Is NO area in the body safe from cancer? Or are there locations in the body where cancer actually cannot ever grow?
You may be wondering if there’s a such thing as a place in the human body where cancer never – as in never ever – grows.
After all, how come we never hear of heart cancer? Why don’t we ever hear of cancer of the abdominal aorta?
“For all intents and purposes, cancer can grow anywhere in the body,” begins Jonathan Stegall, MD, an integrative oncologist and medical director for The Center for Advanced Medicine, an adult cancer treatment center in Alpharetta, GA.
“This is because cancer starts at the cellular level, and it is estimated that each of us has over 100 trillion cells.
“Any of these cells are capable of mutating to the point that they are a cancerous cell.”
The mutation doesn’t occur overnight, and it’s not in one phase, either. It’s a multiphase process that can take years.
“With that said, there are certainly places where cancer is rare (but not unheard of!),” continues Dr. Stegall.
Rare Locations for Cancer
“Cancer rarely develops in the heart,” says Dr. Stegall.
“It is estimated that about one in 100,000 people will develop heart cancer.
“Thymic cancer, where cancer occurs on the thymus gland in the chest, occurs in less than 400 Americans each year.”
Cancer can also occur in the pupil and iris of the eye, inside the belly button and under a fingernail or toenail.
“Cancer cells can easily travel in the bloodstream as well as the lymphatic system,” says Dr. Stegall.
“Since these two circulatory systems are present throughout the body, a cancerous cell can go anywhere.”
When cancerous cells travel to another part of the body, this is called metastasis or a spreading of the disease.
The tumors that grow in that migrated-to location are called secondary tumors.
However, a primary tumor, which is one that arises directly from the tissue in a particular location, can develop with any kind of tissue.
Tissues that Can Have a Primary Cancer – that You Might Think Never Could
- Salivary gland
- Trachea
- Fallopian tube
- Placenta
- Urethra
- Male breast
Nobody really knows why the human body is such a feeding ground for cancer.
But people have wondered if it could be from all the chemicals in our industrial society?
Nobody knows what the cancer rates were for prehistoric peoples.
It’s also been proposed that sharks never get cancer. But can we really know this?
Do lions and wolves get cancer? Do eagles and snakes?
Cancer Prevention Guidelines
Cancer cell depiction. Shutterstock/Lightspring
• Try to avoid processed foods, especially baked goods and other foods with white flour or added sugar; meats with nitrites and nitrates such as bologna and bacon.
• Avoid grain fed beef; eat only grass fed or natural sources such as elk, buffalo and lamb – fresh from the butcher is best.
• Eat a lot of cruciferous vegetables and other vegetables such as spinach, kale, beets and carrots.
• Try to eat your vegetables raw as much as possible rather than cooked.
• Eat a lot of berries.
• Get at least 25 grams of fiber a day.
• Don’t smoke or drink.
• Drink water from a reverse osmosis filtering system.
• Avoid drinking water or anything else that came in a plastic bottle.
• Speak to your doctor about when to begin, and how often to have, screening colonoscopies, mammograms and Pap smears.
• Do aerobic and strength training exercise.
• If you’re overweight, lose weight with sustainable lifestyle changes.
• Wear sunblock!
The above list is far from complete, but implementing those changes will go a super long way at cutting your risk of developing cancer.
Unfortunately, there’s no place in the body that cancer can’t develop. This includes melanoma in dark places that are never exposed to the sun such as behind the eye.
Jonathan Stegall, MD,
