24/03/2025
The field of cancer research has spent decades studying the nucleus of the cancer cell and its chaotic mutational landscape, believing that it is those genetic mutations that cause the cancer to form. However, overwhelming research has shown the existence of cancer cells without mutations and healthy cells with mutations which never become cancer.
The simple truth is that the origin of cancer is not in the nucleus and its mutations, but in the chronic damaging of the mitochondria. Cancer is inherently a problem of aberrant metabolism, or cell growth out of control. Mutations can be risk factors for cancer, and/or could also be downstream effects of a disturbed energy metabolism (mutagenic ROS released by damaged mitochondria).
The cancer cell forms when the mitochondria are corrupted (by any number of processes which cause oxidative stress like smoking and being obese, for example) and avoid cell death by getting energy from fermentation metabolism, compensating for the impaired (normal) energy production from oxidative phosphorylation. We can see the structural damage of mitochondria in cancer cells via the electron microscope.
Every cancer cell is by definition locked into a fermentative metabolism - using primarily glucose (sugar) and glutamine (amino acid) for energy - without these two fuels the cancer cells are unable to continue growing, thus the targeting of these two fuels (getting into ketosis to target glucose and pulsing metabolism-targeted drugs like DON or fenbendazole/mebendazole to target glutamine) while keeping the rest of the body healthy (exercise + keto/fasting) should be a priority for managing cancer.
To learn more about cancer as a metabolic disease and how to manage it with metabolic therapies, check out the link in our bio for our newsletter and more links to resources like videos, articles, and other media. Our research is free to access on Google Scholar (just look up “Thomas Seyfried” and “cancer as a metabolic disease”).