With a diagnosis comes both shock and anxiety which will inevitably reduce a person’s ability for clear thinking.

After an initial consultation with your oncologist and allowing time for the diagnosis to register, it’s important to research and have a supporting protocol either to run alongside conventional treatment or as a standalone treatment if no other is offered.

• Feeding pathways
• Glucose (sugar)
• Glutamine (protein)
• Fatty Acids (fats)

Cancer needs nutrition to survive, so it will extract these from the body. Some cancers prefer one pathway over another, for example, breast cancer uses fats heavily.

By the time cancer is stage 4, it will switch between all three feeding pathways to survive, which is why it is important to inhibit all three. You are starving it of its nutritional source through signaling pathways without starving your body. 

Cold-pressed juicing raw vegetables and low-sugar fruits such as berries is a good way to feed nutrients into the body quickly and effectively. 

To understand the metabolic way to treating cancer see Jane McLelland’s book How to Starve Cancer or watch her interview on YouTube with Chris Wark. It is a good introduction to understanding how cancer signals and feeds to survive. Another book to read is The Metabolic Approach to Cancer by Dr Nasha Winters.

Autophagy

Autophagy is the normal way that the body clears dead cells, harmful proteins and damaged organelles to make way for new ones.

Unhealthy autophagy needs to be inhibited by inhibiting its abnormal signalling, and healthy autophagy should be promoted.

When you inhibit autophagy with medications and supplements you are inhibiting abnormal signalling. This is where healthy autophagy has been changed to tumour supportive autophagy.

M1 healthy macrophages in the body remove organelles, dead cells, and debris from the body. With cancer, the tumours signal the macrophages and convert them from M1 (healthy) to M2 (Tumour Associated Macrophages).

In tumour supportive autophagy dead cells are brought to the tumour site for progression. In a healthy body, autophagy works differently, by expelling dead cells from the body. 

Once the signalling has been blocked with Hydroxychloroquine, Loratadine,  Dipyridamole and Niclosamide you can promote healthy autophagy with EGCG, Curcumin, Sulforaphane, Berberine, Quercetin, Resveratrol and COQ10.

If you have a good response to treatment and have reductions, it is important to remove the dead cancer cells from the body so that they cannot be used as a fuel source.

Inflammation

This helps to promote the growth of new blood vessels (angiogenesis). 

The main inflammation pathway is known as COX2.

Cancer cells have receptors on the surface. These receptors receive signals to promote various growth factor kinases that cancer uses for progression. VEGFR is responsible for new blood vessel growth. 

VEGF is the growth factor (vascular endothelial growth factor), and the R is the receptor on the cell. 

Lymphatic System

This is part of the immune system and comprises of nodes and vessels. The job of the vessels is to carry lymph fluid, which contains white blood cells around the body. If the fluid is not drained from the body it would build up and cause swelling, The fluid is processed via the lymph nodes and pushed towards the chest where it is drained into a blood vessel close to the heart. 

The body has hundreds of lymph nodes which act as filters to remove infection and damaged cells. There are nodes in the abdomen, neck, armpits, chest, and groin. Deeper nodes are located close to the bowel and between the lungs. 

Cancer can enter the lymph nodes in the body, enabling it to use the lymphatic system to spread via the fluid. 

Proteolytic enzymes such as bromelain, protease, serrapeptase and nattokinase can help to clear waste from the lymphatic system. 

Rebounding on a mini trampoline is a way to encourage lymphatic drainage. 

Do you have any gene mutations? 

These are personal to your body not your cancer type and are quite often checked when the diagnostic biopsy is done. 

Your oncologist may have this information on file, but may have chosen not to share this, as many believe that it has no use for a patient, as oncologists manage your conventional treatment plan. 

Having a mutation could open up additional treatment options for you, especially if you are looking at private clinics who offer alternative treatments. Oncologists will consider your mutations when offering treatment and trials. 

There are many tests available to check for mutations, but they usually have to be paid for privately. Guardant 360 is a blood test liquid biopsy. The criteria for a test is that you must already have a diagnosis and it must be stage 3 or 4. In UK this test is offered with a 50% discount. Oncologists will almost never mention this. It would still cost around £1200 after discount. In certain circumstances it can be offered free; on compassionate grounds or if the oncologist has not used Guardant before they can often get 2 introductory free tests. 

Over expressions

The body uses many proteins to regulate DNA function such, as P53, which is responsible for cell division. If P53 is ‘over expressed’ it will cause cells to divide too quickly. It needs to be regulated to revert to its normal function. 

The body also contains two types of genes used in cancer progression. 

These are known as oncogenes CPGs (Cancer Promoting Genes) and TSGs (Tumour Suppressor Genes). If either or both are not functioning correctly this allows cancer to progress

CPGs need to be ‘silenced’ or ‘down regulated’ as they promote cancer growth.

TSGs need to be ‘reinstated’ or ‘upregulated’ as these suppress the proteins and growth factors that promote cancer progression. 

The malfunction of these genes allows for blood vessel growth (angiogenesis), metastases to other parts of the body and resistance to cell death (apoptosis).

These over expressions and mutations can be regulated with treatment drugs, off label medications and supplements.

Abnormal Signalling

For cells to adapt to their environment they must be able to send and receive signals. 

These signals control many functions such as inducing angiogenesis (new blood vessel growth), avoiding the immune system and cell division. 

In some cancers these signalling pathways are disrupted more than others. For example, in pancreatic and colon cancer RAS signalling is disrupted, meaning that these cancer types use autophagy more aggressively.

NOTCH is another signalling pathway and is common in breast cancer, lung, and prostate. 

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