Fantastic Steve!
Cancer in a remission!
sks23cu
(Steve Stephenson)
#12
Just received hardcopy of Nov 2017 PET scan results:
INDICATION:
Prostate cancer
[characterized by oncologist as “high volume metastatic”]
PROCEDURE:
10 mCi F 18 sodium fluoride was injected intravenously. Whole-body PET-CT was performed 60 minutes after injection radiotracer.
COMPARISON:
Prior scan August 23, 2017
FINDINGS:
2 small foci uptake in the skull, stable. Stable uptake in the upper thoracic spine and the lumbar spine. Some of these are likely related to degenerative change. Small focal activity in right posterior iliac crest is also stable. No suspicious new bone uptake identified.
No significant cervical mass or adenopathy. No supraclavicular or axillary adenopathy. There is no suspicious pulmonary nodule.
Liver and spleen are unremarkable. No pancreas mass seen. Kidneys are unremarkable. No significant retroperitoneal or pelvic adenopathy identified. Lower extremity is unremarkable.
IMPRESSION:
Stable bone uptake compared to prior scan.
=====
BACKSTORY:
Only standard-of-care medication during period from Summer 2016 chemo treatments to-date has been Lupron Depot shots every 90 days; the same standard-of-care medication I’ve been receiving since before, during, and after external radiation treatments in Winter 2011-2012. Since Lupron did not prevent metastasis it probably did not cause this remission by itself.
Self prescribed and administered adjuvant therapies:
- Ketogenic diet / lifestyle, esp. mostly carnivore the last 6-9 months; and
- exercise classes at Westford Council on Aging / Senior Center and neighborhood walking.
My conclusion is that my carnivore ketogenic diet has been a huge factor in this remission. I obviously have to continue it indefinitely; oh WOE is me 
sks23cu
(Steve Stephenson)
#15
And here’s much stronger confirmation:
In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick pieced together the structure of the DNA molecule and set the stage for the triumph of molecular biology’s gene-centered approach to cancer. In the following decades, scientists came to regard cancer as a disease governed by mutated genes, which drive cells into a state of relentless division and proliferation.
But over the past decade, and the past five years in particular, something unexpected happened … scientists now wonder if metabolism could prove to be the long-sought “Achilles’ heel” of cancer, a common weak point in a disease that manifests itself in so many different forms.
Even James Watson, one of the fathers of molecular biology, is convinced that targeting metabolism is a more promising avenue in current cancer research than gene-centered approaches. At his office at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Long Island, Watson, 88, sat beneath one of the original sketches of the DNA molecule and told me that locating the genes that cause cancer has been “remarkably unhelpful” — the belief that sequencing your DNA is going to extend your life “a cruel illusion.” If he were going into cancer research today, Watson said, he would study biochemistry rather than molecular biology.
… what may turn out to be one of the most promising cancer metabolism drugs has been sitting in plain sight for decades. That drug, metformin, is already widely prescribed to decrease the glucose in the blood of diabetics … . In the years ahead, it’s likely to be used to treat — or at least to prevent — some cancers. Because metformin can influence a number of metabolic pathways, the precise mechanism by which it achieves its anticancer effects remains a source of debate. But the results of numerous epidemiological studies have been striking. Diabetics taking metformin seem to be significantly less likely to develop cancer than diabetics who don’t — and significantly less likely to die from the disease when they do.
The insulin hypothesis can be traced to the research of Lewis Cantley, the director of the Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medical College. In the 1980s, Cantley discovered how insulin, which is released by the pancreas and tells cells to take up glucose, influences what happens inside a cell. Cantley now refers to insulin and a closely related hormone, IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1), as “the champion” activators of metabolic proteins linked to cancer.
“I think there’s no doubt that insulin is pro-cancer,” Watson says, with respect to the link between obesity, diabetes and cancer. “It’s as good a hypothesis as we have now.” Watson takes metformin for cancer prevention; among its many effects, metformin works to lower insulin levels.
Thank you @JEY100 for bringing this article to my attention!
It's Time for Metformin :(
cadori
(Jessica)
#16
This is incredible! And for me, this is what this is all about. Good health to you!!! 
Sinker
(Karl L)
#18
That’s awesome news!! On an odd, semi-related note, a friend with (almost) your same name was just diagnosed with colon cancer. I’m trying to find a way to bring up the subject of including keto as part of his treatment.
JEY100
(Janet)
#19
You are welcome. The author of this article is working on a book on Cancer Metabolism. In October, he also wrote an article for the LA Times:
Op-Ed It’s getting clearer — the diet-cancer connection points to sugar and carbs
JEY100
(Janet)
#20
Sinker, one way to bring it up is say you just read an article with a cancer expert about the diet, e.g. this one from Today Show. https://www.today.com/health/ketogenic-diet-how-high-fat-low-carb-eating-may-fight-t118177
The Diet and fasting may also help reduce the side effects of treatment. Dr. Champ had a talk on it a few years ago. http://www.cavemandoctor.com/2014/11/14/dr-champ-gives-lecture-florida-ihmc/
Madeleine
#21
@Sinker This is how I brought it up once with a colleague - not as a treatment or an approach, but just as a possible adjunct to traditional therapy since fasting seems to reduce nausea and fatigue from chemo (see Valter Longo’s work). If he looks into it and sees even more that’s appealing, that’s great - but in the meantime you’ve reduced the chance that he’ll dismiss it out of hand because it sounds like quackery.
JEY100
(Janet)
#22
I only follow a few FB pages, and this is only one about Cancer because it is well managed and has good info posted. Remembered when checked it this morning that its creator is a colon cancer survivor. https://www.facebook.com/KetoCancerDiet/
There is an interview with Louis Cantley, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ok4GoGZllI. he was also interviewed in 2012 on 60 minutes. https://youtu.be/pxG3YiBMMZE
Article on Cancer and sugars. https://bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1741-7007-12-8
sks23cu
(Steve Stephenson)
#23
There may be another factor that contributed to my remission. I love coffee and drink ~six 12 oz cups (K-cup brewed) every day. This study indicates that the coffee may have helped:
Large epidemiological studies involving large cohorts of individuals have demonstrated that coffee consumption is inversely associated with total and cause-specific mortality, both in males and in females. The consumption of coffee is associated with a reduction of cancer, heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, diabetes, and infections (both in males and females). These effects are dose-dependent (with a plateau of 6 cups per day) and do not depend on caffeine content, because both decaffeinated and caffeinated coffee were similarly associated with improved health. Independent surveys revealed that coffee consumption might have protective effects, among many, on highly penetrant tumors such as endometrial, mammary hepatocellular, colorectal, and prostatic cancer. Although such studies cannot differentiate between causal and associational findings, they do suggest that chronic coffee consumption might have broad health-improving effects.
Here, we report that both natural and decaffeinated coffee similarly induce a broad organism-wide autophagic response.
Autophagy induced by coffee is accompanied by the inhibition of mTORC1, which represses autophagy in conditions of nutrient availability (particularly amino acids and lipids).
Caffeine and Autophagy
Caffeine and Autophagy
sks23cu
(Steve Stephenson)
#24
is supported by this paper: The Insulin Receptor: A New Target for Cancer Therapy
Last week’s DEXA bone scan showed worsening osteoporosis due to very low testosterone; in spite of 6 hours of exercise classes and miles of walking / week for the past year.
So, since my “high volume metastatic prostate cancer” is in remission, I’ve decided to STOP Lupron Depot shots! My oncologist’s response:
Certainly we could consider intermittent therapy. You do have a very aggressive cancer, successfully controlled, so we would have to be very careful.
Note…it may take 6 - 12 months for testosterone to rise.
So now my only therapy will be my carnivorous diet. An ultimate n=1 experiment!
sks23cu
(Steve Stephenson)
#25
I recently posted the following on a few Facebook group pages as well as mine:
https://www.facebook.com/sks23cu/posts/10157499145359377
Remission !!!
June 2018
I am in remission from high volume aggressive metastatic prostate cancer as well as type 2 diabetes.
Summer 2011: diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer (Gleason score of 10 out of 10).
Fall 2011: hormone therapy (androgen deprivation) + external radiation treatments (prostate removal not possible because cancer had spread a little beyond the prostate - T3N1)
Summer 2016: chemo therapy because cancer had metastasized to bone sites, mostly on spine.
At this time I was also following a low carbohydrate high fat diet (LCHF) that had successfully put my type 2 diabetes in remission. I experienced no nausea during chemo, so took no medication for it, due to my LCHF diet I think.
Type 2 diabetes is caused by too much insulin being secreted by the pancreas; a metabolic disease. An alternate school of thought in cancer theory and research is that cancer is also a metabolic disease, not caused by genes.
So I decided to double down on my diet / lifestyle and remove essentially all carbohydrates from my diet (no foods from plants - like our ancestors before agriculture).
After a few months my oncologist declared my cancer in remission, saying it was “remarkable” and to “keep doing what you’re doing.”
One side effect of hormone therapy is bone loss; osteopenia to osteoporosis. Lately mine has gotten worse. So, since I’m in cancer remission, I’ve gotten my oncologist to agree to intermittent hormone therapy and have stopped getting the injections (so now I’m getting NO “standard of care” treatments or medications). My oncologist wrote,
“Certainly we could consider intermittent therapy. You do have a very aggressive cancer, successfully controlled, so we would have to be very careful. … Note: it may take 6 - 12 months for testosterone to rise.”
All cells express appropriate hormone receptors on their surface membranes. Prostate cells express testosterone receptors and hormone therapy drives testosterone levels very low. But all cells express insulin receptors and cancer cells express an over abundance of insulin receptors because they need to collect a huge amount of glucose to use as building blocks to drive their growth. That’s what I’m now targeting with my no-plant (zero carbs) diet, an extremely low insulin level to deprive cancer cells of their building blocks.
Meanwhile, normal cells can get their energy requirements from fatty acids and ketones (which cancer cells can’t use because of their uniquely deranged / damaged metabolism).
I hope others can learn from my n=1 experiment, but they should expect only negative reactions, sometimes very emotional, from their doctors and dietitians. The best you will probably get, as did I, is “keep doing what you’re doing.”
sks23cu
(Steve Stephenson)
#26
Latest update of MyStory/Cancer: https://www.facebook.com/sks23cu/posts/10157643764729377 :
I am in remission from high volume aggressive metastatic prostate cancer, type 2 diabetes, and obesity.
Summer 2011: diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer (Gleason score of 10 out of 10) at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, Burlington, MA, USA. Eligard treatments were started immediately (androgen deprivation). Eligard is a trade name for the generic drug leuprolide; later I would be switched to Lupron Depot another trade name for the same drug and stay on it until February 2018.
12/6/2011: First external radiation treatment, repeated every weekday for 8.5 weeks. Prostate removal not possible because cancer had spread a little beyond the prostate - T3N1.
Summer 2016: chemo therapy because cancer had metastasized to bone sites, mostly on spine.
At this time I was following a low carbohydrate high fat diet (LCHF) that had successfully put my type 2 diabetes in remission (that story: https://www.dietdoctor.com/healing-brain-well-pancreas ). The “high fats” are: animal fats and olive and coconut oils, but NO “vegetable oils”, (vegetable oils are highly industrially processed seed oils that are highly inflammatory: see Nina Teicholz - ‘Vegetable Oils: The Unknown Story’, https://youtu.be/Q2UnOryQiIY?t=1 ).
I experienced no nausea during chemo (b/c of LCHF?) so took no medication for it.
Type 2 diabetes is caused by too much insulin being secreted by the pancreas in response to high blood sugar (glucose); a metabolic disease. An alternate school of thought in cancer theory and research is that cancer is also a metabolic disease, not caused by genes.
So, after watching https://youtu.be/z3fO5aTD6JU?t=648 (Dr. Benjamin Bikman - ‘Insulin vs. Glucagon: The relevance of dietary protein’), I decided to double down on my diet/lifestyle and stop eating any and all carbohydrates to drive my insulin as low as possible; so no foods from plants - like our ancestors before agriculture was invented. I mostly eat grass fed and finished: beef, tallow, and butter, and pasture raised chicken eggs (in the wild chickens would eat insects, grubs, snails, etc. - NOT plant foods); sometimes bacon and bacon grease (lard). The beef is lightly cooked to preserve nutrients. Low carb communities call my diet zero carb (ZC).
After a few months my oncologist declared my cancer in remission, saying it was “remarkable” and to “keep doing what you’re doing.”
One side effect of hormone therapy is bone loss, osteopenia to osteoporosis, because of the extremely low sex hormones (testosterone in men). Lately my osteopenia has gotten worse. So, since I was in remission, I asked my oncologist if we could stop the Lupron injections. He wrote,
“Certainly we could consider intermittent therapy. You do have a very aggressive cancer, successfully controlled, so we would have to be very careful. … Note: it may take 6 - 12 months for testosterone to rise.”
So my last Lupron injection was on 2/21/2018, ending the use of any and all medications, except diet/lifestyle.
My 5/31/2018 PET bone scan showed that all the metastasized sites had disappeared!
All cells express appropriate hormone receptors on their surface membranes. Prostate cells express testosterone receptors and hormone/androgen deprivation therapy drives testosterone levels very low. But all cells express insulin receptors and cancer cells express an over abundance of insulin receptors because they need to collect a huge amount of glucose to drive their growth. (See https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3356071 , The Insulin Receptor: A New Target for Cancer Therapy)
That’s what I’m now targeting with my no-plant (zero carb) diet, an extremely low insulin level to deprive cancer cells of glucose. You could call it “Insulin Deprivation Therapy”.
Meanwhile, normal cells can get their energy requirements from fatty acids and ketones (which cancer cells can’t use because of their uniquely deranged / damaged metabolism).
Oh, I also have been doing light to moderate exercise every since my oncologist recommended it in 2011. It lowers insulin and glycogen stores, among other things. I walk 2-3 miles / day and take a couple of cardio and strength training classes at my local senior center. I’ve recently read and am starting to follow recommendations in this book on slow HIIT: https://amzn.to/2Ogmavg .
Remember, though, “you can’t outrun a bad diet”. So both are important for optimal health.
I hope others will be encouraged enough by my (highly successful) n=1 experiment to try it themselves. As with any n=1 experiment, if you experience any adverse effects STOP.
BUT, even if it works for you expect only negative reactions, sometimes very emotional, from doctors and dietitians. The best you will probably get, as did I, is “keep doing what you’re doing.”
Also, some people who reduce their carbs to keto or ZC levels find their cholesterol levels rise, as did I. But I’m not worried because World Health Data shows people with higher cholesterol LIVE LONGER; see https://youtu.be/wdznfiWvGq0?t=1026 , Dr Zoe Harcombe PhD - Facts About Food To Help Real Foodies Fight Back. Dave Feldman’s research is revealing the possible mechanisms for this lower mortality; see http://cholesterolcode.com, esp. http://cholesterolcode.com/hyper-responder-faq .
Not a public speaker, but I described my journey on Jimmy Moore’s podcast recorded at KetoFest 2018: Goto 25:47 on Episode 1416 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show" (Best to get it at https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/the-livin-la-vida-low-carb-show-with-jimmy-moore/id324601605?mt=2 because the show notes have a truncated version).
Amy_R0922
(Amy Ramadan)
#29
So very Happy for you!!! I went into remission about 6 months ago, after a long battle with stage 4 breast cancer, so I know what a huge relief it is to hear this news!! Thanks for sharing!!