Cancer is defined by two factors. First, it is uncontrolled multiplication of cells and, second, these cells invade other tissues. The latter point is critical: tumors that do not invade are called benign tumors and will not kill you. They can grow to considerable size, like lipomas or fibroids, but they never cross fascia! boundaries – if they did, they would be considered malignant. Cancer itself is considered to spread in one of three ways and medics often describe this as the TNM system.
The ‘T’ stands for tumor and is a measure of how locally invasive the original cancer is. Cancer spreads into the tissue forming the organ where it grew from, but this rarely causes problems. Few cancers cause problems during this stage because the cancer is just a lump. This is the basis of why we need screening programs: we know that if we catch cancer before it has spread through the fascia of its organ, we have a much better chance of curing it. The problem is that it rarely causes symptoms at this stage. When the cancer has grown into surrounding organs then removing it is far more difficult. The highest and worst stage in this system is where it invades through its own fascia.
‘N’ stands for (lymph) nodes. Lymph nodes are the police stations of fascia. All the fluid that ends up between the cells either gets absorbed back into the blood or gets squeezed into the lymphatic system through tiny lymphatic capillaries. Lymph nodes live in the fascia; you don’t find them in tissues, you find them in the space between tissues and organs. The lymphatic system is ultra-important in controlling both microbes and cancer cells, as they filter all this fluid and decide what can go through and what needs to be destroyed. This is why lymph nodes get inflamed when bacterial infection starts spreading beyond the tissue it started in. It is also why cancer spreads to lymph nodes.
Examples of cancer spreading through nodes include breast cancer spreading to lymph glands under the armpit, stomach, and lung cancer to lymph glands above the clavicle, and testicular cancer to lymph glands in the groin. All these glands sit in the fascia! planes.
‘M’ stands for metastasis. These are spots of cancer that have spread a long way away. To do this cancer often uses the blood. Blood is a ‘connective tissue’ because its cells connect things using plasma as its matrix. Normally cells do not invade into the blood, since most of the blood in the body is partitioned off using tight junctions that prevent all but the smallest molecules from crossing. Of course, healthy cells have no desire to enter the blood and if they do this accidentally then they get filtered out by the spleen. Gap junctions are missing in the liver and spleen, which may partially explain why cancer so often spreads to these organs. Blood isn’t delineated by fascia: to perform its function of nourishment and protection it needs to get close to tissues, and fascia by its nature prevents this.
The spread of cancer through blood does not involve fascia, but this is not at odds with Acupuncture theory. In fact, cancer is often seen as ‘congealed blood’ in Chinese medicine – an awareness that cancer results in abnormal blood. In the ‘T’ and the ‘N’ of the TNM system fascia is, however, very important in movement.
It shouldn’t really come as a surprise that fascia is so involved in cancer prognosis. Fascia delineates tissue, it tells things where they should be, and cells that ignore this are by their nature nasty.