Research shows
fungi can migrate from your gut to your pancreas, where it can
contribute to the development of pancreatic cancer. In mouse and human
models, pancreatic tumors contain 3,000 times more fungi than normal
pancreatic tissue
Pancreatic
tumors had far greater amounts of a common fungal genus called
Malassezia. Using an antifungal drug was found to be protective, slowing
down the progression of the tumor
The fungi
trapped in the pancreas appears to drive tumor growth by activating MBL
(mannose-binding lectin), a liver protein that triggers an immune
mechanism involved in fighting infections
Solid tumors
excrete acid and the spread of cancer cells is stimulated by acidic
conditions in the surrounding tissues. Acid is a byproduct of glucose
metabolism, which ties in with research showing cancer feeds on and is
accelerated by a diet high in sugar
Previous
research suggests baking soda can be helpful for inhibiting cancer
metastasis. It also appears to improve the effectiveness of other cancer
treatments
Oftentimes, even the most
unlikely-sounding theories can be scientifically validated if you just
wait long enough. That certainly rings true for recent headlines
declaring fungi and bacteria may be playing a role in the development of
certain types of cancer, combined with previous research showing baking
soda may be a useful remedy.
In 2011, ScienceBasedMedicine.org shamed Dr. Oz for allowing me on his show,1
and one of the "reasons" given was that I had at one time published
information about a novel hypothesis — the idea that cancer could be
caused by common fungi and might be treatable with baking soda.
Two early proponents of this hypothesis were Tullio Simoncini2,3 and Mark Sircus.4
As you might expect, they were unsuccessful in their attempts at
getting the conventional medical establishment to take the hypothesis
seriously and have been maligned and marginalized for promoting these
ideas.
So, mark my surprise when October 3, 2019, The New York Times published an article5 titled, "In the Pancreas, Common Fungi May Drive Cancer." The article reported the findings of a study6,7 published in the October 2019 issue of the prestigious Nature journal. According to this study:8
"Bacterial dysbiosis accompanies carcinogenesis in malignancies
such as colon and liver cancer, and has recently been implicated in the
pathogenesis of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA). However, the
mycobiome has not been clearly implicated in tumorigenesis.
Here we show that fungi migrate from the gut lumen to the
pancreas, and that this is implicated in the pathogenesis of PDA. PDA
tumors in humans and mouse models of this cancer displayed an increase
in fungi of about 3,000-fold compared to normal pancreatic tissue."
Fungal Microbiome May Play a Role in Pancreatic Cancer
More specifically, the mycobiome (the fungal microbiome) found in
pancreatic tumors was distinctly different from the mycobiome found in
the gut and in normal pancreases.
According to the researchers, PDA tumors had far greater amounts of a
common fungal genus called Malassezia. Killing off the mycobiome with
an antifungal drug was found to be protective, slowing down the
progression of the tumor. As reported by Medical News Today:9
"The team found that treating mice with a strong antifungal drug
called amphotericin B reduced tumor weight by 20–40%. The treatment also
reduced ductal dysplasia, an early stage in the development of
pancreatic cancer, by 20–30%.
Antifungal treatment also boosted the anticancer power of gemcitabine, a standard chemotherapy drug, by 15–25% …"
On the other hand, repopulating the tumor with Malassezia accelerated
tumor growth, except when Candida, Saccharomyces or Aspergillus genera
were used. This suggests Malassezia is the main culprit in this kind of
cancer. When other genera were included, tumor growth was much slower.
"We also discovered that ligation of mannose-binding lectin
(MBL), which binds to glycans of the fungal wall to activate the
complement cascade, was required for oncogenic progression, whereas
deletion of MBL or C3 in the extratumoral compartment … were both
protective against tumor growth," the authors note,10 concluding that:
"Collectively, our work shows that pathogenic fungi promote PDA
by driving the complement cascade through the activation of MBL."
In summary, the fungi trapped in the pancreas appears to drive tumor
growth by activating MBL (mannose-binding lectin), a liver protein that
triggers the complement cascade11 — an immune mechanism involved in fighting infections.
The problem is that this mechanism can also promote the growth of cells after the infection has been resolved.12,13 When MBL activation was inhibited, tumor growth was also inhibited.14
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Microenvironment Is an Important Consideration
As reported by The New York Times,15
up until very recently, the pancreas was thought to be a sterile organ,
which made these findings all the more surprising. The New York Times
goes on to state:
"There is increasing scientific consensus that the factors in a
tumor's 'microenvironment' are just as important as the genetic factors
driving its growth.
'We have to move from thinking about tumor cells alone to
thinking of the whole neighborhood that the tumor lives in,' said Dr.
Brian Wolpin, a gastrointestinal cancer researcher at the Dana-Farber
Cancer Institute in Boston.
The surrounding healthy tissue, immune cells, collagen and other
fibers holding the tumor, as well as the blood vessels feeding it all
help support or prevent the growth of the cancer.
Microbes are one more factor to consider in the alphabet soup of
factors affecting cancer proliferation. The fungal population in the
pancreas may be a good biomarker for who's at risk for developing
cancer, as well as a potential target for future treatments.
'This is an enormous opportunity for intervention and prevention,
which is something we don't really have for pancreatic cancer,' said
Dr. Christine Iacobuzio-Donahue, a pancreatic cancer researcher at
Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York."
That this research is being taken seriously is evidenced by its
widespread media coverage. As reported in an accompanying article in
Nature News and Views:16
"The mycobiome is a historically under-recognized player in human
health and disease, but its role in both is essential. Harmless
organisms called commensals, including fungi, inhabit mucosal surfaces
such as the linings of the gut, nose and mouth, and can activate
inflammatory processes as part of the immune system's response to injury
or infection …
Moreover, it is becoming apparent that there is a relationship
between the gut mycobiome and human cancers, including colorectal and
esophageal cancer."
Baking Soda Inhibits Cancer Metastasis
While the featured Nature study did not address the potential use of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), research17 published in the journal Cancer Research in 2009 did. According to the abstract:18
"The external pH of solid tumors is acidic as a consequence of
increased metabolism of glucose and poor perfusion. Acid pH has been
shown to stimulate tumor cell invasion and metastasis in vitro and in
cells before tail vein injection in vivo.
The present study investigates whether inhibition of this tumor
acidity will reduce the incidence of in vivo metastases. Here, we show
that oral NaHCO3 selectively increased the pH of tumors and reduced the
formation of spontaneous metastases in mouse models of metastatic breast
cancer.
This treatment regimen was shown to significantly increase the
extracellular pH, but not the intracellular pH, of tumors … NaHCO3
therapy also reduced the rate of lymph node involvement, yet did not
affect the levels of circulating tumor cells, suggesting that reduced
organ metastases were not due to increased intravasation.
In contrast, NaHCO3 therapy significantly reduced the formation
of hepatic metastases following intrasplenic injection, suggesting that
it did inhibit extravasation and colonization."
The authors point out that the extracellular pH of malignant tumors
typically ranges between 6.5 and 6.9, whereas normal tissues have an
alkaline pH typically ranging between 7.2 and 7.5.
They also cite previous studies showing solid tumors excrete acid and
that the spread of cancer cells is stimulated by acidic conditions in
the surrounding tissues. The paper also points out that "acid is a
byproduct of glucose metabolism," which ties in with research showing cancer feeds on and is accelerated by a diet high in sugar.
In this experiment, mice injected with cancer cells were given either
plain drinking water or water with 200 mmol/L bicarbonate. Calculations
suggest the equivalent dose in human terms would be 12.5 grams (0.4
ounces) of bicarbonate per day for an individual weighing 154 pounds or
70 kilos.
While the bicarbonate therapy had no effect on the rate of growth of
the primary tumors, it did significantly reduce the number and size of
metastatic tumors in the lungs, intestines and diaphragms, which in turn
resulted in improved survival. According to the authors:19
"In the 30-day experiment, pooled data showed that the
bicarbonate-treated mice had a total of 147 metastatic lung lesions,
whereas the control group had 326 lung lesions. The average lesion
diameters were 4.5 ± 0.12 and 5.2 ± 0.14 mm in the NaHCO3 and control
groups, respectively."
Baking Soda Might Not Be as 'Quack' as You Thought
In 2012, Mark "Marty" Pagel Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical
engineering at the University of Arizona, was given a $2 million grant
to investigate whether drinking baking soda water might help patients
with breast cancer.20,21
Interestingly, while the use of baking soda in the treatment of
cancer has been written off as the worst possible type of quackery by
skeptics and critics, the University of Arizona Cancer Center has
actually been studying its use for nearly two decades. As reported by
Cancer Active in 2017:22
"… in 2003 (Raghunand) they showed how drinking sodium
bicarbonate resulted in the alkalization of the area around cancer
tumors resulting in a cessation of new metastases23 …
Further research has shown that sodium bicarbonate had an effect
on breast and prostate cancers but had mixed results with other cancers …
2009, Robey et al showed that drinking sodium bicarbonate caused new
metastases to stop, whilst injection of Bicarbonate into tumors caused
regression of the cancer24 …
Ed: At CANCERactive we have a simple view that is identical to
that of American cancer researcher Ralph Moss. This is research every
cancer patient should know about. If drinking sodium bicarbonate can
restrict cancer metastases then it should be considered as a part of an
Integrated Cancer Treatment Programme, especially if it enhances the
action of chemotherapy drugs."
While Pagel's team has published a number of studies since then,
including one detailing the ways in which extracellular pH can be
assessed inside in vivo tumors,25,26 they've not yet published anything discussing the use of baking soda as an adjunct to breast cancer treatment.
Baking Soda Found to Improve Cancer Treatment
More recently, a study27
published in 2018 concluded the addition of baking soda can improve the
effectiveness of conventional cancer treatments. According to these
findings, published in the journal Cell, when tissues are acidic, cancer
cells can go dormant, thereby allowing them to hide from the treatment.
Lead author Chi Dang told WhyY.org:28
"Many of the therapies we have — chemotherapy, targeted therapy —
work in cells that are actively functioning and dividing. When you
awaken cells from a resting state into an active state, they become more
vulnerable to cancer therapy."
This study also found that when pH is low, it disrupts your circadian
clock. "Buffering against acidification or inhibiting lactic acid
production fully rescues circadian oscillation," the researchers found.29
Acidification also suppresses mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1
(mTORC1) signaling, and this too plays a role. According to the
authors:
"Restoring mTORC1 signaling and the translation it governs
rescues clock oscillation. Our findings thus reveal a model in which
acid produced during the cellular metabolic response to hypoxia
suppresses the circadian clock through diminished translation of clock
constituents."
WhyY.org expounds on the findings:30
"'What we've discovered in this study is that there's a very
rapid mechanism by which low pH, or acid itself, turns off a key toggle
in the cells that controls the cell's ability to make proteins,' Dang
said. In other words, it prevents cells from dividing.
As their processes slow down, the cells go into hibernation,
making them invisible to cancer treatments. Dang and his team wanted to
see if they could reverse that process, and they came up with a simple
solution: neutralizing the acid with baking soda.
They tested their theory by adding baking soda to the drinking
water of mice that had been grafted with tumors. 'What we found is that
the areas that were acidic, now are no longer acidic, and they become
more active,' Dang said.
'So this toggle comes back on, so that cells that are at rest can
now be reawakened.' That allows chemotherapy and other treatments to
find and destroy cancer cells … "
While I wouldn't say the evidence is anywhere near overwhelming, it's
certainly intriguing. Perhaps someday there will be enough evidence to
warrant baking soda therapy for the prevention of certain cancers, or as
an adjunct to improve the effectiveness of other cancer treatments.
In the meantime, there are many other therapies that have a more
solid grounding in science. Among them is the use of nutritional
ketosis, which I've written about in:
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