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Dietary changes can help with cancer death rates

Cancer Death Rates Drop, Why Am I Not Impressed?

Mainstream media hailed a 32% reduction in cancer death rates since 1991, but 16 million American lives were lost to cancer during this period. Combination treatments and screenings could have saved many lives, along with creative use of repurposed medications and healthy dietary changes.

By William Faloon.

William Faloon
William Faloon

Headline news trumpeted a 32% reduction in cancer death rates since 1991.1

These lower death rates translate into 3.5 million fewer Americans dying from cancer than what the American Cancer Society expected.1,2

The success is largely attributed to declines in smoking-related cancers. Other contributing factors are:1

  • Prevention-early detection through screening of some cancers
  • Combination treatments for many cancers
  • Chemotherapy after breast and colon cancer surgery           

My first critique deals with the forgotten 611,000 Americans who will perish from cancer this year.1 Why aren't more patient-friendly curative treatments available?

It is now 53 years since the famous "War on Cancer" was declared.3 Yet the establishment cited the greatest reason for their success is the decline in tobacco use.

Combination treatments were long ago advocated as were screenings to detect malignancies in early stages.

The horrific short- and long-term side effects of chemo, radiation, and other toxic therapies are omitted from the glowing findings of a 32% reduction in cancer death rates.1

The 2023 American Cancer Society report also exposes a sordid fact about the second most deadly cancer in men. It won't surprise legacy readers of Life Extension® Magazine.

The proportion of metastatic prostate cancers has more than doubled in the past 10 years.4

This increase is in response to the United States Preventative Services Task Force recommendation in 2008-2012 for men to avoid PSA (prostate-specific antigen) screening.

As I relentlessly predicted, the drop in PSA screening is leading to a surge of late-stage prostate cancers that will result in hundreds of thousands of needless, painful deaths. 

This has caught the attention of the American Cancer Society as they fear that hard fought gains in recent decades are being reversed by increases in advanced-stage prostate disease. The American Cancer Society CEO stated:

"There's a significant call to arms…We are not catching these cancers early when we have an opportunity to cure men of prostate cancer."

This article outlines the off-label use of a drug that has been shown in some studies to improve overall cancer survival. I also describe recent reviews supporting healthy dietary changes to help combat malignancies.

Conventional medicine's approach to cancer prevention and treatment omits many promising strategies. Lacking is the will to reach out for easy-to-implement adjuvant treatments.

Published studies corroborate the benefits of a broad array of dietary changes, lifestyle modifications, and repurposed medications.6-10

An ever-widening gap exists between scientific discoveries and practical applications of lifesaving knowledge.

Too often patients allow themselves to be left out of the fight when more can be done to improve treatment outcomes.

Almost everyone is aware that diet and lifestyle influence one's likelihood of getting cancer. Less known is that cancer cells can be favorably or adversely influenced by one's nutritional habits.

Cancer cells often undergo mutations that make them more resistant to treatment.11 Many of these cellular alterations have been mapped out, all the way down to their mechanism of action and the relevant gene expression involvement.

Two recent review papers converged to document specific ways in which these dangerous, evolutionary features of cancer can be suppressed by healthy nutrients, the bulk of them found in relatively high densities in the Mediterranean diet.12,13

The box on the next page provides a partial list of largely plant-derived anti-cancer compounds.

Anti-Cancer Nutrients in A Mediterranean Diet

Nutrients found in the following foods have demonstrated anti-cancer properties via multiple well-defined mechanisms: 

  • Grapes14-16 and other berries17-19 are reservoirs of a wide variety of polyphenols like quercetin20 and a complex of other nutrients like anthocyanins.21-24
  • Cruciferous and allium vegetables are rich in a variety of organic sulfurs;25-27 broccoli sprouts contain high amounts of sulforaphane,28-30 while garlic more uniquely contains diallyl disulfide.31-33
  • Tomatoes, and even more so tomato sauce, are staples of the Mediterranean diet that are densely packed with lycopene.34,35
  • Turmeric, a common spice also used in tea, contains high concentrations of curcumin.36,37
  • Milk thistle, traditionally consumed as a tea, is a principal source of silibinin.38
  • Saffron, a very common spice, has an extremely high density of kaempferol,39,40 crocin and crocetin.40-43
  • Extra virgin olive oil, another staple of the Mediterranean diet, contains oleocanthal, oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol.44-46
  • Parsley, celery, and chamomile tea are major sources of apigenin.47,48
  • Cold water fish are rich in omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA.49-51

The authors of one of the recent published reviews concluded the Mediterranean diet may:

"...inhibit all stages of carcinogenesis through multiple mechanisms."13

On the contrary, the Americanized western diet is laden with carcinogens that aid tumor formation and proliferation.

A significant dietary contribution to cancer is not the food itself, but the practice of over-processing and overheating, which makes typical foods more dangerous.

Some foods are especially troublesome.

One of the recent reviews concluded that a diet heavy in processed meats and dairy, while lacking in plant-based foods is:

"...conducive to the development of prostate cancer through a number of mechanisms that stimulate cancer cell proliferation and angiogenesis processes."13

A two-fold benefit can be seen by those who remove toxic dietary agents and replace them with nutrients that help defend against cancer.

Repurposed medications

Life Extension has long suggested the repurposing of drugs like metformin for potential anti-aging and anti-cancer benefits.

Metformin is an AMPK activator that plays central metabolic roles for impeding inflammation and slowing cancer cell propagation.52-54

A 2019, Nature review of over 1.6 million prostate cancer patients found use of metformin to have a statistically significant:

40% reduced risk of death from prostate cancer recurrence, and 28% increased composite survival rate.52

Not all studies yield these robust benefits, but prostate cancer patients may consider metformin as one of many adjunctive multi-interventional approaches.

Year 2024

American Cancer Society expects a record of more than 2 million new cancer cases in U.S.

A report published in early 2024 projects 611,000 Americans will die from cancer this year. That's more than any previous year.1

This American Cancer Society report shows incidence is on the rise for 6 out of 10 of the most common cancers:1

  • Breast
  • Prostate
  • Kidney
  • Pancreatic
  • Endometrial
  • Melanoma

While cancer death rates have been declining, rising diagnoses of common malignancies threaten what has been a hard-fought downward trend.

The American Cancer Society predicts almost 5,500 Americans will be diagnosed with a new cancer every day in 2024. And treatments, even when effective, can have brutal short- and long-term side effects.1

These bleak numbers are unprecedented. They partially reflect an aging and growing U.S. population with high obesity prevalence, unhealthy diets, and sedentary lifestyles.1,6-10,55

More frequent and widespread screenings, along with emphasis on cancer risk-reducing interventions are urgently needed.

The title of this editorial is "Cancer Death Rates Drop. Why Am I Not Impressed?" I wrote this before the grim report from the American Cancer Society published January 17, 2024 about record numbers of new cancer cases and deaths projected in 2024.

Why I am not impressed…

Mainstream news outlets recently heralded lower death rates that enabled a total of 3.5 million fewer American cancer deaths since 1991.2

While every life saved is noteworthy, I argue that more progress should have occurred over this multi-decade period in which 16 million Americans perished from cancer.

I advocate for these 16 million lives lost to cancer, many that could have been spared with greater progress and better adoption of existing adjuvant interventions in the clinical setting.

The published medical literature reveals a trove of innovative tactics to counter cancer, with researchers leveraging ever-increasing knowledge to find improved ways to exploit cancer's weaknesses.

We at Life Extension® have long argued for greater emphasis on multi-modal cancer treatments. We are increasingly not alone in encouraging the deployment of more comprehensive treatments.

Review updated findings about repurposed medications being studied as adjuvant therapies against various forms of cancer.

For longer life,

For Longer Life

William Faloon, Co-Founder, Life Extension®

References

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