“Cancer persists as a plague in modern society. The lack of progress in either managing or preventing cancer motivated me to write this treatise. I am a biochemical geneticist and have worked on the lipid biochemistry of cancer since the early 1980s. I have developed numerous mouse models for brain tumors and for systemic metastatic cancer. Several major findings planted the seed for this treatise. First, it became clear to me that the therapeutic action of some anticancer drugs operated largely through reduced calorie intake. Second, that reduced caloric intake could target the majority of cancer hallmarks. Third, that ketone bodies can serve as alternative fuel to glucose in most cells with normal respiratory function. Fourth, that metastatic cancer arises from cells along macrophage lineage. Fifth, that all cancer cells regardless of tissue origin express a general defect in mitochondrial energy metabolism. Finally, that cancer can be effectively managed and prevented once it becomes recognized as a metabolic disease.
In recognizing cancer as a metabolic disease, it gradually became clear to me why so many people die from the disease. Many of the current cancer treatments exacerbate tumor cell energy metabolism, thus allowing the disease to progress and eventually become unmanageable. Most cancer patients do not battle their disease but are offered toxic concoctions that can eventually undermine their physiological strength and their will to resist. Cancer treatments are often feared as much as the disease itself. The view of cancer as a genetic disease has confounded the problem and is largely responsible for the failure to develop effective therapies. The view of cancer as a genetic disease is based on the flawed notion that somatic mutations cause cancer. Substantial evidence indicates that genomic instability is linked to protracted respiratory insufficiency. Once cancer becomes recognized as a metabolic disease with metabolic solutions, more humane and effective treatment strategies will emerge. My treatise highlights cancer as a metabolic disease and identifies the inconsistencies of the gene theory of cancer. Moreover, my treatise addresses most of the so-called provocative questions raised by the National Cancer Institute regarding outstanding issues in cancer research. This treatise lays the foundation for the eventual resolution of the disease.”
~ Thomas Seyfried from Cancer as a Metabolic Disease
This is our eight Note on cancer books. We started with Anticancer then Tripping over the Truth then The Metabolic Approach to Cancer then Cancer as a Metabolic Disease (the journal article) then Keto for Cancer then Outside the Box Cancer Therapies then Radical Remission.
This is also our second Note on Thomas Seyfried’s work. We started with the journal article also called “Cancer as a metabolic disease.” That 22-page, peer-reviewed journal article (7 pages of which are references) lays out the scientifically rigorous, intellectual framework for our metabolic protocol to conquering cancer—mapping out why cancer is, as the title suggests, primarily a METABOLIC disease (vs. a genetic disease).
I HIGHLY recommend you print that out. Go to quiet place. Read it. Mark it all up. Wrap your brain around it. Then share it with your oncological team and interested family and friends and then, most importantly, go rock your metabolic therapy based on this theoretical approach.
(Note: I traded emails with Professor Seyfried midway through the creation of this Note. He shared two other newer articles he highly recommends as well: A 2015 journal article from Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology called Cancer as a mitochondrial metabolic disease and a 2017 article from Nutrition & Metabolism called Press-pulse: a novel therapeutic strategy for the metabolic management of cancer.)
After reading those, if you’re really feeling it, go deep with this 421-page, textbook-like treatise.
Seyfried has taught and conducted research in the fields of neurogenetics, neurochemistry and cancer for more than twenty-five years at Yale University and Boston College. He is the leading scientist pointing to (and nearly screaming at!) the SUPER-compelling evidence that says cancer is caused by dysfunctional energy metabolism—providing evidence that the genetic mutations are a secondary, downstream epiphenomenon of that primary cause.
I firmly believe that if the National Cancer Institute focused its $5 BILLION (!!!) annual budget on ideas in this book and the rest of the oncological community of doctors and researchers viewed “cancer as a metabolic disease” (rather than as a genetic disease), we would (rather efficiently) conquer cancer with the same triumphant glory that we landed a man on the moon.
My copy of the book (get a copy here) is nearly all marked up. In addition to the compelling scientific analysis of cancer as a metabolic disease, what jumps off the page is the intensity of a brilliant, passionate scientist who has dedicated his life to challenging the entrenched paradigm with rigorous science and an equally sharp wit.
We’ll barely scratch the surface of the wisdom in this great book (of course), but I’m excited to share some of my favorite paradigm-busting Big Ideas so let’s jump straight in!