[susantrParticipant]

Hi
I read a very interesting book called How to Starve Cancer (only available from Amazon). It about a lady who was diagnosed with cancer of the cervix, who later developed lung mets stage IV and was given months to live. To her this was unacceptable, so she researched alternative, repurposed drugs which have all been clinically trialled and have shown responses in many cancers. The 3 major drugs are Metformin (used for diabetes), Atorvastatin (used for high cholesterol) and Vermox (anti parasitic). The aim of these drugs is to starve the cancer stem cell, the ones chemo do not manage to kill, which causes relapse ultimately. The author is now 20+years out from diagnosis which got my attention. I researched these drugs by typing eg Myeloma + Metformin + pubmed and was quite astonished with the results of the trials. The idea is that the cancer stem cell feeds off glucose, if you deprive the body of glucose the stem cell will look for another source of fuel ie fats, etc. By taking the medications listed above all pathways should be blocked, in addition some supplements are suggested. Type in google search myeloma metabolic phenotype, see the pathways you need to block and how they correlate to the medications. As with all medications there are side effects which may or may not be experienced, but for sure they are not chemotherapy, which causes cancer. I am now on the COC protocol as I feel I have nothing to lose, read the book and form your own opinion. To me this makes sense. Will it work for myeloma I don’t know, time will tell. The book plus the papers I read all suggested these drugs worked. I felt I should share this information. I am not medically trained, but maybe hope you will take a look at the information.

[richfsModerator]

Hi Sue,

I’ve just come across this post from a few years ago and wondered if you’d continued with these drugs, and what your views are?

Best wishes,
Rich.

[susantrParticipant]

Hi Rich
Yes I still take these medications each day, along with supplements curcumin being in an 8g dose. Whatever supplement I take I have done a pubmed search + myeloma to get the latest publications. June will be my 7th year in remission after sct. Is the drugs and/or change in lifestyle that has kept me in remission, I don’t know or would I have remained in remission without changes in diet and the COC protocol and supplements, again I don’t know, but I believe they help and that’s the main. As we know solid tumours behave very differently to liquid tumours. I have read that COC have good success rates with solid tumours. A friend of mine never reached mad -ve, did not change her lifestyle and remains with low level disease not requiring treatment as yet. She has been this

[susantrParticipant]

… sorry cut myself off. She has been like this for 7.5 years. We were both Stage III disease, I am lambda light chain 6800 at diagnosis and she is IgG kappa. She has 1 year of Thalidomide as consolidation after sct. My last treatment was sct, no maintenance. We do what we believe helps us I suppose. I’m happy with my decisions. Sue

[sunshinejude28Participant]

Hi Sue

Apart from the COC drugs, what lifestyle changes have you made?

My husband was diagnosed in 2013 and had an SCT in 2020 but relapsed 18 months later. He is now on Carfilzomib. I’m trying to help him with lifestyle changes that may help him get into remission and stay in remission longer.

Thanks
Jude

[mulberryParticipant]

There is a myeloma specialist in USA Dr Urvi Shah who had Hodgkin’s lymphoma during her training. As a blood cancer patient she was convinced that diet makes a difference to outcome, changed her own diet and for a few years has been doing research into diet and myeloma.
It is worth listening to her podcasts.
Basically she advises that myeloma patients eat at least 30 different plant foods a week (vegetables, fruits, herbs, pulses) that we aim not to eat processed foods, including plant based processed foods, cut meat and dairy (she says 80% of people are lactose intolerant) if not out, then down & cut out refined sugar.
Meat, dairy and sugar for special occasions only.
She also advises against the general use of supplements as they will unbalance vitamin & mineral levels (except vitamin D which most myeloma patients are low in, and B12 which many patients have low levels of).
Her approach seems similar to Dr Tim Spector’s Zoe project in UK which is researching the gut microbiome. He also advises 30 different plant based foods a week, although his work is aimed at us all, rather than myeloma patients specifically.

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