechanism & immunity without interacting with the conventionally used anticancer drugs and hence as per my understanding modern and Ayurveda based integrative medicine I think to treat cancer there is requirement of Multimodal approach. It means that along with bug killing approach, there is urging to increase host immunity to increase production of normal cells, build up defense mechanism and decrease cytotoxicity and it can be one of the thrusting area research in integrative medicine.

Can. Primarily, it is necessary to synchronize the left and right hemispheres of the brain. It alpha state.

Yes. Excellent resource is the research done by Bruce Lipton, PhD: Biology of Belief

This publication could be interesting: Mols F, Husson O, Roukema JA, van de Poll-Franse LV.; J Cancer Surviv. 2013 May 16. [Epub ahead of print], Depressive symptoms are a risk factor for all-cause mortality: results from a prospective population-based study among 3,080 cancer survivors from the PROFILES registry.

They found that cancer patients with depression had a twofold (!!) increased mortality – in a prospective study, correcting for at least some clinical predictors. Nice example that mind-body interaction does work. But note, it is not clear which direction: It is tempting to speculate that depressions (mind) weakens the immune systems, changes metabolism (body), and this results in worse health, higher mortality - i.e. mind influences body. But the finding of this paper could be interpreted the other way round as well: the disease is physically worse (body), and the psyche (mind) somehow perceives that (regardless of the medical diagnostic methods which fail to detect what’s going on) – and this results in depressive symptoms. In that case body influences mind.

Dear Collegues,

does not seem that the discussion has moved away from the original focus of the question?

"mind-body interactions & carcinogenesis"

with a specific attention on techniques such as yoga, meditation, tai-chi, relaxation, conscious breathing, etc.,

in order to verify how these approaches may have a concrete and effective effect on the immune system and thus (possibly) slow or inhibit carcinogenesis.

In fact, one of the problems already emerged is relative to the difficulty of verifying experimentally the mind-body interaction within holistic approaches, i.e. situations where it is objectively difficult to separate and distinguish the different variables.

Another problematic aspect that needs further clarification is the real consistency of the placebo effect in these contexts of help to the person.

Dear Kulvietis,

In addition to this all I would like to request you, please have look on the role of Palliative care in cancer patients and modified draft guidence for the treatment of cancer pateints. and along with this i would like to inform you their are many efforts are going on to understand the mind body inteface.

http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/09/05/mind-over-matter-princeton-russian-scientist-reveal-the-secrets-of-human-aura-intentions/

Dear all,

As Swapnil Borse mentioned palliative care in this context, I would like to point your attention to the paper of Temel and colleagues (1): They found that patients who received early PALLIATIVE care lived significantly longer than patients on standard care. Even more interesting, they lived longer although they got less (!) aggressive anti-cancer chemotherapy.

There seem to be at least two possible interpretations:

1. palliative care reduces the pain and stress, results in “significant improvememnts in both quality of life and mood”, therefore the patients’ immunsystem and metabolism is improved, therefore the patients live longer.

2. aggressive chemotherapy in terminally ill patients (that are eligible for palliative care) does no good, but harm. But that was not what the study really aimed at, so this aspect on aggressive chemotherapy is hypothesis-generating rather than confirmatory.

(1) Temel et al: Early Palliative Care for Patients with Metastatic Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer. N Engl J Med 363;8, 2010

I don't think that is surprising at all!

Hi Keren,

I am less surprised than cautious.

I think the Temple findings need confirmation before we can conclude what they mean. Even more so, as this is not merely academic or interesting for research, but may have important consequences for patients and the way we treat very advanced (terminal?) cancer.

If we could get clear and reliable evidence that aggressive chemotherapy in patients with advanced disease does more harm than good, we should very strongly discourage last ditch efforts. And we should very seriously look into the results that were used to justify this use in the first place. To see, why the interpretation of the pivotal clinical studies failed to show that there is no real benefit for these (late stage) patients. And what we need to do differently in the future.

I think the Temple results are important and deserve attention – but need to be confirmed. That good palliative care is beneficial for patients and may even prolong their life (independent of antineoplastic chemotherapy) would not much surprise me. Regarding the mechanism, immunologic, metabolic, psychosomatic, I am open. This will be a long shot anyway. But if there really is reliable evidence that we should reconsider the use of chemotherapy (last line) in late stage patients, this could really make a difference for patients, could have far reaching consequences for clinical practice and the design of future clinical trials.

I think these results are logical, since chemotherapy is based on toxicity and killing cells. It kills cancerous cells more efficiently due to number of physiological reasons. However it also kills or damages healthy cells. This intoxication pulls the health down and palliative care shifts it up.

It would an interesting research to compare chemotherapy with paliative care alone. It might sound unethical, but I believe that proper palliative care (restricted diet, physical actvity, stress reduction, mind-body interactions, etc) would give higher outcome in survival rates then chemotherapy.

Dear Kulvietis,

But th question is How to start this and how to optimised????

Need to more case studies and case serise so that these theories will get strong support to write good quality of research proposal ...........!!!!!!

Dear Harald, Keren, Swapnil and Vytautas,

We should not forget that the Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) therapies are basically a response related to social needs of the patient, as well as spiritual and psychologic.

Massage therapy, acupuncture, mind-body therapies, music therapy, acupressure (as well many other palliative care) are used in cancer prevention within an integrated practice, and not in place of conventional interventions.

In this field the scientific literature already has a long history, in this sense we want to list only some meaningful titles:

Burstein HJ, Gelber S, Guadagnoli E, Weeks JC. Use of alternative medicine by women with early-stage breast cancer. N Engl J Med. 1999;340:1733-9.

**

Richardson MA, Sanders T, Palmer JL, Greisinger A, Singletary SE. Complementary/alternative medicine use in a comprehensive cancer center and the implications for oncology. J Clin Oncol. 2000; 18:2505-14.

**

Good M, Stanton-Hicks M, Grass JA, et al. Relaxation and music to reduce postsurgical pain. J Adv Nurs. 2001;33:208-15.

**

Hernandez-Reif M, Ironson G, Field T, et al. Breast cancer patients have improved immune and neuroendocrine functions following massage therapy. J Psychosom Res. 2004;57:45-52.

**

Cassileth BR, Vickers AJ. Massage therapy for symptom control: outcome study at a major cancer center. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2004;28:244-9.

**

Smith JE, Richardson J, Hoffman C, Pilkington K. Mindfulnessbased stress reduction as supportive therapy in cancer care: systematic review. J Adv Nurs. 2005;52:315-27.

**

Culos-Reed SN, Carlson LE, Daroux LM, Hately-Aldous S. A pilot study of yoga for breast cancer survivors: physical and psychological benefits. Psychooncology. 2006;15:891-7.

**

Monti DA, Peterson C, Kunkel EJ, et al. A randomized, controlled trial of mindfulness-based art therapy for women with cancer. Psychooncology. 2006;15:363-73.

**

Stephenson NL, Swanson M, Dalton J, Keefe FJ, Engelke M. Partner-delivered reflexology: effects on cancer pain and anxiety. Oncol Nurs Forum. 2007;34:127-32.

**

Wachi M, Koyama M, Utsuyama M, Bittman BB, Kitagawa M, Hirokawa K. Recreational music-making modulates natural killer cell activity, cytokines, and mood states in corporate employees. Med Sci Monit. 2007;13:CR57-70.

**

Courneya KS, Segal RJ, Mackey JR, et al. Effects of aerobic and resistance exercise in breast cancer patients Integrative receiving adjuvant chemotherapy: a multicenter randomized controlled trial. J Clin Oncol. 2007;25:4396-404.

**

Monga U, Garber SL, Thornby J, et al. Exercise prevents fatigue and improves quality of life in prostate cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2007;88:1416-22.

**

Billhult A, Lindholm C, Gunnarsson R, Stener-Victorin E. The effect of massage on cellular immunity, endocrine and psychological factors in women with breast cancer – a randomized controlled clinical trial. Auton Neurosci. 2008;140:88-95.

**

McNeely ML, Parliament MB, Seikaly H, et al. Effect of exercise on upper extremity pain and dysfunction in head and neck cancer survivors: a randomized controlled trial. Cancer. 2008;113: 214-22.

http://jop.ascopubs.org/content/9/1/34.full.pdf

Dear Vytautas, I share your view. This is why the treating physician should carefully consider – together with the patient – whether chemotherapy is appropriate. But (and this is a big BUT), it is very difficult for the doctor to tell a patient that further anti-cancer therapy does not make sense any more, and it is very difficult for a patient to accept that. Hope dies last, a common reaction is something like: may be just for me, against all odds, this therapy will work, it is my last chance.

This would be better, if we had data to show that not only there may be no benefit, but even harm – not only adverse effects, but actually shortening their remaining life span. But to my knowledge, there are no reliable data. This is why the Temple findings are so interesting and I would very much love to see them confirmed in a prospective, randomized, double-blind trial.

Dear Colleagues the question posed by Vytautas is extremely interesting but I do not know experimental studies in this sense. The only works I know is from a German Group of Entschladen F.. There is clearly demonstration from their experiments that many nervous substances derived can influence the progression of tumor.

Voss MJ, Entschladen F. Tumor interactions with soluble factors and the nervous system. Cell Commun Signal. 2010;8:21.

I always like to go back to basics. A cancerous organ or brain is just a bunch of living cells. Usually, a good cell will turn bad (mutation) if there is a chronic ischemia situation, and a bad cell will reproduce more bad cells if it receives more blood than the good cells. If mind-body interaction can reverse the 2nd situations (i.e. non-stop blood supply to cancer cells), cancer will be contained. If both situations (ischemia of good cells and angiogenesis of cancer cells) can be reversed, we can see a possible remission. As an engineer, like in any failed projects, the first thing that comes to my mind is that any serious cancer patient also has some software bugs, damaged cells, mutated DNA’s, or whatever you call it in the brain, which may be caused by the same ischemia problem in the microcirculation system within the brain. As a taichi practitioner, doing taichi (or even yoga) at abnormally slow speed (which was termed as Normal Speed before 1956) together with deep breathing can possibly reverse the microcirculation ischemia problems in all organs, by using the body to cheat the mind (Pao’s Law of Exercise). But angiogenesis of cancer cells will continue to create havoc.....

http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/groups/cr_common/@nre/@new/@pre/documents/generalcontent/cr_080626.pdf

It's an interesting material on cancer.

Thank you Irina. It's a good summary on influence of risk factors.

http://norbekov.eu/de/

Thank you, Vytautas,

May be you can be interested in the system of Professor Norbekov. Nowadays his system is practiced in Germany and other European countries.

Dear Vytautas Kulvietis

I can present a new theory to you, but this had been verified in curing my own lumbar discopathy, not cancer. So I am not sure if that would be of any good for you. But somehow it is connected with what you had expressed in your presentation (yoga, meditation, tai-chi, relaxation, conscious breathing, etc.) but does not depend on them. So actually you can create some special conditions in the body without using them as they had been presented in western world. If you are interested I can send you some links or you may see my profile.

I Agree with Ms. Keren Shatzman. There isn´t a lot of data in the literatura about that, but the paper from Liou et colleagues have interesting citations about meditation improvements on immune system and cancer prevention. See in the discussion: J Formos Med Assoc 2010;109(10):694–701.

Some of the explanations acould be: Downreglation of basal metabolism, reduction of HPA axis (stress), improvement of respiratory and cardiac function.

If I experienced some of these changes doing meditation and yoga: Yes, I do. And I keep doing because you feel the changes for better.

But how these changes happens... I don´t know! A lot of mind-body councious is already to be discover!! I´d like to work in the future in this research theme!! :)

Dear Muresanu Cristian, Thank you for sharing your personal experience. It would be interesting to get more information.

Dear Vytautas Kulvietis, I hope you can see the links inside my account... if not, I can share here, if allowed. The most important files where you can find more about my experience is my book and the interviews made on skype webcam - uploaded on my YouTube account. They are all for free except for the book which had been sponsored by UHV, Texas... so the book is for selling and the rest is for free.

As a practitioner of the Duggan/French Approach (DFA) to Somatic Pattern Recognition I have observed that hypertonic myofascial tissues create an acid environment and interfere with the elimination of positive charge, "ideal" conditions for cancerogenesis. Slower breathing as well as an efficient relationship with the gravitational field of Earth lead to a more balanced myofascial tone, better hydration, freer flow of information and charges. It seems highly likely that these play a positive role in cancer prevention and in some cases might even promote cancer suppression. Sorry, no clinical studies except for the observations published in the articles in my profile.

No.

Microcirculations in all cancer-prone organs do not work well if you exercise non-stop, release too much stress hormones, or don’t move around too much. Good microcirculations for organs can only work well if you don’t move but with a moderately high heart rate (according to my thesis called Pao’s Law of Exercise). Besides taichi (only the slower type) and yoga stretching (the no-movement type), there is a less efficient way of sending blood to internal organs, it is called the 30-Time Start-Stop Interval Training For Internal Organs (see below). As in the name, you have to stop for a while after you raise up your heart rate, and repeat that 30 times in a day. It serves as an aerobic exercise for your brain and other organs.

Article The 30-Time Start-Stop Interval Training For Internal Organs...

Yes, i think mind-body functions has effects in reducing the cancer.

The patient has to be taught meditative practice, either hindu or buddhishtha way. Whenthe concentrated consciousness is projected on the ailing parts regularly, with faith for cure, with absolute quiet mind, the stress is released not only that the cells of the body behave harmoniously and with confidence. The entire process is beyond the known dimensions so can not be formulated in the accepted practice. Patience and peace are the prime conditions.

Parashar dwivedi

Our international research collaboration of experts in the field of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and/or cancer care has critically and systematically evaluated the available evidence of efficacy and safety for a number of mind-body therapies (and other CAM). The results can be freely accessed at www.cam-cancer.org

There is a very interesting discussion of this topic in the first chapter of Barbara Ehrenreich's new book "Bright Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America ".  An absolute must for anyone interested in this topic.

I think that we have now passed the positivism of the twentieth century, and we realized thanks to Candace Pert that a huge amount of nerve receptors (improper definition) exist on lymphocytes. We can consider lymphocytes our circulating brain,  and  the body, of course,  is not only matter but a whole where psyche and matter interact. What we still do not know in psychoneuroimmunology are all mechanisms by which these two systems interact. There are, however  studies that have attempted to understand the interactions between the tumor and psyche. I refer to the works of Shamgar Ben-Eliyahu, and Frank Entshladen. The decrease of metastatization with simple molecules such as COX 2 inhibitor and betablockers are really interesting

Maybe this could help:

Kathy G. Kravits (auth.), William C.S. Cho (eds.). 2013. Evidence-based Non-pharmacological Therapies for Palliative Cancer Care. Springer Netherlands. DOI:10.1007/978-94-007-5833-9; ISBN: 978-94-007-5832-2, 978-94-007-5833-9

Thanks for your posting!

Still no.

Well I am just the beginner and I would like to share few things regarding the above question and conversation. From my point of view

Research is all about revealing the things that already exists in the nature in this universe. So regarding the mind body relationship, it  is quite complicated to prove scientifically rather than experiencing it, like  Christopher James Davia  mentioned. However, still scientists like Janice Kiecolt-Glaser and many others working on it to prove the concept scientifically and even they contributed their great and appreciated work in this world. Since it involves the human and mind it remains elusive without the proper evidence, instead of the modern technologies around us. Today many scientists were working on mind body relationship and Psychoneuroimmunology related to many diseases. But still the clear explanations with the mechanisms and  interactions were unknown. In this finally I conclude by supporting the answer “still no” from Frederic W Grannis 

Placebo also works... sometimes ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWQfe__fNbs#t=89

Well the connection between mind and body is through the inmune system: metabolic disorders. Post- inflammatory events release citoquines on plasma as Interlukine-6 or grow factor and if your body remain this substance on plasma along time, cognitive and emotional functions can be affected.