Cigarette Smoking After Cancer Diagnosis Increases Risk of Death

by AACR.

Compared with men who did not smoke after a cancer diagnosis, those who smoked after diagnosis had a 59 percent increase in risk of death from all causes, after adjusting for factors including age, cancer site, and treatment type. When limited to men who were smokers at diagnosis, those who continued smoking after diagnosis had a 76 percent increase in risk of death from all causes compared with those who quit smoking after a diagnosis.
"Many cancer patients and their health care providers assume that it is not worth the effort to stop smoking at a time when the damage from smoking has already been done, considering these patients have been diagnosed with cancer," said Li Tao, M.D., M.S., Ph.D., epidemiologist at the Cancer Prevention Institute of California in Fremont. "Our study provides evidence of the impact of postdiagnosis smoking on survival after cancer, and assists in addressing the critical issue of tobacco control in cancer survivorship."
When cancer patients who continued smoking after diagnosis were compared with cancer patients who quit smoking after diagnosis, the risk of death varied with different cancer organ sites: risk of death increased by 2.95-fold for bladder cancer patients who continued smoking, 2.36-fold for lung cancer patients who continued smoking, and 2.31-fold for colorectal cancer patients who continued smoking.
"As far as we know, only a fraction of cancer patients who are smokers at diagnosis receive formal smoking cessation counseling from their physicians or health care providers at the time of diagnosis and treatment, and less than half of these patients eventually quit smoking after the diagnosis," Tao said. "Therefore, there is considerable room for improvement with regard to tobacco control in the postdiagnosis setting for the growing population of cancer survivors.
"Compared with the general population, cancer patients are more likely to receive treatment on an inpatient basis or prolonged outpatient visits," she added. "Health care providers have an important 'window of teachable moment' to engage in tobacco-use counseling during these visits. This piece of solid evidence from our study in establishing the role of cigarette smoking in cancer survival is necessary for implementing and enforcing smoking cessation interventions in order for patients to increase their chances to achieve better outcomes. Policymakers should consider including information on health outcomes of smoking cessation in educational materials for specific intervention programs and policies targeting cancer survivors."
Tao and colleagues used data from the Shanghai Cohort Study, which is a prospective cohort study investigating the association between lifestyle characteristics and risk of cancer among middle-aged and older men in Shanghai, China. Between 1986 and 1989, 18,244 men were enrolled in the study. Participants were 45 to 64 years old, and completed an in-person interview-based questionnaire about demographics, history of tobacco and alcohol use, diet, and medical history. Data were updated on an annual basis for all surviving cohort members.
By 2010, 3,310 participants were diagnosed with cancer. Of these participants, 1,632 were eligible for this study. Of the eligible study participants, 931 died from any cause. In addition, 340 were nonsmokers, 545 quit smoking before a cancer diagnosis, and 747 were smokers at diagnosis.
Of the 747 smokers at diagnosis, 214 quit after diagnosis, 197 continued smoking consistently, and the remaining 336 smoked intermittently.

Source: American Association for Cancer Research

HIV drugs may get new role in fighting cancer

By Ben Hirschler

A type of HIV medicine that stops the AIDS virus from entering immune system cells could in future be put to work against cancer in new combination therapies being developed by drug companies.
Interest in using so-called CCR5 inhibitors to fight tumors was fuelled last year when U.S. researchers, testing the drugs on mice, reported a marked reduction in aggressive breast cancer cells spreading to the animals' lungs.
Researchers from the Thomas Jefferson University Kimmel Cancer Center described the results as "dramatic" after they were published in the Journal of Cancer Research.
Now industry analysts at Citi believe Merck & Co Inc is set to take things to the next stage by testing its CCR5 drug vicriviroc in cancer patients. The product was abandoned as a treatment for HIV in 2010 following an unsuccessful study.
Pfizer Inc and Bristol-Myers Squibb - which also have similar drugs in their portfolios - could follow suit, Citi said in a note on Friday.
Asked to comment on the suggestion that it would start testing vicriviroc in patients in 2014 as part of a combination therapy for cancer, a spokesman for Merck said: "We have not disclosed any such plans."
Citi said it expected vicriviroc to re-enter clinical testing in combination with cancer immunotherapy as Merck explores its potential across multiple tumor types, including melanoma, colorectal, breast, prostate and liver cancer.
Immunotherapy, which harnesses the body's immune system to fight cancer, is a hot new area for cancer research, with some experts predicting the approach will in future form the backbone of many cancer treatments.
However, drug combinations are expected to be critical to its success as oncologists will need to block cancer cells on several fronts at once.
One option is to combine two immunotherapies, while another approach, also being pursued by other companies like Roche Holding AG and AstraZeneca Plc, is to combine immunotherapy medicines with different drug types.
CCR5 inhibitors are one such option, given the encouraging signals from pre-clinical research. As these drugs have already been studied in HIV, their development could be relatively rapid.
Pfizer could also start clinical trials in cancer with its approved CCR5 drug Selzentry, which is currently marketed for HIV via the ViiV Healthcare alliance with GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Shionogi & Co Ltd.
Bristol, meanwhile, has a dual CCR2/5 inhibitor in mid-stage Phase II development, which is being tested for diabetes and kidney disease. 

Source: Reuters

End Stage Cancer Patients

How they are participating
We are going to run a Fund A Need campaign for Giving Tuesday. Lazarex Cancer Foundation helps end stage cancer patients participate in FDA clinical trials (often their last and only hope to beat the cancer). One of the ways we help is by reimbursing patients the out of pocket expenses for associated costs like airfare, hotel, rental car, gas, tolls, a travel companion, etc. So the Fund a Need will allow donors to contribute to selected needs and they can choose the donation level that works for them. For example: Airfare to a clinical trial for a year is $5,000 and we’ll break it up into 50 giving segments of $100. A rental car for a year is $800 with 32 giving segments of $25 and so on.

Lazarex Cancer Foundation honored as 2013 top-rated nonprofit

For Immediate Release:

Lazarex Cancer Foundation honored as 2013 top-rated nonprofit

New GreatNonprofits.org Award is Based on Positive Online Reviews

Danville, CA 10/29/13 – Lazarex Cancer Foundation announced today that it has been honored with a prestigious 2013 Top-Rated Award by GreatNonprofits, the leading provider of user reviews about nonprofit organizations.

“We are excited to be named a Top-Rated 2013 Nonprofit,” says Karen Ambrogi, Communications Manager for Lazarex Cancer Foundation. “We are proud of our accomplishments this year. We’ve increased the number of cancer patients we financially assist to participate in clinical trials by 47%.That’s huge. In 2014 we are launching a new program to address the (cancer) health disparities afflicting low income and medically underserved populations with Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and UNLV in Las Vegas.”

The Top-Rated Nonprofit award was based on the large number of positive reviews that Lazarex Cancer Foundation received – reviews written by volunteers, donors and clients. People posted their personal experience with the nonprofit. For example, one person wrote,

“When I was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, I lost all hope because I needed an experimental drug in a clinical trial to save my life. Financially, we could not afford for me to participate in the trial. Then, I found Lazarex, and this Foundation came to my assistance. I am responding to the experimental drug and it is keeping me alive. I believe that this Foundation is saving my life by helping me afford to stay on this trial.”

While the Top-Rated Awards run through the end of October, Lazarex Cancer Foundation was part of the inaugural group to qualify for the year.

“Savvy donors want to see the impact of their donations more than ever,” said Perla Ni, CEO of GreatNonprofits, “People with direct experience with Lazarex Cancer Foundation have voted that the organization is making a real difference.”

Being on the Top-Rated list gives donors and volunteers more confidence that this is a credible organization. The reviews by volunteers, clients and other donors show the on-the-ground results of this nonprofit. This award is a form of recognition by the community.

About Lazarex Cancer Foundation

At Lazarex Cancer Foundation we support all end stage cancer patients and the cancer community by providing assistance with cost for clinical trial participation, navigation through clinical trial options, and community outreach and education.

About GreatNonprofits

GreatNonprofits is the leading site for donors and volunteers to find reviews and ratings of nonprofits. Reviews on the site influence 30 million donation decisions a year. www.greatnonprofits.org

Media Contact

Karen Ambrogi Karen@lazarex.org 925.820.4517

Couple raises money for Calif. cancer clinic

Son’s battle with rare cancer inspires parents’ fundraising effort

                        

By Amanda Roberge CORRESPONDENT

Ron Zenaro holds some of the bracelets that his wife,

Carol, makes to raise money for the Lazarex Cancer

Foundation in Danville, Calif. (T&G Staff/RICK CINCLAIR)

When Shrewsbury native Scott Zenaro arrived in California three years ago, he couldn’t possibly have understood that he was being given a second chance at life.

A rare diagnosis of Ewing’s sarcoma at age 30 led to four long and difficult years, which included a handful of surgeries, 18 months of chemotherapy and 70 days of radiation. By the time Scott was 34, his doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston had nothing left to offer him. They had exhausted their resources and referred Scott to an oncologist in Santa Monica named Dr. Sant Chawla.

Dr. Chawla was unique in that he offered terminally ill patients a chance to participate in FDA clinical trials, and the family rejoiced in this gem of good news: Scott was one of the few people chosen to be part of a trial for the antibody drug R1507. However, the joy of the news quickly faded, and it became clear that there was one potentially major roadblock. Dr. Chawla’s clinic was in Santa Monica.

In between the East Coast and West Coast there were a number of problems to solve, not least of which had to do with finances. How does a 30-something cancer patient on a fixed income afford a 3,000-mile move to one of the most expensive cities in the country, just to roll the dice with an experimental treatment? The Lazarex Cancer Foundation in Danville, Calif., exists for this exact reason.

“Our mission is to provide resources for cancer patients who’ve been told they have no other options, but who are not yet done with their journey in life and refuse to give up,” said Susan Sappington, director of development at Lazarex. “Our goal on a daily basis is to help build a bridge to hope for not only the patients but to their families, who need to know they have done everything possible for their loved ones.”

When Scott began to question the logistics of his cross-country leap, Lazarex stepped in and provided him with a condo in a beautiful Marina Del Ray community and took on the burden of his medical and living expenses.

“He loved his time in Marina Del Ray,” said Scott’s father, Ron Zenaro. “He became very important to everyone at Lazarex, and of course we are very indebted to them.” Not only was Scott enjoying his role in California as a Lazarex spokesman, he also found that his body was responding well to treatments.

Much to everyone’s delight, Scott took it upon himself to become the self-appointed Lazarex ambassador and welcome wagon for incoming patients.

“He made them feel so welcome,” said Ms. Sappington. “He became an important part of everyone’s experience here, helping them with whatever they needed.”

When Scott’s treatments ceased to work, Lazarex funded a trip to the Philippines for him to receive additional treatment, where his winsome and outgoing character continued to shine on everyone at the clinic.

“He just had so much personality,” said Ms. Sappington. “He made everyone laugh. He was always cracking jokes.”

Scott died on Feb. 24, at 36 years old, after flying home to Boston for a bronchoscopy that doctors hoped would help him continue his life. When all hope was lost and he failed to regain consciousness, his family made the difficult decision to pull his breathing tube and let him be at peace, a long journey over after a courageous and admirable life.

His death was devastating and sudden in its own way, and has left holes in the hearts of not only his parents, siblings and countless friends, but also the people at Lazarex. “We all loved him very much,” Ms. Sappington said.

While Scott’s friends and family continue to deal with the trauma of their loss, Scott’s mother, Carol, has found her own way to give back: crafting beautiful bracelets from beads made of clay, glass and wood. The family has begun pounding the pavement for donations in return for one of Carol’s creations. In fact, she began crafting the bracelets before Scott’s passing, while he was still in the Philippines. During his visit home for Christmas in 2009, Scott commissioned nine bracelets to take back to the clinic for his nurses and staff.

“He called us from one of his appointments after he got back to the Philippines and we could hear everyone yelling ‘Thank you,’ ” said Mr. Zenaro. “But still, the bracelets weren’t that big of a deal until after he died.”

Indeed, production and sales — all executed with love and reverence by a mother who continues to grieve the loss of her youngest child — have become something of a career for Mrs. Zenaro since her son’s passing. Mr. Zenaro is proud to point out that through her craft, the family has already been able to donate more than $13,000 to Lazarex and has no plans to slow down.

“This whole thing has been very devastating,” he said. “(Making the bracelets) is good for her.”

Ultimately, because 100 percent of every donated dollar goes directly to the patients at the Lazarex Cancer Foundation, the family is invested in raising funds in this grass-roots way. Mr. Zenaro, for one, carries his wife’s wares with him everywhere he goes. A natural salesman, he has taken to promoting her product with steadfast enthusiasm.

“The Lazarex Center allowed Scott to lead a dignified, normal life for two and a half years,” he said, adding that Scott became the center’s longest living patient and, ultimately, a huge success story for the experimental treatments he received through the clinic.

To purchase a bracelet or make a donation to the Lazarex Cancer Foundation, go to www.lazarex.org. 

 

Scott Zenaro Raffle Flyer

                       

“…In tribute to Scott's life, which he lived fast and furious with no time for meandering, the Zenaro family will be working to raise even more money for Lazarex by raffling off his pride and joy — a custom Harley-Davidson Softail motorcycle.”

Scott Zenaro’s Motorcycle Raffle 

We are excited about a unique fundraiser for Lazarex Cancer Foundation.  Ron and Carol Zenaro, the parents of our Very Important Patient, Scott Zenaro, have donated all the prizes, including Scott’s $40,000 handcrafted custom motorcycle to Lazarex to raffle off.

Tickets are only $100 each 

 ONLY 500 tickets will be sold to raise $50,000.  

Every dollar goes to Lazarex Cancer Foundation

Grand Prize - Scott Zenaro’s Custom Softail Handcrafted Motorcycle, $40,000 value

Second Prize - Hawaii Condo for 6 Nights/7 Days $ 2,500 value(For 2 people, based on availability)  

Third Prize - Keurig 700 Vue Single Cup Coffee Brewer $200 value 

For more motorcycle and raffle details and to purchase tickets online go to: https://lazarex.ejoinme.org/zenaroraffle

Winners will be announced Saturday, October 5, 2013.

Tickets may also be purchased by contacting Ron Zenaro at:ronzenaro@hotmail.com, 508.981.5050  

“Lazarex came to Scott’s aid to provide him with a second chance at life. Lazarex provided Scott substantial financial assistance associated with clinical trial treatments, 3000 miles from his home. This assistance extended Scott’s life 2½ years.”

  

P.O. Box 741, Danville, CA 94526 • 877-866-9523 • 925-820-4517 office • 925-552-7305 fax • www.lazarex.org.
Lazarex Cancer Foundation is a public 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization. Our tax identification number is 20-2562494 .

Source: Lazarex Cancer Foundation

Family Members of Children With Cancer may also be at Risk

by Kathy Jones

Researchers from Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah have revealed that family members of children who have been diagnosed with cancer are also at risk of developing the condition if a family history of cancer exists, a new study published in the Internal Journal of Cancer reveals.

The study, led by Joshua Schiffman, M.D., medical director of HCI's High Risk Pediatric Cancer Clinic and a pediatric hematologist/oncologist in in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Utah, examined the family medical history of 4,482 children diagnosed with cancer over a 43-year period to determine the cancer risk in their relatives.

The research team found that when children were diagnosed with any kind of cancer at age 18 or younger, the risk to their parents, siblings, or children for childhood cancer doubled compared to families with no childhood cancer patients. If the cancer diagnosis came when the child was age 4 or less, the risk to close relatives for childhood cancer increased almost four times.

"No one had previously studied the question, so we simply told parents there was no evidence of increased risk to the other children," said Schiffman. "Now we can give an evidence-based answer—the risk depends on your family history of cancer."

This is the first study that uses the Utah Population Database (UPDB) to broadly examine the risk of all types of cancer in relatives of children with cancer. This unique resource at the University of Utah links genealogies and cancer registry data from Utah to medical records and vital records, including Utah death certificates.

"Because our data came from the UPDB, the assessment of family history in our study does not rely on self- or family-reported medical history," said lead author Karen Curtin, Ph.D., a genetic epidemiologist and UPDB assistant director. "Self-reporting of family medical history depends on an individual's memory, while our data comes from the statewide Utah Cancer Registry that records nearly all cancer cases, which reduces possible errors in reporting family cancers."

The team also assessed known inherited genetic syndromes in adult relatives of pediatric cancer patients. They found cancers associated with Li-Fraumeni Syndrome (LFS) seemed to be driving the increased risk to relatives in families with a history of cancer.

"Not all children's cancers are hereditary," said Schiffman. "But the numbers in this study suggest that the proportion of hereditary childhood cancers may be significantly higher than the 5-10% generally cited in adult hereditary cancers, and likely even more than 20%.

"LFS is one of the most devastating cancer syndromes," said Schiffman. "It causes a variety of cancers in both children and adults. For people with LFS, the lifetime risk of getting cancer is 80% to 90%, but with increased and early screening for tumors, there's early indication of a very high survival rate, perhaps even approaching100%. In a previous study, LFS patients who did not receive early screening only had a 20% survival rate."

Although childhood cancer rarely occurs in the population, based on their findings, the authors recommended collection of three generations of family medical history for all newly diagnosed pediatric cancer patients and referral of families with a history of early-onset cancers in children or adults for genetic counseling. In addition, parents of children diagnosed with cancer before age five with a family history of cancer should be advised of the potential for increased risk to other children in the family.

"We want to encourage the taking of a family history as part of routine care. With all cancers, but perhaps especially with childhood cancers, so many other questions seem so urgent, a family history may not seem to be the most pressing issue," said co-author Wendy Kohlmann, director of HCI's Genetic Counseling Program. "When families are referred into genetic counseling, we can provide them with more information about the risks and actions they can take."

"For families with previously unidentified LFS, following these recommendations could actually save the lives of multiple family members if at risk individuals are identified and early cancer surveillance programs implemented," Schiffman said.

The data analyzed in this study indicated that outcomes for pediatric cancer patients are worse in families with a history of cancer. Schiffman said that further studies are planned to learn the clinical implications of this observation.

Source-Eurekalert

Ginseng Reduces Cancer Fatigue

Ginseng supplements taken for 2 months help cancer patients and survivors get rid of fatigue, finds study.

Lead author Debra Barton, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota said that nearly all patients with cancer can suffer from fatigue at some point; either at diagnosis, during treatment and even after treatment, and (fatigue) can linger for several years.

She said that issue with cancer-related fatigue is that it can be a profound fatigue that is not relieved by sleep or rest and that it can significantly impact the ability of people to accomplish the things they are used to doing every day, Fox News reported.

Ginseng had shown promise for fatigue in earlier studies as well, researchers said.

Tired cancer patients and survivors often turn to that and other dietary supplements such as Coenzyme Q-10, L-Carnitine and guarana, but not all are supported by evidence.

To look more closely at the effects of ginseng, Barton and her coauthors split 364 people with cancer-related fatigue into two groups.

People in one group took 2,000 milligrams of Wisconsin ginseng daily for eight weeks; those in the other group took placebo capsules.

Participants reported their fatigue on a specialized questionnaire. Researchers then weighted those answers on a 100-point scale, where higher scores indicate more energy. Both groups started with an average score around 40.

After eight weeks, the ginseng group reported a 20-point score increase, on average, compared to a 10-point improvement for the placebo group.

That's more than enough change to be noticeable in daily life, according to the scale.

Side effects such as nausea, vomiting and anxiety were not any more common among people taking ginseng.

The findings are published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Source-Medindia

Can a High-Fat Diet Beat Cancer?

The women's hospital at the University of Würzburg used to be the biggest of its kind in Germany. Its former size is part of the historical burden it carries — countless women were involuntarily sterilized here when it stood in the geographical center of Nazi Germany.
Today, the capacity of the historical building overlooking the college town, where the baroque and mid-20th-century concrete stand in a jarring mix, has been downsized considerably. And the experiments within its walls are of a very different nature.
Since early 2007, Dr. Melanie Schmidt and biologist Ulrike Kämmerer, both at the Würzburg hospital, have been enrolling cancer patients in a Phase I clinical study of a most unexpected medication: fat. Their trial puts patients on a so-called ketogenic diet, which eliminates almost all carbohydrates, including sugar, and provides energy only from high-quality plant oils, such as hempseed and linseed oil, and protein from soy and animal products.
What sounds like yet another version of the Atkins craze is actually based on scientific evidence that dates back more than 80 years. In 1924, the German Nobel laureate Otto Warburg first published his observations of a common feature he saw in fast-growing tumors: unlike healthy cells, which generate energy by metabolizing sugar in their mitochondria, cancer cells appeared to fuel themselves exclusively through glycolysis, a less-efficient means of creating energy through the fermentation of sugar in the cytoplasm. Warburg believed that this metabolic switch was the primary cause of cancer, a theory that he strove, unsuccessfully, to establish until his death in 1970.
To the two researchers in Würzburg, the theoretical debate about what is now known as the Warburg effect — whether it is the primary cause of cancer or a mere metabolic side effect — is irrelevant. What they believe is that it can be therapeutically exploited. The theory is simple: If most aggressive cancers rely on the fermentation of sugar for growing and dividing, then take away the sugar and they should stop spreading. Meanwhile, normal body and brain cells should be able to handle the sugar starvation; they can switch to generating energy from fatty molecules called ketone bodies — the body's main source of energy on a fat-rich diet — an ability that some or most fast-growing and invasive cancers seem to lack.
The Würzburg trial, funded by the Otzberg, Germany–based diet food company Tavartis, which supplies the researchers with food packages, is still in its early, difficult stages. "One big problem we have," says Schmidt, sitting uncomfortably on a small, wooden chair in the crammed tea kitchen of Kämmerer's lab, "is that we are only allowed to enroll patients who have completely run out of all other therapeutic options." That means that most people in the study are faring very badly to begin with. All have exhausted traditional treatments, such as surgery, radiation and chemo, and even some alternative ones like hyperthermia and autohemotherapy. Patients in the study have pancreatic tumors and aggressive brain tumors called glioblastomas, among other cancers; participants are recruited primarily because their tumors show high glucose metabolism in PET scans.
Four of the patients were so ill, they died within the first week of the study. Others, says Schmidt, dropped out because they found it hard to stick to the no-sweets diet: "We didn't expect this to be such a big problem, but a considerable number of patients left the study because they were unable or unwilling to renounce soft drinks, chocolate and so on."
The good news is that for five patients who were able to endure three months of carb-free eating, the results were positive: the patients stayed alive, their physical condition stabilized or improved and their tumors slowed or stopped growing, or shrunk. These early findings have elicited "very positive reactions and an increased interest from colleagues," Kämmerer says, while cautioning that the results are preliminary and that the study was not designed to test efficacy, but to identify side effects and determine the safety of the diet-based approach. So far, it's impossible to predict whether it will really work. It is already evident that it doesn't always: two patients recently left the study because their tumors kept growing, even though they stuck to the diet.
Past studies, however, offer some hope. The first human experiments with the ketogenic diet were conducted in two children with brain cancer by Case Western Reserve oncologist Linda Nebeling, now with the National Cancer Institute. Both children responded well to the high-fat diet. When Nebeling last got in contact with the patients' parents in 2005, a decade after her study, one of the subjects was still alive and still on a high-fat diet. It would be scientifically unsound to draw general conclusions from her study, says Nebeling, but some experts, such as Boston College's Thomas Seyfried, say it's still a remarkable achievement. Seyfried has long called for clinical trials of low-carb, high-fat diets against cancer, and has been trying to push research in the field with animal studies: His results suggest that mice survive cancers, including brain cancer, much longer when put on high-fat diets, even longer when the diets are also calorie-restricted. "Clinical studies are highly warranted," he says, attributing the lack of human studies to the medical establishment, which he feels is single-minded in its approach to treatment, and opposition from the pharmaceutical industry, which doesn't stand to profit much from a dietetic treatment for cancer.
The tide appears to be shifting. A study similar to the trial in Würzburg is now under way in Amsterdam, and another, slated to begin in mid-October, is currently awaiting final approval by the ethics committee at the University Hospital in Tübingen, Germany. There, in the renowned old research institution in the German southwest, neuro-oncologist Dr. Johannes Rieger wants to enroll patients with glioblastoma and astrocytoma, aggressive brain cancers for which there are hardly any sustainable therapies. Cell culture and animal experiments suggest that these tumors should respond particularly well to low-carb, high-fat diets. And, usually, these patients are physically sound, since the cancer affects only the brain. "We hope, and we have reason to believe, that it will work," says Rieger.
Still, none of the researchers currently studying ketogenic diets, including Rieger, expects it to deliver anything close to a universal treatment for cancer. And none of them wants to create exaggerated hopes for a miracle cure in seriously ill patients, who may never benefit from the approach. But the recent findings are difficult to ignore. Robert Weinberg, a biology professor at MIT's Whitehead Institute who discovered the first human oncogene, has long been critical of therapeutic approaches based on the Warburg effect, and has certainly dismissed it as a primary cause of cancer. Nevertheless, he conceded, in an email, for tumors that have been affected by the ketogenic diet in animal models, "there might be some reason to go ahead with a Phase I clinical trial, especially for patients who have no other realistic therapeutic options."

Source: Time.com