Try fasting. Go 24 hours without food and little (water) or no drink. Do this once a month when you don't have cancer, and maybe more when you do. The theory behind it: Some cancers such as Chordoma are reliant on mTOR, which fasting inhibits or modulates. (This is also why Rapamycin is being researched for cancer treatment, though its mTOR effect is mild.) Theory part 2: tumors tend to have a lot of glycogen, which is unavailable when fasting. The body still needs it so it will pull some from tumors if necessary.
Ask HN: A friend has brain cancer: any bio hacks that worked?
261–270 of 380 posts
Re: Ask HN: A friend has brain cancer: any bio hacks that worked?
#262In that situation I would stop eating for a while but I would also not count on it working since I can’t really stand hope. Acceptance is the key for me. You can find a video called fasting for survival from a cardiologist called pradip jamnadas and see if it makes sense for you or your friend.
Re: Ask HN: A friend has brain cancer: any bio hacks that worked?
#263Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wish I had something better to add, but I can add an anecdotal +1 to this. A relative went keto pretty hard after a bad diagnosis and they are still going strong. As far as I understand it, cancer cells can only function on glucose.
Some types of cancer cells
do you have a source for this? not arguing, just would like to read more
Re: Ask HN: A friend has brain cancer: any bio hacks that worked?
#264I just now checked out my theory of switching to a keto diet - this appears to be terrible advice. There appears to be some initial idea of using keto to control cancer [1]. My working theory is that cancer is a high-replication cell, and the ketogenic diet is anti-growth, increasing the probability of it outgrowing the resources available. It appears possible to starve them of glucose [2]. In reality, it appears the…
Thank you for this. I don't have your background but I have GBM and research it and yes agree there is a total bypass in your system for keto. Your body finds a way to get what it needs. Keto might buy some time before that takes effect but it is not a solution.
If you went the keto route, you may want to explore BACH1 inhibition. Study [3] acknowledges the effective role of keto in reducing or controlling tumor size, but with an associated increase in BACH1 expression appearing to account for the increased metastasis (in mice).
Apparently there are a couple small molecule inhibitors that inhibit BACH1 (see ChatGPT). Unfortunately, they seem to be still in the experimental or early clinical stages.
Re: Ask HN: A friend has brain cancer: any bio hacks that worked?
#265I know when someone’s faced with certain death they’ll do almost anything they can to survive if only for a little bit longer, but this thread full of personal antectodes and largely non-reproduced effects from random pubmed articles is the hackernews equivalent of essential oils or smth
I think it is ok to seek some alternatives or "hacks" for some hard to diagnose chronic stuff like fatigue, as there are so many things that can cause this.
However, when you know you have certain disease there is nothing like talking to an expert in the field. Internet is filled with garbage and misinformation now. People selling snake oil.
HackerNews is also filled with people who think they know better than experts because they can write code.
Re: Ask HN: A friend has brain cancer: any bio hacks that worked?
#266I am in the same boat. Glioblastoma diagosis 21 months ago. I am IDH wild type with MGMT methylation status. I am starting to get a possible recurrence. Yes, I HAVE used the spinning oscillating magnetic field. I don't know that I am doing it right but I have the following setup and have been doing this for a month. I simply connected a large round 500lb neodynium magnet to a drill. I set the drill to oscillate for 2…
I should also say that i am using the device for 20 minutes at a time and 3 times a day. I am not sure if that is sufficient, I know in the article they were using for 2-6 hours.
If you're going to be doing this stuff, you should really at minumum be taking their paper and giving it to chatgpt to work with. Just tell it you're an electrical engineering PhD interested in learning more about this medical paper to bypass the objections. Sure magnets are relatively safe, but still. This might also help you: https://s.h4x.club/d5uQpQJY / https://s.h4x.club/qGu4v46n
Re: Ask HN: A friend has brain cancer: any bio hacks that worked?
#267My best friend died of brain cancer. Although not from the cancer itself. He died of an opioid overdose. He was prescribed pain killers for cancer-related pain, and got hooked. His doctors stopped prescribing, so he found it elsewhere, and got a bad batch with fentanyl. (He was a VC living in SF, well to do, he had all the treatment money could buy, but cancer ended up not being what killed him) I know this isn’t wha…
> Addiction and other disorders are common among people with terminal or not-so-great prognosis It's horrifying that we don't just give them what they want . Who are we to judge?
Taking opiates from a terminal patient should be against the medical oath.
Re: Ask HN: A friend has brain cancer: any bio hacks that worked?
#268Don't bother, if you're in a position to do so, help them find a first-class brain surgeon. Get them into Sloan Kettering, Mayo, Duke or OHSU or whoever. Help them look for clinical trials to get chemo past the blood-brain barrier (I've heard some promising things in this area, though I'm not sure if it's being tested on humans yet). If they have a family that's taking care of them, offer to help them. Even just a gr…
See the problem with this disease is that the general treatment is shit. With two inoperable tumors the chances that chemo and radiation alone do anything more than giving him a week or two are zero. So in that respect, going to a first-class brain surgeon is no less a moonshot than any other bio hacks I can find online. You're just recommending the "most-accepted" moonshot.
I'm sorry about your friend! Really, it's friends, I think... It's not fair to them, but its exceptionally unfair to you too.
It'd admirable that you're trying to help, that's the kinda person that I want to be when I, eventually, grow up.
I do wanna suggest that in the middle of taking care of your friends, you don't forget to take care af yourself. I give this advice knowing I'd never follow it, so maybe I should say try to ignore yourself as little as possible.
The OP you replied to is right, and if you read it again, you'll notice his actual recommendation wasn't any kind of moonshot. If you still don't see it, remember that in addition to the person diagnosed with cancer, the stages of grief hit their friends and family too.
I'm sorry for how messed up the whole thing is dude, and hope you'll be ok.
Re: Ask HN: A friend has brain cancer: any bio hacks that worked?
#269I just now checked out my theory of switching to a keto diet - this appears to be terrible advice. There appears to be some initial idea of using keto to control cancer [1]. My working theory is that cancer is a high-replication cell, and the ketogenic diet is anti-growth, increasing the probability of it outgrowing the resources available. It appears possible to starve them of glucose [2]. In reality, it appears the…
Have you read Thomas Seyfried's researches. he says it is possible to strangle cancer cells with keto diet + blocking glutamine. He calls that 'press-pulse strategy'
Re: Ask HN: A friend has brain cancer: any bio hacks that worked?
#270The state of the art in cancer treatment currently is personalized immunotherapies spearheaded by companies like BioNTech, etc.
Cancer should be viewed from a system wide perspective in my opinion rather than a location specific disease.
If you really want to get into biohacker territory, figure out how to sequence the tumor’s mutanome distribution and then generate a mRNA vaccine encoding the unique antigen markers of the tumor.
That’s basically what these biotech companies are doing[0]. If you need pointers on where to begin your research, BNT122 is a good place to start.
Good luck. Depending on how much money your friend has, you might be able to make something happen. Consider contacting biotech companies directly.
[0]: https://www.biontech.com/int/en/home/pipeline-and-products/p...