Blood test to spot cancer

Today's news has a big story about a new cancer blood test, or as the Associated Press headline says "Blood test to spot cancer gets a big boost from J&J."

Here's the lead-in from the Associated Press:

BOSTON – A blood test so sensitive that it can spot a single cancer cell lurking among a billion healthy ones is moving one step closer to being available at your doctor's office.

"Boston scientists who invented the test and health care giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J) will announce Monday that they are joining forces to bring it to market. Four big cancer centers also will start studies using the experimental test this year."

That discovery sounds like good news. But there is much better news than this late breaking news. First of all, the new J&J test is actually two years away from seeing the light of day. Secondly, it will probably cost at least several hundred dollars if not more for each test based on the cost of a more primitive blood test presently available.

The better news I have for you is not actually news, because there is a better test that has been around for at least 30 years. I'm not making that up - the first paper was published regarding the efficacy of the old test 35 years ago.

Manuel Navarro, M.D., developed the HCG Immunoassay test for cancer. (More about the HCG below) His test finds cancer up to two years before it would be diagnosed with today's technology. It doesn't require a needle or blood. It has some real advantages over the Johnson & Johnson test:

• It's available now
• No blood needs to drawn because the HCG Immunoassay is a urine test
• The cost of the test is $50 rather than possibly $1,000

It's interesting to note that the J&J test has found cancer in the blood of 2/3rds of the prostate cancer patients tested whose cancers had not metastisized. The researchers were surprised by this result.

The high percentage of cancer cells found in the blood could be a further validation of the HCG theory of cancer which is that we have dormant cancer cells in us at all times. It is only when those become active and refuse to be turned off that cancer is truly present.

Whereas the J&J test measures the presence of cancer cells, it is only when the cells are releasing HCG that they are active

Thus the J&J test might produce many false positives, followed by life threatening treatments and procedures WHEN THERE IS NO ACTIVE CANCER. Or the blood test could mislead doctors into taking a more aggressive approach in confirmed cancer cases based on the presence of cancer cells in the blood that aren't producing HCG.

The bottom line for me is that the Navarro test is reliable in pinpointing the presence of an active cancer because it is measuring the right marker. In contrast, the J&J test might be 'discovering' perfectly healthy cancer cells that are not actively producing tumors.

The presence of perfectly healthy cancer cells is surely a foreign idea to today's major cancer research centers as well as to the public. Bringing up the notion might turn most medical scientists red faced and sputtering. But then they would be the first to tell you that they don't know what a cancer cell is. They can say what it does, but they don't know what a cancer cell is.

For more information on the Navarro HCG Immunoassay see the Cancer Control Society webite at http://www.cancercontrolsociety.com/bios-old/Navarro.htm

For information on where to get the test, visit here http://www.rethinkingcancer.org/resources/pdf/Human%20Chorionic%20Gonatrophin%20(HCG)%20Test.pdf

Your comments are welcome.