If you believe that cancer is an aging disease, and Rapamycin can delay aging, therefore it, logically, also can delay cancer. Delaying may not be equal to preventing, but it comes pretty close, especially in older population.
3 Likes
Matt Kaeberlein is probably the most cautious person in making any kind of claims about anything scientifically unless he absolutely knows. He by far is the most knowledagable researcher of rapamycin and its benefits .
In my book he’s probably the most respected person in researching rapamycin and what it can do. He does not make wild claims and is conservative in views… not afraid to challenge others in science. Pretty strong believer as a user himself.
6 Likes
Come on… the poor health of Russians is certainly not from eating animal fats - it’s the heavy smoking and drinking, as well as air and water pollution.
8 Likes
Of course, but he was refering to mice. And didn’t mention cancer.
3 Likes
It’s a tale of mice and men. We have assumed that what holds true for mice and all the other model organisms will hold true for us. I still believe that, but there is that little voice that says… What if?
6 Likes
We have assumed that, but it is unlikely to be the case for complex things.
6 Likes
Rapamycin doesn’t prevent cancer. The person that discovered it died of prostate cancer if memory serves. Colon cancer. I doubt Matt would speak this rashly today but here he is in the podcast Agetron references. Suren died of cancer in January 2003. They are speculating it is because he stopped taking rapamycin in 2002 to see if it was helping. Hard to fathom giving that all of us have cancer cells in our body. We just don’t develop cancer because the immune system kills them.
MATT KAEBERLEIN: And there’s tons of data in mice that rapamycin can improve cognitive aging in mice. Starting rapamycin before the decline starts prevents the decline, and starting rapamycin after the decline starts partially reverses the decline.
AVIR MITRA: So you’re saying that rapamycin reverses Alzheimer’s in mice?
MATT KAEBERLEIN: That’s right.
AVIR MITRA: Wow.
And it’s not just Alzheimer’s. It’s, like, every marker of aging. It’s other diseases, too, like heart attacks, strokes and cancer, which kind of brings us back to Suren. Like, he was given six months in 1998, and now it’s 2002.
LATIF NASSER: Oh, wow, so, like, almost the five-year mark.
AVIR MITRA: Yeah.
AJAI SEHGAL: Five years when he was supposed to have been dead.
AVIR MITRA: He’s still taking rapamycin, and he’s still alive. And so, yeah, maybe some of that anti-aging stuff is happening in Suren’s body.
2 Likes
Colon cancer was what killed Seghal
3 Likes
There is hope, as of May 23 he is doing well playing golf in this video: https://twitter.com/Blagosklonny/status/1671298208255934467?s=20
and he recovered from the previous yr’s stroke well too.
2 Likes
I went to Rapamycin Press and left Dr. Blagosklonny a message of support.
6 Likes
Suren Sehgal’s cancer came back after he stopped taking Rapamycin:
Sehgal was diagnosed with cancer in 1998, his son Ajai says, Sehgal began taking rapamycin, too—despite the drug not having been approved for anything yet. He had a hunch that it might help slow the spread of his cancer, which had metastasized to his liver and other organs. His doctors gave him two years to live, but he survived for much longer, as the tumors appeared to go dormant. The only side effect he suffered from was canker sores, a relatively small price to pay.
But in 2003, after five years, Sehgal, age 70, decided to stop taking the drug. Otherwise, he told his wife, he’d never know whether it was really holding back his cancer. The tumors came back quickly, and he died within months, says Ajai. “On his deathbed, he said to me, ‘The stupidest thing I’ve ever done is stop taking the drug.’ ”
10 Likes
But Matt himself believes that rapa prevents/delays at least some types of cancers (in mice). Richard Miller does also believe in that.
We all knew that rapa wouldn’t be a silver bullet. Mice on rapa die and normally with/by means of cancers.
But I was shocked and distressed by the news. I’d thought it might be cancer when he mentioned a medical condition and a dose adjustement because of that, but I was hoping for other non deadly stuff.
I thought he was older than 60, also. More like 70.
3 Likes
It’s very distressing and discouraging news for sure.
Regarding rapamycin in general, the devil’s in the details.
- How long did he smoke and how many packs a day?
- Was the initial lesion benign? Unchanged for 30 years?
- Was his diet inflammatory?
- When did he start rapamycin in this timeline?
- Radon in his house?
6 Likes
Just because something happens in mice doesn’t mean it happens in humans. I also think it’s likely it will beneficial for reducing risk/delaying cancer, since it can be used to treat cancer and also there’s some observational data suggesting an good association. I know very little about cancer however so take this with a grain of salt.
3 Likes
I asked most of those question on twitter but no response so far
1 Like
Below is a study that found that rapamycin “drastically” increased tumor metastases in mice. And they may have correlated the finding to human cancers through epidemiological analysis.
4 Likes
is there a source link for this?
The fact that Dr Blagosklonny developed cancer shocked me and also taught me 3 lessons:
-
The dose does matter! Do you remember a video of him taking something like 28 Rapa pills at once? It sent a message to the followers, like: I can do it, you can also do it. How many people at that time changed their dose to match his, thinking that it’s safe? Was there any research in place to support it? No. Usually doctors are more conservative and exercise caution when it comes to medication dosage. I remember thinking that his immune system may crash. Maybe it was exactly what happened. We need immune system in balance to fight cancer cells. It was unwarily of him to set such example and also do it to his own body.
-
Don’t trust anybody and proceed with caution when it comes to anything experimental.
-
Get checkups often.
18 Likes
Senior folks might want to think about getting full-body MRIs on a regular basis.
3 Likes
The best research we have suggest 5-6 mg one time a week can be safe. 20 mg every two weeks seems… like a lot. It was to increase brain levels of mTOR inhibition, but as others have said (and researchers), that happens at lower dosages too.
5 Likes