Clifford Pukel - Cancer and the Human Condition

Clifford S. Pukel, M.D.

Published by Cancer Vaccine Institute, LLC

Email address: cancerimmunionst@aol.com

Copyright 2010 Cancer Immunotherapy Institute, LLC

All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Date 2010

ISBN: 978-0-615-35459-0

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Lloyd J. Old, MD, a man of great vision, intellectual curiosity, and excellence of moral character.

And

To my Grandpa, Charles Buchholtz, former President of Congregation Kneses Israel, Sea Gate, Brooklyn, NY, who will always live in my heart.

All nature is but art unknown to thee;

All chance, direction, which thou canst not see...

Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

Essay on Man

Then Job answered the Lord, and said:

I know that Thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from Thee.

Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge?

Therefore have I uttered that I understand not;

Things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.

Hear I beseech Thee and I will speak:

I will demand of Thee and disclose Thou unto me.

I have heard of Thee by hearing of the ear:

But now mine eye seeth Thee.

Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

Job 42:1-6

A cartoon of a 19th century cancer expert, Dr. A. Borrel, examining a patient. More than anything else, the crab motif is a reminder of the incredible creativity of the human imagination.

If you are reading this sentence you are smart! It means the books title and cover interested you enough to open it and I would like to think this demonstrates you have a fine mind. You may be incredibly smart (I hope so), or even a genius, but I can (within the laws of probability) guarantee you do not know more about cancer than me. Look at the odds, with 6 billion people in the world, and maybe 6 thousand cancer experts of various sorts (researchers and clinicians with many years of experience), the likelihood of one of my peers reading this is one in a million. In fact, if the definition of an expert is: someone who doesnt need to know anything more, otherwise they wouldnt be an expert, I doubt my colleagues will be interested in this book.

So being smart, and wanting to learn, you are already on the second paragraph. Congratulations!

As my wonderful professor of comparative anatomy, Dr. Giles McIntyre, said more than thirty years ago, The definition of intelligence is the ability to learn, and, unlearn, if something is found to be untrue, which is precisely what this collection of essays is designed to do.

I want you to remain skeptical. I want you to be challenged, and to question the statements that are made, in a vigorous and intellectually honest way. I want you to take everything I say with a large grain of salt. I want you to think. I want you to learn.

Much of what I say may prove to be false. It may be true today, and untrue tomorrow. That is the beauty of the scientific method.

I am puzzled about why cancer, even the word alone, stimulates an almost visceral physical reaction in people, and their families, diagnosed with this disease. Is it the destructive changes that can occur? Is it the fear of death associated with this disease? Or is it something even more deep in the human psyche, like the notion or belief that cancer is the betrayal of self? That in other words, we have failed ourselves, in the most intimate and perhaps passionate way imaginable.

Hopefully, you will consider these thoughts as you continue your reading.

This is the first in a series of books, and Im sure that you will have many excellent ideas about future essays.

I encourage you to share your thoughts, experiences, and reflections with us.

But for now, just open your heart and mind to ideas and images and unique connections that will inspire you, dear reader, to think about our existence in new and wonderful ways.

C. S. Pukel, MD

I recognize that the numbers are inaccurate and the reasoning imprecise. Maybe only 1 billion people can read at all and lets not even talk about translations and accessibility to books. Odds of one in one hundred thousand may be closer to the truth.

~~ Selfishness is the greatest curse of the human race.~~

William Gladstone (1809-1898)

Cancer, like the poor will always be with us.

When I started studying cancer many years ago, I was young and idealistic, and believed that as societies evolved, with altruistic motives and with technological advancements poverty could be eliminated from this planet. In a similar fashion, and method of reasoning, I thought that cancer could also be eliminated from this planet.

I no longer believe that either of these wonderful ideas will ever be accomplished.

For there is something wrong with our species, that I think will prevent mankind from fulfilling its highest goals. The thing that is wrong with us is we are incredibly selfish. We dont like to share. We dont like others to beat us at anything; to earn more, vacation more, dress better, live in bigger or better residences, have more money, have more success, be happier, be better looking, be more popular, be smarter, be stronger.....

As we are selfish in a psychological sense, our bodies can metaphorically also be selfish. And the sine qua non of physiologic selfishness, is cancer.

Now I do not believe that selfish people by some mechanistic (or Divinely inspired) process develop selfish diseases. That is far too simplistic. But I think it is important to consider what it means when our bodies fail us in philosophically provocative ways. For, unlike other diseases, cancer, just the word alone, evokes an incredibly primitive and intense response in many people. It terrifies them. Just the word. Just the thought. Just the mental imagery. Just the idea.