Ask HN: A friend has brain cancer: any bio hacks that worked?

Post by konart » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 5:21 AM UTC

ionwake wrote: post #113

ibash wrote: post #110

You should ask them if they want you playing doctor. I have a chronic disease, not fatal, and totally manageable. But the most annoying thing is when someone finds out and suddenly pretends to be the expert. Of course my doctors and I investigating it for years were completely wrong! I should’ve ate more apricots! Please just check with them if they want their limited time spent like that.

dont get why that upsets you. I have had a chronic disease my whole life and one of the people who offered help completely saved my life. If anyone else told me to eat apricots Id be grateful for their time and attention. I would probably eat the apricots and tell them it was fantastic, even if it had no effect. Sorry I just have rarely seen my friends or family offer any advice. - Back to OP, Ive always remembered P…

Post by d--b » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 5:29 AM UTC

aCameronhuff wrote: post #152

Here’s a summary of all of the current treatments and near future treatments for GBM/glioma: https://docs.google.com/file/d/1kTa3eamaL91Smjh9r_0CYv5OYFX4... . This is as complete a list as you’ll find, written in plain English, with citations for every part of it. Slightly out of date but there hasn’t been much that’s new and different since last year. Vorasidenib was approved recently in USA and it’s the most effect…

Post by s1artibartfast » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 5:36 AM UTC

7e wrote: post #127

lambdaphagy wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To give a practical example, grapefruit juice contains some compounds that inhibit CYP3A4, a metabolic enzyme that influences the metabolism and absorption of many drugs, which is why many prescriptions tell you not to drink it while taking a given medication. This interaction was not discovered until 1989, and not reported until two years after that. So before 1991, a simple dietary intervention that affected like h…

The problem is you can't figure out where to pick it; it's lost in a sea of superstitious noise. Even if you could find this fruit easily, "a food that cures cancer when eaten" does not exist. That would surface in epidemiological studies very quickly.

Post by mllev » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 5:43 AM UTC

kerkeslager wrote: post #134

nikisweeting wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP is explicitly asking for hacks and "out there" solutions, I think this is a reasonable place to post anecdata, papers, personal theories, etc. as long as people state their confidence level and link to sources when possible

I disagree. OP is just asking for medical misinformation, and it would be irresponsible to provide it. Self-assessed confidence levels are basically useless because the most confident people are generally the most ignorant. It's causal: ignorance causes people to be confident. The more you know, the more you realize how little you know.

Post by adamredwoods » Fri, Jan 10, 2025, 5:44 AM UTC

threeseed wrote: post #160

adamredwoods wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no diet that will even intervene with cancer, unless the patient dies. Cancer is the patient's own cell that has mutated to a point beyond apoptosis and adapted to be able to draw nutrients from cells around it. It started from just one cell. It has already evaded dietary fluctuations and adapted. EDIT: the reason I'm a spaz about this is I feel too many people focus on diet as the focus of cancer. While it…

I don't understand unreasonable positions like this. Nobody is saying that people should stop "real" treatments or that diet must be the primary or sole focus for treatment. But given that a change of diet (a) costs nothing, (b) has no downsides, (c) potentially may work it seems strange not to do it.