Dr Hamer wondered why cancer never seems to systematically spread directly from one organ to the surrounding tissue. For example, he has never found a cancer of the cervix and cancer of the uterus in the same woman. He also noticed that all his cancer patients seemed to have something in common: they had all experienced some kind of psychoemotional conflict prior to the onset of their disease, a conflict that had never been fully resolved.

On the basis of these 20,000 examinations, Dr Hamer has come up with some revolutionary information. In all of these cases, X-rays taken of the brain by Dr Hamer have shown a dark shadow somewhere in the brain. These dark spots are located in exactly the same place in the brain for the same type of cancer. There was also a 100-per-cent correlation between the dark spot in the brain, the location of the cancer in the body and the specific type of unresolved conflict.

These findings have led Dr Hamer to suggest that, when we are in a stressful conflict that is not resolved, the emotional reflex centre in the brain that corresponds to the experienced emotion (for example, anger, frustration or grief) will slowly break down. Each of these emotion centres is connected to a specific organ. When a centre breaks down, it will start sending the wrong information to the organ it controls, resulting in the formation of deformed cells in the tissues - in other words, cancer cells.

Dr Hamer also suggests that metastases are not the same as cancer spreading. It is the result of new conflicts that may well be brought on by the very stress of having cancer or of having to undergo invasive, painful or nauseating therapies.

When Dr Hamer started including psychotherapy as an important part of the healing process, he found that when the associated conflict was resolved, the cancer immediately stopped growing at a cellular level. The dark spot in the brain also began to disappear, and the diseased tissue came to be replaced by normal tissue.

According to Dr Hamer, research in Germany, Austria, France, the US and Denmark has confirmed his findings - that emotional conflicts create cancer, and solving the conflicts in question stops the cancer growth (for more information, see Dr Hamer’s website: www.pilhar.com/English/NewMed/01NewMed.htm).

Pollution and aggressive cancers The flipside of the question of why cancer suddenly disappears is, of course, what makes an otherwise slow-growing cancer suddenly spread. Some scientists believe that the answer lies in our environment.

When most people think of environmental agents, they think of how these agents can cause cancer. However, preliminary evidence from scientists at the Medical College of Wisconsin suggests that such agents can also act on already established cancers.

The researchers, led by Paul F. Lindholm, presented their findings at the 90th American Association for Cancer Research meeting, held in Philadelphia on 10-14 April 1999. They noted that aggressive prostate cancer cells were different in their genetic makeup from dormant cells, and that environmental pollutants such as heavy metals, cigarette smoke, pesticides, or car and truck emissions could trigger them to attack the surrounding tissue and, thus, spread more rapidly through the body. Furthermore, they also noted that these same pollutants could also turn non-aggressive prostate cancer cells into killer cells.

Their ongoing research is being supported by a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). An Internet update on their progress can be found by following the links at: http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/.