Cancer: So Much More That We Can And Should Be Doing

Several weeks ago, a friend recommended that I read the book “Surviving Cancer & COVID-19 Disease: The Repurposed Drug Revolution” by Justus Hope, MD, an obvious pseudonym. The fact that he felt the need to use a pseudonym is telling. He is doubtless aware that his truth-telling could end his career. For example, Dr. Ryan Cole was reported to the state medical boards of Idaho and Washington by the Idaho Medical Association (his own state medical association!), and multiple physicians from both states.¹

Similar to lawsuits, even if they are dismissed as baseless, these complaints can cost thousands of dollars to contest. The Oregon Medical Board issued an “emergency order” on December 3rd, 2020, to suspend the license of pediatrician Dr. Paul Thomas based on the publication of results he observed in his own patients.² The article was then retracted.³ Dr. Mary Bowden was forced to resign her privileges at Houston’s Methodist Hospital after “spreading disinformation.”⁴ A few states have bravely enacted legislation to protect these brave physicians, oftentimes from their own colleagues, Florida⁵ and Nebraska⁶ being just two examples.

Into this environment, enter “Dr. “Hope’s” observation of the medical establishment’s current treatment of cancer as summarized here: “Blast cancer with the latest, greatest, and most expensive debulking agent, and have a party when the patient goes into remission and then do absolutely nothing while the remaining tumor cells dust themselves off, and like transformer automatons, reassemble into a much more deadly version that now may be radiation resistant and impervious to all known chemotherapeutic regimens.”

Sadly, this is exactly the standard of care for cancer patients in this country.

Why does this treatment regimen persist in light of its tendency to aid and abet tumor resistance and recurrence? Follow the money. A recent US Securities and Exchange Commission filing on 10 cancer drugs found that the median cost of developing a single cancer drug was $648 million. The median revenue after approval for such a drug was $1.6 billion. Treating cancer is a billion-dollar industry.⁷ What can we do to combat this?

The first thing anyone needs to do after receiving a cancer diagnosis is to stop consuming added, industrial sugar. Full stop. Don’t stop eating fruit, however, as your body sees the fructose in fruit completely differently than industrial sugar, which is added to almost everything. This is easy to do once you start looking for sugar in foods, however the best way to do this is to buy and eat exclusively whole plants with no labels requiring interpretation. Avoid processed/fast/restaurant foods that taste great and are loaded with fat, salt, and sugar. One has to stop throwing fuel on the fire first.

Cancerous cells demonstrate their adaptability to chemotherapy and radiation by showing us “Anything you can do, I can do better,” and accomplish this through various mechanisms, such as changing their energy source. At first, they feed on sugar (added sugar, not the sugar from fruit!). If you eliminate added sugar, cancer will preferentially use insulin. If you decrease insulin by taking Metformin, it will switch to autophagy, where it consumes its own dead cells. And so on.

Dr. Hope’s book describes a number of inexpensive, repurposed medications that say “Not so fast.” Being that cancers can adapt to treatments using a variety of mechanisms, it seems wise to treat them using a cocktail of medications, attacking cancer on multiple fronts. Particularly in the case of terminal cancer (assuming the patient provides informed consent), why would one not want to try several safe, well-known medications, each of which has plausible mechanisms to combat cancer?

For example, cancer patients in Japan are routinely prescribed something called PSK, an over-the counter mushroom supplement.⁸ One can buy this at a local health food store. A simple PubMed (doctor’s Bible) search revealed the amount commonly used in Japan.⁹ Combined with chemotherapy, it has been shown to increase survival and improve treatment response.¹⁰ An over-the-counter mushroom supplement. One can buy it at the local health food store. So why are we not telling each and every cancer patient about this, to enable them to make their own decisions about their healthcare?

Not only do these medications discussed not interfere with chemotherapy, some actually enhance it. They do not need to be given alone, one can take them concurrently with surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, but as with everything, please discuss all medications with your treating physician! Statins, which are commonly used for high cholesterol, when combined with anti-inflammatory medications have been shown to increase cancer cell death as much as fivefold.¹¹ A decrease in cholesterol results in decreased cancer cell division and multiplication, leading to a weaker cancer cell that is more vulnerable to our treatments.¹² Dipyridamole, an anti-platelet medication often used in peripheral arterial disease, also potentiates statin-induced cancer cell death.¹³ Doxycycline, a common, inexpensive antibiotic, kills cancer stem cells.¹⁴ Pterostilebene, an over-the-counter, more-bioavailable analog of resveratrol, has been shown to increase cancer cell death by a variety of mechanisms, and to prevent metastases.¹⁵ Metformin seems particularly helpful – being that insulin resistance causes 40% of all cancers,¹⁶ it is understandable that this medication has been referred to by researchers as “magical.”¹⁷ It has been demonstrated to inhibit signaling by bad actors, prevent cancer cell growth, activate p53 (which is a key tumor suppressor gene), increase the response to chemotherapy and radiation, reduce cancer aggression, decrease reoccurrences and decrease cancer mortality.¹⁸

This is just a small sampling of the widely-available, safe, inexpensive, already-FDA-approved medications available. The list could be much longer. Please realize that your treating physicians may not be aware of the utility of these medications and go to any appointments with specific requests and the supporting documentation behind those requests in hand. If your physician will not provide these potentially life-saving medications (and there is no legitimate, medical reason that you should not take them) please find one that will.

You are the CEO of your own health, no one else.

References:

1. https://idahocapitalsun.com/2021/12/16/idaho-doctors-pathology-board-accuse-dr-ryan-cole-of- endangering-public-health/ (accessed 5/30/22)
2. https://truthcomestolight.com/how-a-respected-pediatrician-lost-his-medical-license-because-he- supported-informed-consent/(accessed 5/30/22)
3. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/22/8674 (retraction of Dr Thomas art; accessed 5/30/22)
4. https://abc13.com/houston-doctor-resigns-dr-mary-bowden-covid-methodist/11243614/ (accessed 5/30/22)
5. https://www.flgov.com/2022/03/03/governor-desantis-calls-on-legislature-to-defend-free-speech- of-florida-health-care-workers/ (accessed 5/30/22)
6. https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/nebraska-protects-healthcare-providers?s=r (accessed 5/30/22)
7. Prasad, V., & Mailankody, S. (2017). Research and Development Spending to Bring a Single Cancer Drug to Market and Revenues After Approval. JAMA internal medicine, 177(11), 1569–1575. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2017.3601
8. Hope, Justus R., MD. Surviving Cancer & COVID-19 Disease: The Repurposed Drug Revolution. Hope Pressworks International, Redding, CA. 2020.
9. Torkelson, C. J., Sweet, E., Martzen, M. R., et al (2012). Phase 1 Clinical Trial of Trametes versicolor in Women with Breast Cancer. ISRN oncology, 2012, 251632.
10. Wenner, C. A., Martzen, M. R., Lu, H., et al. (2012). Polysaccharide-K augments docetaxel-induced tumor suppression and antitumor immune response in an immunocompetent murine model of human prostate cancer. International journal of oncology, 40(4), 905–913.
11. Wood,W., Igbavboa U., Muller W et al. Statins, Bcl-2 and apoptosis: cell death or cell protection? Mol Neurobiol. 2013; 48(2):308-14.
12. Bathaie, S., Ashrafi M., Azizan, M., et al. Mevalonate pathway and Human Cancers. Curr Molec Pharmacol. 2017; 10(2): 77-85.
13. Longo J, Pandyra AA, Stachura P, et al. Cyclic AMP-hydrolyzing phosphodiesterase inhibitors potentiate statin-induced cancer cell death. Mol Oncol. 2020;14(10):2533-2545.
14. Zhang, L., Xu, L., Zhang, F., & Vlashi, E. (2017). Doxycycline inhibits the cancer stem cell phenotype and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in breast cancer. Cell cycle (Georgetown, Tex.), 16(8), 737–745.
15. Chen, R. J., Kuo, H. C., Cheng, L. H., et al (2018). Apoptotic and Nonapoptotic Activities of Pterostilbene against Cancer. International journal of molecular sciences, 19(1), 287.
16. Steele, C. B., Thomas, C. C., Henley, et al. Vital Signs: Trends in Incidence of Cancers Associated with Overweight and Obesity – United States, 2005-2014. MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report, 66(39), 1052–1058.
17. Saraei, P., Asadi, I., Kakar, M. A., & Moradi-Kor, N. (2019). The beneficial effects of metformin on cancer prevention and therapy: a comprehensive review of recent advances. Cancer management and research, 11, 3295–3313.
18. Ibid.