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Candida albicans: a necessary and sufficient cause of cancer Candida albicans: a necessary and sufficient cause of would be to understand if and in which dimensions the spore cancer transcends, what mechanisms it engages to hide itself or, again, to Considering that among the human parasite species the preserve its parasitic characteristic, or if it has available a neutral Dermatophytes and Sporotrichum demonstrate an excessively quiescent position which is difficult or even impossible to detect specific morbidity, and that experience shows that Actinomycetes, by the immunological system. Toluropsis and Histoplasma rarely enter the context of pathology, Unfortunately, today we do not have the appropriate means, the Candida albicans fungus clearly emerges as the sole candidate either theoretical or technical, to answer these and similar for tumour proliferation. questions, so the only valid suggestions can come solely from If we stop for a second and reflect on its characteristics, we can clinical observation and experience. While not providing observe many analogies with neoplastic disease. The most immediate solutions, these sources can at least stimulate further evident are: questions. 1) ubiquitous attachment—no organ or tissue is spared; Assuming that Candida albicans is the agent responsible for 2) the constant absence of hyperpyrexia; tumour development, a targeted therapy would take into account 3) sporadic and indirect involvement of the differential tissues; not just its static and macroscopic manifestations but even the 4) invasiveness that is almost exclusively ultramicroscopic ones, especially in their of the focal type; dynamic valency, that is, the reproductive. It 5) progressive debilitation; is very probable that the targets to attack are 6) refractivity to any type of treatment; the fungi's dimensional transition points in 7) proliferation facilitated by multiplicity order to perform a decontamination with of indifferent co-founders; such a scope as to include the whole 8) Symptomatological basic configuration spectrum of the biological expression— with structure tending to the chronic. arasitic, vegetative, sporal and even Therefore, an exceptionally high and —_ among the human vitradimensional and, to the limit, viral. diversified pathogenic potentiality exists in i i If we stop at the most evident phenomena, this Inycete of just a few mnicrons in size, parasite Spc the we risk administering salves and unguents which, even though it cannot be traced with Candida albicans forever (in the case of dermatomycosis or in the present experimental instruments, cannot fungus clearly psoriasis), or clumsily attacking (with be neglected from the clinical point of view. Certainly, its present nosological surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy) enigmatic tumoural masses with the emerges as the sole caseavoncanot pe ates HIM candidate for tumour Ms! sell of factating, he endless parasitic configurations in proliferation heightened in the mycelial forms. mind, that classification is too simplistic and constraining. We therefore have to hypothesise that Candida, in the moment it is attacked by the immunological system of the host or by a conventional antimycotic treatment, does not react in the usual, predicted way but defends itself by transforming itself into ever- smaller and non-differentiated elements In reality, Candida possesses an that maintain their fecundity intact to aggressive valency that is diversified in the point of hiding their presence both to the host organism and to function in the target tissue. It is just in the connective or in the possible diagnostic investigations. connective environment, in fact, and not in the differentiated Candida's behaviour may be considered to be almost elastic. tissues, that Candida may find conditions favourable to an When favourable conditions exist, Candida thrives on an unlimited expansion. This emerges if we stop and reflect for a epithelium; as soon as the tissue reaction is engaged, it massively moment on the main function of connective tissue, which is to transforms itself into a form that is less productive but impervious convey and supply nourishing substances to the cells of the whole to attack: the spore. If, then, continuous subepithelial solutions organism. This is to be considered as an environment external to take place, coupled with a greater areactivity in that very moment, the more differentiated cells such as nervous, muscular, etc. It is the spore gets deeper into the lower connective tissue in such an in this context, in fact, that the alimentary competition takes impervious state that colonisation is irreversible. place. In fact, Candida takes advantage of a structural On the one hand, we have the organism's cellular elements interchangeability, utilising it according to the difficulties, e.g., in trying to defeat all forms of invasion; on the other hand, we have feeding, to overcome its biological niche. In this way, Candida is fungal cells trying to absorb ever-growing quantities of nourishing Why, one may ask, should we assume a different and heightened activity of Candida albicans, since it has been abundantly described in its pathological manifestations? The answer lies in the fact that it has been studied only in a pathogenic context, that is, only in relation to the epithelial tissues. [cancer]. free to expand to maturation in the soil, air, water, vegetation, substances, for they have to obey the species’ biological etc.—that is, wherever there is no antibody reaction. In the imperative to form ever larger and diffused masses and colonies. epithelium, instead, it takes a mixed form, which is reduced to the From the combination of various factors pertinent to both the sole spore component when it penetrates the lower epithelial host and the aggressor, it is possible to hypothesise the evolution levels, where it tends to expand again in the presence of of a candido: conditions of tissular areactivity. First stage: Integer epitheliums, absence of the debilitating The initial mandatory step of an in-depth research endeavour factors. Candida can only exist as a saprophyte. .» among the human parasite species, the Candida albicans fungus clearly emerges as the sole candidate for tumour proliferation [cancer]. 30 + NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2007