A fantastic talk at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center by Craig P. Thompson, President and CEO of Memorial Sloan Kettering.

It starts off with a great overview of cancer in general and the associated metabolic pathways of cancer cells, including the Warburg effect and why cancer cells light up in a PET scan (hint, it’s the glucose!). He also touches on the problems of overconsumption leading to increased IGF-1 stimulation and the resultant increase in glucose uptake by all cells. This, of course, drives tumogenesis.

At this point he comes on strong with the nutrition connection:

“If you overfeed someone with fat, you don’t increase their cancer risk at all. If you overfeed someone with carbohydrates, you dramatically increase their cancer risk. Protein is half way in between.” (Craig Thompson)

If we return now to the title, it seems like Craig Thompson’s answer to his rhetorical question, “Why don’t we all get cancer?” is basically, glucose control.

Well worth the watch if you are interested in cancer, or touched by it personally or via friends/family.