On 12th February, at a special Yes to Life professional online forum, in front of three panels of cancer experts – Scientists, Clinicians and Patient Experts – and an invited audience of cancer specialists, Mark Lintern presented his findings resulting from eight years of intensive research into the origin and mechanisms of cancer.
Frustrated by the lack of understanding he encountered when dealing with his own cancer, and then angered by the fatal consequences of this ignorance for a dear friend, he vowed to keep going until he had penetrated the cloak of complexity surrounding the disease. Mark’s early desire for answers developed into a compulsive and dogged determination. His Herculean effort has been rewarded with findings that could prove instrumental in leading to an enduring change in the direction of cancer care, and to have potentially groundbreaking implications inherent in them for treatment, and even more importantly for prevention.
His presentations outlined an entirely new mechanism for the disease, that can, for the first time, explain the many hallmark behaviours of cancer that have confounded science for so long. The ability to explain the workings of cancer has in turn led Mark to an increasingly precise description of its origin, one that can at last begin to make sense of the apparently random nature of this elusive, and yet relentlessly predictable disease. While overturning some of the commonly held beliefs about cancer, Mark looked no further than the established scientific literature for answers, answers that were indeed ‘hiding in plain sight’.
The experts present at the Yes to Life forum were given ample opportunity to study Mark’s material and to question in detail his proposal for a new perspective on cancer, as well as to register their level of confidence in it. For a strikingly unconventional view of cancer from an unusual source, the response, while undoubtedly mixed, could overall be described as ‘cautiously positive’. Prof Brigitte König, a member of the Scientist Panel said in summary, “Thank you very much Mark Lintern. The theory you presented… is worth pursuing. And if I may express one wish, then it’s at least that we panellists should stay in touch and not put this topic aside after tonight… I would like to continue to work on this.” And Dr Nasha Winters, a member of the Clinician Panel said, “I really do feel that you have picked up the baton and taken us a bit further with this conversation, so I very much want to acknowledge that.”
In response to the format of the event, Dr J William LaValley, also a member of the Scientist Panel, said “I appreciate the opportunity to participate today. I think you’ve set up a forum in a format that can really develop over the years. So I encourage you to keep it up, whether it’s once a year, or whatever you need to do to keep this alive and moving.” Dr Nasha Winters added, “I get fired up and excited about these conversations that provoke us, create curiosity, and create these types of relationships and collaborations that can start to take this from theory to reality. So I feel very grateful for that.”
Yes to Life will be sharing more details of Mark’s work shortly in various forms, and Mark has comprehensively laid out his findings in a book entitled ‘The Cancer Resolution?’, aimed at general readership, but backed by over 800 scientific references, shortly to be available internationally. A pre-publishing excerpt is available from the Yes to Life Web Shop, entitled ‘Cancer Through Another Lens’. And since so many of the panellists and audience expressed interest in following up on the presentations, we plan to initiate some ongoing forums for the discussion to develop.
There are reasonable grounds to hope that Mark’s findings could represent a turning point in cancer science and cancer care. We are undoubtedly in desperate need of fresh insights with the potential to reverse the ever-rising tide of cancer incidence we have experienced for the last 100 years.
Let’s hope that that the world has indeed changed… for those with cancer.
