Dr. Blagosklonny's Cancer

#42

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.

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#43

I went to Rapamycin Press and left Dr. Blagosklonny a message of support.

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#44

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.’ ”

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#45

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.

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#46

It’s very distressing and discouraging news for sure.

Regarding rapamycin in general, the devil’s in the details.

  1. How long did he smoke and how many packs a day?
  2. Was the initial lesion benign? Unchanged for 30 years?
  3. Was his diet inflammatory?
  4. When did he start rapamycin in this timeline?
  5. Radon in his house?
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#47

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.

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#48

I asked most of those question on twitter but no response so far

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#49

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.

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#50

is there a source link for this?

#51

The fact that Dr Blagosklonny developed cancer shocked me and also taught me 3 lessons:

  1. 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.

  2. Don’t trust anybody and proceed with caution when it comes to anything experimental.

  3. Get checkups often.

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#52

Senior folks might want to think about getting full-body MRIs on a regular basis.

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#53

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.

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#54
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#55

I’m just trying to understand why he developed cancer being on rapamycin. Something definitely happened. Could be rapamycin dose. May be other supplements or combination of them with Rapa. Would be nice to understand.

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#56

He suggested that dose as one that would likely cross the blood brain barrier. Knowing now that he had brain metastases, I can see his reasoning for personally wanting to throw the kitchen sink at it. I also agree that it was highly irresponsible for him to show it off to the public without any context at the time.

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#57

Probably just bad luck.

Mice on rapa develop cancer.

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#58

I don’t know.

Everolimus (ok, different pharmacokinetics) was tested @20mg/week.

So, 20+mg of rapa every 2 weeks don’t seem outrageous to me. And it probably helped with BBB.

Also I don’t think it was irresponsible of him to post videos taking the drug. That’s what he believes is safe and ideal and it does not contradict the literature on rapa.

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#59

It was before his diagonosis that he made the video taking 20 mg rapamycin every two weeks.

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#60

Ah yes, you are correct. I hadn’t personally seen the video until recently, so was under the incorrect assumption that this high dosing also started more recently.

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#61

And mice are on a very high dose.

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