Cancer. A word we all know, but that none of us are ever truly prepared to hear. While we don’t yet have a cure, scientists, researchers, and doctors across the globe are working to figure out how we can better detect, prevent and treat cancer.
And recent research has uncovered some exciting results that may just bring us one step closer to defeating this devastating disease. As it turns out, the secret to better understanding cancer may just lie in microscopic organisms known as fungi.
Today we’re going to explore this fascinating link between cancer and fungi. Let’s begin with a primer on cancer.
Cancer Defined: What Exactly Is Cancer?
In simplest terms, cancer occurs when there is an error or mutation in the instructions encoded within your cells that directs them on how to function, grow, and divide. When this “instruction manual” mutates and triggers your cell to become cancerous, it instructs your cell to grow and multiply at a much more rapid rate than normal – sometimes even triggering them to start accumulating and invading other tissues of your body .1
And what makes cancer even more tricky, is that these cancerous cells are crafty and creative – manipulating your body to enhance their survival. For example, in some instances cancerous cells can:2
- Alter blood flow: In order to enhance blood flow and the delivery of life-sustaining nutrients, cancerous cells can encourage blood vessels to extend into tumors.
- Evade immune detection: Cancer cells can bypass your immune system's built-in defense mechanism and avoid being detected and destroyed.
- Manipulate your immune system: Cancerous cells can be master manipulators – even tricking your immune system into protecting them instead of your normal cells.
Any cell in your body can become cancerous – hence the many different types of cancer. So what causes these cells to mutate and become cancerous in the first place?
What Causes A Cell to Become Cancerous
While there is likely a multitude of factors that can contribute to a cell becoming cancerous, they all circle back to an imbalance in what’s known as your redox homeostasis. This process goes something like this:3,4
- Free radical production: As a by-product of their natural functions, your cells produce compounds known as free radicals – highly unstable and reactive molecules that can rob your healthy cells of electrons in an attempt to stabilize themselves.This stripping of electrons damages your own cells, causing what’s referred to as oxidative stress.
- Redox homeostasis: Because these free radicals are a natural and healthy part of cellular function, your body also produces compounds known as antioxidants to neutralize and remove these unstable molecules. This precise and dynamic give and take maintains a balance known as redox homeostasis.
- Redox imbalance: If this fragile equilibrium of redox homeostasis is thrown out of whack, your antioxidant system can become overwhelmed – causing a spike in free radicals that your body is unable to neutralize in a timely manner.
- Cellular dysregulation: As these free radicals are left unchecked, they wreak havoc on your cells – causing oxidative damage to your DNA, proteins, and other molecules that your cell needs. Over time, this damage alters your cell's structure and ability to function – triggering the metabolic mutations that cause the cell to become cancerous.
- Redox reprogramming: Once cancerous, these mutated cells can manipulate redox homeostasis to enhance their survival – boosting their ability to replicate, prolonging their lifespan, and upregulating antioxidant production to shield themselves from further oxidative stress.
The underlying factors that can disrupt your redox homeostasis are countless – ranging from genetics to diet and everything in between. But there’s one potentially underlying factor that has piqued the interest of researchers and doctors – a class of organisms known as fungi. Before we dive into the fascinating link between cancer and fungi, let’s first zoom in on how fungi can cause inflammation, oxidative damage, and dysregulation of your redox homeostasis.
How Fungi Trigger Inflammation and Oxidative Damage
Fungi are a class of organisms that includes things like mushrooms, mold, and yeast. Our bodies are also inhabited by microscopic fungi that live within our gut microbiome – where theydisrupt can potentially cause your cells to go haywire and become cancerous.
Now that you have an understanding of how fungi can potentially disrupt your redox homeostasis, let’s look at what research has uncovered regarding the connection between fungal organisms and cancer.
The Mycobiome: The Link Between Fungi and Cancer
Your microbiome, or the bacteria that reside in your gut, have long been known to have a significant impact on the trajectory of countless diseases – cancer included. But your mycobiome – the conglomeration of fungi that inhabit your body – might be just as important. Let’s look at some of the fascinating and distinct links that researchers have discovered between cancer and the species of fungi that make up your mycobiome:5,6,7,8
- Fungi inhabit many cancerous tumors: Over 17,400 patient samples across 35 different types of cancer were analyzed for the presence of fungal species. Fungal DNA was detected in tumors, within cancer cells, and even inside immune cells that had infiltrated the tumor.
- Certain fungal populations correlate with specific types of cancer: Even more interestingly, the fungal ecosystems found within tumors correlated with specific types of cancer. For example, the fungal species of candida was found in higher levels in gastrointestinal cancer while the species Blastomyces was found in higher concentrations in lung cancer.
- Interactions between fungi, bacterial communities, and immune cells impact cancer outcomes: Fungi and bacteria were found to co-exist within tumors – creating a complex dynamic between fungi, bacteria, and immune cells. This complex dynamic may impact cancer outcomes – with studies suggesting that a higher fungal load may correlate to worse cancer outcomes.
- Fungi can impact cancer progression and tumor biology: Fungi were found to clearly impact the progression of cancer and tumor growth. While the exact mechanisms of action aren’t entirely clear, it’s likely due to a combination of factors such as altering the tumor microenvironment, the secretion of bioactive metabolites, the modulation of your immune system, and via communications with bacterial populations.
If fungal populations do indeed have a direct correlation to cancer development and progression, these findings could have major implications when it comes to cancer prevention, detection, and treatment.
So, Is the Mycobiome the Secret to Understanding Cancer?
The answer to this question is – it’s unclear. These discoveries are certainly exciting and give us some fresh insight into how cancer impacts our body. But more time and research is needed to truly determine the role fungi and the mycobiome play in the development and progression of cancer.
But understanding the pivotal role that the microbes that inhabit our body play in cancer brings us one step closer to finding a solution to treating cancer. And definitely gives us more insight in to how crucial it is to support a healthy, balanced, and diverse microbiome when it comes to preventing, managing, and healing conditions like cancer.
Have You Been Diagnosed With Cancer?
A cancer diagnosis can turn your entire world upside down. While we don’t have a cure for this devastating disease yet, there is hope and there are steps you can take to fight back. Whether you’re recently diagnosed, are in the trenches of radiation therapy or chemo, or are fortunate enough to be in remission, you may benefit from seeking out the guidance of an Integrative and Functional Medicine Practitioner.
There tends to be an unspoken belief that a holistic, functional medicine approach is somehow at odds with conventional treatment (like radiation and chemo). But when it comes to fighting cancer, this couldn’t be further from the truth – both approaches have a place of vital importance. Working with a Functional Medicine Doctor alongside your oncologist can help you combat cancer on every front and help you create an “anti-cancer” lifestyle.
You see, cancer is not a “one-and-done” disease. Once your cells have mutated, they are more likely to revert back to a cancerous state – even if treatment has eliminated all signs of cancer. So the best way to fight back against cancer is to take a big-picture, whole-life approach.
Ready to Create an Anti-Cancer Lifestyle?
An anti-cancer lifestyle really just means supporting your body to function at optimal capacity. It encompasses some more obvious things like eating a nutritious anti-inflammatory diet, moving your body, and getting quality sleep. But it also includes often-overlooked things like your exposure to environmental toxins (like mold and other fungi), your stress and mental well-being, your relationship with yourself and others, and more.
Whether cancer has impacted your life or not, we could all benefit from striving to live an “anti-cancer” lifestyle. So if you want to shortcut your way to a healthier, happier life, I encourage you to head over and browse through my blog, explore my YouTube channel, and sign up for my weekly newsletter (all you have to do is enter your name and email address in the form below). I’ve got hundreds of free resources designed to empower you with easy-to-understand and easy-to-implement steps for a vibrantly healthy life.
And if you want to take it even deeper, you’ve got to get your hands on a copy of my new book Unexpected: Finding Resilience Through Functional Medicine, Science, and Faith. In my book, I detail my own journey with cancer and other life-changing diagnoses as well as various challenges and obstacles throughout my life. I poured my heart and soul into this book in the hopes of offering not only a practical roadmap to better health, but also a source of inspiration. Because I know with every fiber of my being that you have the power to transform your health and your life to create vibrant well-being from the inside out. Sometimes all we need is a little nudge to help us unearth a world of unexpected miracles.
Now it’s time to hear from you. Were you surprised to learn about the connection between fungi and cancer? What steps are you taking to create your anti-cancer lifestyle? Leave your questions and thoughts in the comments below!
Resources:
- What is Cancer? | Cancer Basics | American Cancer Society
- What Is Cancer? – NCI
- Frontiers | The Relationship of Redox With Hallmarks of Cancer: The Importance of Homeostasis and Context | Oncology (frontiersin.org)
- The redox biology network in cancer pathophysiology and therapeutics – ScienceDirect
- Pan-cancer analyses reveal cancer-type-specific fungal ecologies and bacteriome interactions: Cell
- The Fungus Within Us: The Mycobiome's Emerging Role in Cancer – American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
- Fungi and cancer | Gut (bmj.com)
- Fungi find their way into cancer tumors, but why is a mystery – STAT (statnews.com)
6 Comments
There are WAY too many “coincidences” and similarities between cancer and candida, that anyone educated on both should not ignore, the most important being how both ferment to make fuel.
Jill have you ever helped someone get over a LIFELONG multi-decade Candida infection?
Is it even possible that someone infected for 50 years, where the jerk is immune to just about every treatment, and of course a “normal” part of our microbiome (so can’t be 100% eradictaed), where their microbione has been too far depleted of good bacteria, is it even possible to wipe it out and KEEP IT GONE (the hard part, keeping it gone)? What I am seeing, is this organism fueling just about ALL dis-sease today, experts were calling it an epidemic in the 80’s, and its only gotten much worse since then, I see its trademarks everywhere. There are just too many attacks on the microbiome today, from too many sources, and once some of these colonies get depleted, you now have NO protection against it, and unfortunately bacteria infections which are also up to staggering numbers, and the 2 things fuel each other, and continue to lower the numbers of good bacteria until someone is dominated by foul pathogens. How can you possibly come back from this state? Most descend further into dis-ease, such as cancer, and parish. I can only think of one strong strategy, Probiotics are near useless once things have gone too far, only FMT it seems can bring some back from this state, and its no given, there are a lot of variables, I’ve seen many failures, along with some success.
Would love to hear your comments and experiences on these topics
In my early 50s, I became very ill and the doctor in our community in the far, far north, could not find out the cause nor a cure. Increasing doses of antibiotics only made my stomach issues worse. Also, I was actually staggering with brain dizziness. Finally, an emerge doc identified a candida infection and the process for curing it began. Fast forward two years and I developed a larges skin lesion that would not heal. Again, the doctor was stymied and nothing worked to mitigate the problem: finally a biopsy was done and it was a malignant melanoma (3.7). Post surgery, the margins weren’t clear and so, prognosis was ‘iffy’. However, 20 years later there hasn’t been a recurrence! My diet was always as good as I could make it and I was very physically active. The interesting connection with mold is that I worked for 35 years in that community school. The first 13 years of that time, we worked from a set of old trailers that had been ‘temporarily’ installed 10 years earlier, after the original school burned down. They were finally replaced when the school was found to be full of black mold. It turned out that my classroom had the worst infestation. As you know, black mold thrives in cold environments and we were, at times, the coldest spot in the world. I’m incredibly grateful to be alive, but have often wondered if the continued barrage of health issues, (including CRPS – an auto immune disease, and an enlarged heart I developed 6 years ago) are not a part of the cascade of effects from that initial, very severe infection. In spite of the severity of subsequent problems, the only time I truly believed I was dying, was during the candida infection. This new research is very interesting to me. Thank you for the posting!
My family and I have been struggling for far too long with sickness from long-term mold exposure and water damage. During this time I have read and watched anything I can get my hands on concerning mold. During my journey, I began to believe that mold can affect your body in so many ways. I begin to look at the sugar aspect of mold sickness. Stay away from sugar. Then I began to look at sugar diabetes, cancer, and mold sickness and found that all three have sugar in common. Unfortunately, I lost a close friend to cancer a few years ago. Turns out she had long-term mold exposure. Recently my sister was diagnosed with cancer. My friend’s Gastrointestinal and my sister of the lungs. They both were exposed to mold. I remember reading an article and the doctor saying starve your cancer, starve your sugar diabetes, and starve your sickness from mold. They all have sugar and bad carbohydrates in common. Feed them the foods that they don’t like. Eat more greens. He went on to say that if you or someone you know gets cancer ask your doctor to put you on an antifungal medication. My friend was taking antibiotics all the time because she or her doctor was not connecting her sickness to mold exposure. Doctors should ask their patients environmental questions as well to get the full picture of what could be going on with their health.
I have come to understand that a healthy diet, exercise, a healthy mindset, relationships, and I can go on, play a very important role in getting healthy. My family and I are still struggling with our health because we are not fortunate to leave. But, for those who can. Get out! In the meantime, we are doing everything possible to become healthy again. I do have wonderful doctors. They have been amazing! I was lucky enough to find a doctor to treat mold sickness. I believe that we will get through this because we have a good support system.
I am not surprised to hear about the fungi cancer connection. I hope that more research is done
Thank you, Dr. Jill!
You are inspiration to me, as a Nurse Practitioner working in Integrative Oncology with Sutter Medical Group in Roseville– AND I mention you to our patients and they appreciate your journey through cancer and beyond. Thanks for all your teaching, training and who you are and your faith.
Many continued blessings to you and your family!
thank you so much, Katie!
I believe Cancer is caused by mold. I was perfectly healthy until moving into water damage building then suddenly got ovarian cancer ect and now am trying to recover from MCA!But knowledge is power. Check out the Doug Kaufman show on YouTube called “ know the cause” it’s an entire tv show that’s dedicated to informing others of the fact that cancer is caused by fungus. It’s interesting that he worked in a clinic and said every single cancer patient had athletes foot! I believe that the issue is environmental/ water damaged buildings and sadly unless you go through mold illness/cirs most will not be informed! Let’s help get the message out!
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