David Servan-Schreiber

[Stephen Jay Gould] had lived thirty times longer than the oncologists had predicted. The lesson that this great biologist teaches us is simple: Statistics are information, not condemnation. The objective, when you have cancer and want to combat fatality, is to make sure you find yourself in the long tail of the curve.

In Chinese, the notion of ‘crisis’ is written as a combination of the two characters ‘danger’ and ‘opportunity.’ Cancer is so threatening that its effect is blinding; it is hard for us to grasp its creative potential. In many ways, my illness has changed my life for the better, and in a way I never could have imagined when I thought I was condemned.

Several studies show that, like soldiers, human immune cells fight all the harder when (1) they are treated with respect (they are well fed and protected from toxins) and (2) their commanding officer keeps a cool head (he deals with his emotions and acts with poise).

All the facts bear out this conclusion; everything that strengthens our precious immune cells, fighting inflammation (with nutrition, physical exercise, and emotional balance), and fighting angiogenesis, we undercut cancer’s spread. Acting in parallel with strictly conventional medical approaches, we can enhance our body’s resources. The ‘price’ to pay is to lead a more fully conscious, more balanced, and, in the end, more beautiful life.

I must insist on one point: No psychological factor by itself has ever been identified as being capable of creating that bad seed. In other words, nothing permits us to state that psychic trauma can be the sole cause of cancer. However, as with nutrition, exercise, or the quality of our air and water, certain psychological states can profoundly influence the soil in which the seed develops.

The group that received practical advice about lifestyle changes had a 56 percent lower mortality risk over the eleven-year period. ... If results like this were ever achieved with a new drug, every oncologist in the world would feel obligated to prescribe it. Whether its learning to relax and better control our minds, or better nourishing ourselves, or practicing regular physical exercise, there’s really only one secret. We need to give ourselves a way in which we can steer the course of our own lives instead of being subjected to them in helplessness and distress.

Catherine Koebel’s team demonstrated for the first time in a laboratory environment a radical new concept in the field of oncology. The results of their research suggest that cancer arises only from those cancer cells that find fertile ‘terrain’ in which to grow. That is, cancer cells will flourish only within an individual whose immune defenses have been weakened. It may be primarily the lack of healthy defenses that allows otherwise dormant cancer cells to become aggressive tumors.