Omens
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"God has prepared a path for everyone to follow. You just have to read the omens that he left for you."
- From the book The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Omens In The Past...
Recently, I attended a metabolic conference in Los Angeles. Hadn't actually planned on going, but one of the organizers emailed me and asked if I was planning to attend. Thought it was probably about time we presented some of our research anyhow, so I went.
While in the main auditorium, a friend and colleague from New Zealand who was also at the conference mentioned a smaller talk downstairs that was about to take place. It was on neuro-oncology. Hadn't planned on going to that particular talk, but the main auditorium presentations at the time weren't enticing. So I went along. The speaker, a neuro-oncologist from one of the nearby cancer centers, discussed his vision for a six-month randomized controlled study using a ketogenic diet to treat glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the worst kind of brain tumour there is. The concept was not a new one - the idea with a ketogenic diet is to starve the cancer cells of glucose, their main fuel.
He was clearly keen, but I went up at the end of the talk and told him I didn't think it would work. Aside from a couple of design flaws, the biggest problem I could see was that the ketogenic diet would not be powerful enough to do anything more than slightly dampen the rate of cancer growth (which is still good, but not great). Why? Many reasons - the diet does not restrict glucose enough, does not restrict cancer's other fuel glutamine, does not suppress mTOR-mediated growth as needed, and does not elevate AMPK-mediated autophagy as needed (1).
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A metabolic conference in Los Angeles. |
After speaking, I sat back down. I happened to notice the young fellow beside me was wearing a colourful bandana. He leaned over and gave me the thumbs-up sign, so we got to talking. He had a GBM, and after undergoing eight - that's correct, eight - brain surgeries to debulk it, he was still alive. He had been on the ketogenic diet for a couple of years, yet the cancer kept growing back. However, just in the last two months he had tried something different, something somewhat novel - a fasting regimen. Interestingly, the last scan showed that the tumour had partially receded from the non-operable brain regions. Saw the scan myself - indeed, the GBM was receding. Am keeping in touch with him.
Later in the conference, while presenting our research in a poster forum, I noticed the leading world expert on metabolic origins of cancer was standing a few meters away. I showed him one of our case report studies involving a young lady with a metastatic thymoma; she had used a fasting-based regimen to manage it. So far she'd been extremely successful, with the cancer no longer visible on the latest scan. Thus far a seemingly miraculous result, but also one with a mechanistic explanation - unlike ketogenic diets, fasting is potentially powerful enough to halt or possibly reverse cancer as it restricts glucose and glutamine both, substantially suppresses mTOR-mediated growth, and elevates AMPK-mediated autophagy in the manner that is needed (2).
He was intrigued, as it seemed to work.
Omens In The Present...
I'm currently at a neuro-oncology conference in Auckland. This conference is a yearly thing, with a different theme each year. Never really been interested in the themes before, so I've always given this conference a miss, but this year - for the first time ever - the theme is neuro-oncology. So I'm attending.
Many tricky diagnostic cases are being presented; neurologists like tricky diagnoses, it's one of the reasons they become neurologists. Yet once the tricky diagnosis of cancer is made, it seems like everyone in the room reverts to a much less creative way of thinking, opting for a conventional cancer management strategy consisting of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. It's always the same.
This is now an old strategy, one that isn't working for most cancers, especially GBM. Sure, the importance of getting as much cancer out of the brain as possible is emphasized, and sure, different chemo drugs and radiation regimens continue to be developed, and sure, some patients get a couple of extra months out of these approaches (at the expense of side-effects). But these approaches are not focused on healing, they are focused on beating down the GBM, destroying it as much as possible until only a few cancer cells remain. Which is all it takes, really. For the GBM comes back...it always comes back.
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A neuro-oncology conference in Auckland. |
Mid-conference, after several days of tricky diagnostic cases followed by reiterative management strategies, a buddy of mine from Australia - also a neurologist - e-mailed me out of the blue. He just found out that his longtime friend has just been diagnosed with a GBM. My buddy is very much aware of our young lady with metastatic thymoma and how she is utilizing a fasting regimen to stave it off. He mentioned it to his longtime friend a few days ago, sat with him for several hours discussing what might be done, for he knows, deep down, the usual outcome associated with a conventional-based regimen. Unfortunately his advice cannot be heard; fasting - voluntarily avoiding food and certain drinks for controlled periods of time - often seems too difficult, even crazy when first presented. Which is a strange statement, if you really think about it.
Later in the this conference, I approached the overseas keynote speaker who happened to be the leading world expert on neuro-oncology. I discussed the outcome of our young lady with metastatic thymoma. I showed her the scans. We discussed how the fasting regimen, so far, seems to be producing a dramatic healing effect.
She was intrigued, as it seems to be working.
Omens In The Future...
Maybe I'll be somewhere else in the future, somewhere far away. Maybe I'll finally see a presentation about fasting as a therapy in cancer. A novel approach to treating cancer, using an old - nay not old, ancient - therapy. An approach that takes into account the evolutionary origins and metabolic mechanisms of cancer. One that very few people seem to be taking seriously. Maybe they're delusional. Maybe I'm delusional. Maybe both are true. Maybe neither.
Maybe that presentation will talk about someone with metastatic cancer utilizing a fasting-based regimen to stave it off without relying on surgery, chemotherapy, or radiotherapy. Someone making it work, now and well into the future, someone totally willing to put aside the overwhelming suffocation of dogmatic consensus - which doesn't really seem to be focused on healing - to try something novel. Novel, yet ancient. Maybe something like fasting.
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Somewhere far away. |
Maybe I'll finally meet a world expert on fasting and cancer. Maybe they'll talk about a study - based on fasting - that could really work for patients afflicted with the awful cancer that is GBM. Maybe that person will be intrigued enough to do something about it in future, develop a method for easing patients with advanced cancer into an effective fasting protocol. Maybe I'll be wrong about all of this...it can be hard to tell between delusions and omens.
But maybe it can work.
Solace.
References
(1) https://www.wanderingsolace.com/theories-march-2018.html.
(2) https://www.wanderingsolace.com/therapies-april-2018.html.
