by Les Cole, MD, ABAARM, ABIHM and Kathie Gonzales, ARNP, BC

Understanding Cancer Cells

There are basically two types of cells that make up cancer. The first are cancer stem cells (CSCs) that act as the “brains of the operation”. They determine how cancer acts. The other cells are daughter cells of the CSCs and behave the same as the CSCs they came from except they multiply rapidly and out of control. Both CSCs and their daughter cells behave much differently than your body’s normal cells.

Along with surgery and radiation, the current treatment of cancer—chemotherapy—focuses on only one difference between cancer cells and your normal cells. This is the speed of daughter cancer cell growth. Chemotherapy is generally a poison to all of your cells, but the fast-growing cancer cells take it up faster and so die sooner, but the side effects of chemo are evidence that your normal cells are also being damaged.

In addition, chemotherapy does not kill CSCs like it does the fast-growing cancer daughter cells. That gives the CSCs enough time and stimulation to mutate, now leading to the production of new, fast-growing daughter cells that are resistant to chemotherapies and more likely to metastasize and become more aggressive, causing more damage.

Thankfully, there are many more differences between cancer cells and normal cells besides their rate of growth. These differences provide many more opportunities to treat the cancer. There are two main categories of differences: the signaling molecules of both CSCs and their daughter cancer cells behave much differently than your normal cells, and both CSCs and their daughter cancer cells feed (to produce energy) much differently than your normal cells. These provide for two different methods of attacking and killing both CSCs and daughter cancer cells.

Abnormal Signaling Molecules

Signaling molecules in your normal cells when stimulated set off biochemical pathways that make all the things that are supposed to happen in your cells happen normally to keep your cells healthy. Obviously, something has gone wrong in cancer cells and it usually is one or more of these abnormal signaling molecules. Below are listed just two of the many signaling molecules that have gone wrong in cancer and the treatments that can be used to block its cancerous effect:

• Hedgehog Signaling – present in the majority of cancers.
  • Berberine – various foods/supplement
  • Metformin – repurposed diabetes medication
  • Mebendazole – repurposed anti-parasite medication
• Wnt/beta-catenin – associated with viral driven cancers
  • Aspirin – repurposed OTC medication
  • Dipyridamole – repurposed blood thinning medication
  • Niclosamide – repurposed anti-parasite medication (no longer manufactured)

Different and Varied Methods of Cancer Cells Feeding

Cancer cells feed (for energy production) very differently from your normal cells. Normal cells utilize glucose and fat in the Krebs cycle. Below are listed three of the many abnormal ways of cancer cells feeding and the repurposed medications and foods/supplements that block them:

• Aerobic Glycolysis – the most common way cancer feeds
  • High Dose Intravenous Vitamin C
• Cholesterol Pathways
  • Berberine – foods/supplement
  • Dipyridamole – repurposed medication (as above)
  • Luteolin – foods/supplement
  • Statins – repurposed cholesterol lowering medication
• Glutamine OxPhos
  • Berberine – foods/supplement
  • Metformin – repurposed medication (as above)
  • Doxycycline – repurposed antibiotic medication
  • Niclosamide – repurposed medication (as above)