A Foundation for Metabolic Therapies for Brain Cancer

Its Only Brain Cancer Not Dead Yet is organising this fundraiser.

Donation protected

My brother and I are running the Castleton Half Marathon on 23rd Nov 2024 for as US based foundation committed to the long term management of all cancers: The Foundation for Metabolic Cancer Therapies

Personal Story

I was diagnosed with a brain tumour in September 2021, and have had two rounds of awake craniotomies. The most recent surgery was this May when my diagnosis was upgraded to a Glioblastoma (the most common form of brain cancer).

I've been offered chemotherapy and radiotherapy but have refused it even though my genes show a good response to radiotherapy. Why did I do this? I hear you ask? Surely it's better to go through with what the doctors tell you is going to give you a few months longer? I've watched too many family members go through the Standard of Care only to find that they lived through horrific side effects of chemo and radio and then die.

I began the metabolic approach by going into deep ketosis in April 2024, 6 weeks before surgery. It's been difficult to establish consistency as the carnivore diet is extremely strict, only eating eggs, meat, fish and butter.

Since surgery I've had one scan in October which showed 'No Progression of Disease', due to my focus on following the protocols that Prof Thomas Seyfried recommends - who leads the field in metabolic therapies for cancer. I've been having hyperbaric oxygen, combined with a cocktail of supplements to enhance metabolism (including a large dose of dewormer called Mebendazole!), and I owe my thanks to Prof Seyfried's theories and protocols that we are thinking about cancer the wrong way.

What is the Foundation and how is it going to change our approach to cancer?

Led by research that Prof Thomas Seyfried has conducted into what drives cancers cells, the organisation is focussed on discovering metabolic strategies based on what cancer cells are ravenous for: glucose and glutamine. Healthy cells, when exposed to pollutants, radiation, and viruses amongst other things, devolve into a cancerous state of fermentation that every cell has a program for, a prehistoric state when life on earth looked quite different as there was no oxygen in the atmosphere.

This theory comes from research by Otto Warburg in 1930's Germany, who discovered that cancer cells thrive on glucose (and was given a Nobel Prize for this discovery) and was followed up recently by Prof. Seyfried who discovered that Glutamine is the other energy source they are able to use. The result is that cancer is a metabolic disorder caused by faulty mitochondria.

In the 1950's this theory was largely forgotten when Crick and Watson discovered the structure of DNA, leading to the widespread incorrect belief that cancer is caused by a genetic disorder. Hence the pharmaceutical industry has largely gone down a blind alley, with the constant promise of 'curing cancer within x years'.

The charities doing research into dietary changes and repurposing off-label drugs face a fundraising problem: investors cannot make a profit from either of these interventions. Meanwhile, 4,500 people die a day in Europe and the US combined from the Standard of Care treatments (radio and chemotherapy) rather than cancer itself. Bah! Capitalism!

Here's a couple of links to Prof Seyfried's work: