The Incredible Disappearing Cancer Patients

How does this even happen?

It's over 20 years since I met my first disappearing patient. A nurse in her early 40s, let's call her Kate.  Kate was diagnosed with breast cancer. As a nurse, she had seen the results of treatments for breast cancer, and frankly, she was terrified, and determined. She was not having surgery, chemotherapy, nor radiation.

But, Kate worked in a hospital with the doctors who diagnosed her cancer. She worked with the surgeon, who urged her to schedule her surgery "as soon as possible." At first she was furious "If it’s here today, it must have been here last year.  Why didn't you find it last year."

The next thing Kate did was slow down. Her cancer was small. She knew it not an acute illness. There was no need for immediate action. She had been tested for breast cancer last year. No cancer was found. She knew it took years for cancers to develop. It had not metastasized.  It was not growing rapidly, not affecting her health in any way. She knew, from experience, that she had lots of time. So, she took some time, to do some research.

We met in Canada. It didn't take her long to remind herself that, in Canada and the USA, treatments for cancer are akin to law. No doctor, no clinic, no hospital dared deviate from the three Standards of Care for cancer. She new there were no Standards of Cure for cancers.

Kate didn't look for magic cures.  She didn't search for the latest conventional or alternative cancer cure. She wasn't interested in curing herself. She was a nurse, not a doctor.

Instead, she searched for the cured. Of course there is a problem - our medical systems have no definition of cured for cancer. There is no medical nor scientific test for cancer cured. Modern medicine tracks cancer cure rates, statistical measures of “presumed to be cured” because cured patients cannot be medically recognized. This is still true today.

She wanted to find patient who were diagnosed with cancer, and no longer had cancer. She knew, from her work, from conversations with patients and staff, that these people existed, but they were invisible. No doctor, clinic, hospital nor medical system tracks cured for any disease. Cured patients don’t need medical treatments.

It didn't take long to find patients who claimed they were cured. They hadn't disappeared from life, they weren’t invisible. They were eating, drinking, living, loving, full, healthy and prosperous lives. But according to the medical records, cured didn't exist. It’s as if they were never cured. Just like the common cold, influenza, measles, and COVID, there are no medical records of cured.

The medical system dismissed these cures anecdotal. Know this, every case of cured, for any disease, is a single case, a story, an anecdote. Cured patients are ignored. No doctor attempts to understand what happened to cured patients. They just move on. There are lots of sick people. Our medical systems diagnose sick people, treat sick patients, document sick patients. Cured patients were not sick.

Kate met with a few of them. She was not interested in debates about clinical science vs anecdotal evidence. Her interests were personal. She talked, listened, and compared stories. Several spoke about a clinic that made no claim to cure cancer; that did not use medicines to treat cancers. Yet somehow, many patients were cured. The clinic was not in Canada, not in the USA. Kate had to go to Mexico to learn more.

There are lots of so-called alternative medical clinics in Mexico, and in many other countries.  Are some of them curing cancers? Are some of them scams, just taking money from desperate patients? Do they only work sometimes, only in some cases? Would they work for Kate’s cancer? Kate didn't know. She did more research. She called the clinic.

The staff made no claim to cure cancer. Claiming to cure cancer is not just forbidden, it’s dangerous, even for a clinic outside of North America. They suggested Kate visit the clinic, to see for herself what happens there. There was no charge for a visit, and no promises. Her only cost was to pay for travel to Mexico.  

Kate made her decision. She was familiar with cancer diagnosis in Canada. She had undergone a physical examination, a mammogram, that detected a lump in her breast. Then she’d had a biopsy, where tissue was taken from the lump and sent to a lab for analysis. The lab technician examined the sample and said it was 'cancer.' Once a diagnosis is cancer, everyone swings into action. Kate also knew that mammograms have both a false positive rate and a false negative rate. Many people who are diagnosed with a possible cancer by a mammogram do not actually have cancer. She knew, from her medical experience, that cancer biopsies also have a false positive rate and a false negative rate.

She didn't really know for certain if she had cancer.  Her surgeon, on the other hand, was pressing her to schedule treatment.

Kate knew one thing.  She had time. She cashed out some savings and booked a holiday in Mexico. A short visit to the clinic convinced her, an experienced nurse, without any desire to return home and consider the decision. She signed up, paid the fee and entered the clinic.

At the clinic, Kate was surprised to learn there was no attempt to validate the cancer diagnosis. The staff at the clinic checked the presence and size of the lump on her breast. But they didn't repeat the biopsy. The clinic read her diagnostic reports, but did not investigate them further. In place of a diagnosis, there was a thorough analysis of her health of body, mind, spirits, and communities, by a suite of several different doctors. “Two full days of tests and interviews”, she told me “no waiting in line.”

Kate was asked about her family's medical histories. She gave blood samples. She was questioned extensively about her diet. Doctors examined her lungs, her heart, liver, and other bodily organs with various tests. Her immune system was tested.  There were extensive interviews about her life, her work, her family and social relationships.

At that time, Kate, I didn't realize this was not a medical analysis, it was a health analysis. The tests and the questions fit perfectly to the hierarchy of healthicine: genetics, nutrition, cells, tissues, organs, bodily systems, body, mind, spirits, communities, and environments.

Kate's genetics were analyzed. Her nutritional status was analyzed, not just analyzing what she ate, and what she preferred to eat, but also by asking what she didn't like to eat, what she deliberately never ate, what foods she was allergic to. Her cells and tissues were analyzed directly, through blood samples and physical examination, and indirectly through medical history. Many of her organs were tested for healthiness. Her bodily systems, immune system, circulatory system, respiratory system, hormonal systems and more were analyzed and assessed. Her physical body was measured, weighed, and examined carefully. Her mental health was assessed, as was her emotional, spirit, and spiritual healthiness. She was in good spirits, even in light of a potentially fatal illness. The doctors discussed her family, her relationships with her children, her spouse, her parents, her work communities, and more.

A few days later, Kate met with a group 6 or 7 doctors to discuss her health, not her illness, her healthiness. Diagnosing disease is difficult.  Analyzing healthiness is more complex. It took several hours for Kate to hear and understand what they had learned about her healthinesses and her unhealthinesses.

Then they prescribed two weeks of healthiness training, tailored to Kate's specific situation. She spent the two weeks at the clinic, practicing, learning to be healthier, not in theory, instead, learning what Kate needed to do to make her diet, her body, her mind, her spirits, and even her relationships with her communities healthier. She said that, “after two weeks of learning and practice at the clinic, my breast lump had already started to shrink”.

Kate went back to Canada and put her leaning into action. The lump disappeared. Her diagnosis was still there, on paper, but her cancer had disappeared. She was retested at her hospital. Result: NED. No Evidence of Disease. No cancer could be found.

Then Kate began disappearing. 

When the surgeon asked, she explained that she was not going to surgery. He looked away and wouldn’t look her in the eye.

She didn't disappear from her family.  She went back to her family. She didn't disappear from her job.  She went back to her job. She disappeared from the cancer system.  Her cancer disappeared, so, as a cancer patient, she disappeared.

Was she cured? We don't know. There is no scientific nor medical definition of cancer cured.  We have no medical or scientific test to prove a patient is cured of cancer or not. We have no cancer statistics for people who are cured of cancer. Patients who are cured are not counted.  No breast cancer patients are officially cured.  If their cancer goes away, they disappear from the system. Diagnostic statistics remain, cured statistics don’t exist. If their cancer is killed by radiation, chemotherapy or surgery, they are not counted as cured, they are counted as a survivor. Did they survive the cancer? Or the treatment?

Most cancer survivors live in fear of the cancer’s re-appearance, as if the disease is only hiding, never cured. Symptoms are said to be in remission, but their cancer is not called cured.

I met Kate five years after her experience. She still has no cancer. She paid, from her own pocket, for her trip to a clinic in Mexico. After the trip, her cancer disappeared. She had medical insurance. But her insurance wouldn't pay for her trip. Insurance pays for approved treatments, not for cures, regardless of success or failure. Cured cases disappear.

There are three ways for a cancer patient to disappear. They might be cured by an approved treatment, they might cured by health. Or, they might be cured by a medicine or treatment that is not approved.  In all cases, our medical systems ignore the cured. If the treatment was approved, the patient is tracked. If it was not an approved treatment, only the approved portion of the treatment, the diagnosis, is documented. Cured is not documented for any patient, for any case of cancer.

I have since met several cancer patients who have disappeared in various ways. Not just cancer patients. I often meet people who claim to be cured of arthritis. I know one person who claims to be cured of myopia. Years ago, I talked to someone who cured their Parkinson’s disease in New Zealand. These cures, like Kate’s cancer, were simply ignored. I've met more by internet, email, etc. Maybe you have similar stories?

Medical Theory

In our current medical practice, cancers are treated like injuries - the cause is considered to be in the past. Treatments target the cancer cells, the result of the cause. There are thousands of potential causes in the past - which might be used to prevent cancers, but not to cure them.

Theory of Cure

In the new theory of cure, a cure addresses the present cause of an illness. In some cases, like a minor skin cancer, we can cure by removing the melanoma surgically. In other cases, like a slow moving breast cancer, the cause is present in the life of the patient. The cure is to address the present cause. But it can be very difficult to find and address different present causes of individual cases of cancer.

What to do?

The Mexican clinic used a shotgun approach. They identified as many health factors as possible that might be contributing to the cancer - and addressed as many as possible. If, or when they address the present causes in a specific case, the cancer is cured. Which was the cause? Because of the shotgun technique - we can’t tell. Is it important? The cancer is cured. And what about the causes of unhealthiness that were not causing the cancer? Well, they too were improved. The side effect of the shotgun healthiness approach is a broad swath of improved healthiness.

Once Cured

There is no way for me to determine if a disappeared cancer patient actually had cancer, if their treatment cured their cancer, if their body cured their cancer, or if they still have cancer. We can only tell if there is another cancer diagnosis.  The absence of a diagnosis is not considered a cure, medically, it’s just NED - No Evidence of Disease. In the theory of cure, a new case of cancer, not a remission, might occur if the causes reoccur. The prior case was cured.

Doctors, clinics, hospitals, and medical researchers have no tests for a cancer cured. We have no medical technique or technology to recognize, much less document a cancer cured. So, we have no statistics for cancers cured.

Many cured patients don't disappear quietly. They speak out. They write books and newspaper articles. They blog. But it doesn't matter. They still don't count. Once cured, they disappear from the medical system. No medical system studies individual cured cases, their causes, their cures. We have no techniques to document cured cases for any chronic disease from cancers to arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, even obesity, and many more.  As a result, there are no statistics of cured cases of any chronic illness. For diseases where “there is no cure for…” like the common cold, influenza, measles, and COVID, we have no definition of cured and no ability to detect a cured case either, much less to identify the cause of the cure.

Once they are cured, they disappear. Health doesn't cure illness, it disappears illness. Modern medicine doesn't count people whose disease has disappeared.

to your health, tracy

ps. If you are, or if you know someone who disappeared their incurable illness, drop a note in the comments, or send me an email. I'm always interested in these cases, and I hope that someday, our medical systems will be interested in them as well.

The original version of post, published on Healthicine.org in 2015. It has been republished by several other sites - sometimes even without my knowledge, much less credit. This version has been brought up to date with the latest concepts of the New Theory of Cure.