Fungi/Mycotoxins Cause Breast Cancer in Humans

[Guest guest]

This is one of the excerpts from the Fungalbionics books that Doug Haney told us

about.

FUNGI/MYCOTOXINS CAUSE BREAST CANCER IN HUMANS

CALCIFICATIONS IN BREAST CANCER LESIONS ARE FUNGAL

FUNGI/MYCOTOXINS CAUSE BREAST CANCER IN ANIMALS

THE REPORTED CLINICAL FACTS AND THE

CORRELATIVE FUNGAL/MYCOTOXIN FACTS

Aflatoxin Found In

Human Breast Cancer Tissue

on et al. (1993) examined human breast cancer

tissue for evidence of the presence of aflatoxin, a recognized potent

carcinogenic

mycotoxin. The researchers examined human DNA from a variety of tissues

and organs to identify and quantify aflatoxin DNA-adducts. Such adducts

are considered to be proof of the mycotoxin's presence in a particular

tissue. (These researchers had already proved the value of this method

in the detection of aflatoxin-DNA adducts in tissue from a case of acute

aflatoxin poisoning in Southeast Asia.)

DNA from normal and tumorous tissue obtained from patients

with cancer of the breast was examined. Tumor tissues had higher

aflatoxin-adduct

levels than did normal tissue from the same individual.

The result of this study is that it verifies the presence

of carcinogenic aflatoxin within the cancer tissue and thus implicates

aflatoxin as a cause of breast cancer.

Cyclosporin (A Mycotoxin) Causes

Breast Cancer In Humans (3 Studies)

Cyclosporin is a fungal derived drug. It is classified

as a mycotoxin in the mycology literature (Betina [1989]).

1. Vogt et al. (1990) reported the occurrence

of de novo malignant tumors occurring in 598 renal transplant recipients

who were immunosupressed with cyclosporin.

Eighteen of 598 patients receiving their first renal graft

along with cyclosporin treatment between 1981 and 1986 developed a malignancy

at a mean interval of 33 months. The cyclosporin-induced cancers included

breast cancer.

2. Escribano-Patino et al. (1995) reported

the occurrence of breast cancer as a complication of cyclosporin use in

their series of kidney transplant recipients.

3. Penn and First (1986) reported 88 tumors in

eighty-seven organ transplant recipients after the use of cyclosporin.

Malignancies appeared an average of 14 months after the cyclosporin treatment.

There was a surprising frequency of endocrine-related malignancies (ovarian,

testicular and breast) among these malignancies.

Aflatoxin Induces Malignant

Changes In Human Breast Cells

Eldridge et al. (1992) noted that some environmental

chemicals are stored in human breast fat which are documented to be rodent

mammary carcinogens. These researchers stressed the importance of determining

the cancer potential of environmental agents in this key target tissue.

An assay was developed for detecting cancer potential

using cultures of normal human breast epithelial cells derived from 5 different

women. A positive response was observed with aflatoxin.

The conclusion of this study was that aflatoxin causes

normal human breast cells to become cancerous.

Moldy Cheese Causes

Breast Cancer In French Women

Le et al. (1986), in a French case-control study

of 1,010 breast cancer cases and 1,950 controls with nonmalignant diseases,

found that breast cancer was found to be associated with increased frequency

of mold-fermented cheese consumption (see Chapter 41, entitled Cheese

Causes Breast Cancer, for other reported studies).

Oxalic Acid (A Mycotoxin)

Found In Breast Cancer Lesions

Going et al. (1990) found that weddellite (calcium

oxalate) crystals are present in calcifications found in the breast tissue

of patients with breast cancer. Calcium oxalate crystals are formed when

calcium binds with oxalic acid. In human and animal systems, this is a

protective process which considerably reduces the severe toxicity of oxalic

acid. Oxalic acid is a powerful corrosive agent and oxalate salts are widely

used for their cleaning and bleaching properties!

Oxalic acid happens to be a mycotoxin which can be produced

by a number of different fungal species. Some fungi produce such large

amounts of oxalic acid that they are used for commercial production of

the chemical.

Aspergillus niger fungal infection in human lungs

produces large amounts of oxalic acid which is extremely toxic to the blood

vessels and which may cause fatal pulmonary hemorrhages. Consequently,

oxalic acid (calcium oxalate crystals) in the sputum or lung specimens

of patients is also an indication of an Aspergillus infection of

the lung. These calcium oxalate crystals are the same as the calcium oxalate

found in breast cancers.

The presence of oxalates in the breast is indicative of

the presence of fungi interwoven within the stages of breast cancer development.

Since humans do not make oxalic acid themselves, this is an appropriate

conclusion.

Breast Oxalate Calcifications

In Mammographic Examinations

et al. (1993) examined calcifications found

in breast mammograms and evaluated their relationship to the risk of subsequent

breast cancer. The presence, morphology, and distribution of calcifications

visualized on baseline mammograms of 686 women who developed breast cancer

over a 7- to 10-year follow-up period were compared with those of 1,357

controls who remained cancer free. It was found that there was a significant

correlation between such calcifications and subsequent development of breast

cancer.

Breast Cancer Calcifications Decrease

With Tamoxifen (Antifungal) Treatment

and Georgian- (1994) reported the regression

of breast cancer in four patients who had been treated with tamoxifen.

The patients were closely monitored with physical examination and mammography

for a minimum of 2 years.

In all cases, the features of malignancy which were seen

on mammograms regressed. These results were documented by a decrease in

the number of calcifications and in the size of spiculated masses. These

results suggest that these breast calcifications are dynamic in nature,

being able to regress as effective treatment reduces the cancer.

CLINICAL PERSPECTIVE

The presence of oxalate calcifications in the breasts

of virtually every patient with breast cancer, and their subsequent regression

as a result of treatment with the antifungal agent tamoxifen, points to

the strong possibility that there is a fungal role in this cancer. There

have even been reports of fungal cells growing out of cancer cells. The

existence of a viable fungal sub-forms—with its DNA co-mixed with a human's

own DNA—could well explain the bizarre appearance of the DNA in cancer

cells. Support for such a " science fiction " type scenario is found in the

observation that a lectin staining procedure, used to find " invisible "

fungi in tissue specimens, happens to identify breast cancer cells. Normal

cells do not stain with these same lectin staining procedures.

The lectin stain is also taken up by strange multinucleated

giant cells which suggests that these cells may, in fact, be fungal cells.

This could explain the presence of oxalates in breast cancer tissue, a

metabolite produced by fungi and not by humans. It might also help explain

how breast cancer is caused by a number of fungal-fermented foods, particularly

those made with Baker's or Brewer's Yeast (both being Saccharomyces

cerevisiae), known producers of uric acid which degrades to oxalic

acid (Costantini [1989]).

Baker's yeast is used to make bread, a documented cause

of breast cancer in Japanese women. Brewer's yeast is used to make many

alcoholic beverages, all of which are known to cause breast cancer in every

country where the connection has been investigated, a fact which is well

documented (See Chapters 27, 30-32, relative to alcohol, beer and wine

causing breast cancer.)

Aflatoxin Causes Breast Cancer in Rats

Leszczyszyn (1986) reported the results of experiments

in which aflatoxin induced mammary cancer in rats.

Breast Tumors In Rats Caused By

The Fungus Penicillium camemberti

Gibel et al. (1971) conducted experimental studies

of the cancer-causing fungus Penicillium camemberti var. candidum in which

mammary neoplasms were induced in rats. (Penicillium camemberti is the fungus

which is used to make Camembert cheese, frequently consumed

in the Western diet.)

T-2 Toxin (Fusarium)

Causes Breast Tumors In Rats

Schoental et al. (1979) reported that breast cancers

were induced in rats which were dosed with T-2 Toxin.

T-2 Toxin is a Fusarium toxin frequently found

in the human food chain. The fact that T-2 Toxin induced breast cancer

in an animal model is most significant, for this cancer occurs so often

in humans.

Furthermore, antibodies against Fusarium fungi

are frequently found in human blood. These fungi and their toxins are the

most frequently encountered contaminants found in animal feed and human

foods. See also Saito (1971) and Corrado (1971), both of whom induced breast

cancer in mice using moldy rice and its extracts.

Ochratoxin Causes Breast Tumors In Mice

Fibroadenomas in the mammary gland were found in over

half of a group of female mice which were dosed with ochratoxin (Boorman

[1988]). In humans, fibroadenoma is a documented risk factor for breast

cancer (Dupont et al. [1994]).

Ochratoxin Causes Breast

Fibroadenomas In Animals

Huff (1991) investigated the carcinogenicity of ochratoxin,

a naturally occurring mycotoxin of the fungal genera Aspergillus and

Penicillium, which was studied in three strains of mice and

in one strain of rats.

It was found that fibroadenomas of the mammary glands

were induced by ochratoxin administration. In humans, fibroadenoma is a

documented long-term risk factor for breast cancer (Dupont et al. [1994]).

Penicillic Acid/Patulin Cause Breast

Adenomas And Breast Sarcomas In Mice And Rats

Penicillic acid was found to induce mammary adenomas,

as well as local sarcomas and fibrosarcomas in mice and rats. Patulin was

also reported to cause mammary adenomas in mice and rats (Dickens and

[1965], Dickens [1967]). See also Ciegler et al. (1971).

Verrucarin E-Induced Breast Tumors In Mice

Jodczyk (1984) was able to induce breast tumors in mice

by exposing them to a derivative of the mycotoxin verrucarin E.

Moldy Rice Extract Causes

Breast Cancer In Animals

Mammary cancers (breast cancers) were induced by feeding

an alcohol extract of moldy rice to animals (Corrado [1971]). See also

Saito (1971).