New Method of Killing Cancer Cells Developed

Researchers from Canada, France, Germany and the United States reporting in the journal Cell have found a new ground-breaking way of killing cancer cells.

Traditional chemotherapy and radiotherapy cause damage to healthy cells, and other more targeted treatments are usually only effective for individual types of cancer. Contrastingly, a new potential treatment does not damage healthy cells and could also be used to treat a wide variety of different cancers.

"Cancer cells grow and divide much more rapidly than normal cells, meaning they have a much higher demand for and are often starved of, nutrients and oxygen," explained study co-author Prof Chris Proud of the University of Southampton.

"We have discovered that a cellular component, eEF2K (eukaryotic elongation factor 2 kinase), plays a critical role in allowing cancer cells to survive nutrient starvation, whilst normal, healthy cells do not usually require eEF2K in order to survive. Therefore, by blocking the function of eEF2K, we should be able to kill cancer cells, without harming normal, healthy cells in the process."

Almost all cells in the human body contain the same basic components, meaning that to attack one of them in a cancer cell, that component will also be affected in normal cells.

Prof Proud and his colleagues have identified a specific protein that is not necessary in normal cells but seems to be important to the survival of cancerous cells. A treatment that could block this protein could represent a significant breakthrough in the future of cancer treatment.

The scientists are now working to develop and test drugs that block eEF2K, which could potentially be used to treat cancer in the future.

Great news, hope it works. Seems a severe diet in combination with this would be promising.

Yes, a tumor 'starvation' treatment is not a new concept and there have been several dietetic approaches that seem to have solid scientific underpinning. Here is one that's based on the method of substitution - feeding the body ketones and eliminating glucose (which the tumor cells crave - several tests, like PET scan and recently enhanced MRI+glucose are using this fact to identify cancer).

From Starving Cancer: Ketogenic Diet a Key to Recovery - CBN, by Lorie Johnson, 2013 June 21

Many people are frustrated with today's cancer treatments. They are expensive, painful and often just don't work.

However, there is a new cancer treatment that is free, has virtually no side effects, and can be used in conjunction with other cancer treatments.

It involves cutting out carbohydrates, beginning with the worst carb of all - sugar.

Killing Cancer

Dr. Fred Hatfield is an impressive guy: a power-lifting champion, author of dozens of books, a millionaire businessman with a beautiful wife. But he'll tell you his greatest accomplishment is killing his cancer just in the nick of time. ..... < snip >

While Hatfield was preparing to die, he heard about an anti-cancer diet, also known as metabolic therapy. With nothing to lose, he gave it a try and was shocked when it actually worked.

"The cancer was gone!" he exclaimed. "Completely. To this day there's no trace of it. And it's been over a year."

Starving Bad Cells

Although it wasn't easy, Hatfield stopped eating carbohydrates, which turn into glucose inside your body. Cancer cells love glucose and need it so badly, that if you stop giving it to them, they die.

"It just absolutely amazes me that medical science is just now finding this out," he said.

Hatfield's cancer recovery, however, was not a surprise to Dr. Dominic D'Agostino, who researches metabolic therapy. When he and his team of scientists at the University of South Florida removed carbohydrates from the diets of lab mice, the mice survived highly aggressive metastatic cancer even better than when they were treated with chemotherapy.

"We have dramatically increased survival with metabolic therapy," he said. "So we think it's important to get this information out."

It's not just lab mice. Dr. D'Agostino has also seen similar success in people - lots of them.

"I've been in correspondence with a number of people," he said. "At least a dozen over the last year-and-a-half to two years, and all of them are still alive, despite the odds. So this is very encouraging."

The Ketogenic Diet

All cells, including cancer cells, are fueled by glucose. But if you deprive them of glucose, they switch to the alternate fuel, ketone bodies.

Except cancer cells. A defect prevents them from making the switch to using ketone bodies as fuel and therefore, cancer cells can only survive on glucose. All other cells can use either glucose or ketone bodies.

"Your normal cells have the metabolic flexibility to adapt from using glucose to using ketone bodies. But cancer cells lack this metabolic flexibility. So we can exploit that," Dr. D'Agostino explained.

People like Hatfield, who want to deprive their cells of glucose and fuel them with ketone bodies instead, eat what's known as a ketogenic diet. It consists of almost zero carbohydrates, but lots of natural proteins and fats.

Gloria said the food on the ketogenic diet is in every grocery store and is pretty easy to prepare.

"You can go online and there's cook books," she said, "It's clean eating. Just very clean eating, none of the sugars, the salts, the trash food."

"Natural" proteins are ones that are in their original form. On the other hand, "processed" meats, like cold cuts and hot dogs, are off-limits because often carbohydrates have been added to them.

Similarly, "natural" fats are whole foods, like olive oil, avocados, and nuts. Stay away from "trans" fats, such as shortening or margarine, any oil that is hydrogenated. Trans fats are man-made.

Safe & Healthy

Sometimes people are afraid to try the ketogenic diet because they think eating fat like this is bad for your heart. But more doctors say as long as it's natural, fat is good for you, even saturated fat like coconut oil and butter. ..... < snip >

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