Uploaded January 2015 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
Presentation by Thomas N. Seyfried Ph.D.
Professor, Biology Dept., Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA
at the 17th Clinical Applications for Age Management Medicine.
Despite modest advances in the standard of care, malignant cancers persist as a major disease of morbidity and mortality in children and adults. Emerging evidence suggests that cancer is more of a mitochondrial metabolic disease than a disease of the nuclear genome (somatic mutation theory). As a metabolic disorder involving the dysregulation of respiration, malignant cancer can be managed through changes in metabolic environment. In contrast to most normal cells, which transition to ketone bodies (beta-hydroxybutyrate) for respiratory energy when glucose levels are reduced, malignant tumors are heavily dependent on energy production through non-oxidative substrate level phosphorylation. This dependence is due largely to structural and functional abnormalities in mitochondria according to the Warburg theory of cancer. Glucose and glutamine are major fuels for malignant cancer cells. The transition from glucose to ketone bodies as an energy source is an ancestrally conserved adaptation to food deprivation that permits the survival of normal cells during extreme shifts in nutritional environment. Only those cells with a flexible genome, honed through millions of years of environmental forcing and variability selection, can transition from one energy state to another. We propose a different approach to cancer management that exploits the metabolic flexibility of normal cells at the expense of the genetically defective and metabolically challenged tumor cells. This evolutionary and metabolic approach to cancer management is supported from studies in orthotopic mouse brain tumor models and from case studies in patients with brain cancer. Calorie restriction and restricted ketogenic diets (R-KD), which reduce circulating glucose levels and elevate ketone levels, are anti-inflammatory, anti-angiogenic, and pro-apoptotic towards malignant brain tumor cells. The efficacy of some anti-cancer drugs and non-drug therapies (hyperbaric oxygen therapy) can be enhanced when administered together with the R-KD.
What is Age Management Medicine?
Age Management Medicine is a proactive, preventive approach focused on preservation of optimum human function and quality of life, making every effort to modulate the process of aging prior to the onset of degenerative aging. The basic tenets of Age Management Medicine are patient evaluation through extensive medical history, lifestyle assessment, physical examination and laboratory evaluation to establish personalized proactive treatment plans consisting of proper diet, exercise, stress management and appropriate medical interventions.
About AMMG
It is the goal of the Age Management Medicine Group (AMMG) to provide education and information on the specialty of Age Management Medicine to physicians and healthcare professionals through evidence-based, continuing medical education conferences, workshops, seminars, publications and Web media. The Group consists of leading industry healthcare professionals, physicians, practitioners, researchers, medical
associations and providers of products and services.
visit us at agemed.org
Presentation by Thomas N. Seyfried Ph.D.
Professor, Biology Dept., Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA
at the 17th Clinical Applications for Age Management Medicine.
Despite modest advances in the standard of care, malignant cancers persist as a major disease of morbidity and mortality in children and adults. Emerging evidence suggests that cancer is more of a mitochondrial metabolic disease than a disease of the nuclear genome (somatic mutation theory). As a metabolic disorder involving the dysregulation of respiration, malignant cancer can be managed through changes in metabolic environment. In contrast to most normal cells, which transition to ketone bodies (beta-hydroxybutyrate) for respiratory energy when glucose levels are reduced, malignant tumors are heavily dependent on energy production through non-oxidative substrate level phosphorylation. This dependence is due largely to structural and functional abnormalities in mitochondria according to the Warburg theory of cancer. Glucose and glutamine are major fuels for malignant cancer cells. The transition from glucose to ketone bodies as an energy source is an ancestrally conserved adaptation to food deprivation that permits the survival of normal cells during extreme shifts in nutritional environment. Only those cells with a flexible genome, honed through millions of years of environmental forcing and variability selection, can transition from one energy state to another. We propose a different approach to cancer management that exploits the metabolic flexibility of normal cells at the expense of the genetically defective and metabolically challenged tumor cells. This evolutionary and metabolic approach to cancer management is supported from studies in orthotopic mouse brain tumor models and from case studies in patients with brain cancer. Calorie restriction and restricted ketogenic diets (R-KD), which reduce circulating glucose levels and elevate ketone levels, are anti-inflammatory, anti-angiogenic, and pro-apoptotic towards malignant brain tumor cells. The efficacy of some anti-cancer drugs and non-drug therapies (hyperbaric oxygen therapy) can be enhanced when administered together with the R-KD.
What is Age Management Medicine?
Age Management Medicine is a proactive, preventive approach focused on preservation of optimum human function and quality of life, making every effort to modulate the process of aging prior to the onset of degenerative aging. The basic tenets of Age Management Medicine are patient evaluation through extensive medical history, lifestyle assessment, physical examination and laboratory evaluation to establish personalized proactive treatment plans consisting of proper diet, exercise, stress management and appropriate medical interventions.
About AMMG
It is the goal of the Age Management Medicine Group (AMMG) to provide education and information on the specialty of Age Management Medicine to physicians and healthcare professionals through evidence-based, continuing medical education conferences, workshops, seminars, publications and Web media. The Group consists of leading industry healthcare professionals, physicians, practitioners, researchers, medical
associations and providers of products and services.
visit us at agemed.org
