Cancer as a Metabolic Disease

Nearly a century ago, Dr. Otto Warburg concluded that cancer was a metabolic disease. Tragically, his valuable work was set aside as the research community turned their attention and resources to the genetic mutations found in cancer cells. (Warburg was his own worst enemy here, arrogantly pushing back against new discoveries rather than reevaluating holes in his own work. Read more about his life and times in Sam Apple’s book, Ravenous.

Pursuing therapies that attempt to target these mutations has been a dismal failure and even the newest drugs aren't living up to their promise as "targeted therapies". Meanwhile, millions of people are still suffering and dying from this dreaded disease. My son was among the casualties.

Thankfully, not everyone abandoned the metabolic theory. Dr. Thomas Seyfried suspected early in his career that there was more to the development and progression of cancer than could be explained by genetics alone. Finally, in 2012, he offered the science community (and some science-savvy lay people) a comprehensive and very detailed argument which once again moved the discussion back towards a view of cancer as primarily a disease of dysregulated cancer cell metabolism. If you’re ready for what amounts to a grad course in this study, check out his book, Cancer as a Metabolic Disease.

Dr. Seyfried's conclusions were built piece by piece from his own research which in turn was built by the discoveries of those before him. For an insightful and thoroughly entertaining view of the major players and events, read Travis Christofferson's Tripping Over the Truth.