1. I would like to ask you a set of hypothetical questions. And they do not apply to anyone's life in particular, but I'm curious to hear your perspective.
Answer: Okay.
2. What would you do if you were in a situation in which you thought you had cancer, but you could not access medical care?
Answer: I'm not clear on whether you're suggesting a definitive diagnosis.
3. No, there would be no definitive diagnosis, because you could not safely access medical care. But nonetheless, due to symptoms, you would believe you likely had cancer.
Answer: May I ask what symptoms?
4. Bleeding, initially. And then, perhaps you would actually be able to palpate a tumor abdominally.
Answer: Oh, wow. That sounds like a phenomenally difficult circumstance. And why exactly would I be unable to safely access medical care?
5. You would be in a circumstance that would not allow it.
Answer: A desert island circumstance?
6. Something like that, yes. What would you do?
Answer: Honestly, I would probably grieve for a couple days at first. I'm sixty years old, but I feel like I'm about thirty. There are some significant contributions I would like to be able to make.
7. You would only grieve for a couple of days?
Answer: It would be very important not to feel sorry for oneself in a situation like the one you're describing. It sounds like a circumstance involving necessary isolation from care and support, so it would be tremendously important to remain optimistic. You're only defeated if you accept that there's no way to change your situation.
8. How would you attempt to change your situation?
Answer: I would probably go after the cancer stem cells by following the sequence described in an excellent 2017 paper in the medical journal Oncotarget, entitled "Vitamin C and Doxycycline: A synthetic lethal combination therapy targeting metabolic flexibility in cancer stem cells (CSCs)." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5620172/
9. This is merely an in vitro study?
Answer: Yes, but the science is quite good. I'm not suggesting that this should replace established medical care, but you have offered me a hypothetical situation in which safe access to medical care would not be available to me. So, this is what I would turn toward.
10. Can you explain in layman's terms what the paper says?
Answer: Well, I am a layperson, so, by definition, yes. Cancer cells -- all cancer cells involving cancer of every type -- have one Achilles' heel involving metabolic flexibility. The cancer cell takes in energy through highly active mitochondrial respiration, and its energy needs are higher than that of normal cells. But Doxycyline, as an OXPHOS inhibitor, forces the cell to adapt to an alternate phenotype, in which energy is taken in to the cancer cell through glycolysis. After nine weeks on increasing Doxycycline dosages, mitochondrial respiration is thoroughly suppressed, and the cancer cells all transition to glycolysis. At that point, a discontinuation of Doxycycline and a transition to high-dose Vitamin C kills the cancer cells.
11. All of them?
Answer: It's important to recognize that cancer cells that have transitioned to the glycolytic phenotype are capable of adapting back to mitochondrial respiration over time. So, if some cancer cells were not reached on the first cycle, you could likely reach them on a subsequent cycle.
12. You mean that, after eight or nine weeks on high-dose vitamin C, you could transition back to the Doxycycline?
Answer: Potentially, yes. Or an alternate OXPHOS inhibitor. And the principles of OXPHOS inhibitors are explained in the excellent paper by cancer researchers De Francesco, Bonucelli, Maggionlini, Sotgia, and Lisanti, mentioned above.
13. So you could cycle back and forth between an OXPHOS inhibitor and the glycolysis inhibitor of high dose Vitamin C, and in that way ...
Answer: In that way, you should be able to kill all the cancer stem cells.
14. Is that equivalent to eradicating the cancer itself?
Answer: It is, yes.
15. How would you know whether it was working?
Answer: Well, I think most obviously, if the bleeding stopped and if the tumor was no longer palpable over time, I would feel fairly assured that it was working. Again, I am in no way suggesting that anyone turn away from traditional, documented, peer-reviewed best practices in oncology. But you have suggested a highly unusual circumstance, in which I would be isolated from professional medical attention at a time when I desperately needed it. So, in that hypothetical situation, this would be my course of action.
16. Can you imagine any real-life situation in which this hypothetical situation could manifest?
Answer: As a real circumstance in my life?
17. Yes.
Answer: Wow. I could come up with some unlikely scenario if I were pressed to do so.
18. Like what, for example?
Answer: Well, let's say that I were a whistleblower of corruption within a couple of major programs within the FBI. I might be able to imagine a circumstance in which the FBI would be highly motivated to obstruct my safe access to medical care under those circumstances.
19. What if those people who had been supporting your case found out that you had developed cancer?
Answer: I would very much want them to know that I was getting well.
20. Why?
Answer: Let's imagine that the truth of my particular case could potentially help millions of other innocent people. We could even go one step further and imagine that the truth of my case could help the cause of democracy itself. In that circumstance, I would want everyone to know that I was healing quite beautifully, that I was vigorous and energetic, and looking forward to advocating for the truth on behalf of many others.
21. Wouldn't it require a lot of courage to face something like this on your own?
Answer: Yes, but then I think it would be hugely exhilarating to heal from such a serious illness against all the odds.
22. You would probably come through such an experience with a renewed sense of purpose.
Answer: Oh, yes. Yes, I would.
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