otto warburg

You know, I keep saying that some of my orthodox colleagues are coming round to our way of thinking. I dissociate myself from silly, petulant “holistic” writers who think everything is evil about conventional cancer treatment. For the twentieth time or more, I repeat: there are some great doctors out there, trying hard. Not everyone is corrupted by Big Pharma. Now even the FDA is playing ball with them! I’m talking now about a novel combination of vitamin C and vitamin K3 called Apatone. It selectively targets tumors by entering cancer cells as readily as glucose. It then suppresses certain inflammatory reactions that cancer cells use to escape destruction by chemotherapy agents. When administered prior to chemo, vitamin K3 appears to decrease the resistance to chemo drugs. It has helped prostate cancer patients, who were getting no help from chemo, to start making progress knocking out the cancer. That’s vitamin C and vitamin K3 at work. According to Science News, “This non-toxic approach weakens and kills cancers in a novel way.”1 In fact quite a few studies published since 2008 have shown vitamins K2 and K3 to be intriguing agents in both cancer prevention and treatment. In a March 2008 study, Apatone significantly slowed the cancer; 16 our of 17 patients responded positively (no chemo agent can equal that!) Moreover, of the 15 patients who continued to take it, only one death occurred after 14 months of treatment. The doses were: 5,000 mg of vitamin C and 50 mg of vitamin K3. The doctors concluded that Apatone showed promise in delaying biochemical progression in this group of end stage prostate cancer patients.2

You know, I keep saying that some of my orthodox colleagues are coming round to our way of thinking. I dissociate myself from silly, petulant “holistic” writers who think everything is evil about conventional cancer treatment. For the twentieth time or more, I repeat: there are some great doctors out there, trying hard. Not everyone is corrupted by Big Pharma. Now even the FDA is playing ball with them! I’m talking now about a novel combination of vitamin C and vitamin K3 called Apatone. It selectively targets tumors by entering cancer cells as readily as glucose. It then suppresses certain inflammatory reactions that cancer cells use to escape destruction by chemotherapy agents. When administered prior to chemo, vitamin K3 appears to decrease the resistance to chemo drugs. It has helped prostate cancer patients, who were getting no help from chemo, to start making progress knocking out the cancer. That’s vitamin C and vitamin K3 at work. According to Science News, “This non-toxic approach weakens and kills cancers in a novel way.”1 In fact quite a few studies published since 2008 have shown vitamins K2 and K3 to be intriguing agents in both cancer prevention and treatment. In a March 2008 study, Apatone significantly slowed the cancer; 16 our of 17 patients responded positively (no chemo agent can equal that!) Moreover, of the 15 patients who continued to take it, only one death occurred after 14 months of treatment. The doses were: 5,000 mg of vitamin C and 50 mg of vitamin K3. The doctors concluded that Apatone showed promise in delaying biochemical progression in this group of end stage prostate cancer patients.2

Did Otto Warburg get it all wrong? This new theory overturns everything we thought we knew about the biology of cancer. In the 1930s, Nobel Laureate Otto Warburg suggested that cancer cells produce the bulk of their energy by breaking down glucose in the absence of oxygen, a process called glycolysis. The Warburg effect, as it is called, is now widely accepted in orthodox cancer research. But it’s WRONG, according to Michael Lisanti MD at the Kimmel Cancer Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has a completely different model, which puts a whole new light on how cancer cells feed and grow. Cancer, as we all know, is made up of rogue cells, where the DNA has gone frighteningly wrong and lets cells off the leash of restraint. They multiply out of control and often cannot be stopped: the immune system works hard against them but with certain cancers, they grow too fast, even for a competent immune system. The missing part of the mechanism says Dr. Lisanti, with good evidence to back up his new theory, is that cancer cells release a lot of hydrogen peroxide, which hammers nearby support cells in the tissues called fibroblasts. These decay and lose their vital mitochondria. Without their mitochondria, fibroblasts cannot now metabolize properly using oxygen. They switch to glycolysis, which we thought was being used by cancer cells. Not so, says Lisanti. According to him, “It’s the Warburg effect, but in the wrong place.” Lisanti calls is the Reverse Warburg Effect. He believes the reason Warburg got it wrong is because he looked at cancer cells in isolation, rather than in co-culture with fibroblasts. So Warburg wasn’t exactly wrong but this new idea takes things forwards several paces. It’s a revolution, if true. But is it? Surprisingly, there is an astonishing amount of evidence to suggest that it is.

Did Otto Warburg get it all wrong? This new theory overturns everything we thought we knew about the biology of cancer. In the 1930s, Nobel Laureate Otto Warburg suggested that cancer cells produce the bulk of their energy by breaking down glucose in the absence of oxygen, a process called glycolysis. The Warburg effect, as it is called, is now widely accepted in orthodox cancer research. But it’s WRONG, according to Michael Lisanti MD at the Kimmel Cancer Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has a completely different model, which puts a whole new light on how cancer cells feed and grow. Cancer, as we all know, is made up of rogue cells, where the DNA has gone frighteningly wrong and lets cells off the leash of restraint. They multiply out of control and often cannot be stopped: the immune system works hard against them but with certain cancers, they grow too fast, even for a competent immune system. The missing part of the mechanism says Dr. Lisanti, with good evidence to back up his new theory, is that cancer cells release a lot of hydrogen peroxide, which hammers nearby support cells in the tissues called fibroblasts. These decay and lose their vital mitochondria. Without their mitochondria, fibroblasts cannot now metabolize properly using oxygen. They switch to glycolysis, which we thought was being used by cancer cells. Not so, says Lisanti. According to him, “It’s the Warburg effect, but in the wrong place.” Lisanti calls is the Reverse Warburg Effect. He believes the reason Warburg got it wrong is because he looked at cancer cells in isolation, rather than in co-culture with fibroblasts. So Warburg wasn’t exactly wrong but this new idea takes things forwards several paces. It’s a revolution, if true. But is it? Surprisingly, there is an astonishing amount of evidence to suggest that it is.