Starving cancer: Dominic D'Agostino at TEDxTampaBay

While studying the effects of gasses on the brains of Navy Seal divers, Dr. D'Agostino developed an approach for metabolically starving cancer cells through diet and compressed oxygen, replacing chemotherapy, surgery, or radiation.

Navy SEAL divers are the best
at what they do.

But they have a problem

that limits their ability
to do their mission.

Our research focused
on solving the problem

and it led to an unexpected
path of discovery

for neurological diseases and cancer.

The problem results
from the specialized equipment

that the Navy SEAL divers use,

including the oxygen rebreather.

The advantage of the rebreather
is that there are no bubbles

so it's very quiet

and helps the SEAL
evade detection from the enemy.

The disadvantage
of the oxygen rebreather is

that the high levels of oxygen

and the pressure
from the undersea environment

causes a potential for a seizure.

These seizures occur
with little or no warning

and there is no effective
mitigation strategy to prevent them.

So the question we ask is
why do the seizures occur

and how can we prevent them.

To answer this question required funding

from the Office of Naval Research

to develop a microscope

that was installed
inside a hyperbaric chamber,

or a high-pressure chamber.

This chamber could simulate
the underwater environment

and the pressure
of the underwater environment.

Using this technology

we demonstrated
that neurons in the brain,

when subjected to high pressure
and high oxygen,

are overstimulated.

The overstimulation of the brain

from the high oxygen and pressure

causes a decrease
in brain energy metabolism.

When this happens,

it causes the potential for a seizure.

These oxygen seizures occur
with little or no warning

and there is no effective way
to prevent them.

These drug resistant seizures

are similar to epilepsy patients

that have drug resistant seizures,

and in the case of patients

they can use a special diet
to prevent these seizures.

One example of the patient
who used diet is Mike Dancer.

Mike used a variety of antiseizure
medication,

and the medication caused
severe side effects

and was not able to control his seizures.

So, due to the severe side effects

Mike stopped
all the antiseizure medication

and when he did it, he saw an increase

in his seizure frequency.

At about this time Mike discovered

there was is a dietary intervention,

that he could use to control his seizures.

And when he did it,
he found a sharp decrease

in his seizure frequency.

I'm happy to say that Mike
has been on the diet

for 5 years now,

and he's been managing his epilepsy

for 5 years without medication.

So what is the ketogenic diet?

Compared to a normal diet,

the ketogenic diet
is very low in carbohydrates

and it's very high in fat.

People have used the diet for years

to help them regulate their body weight,

reduce their body weight,

and control or reduce
their blood glucose levels.

But most importantly,

the ketogenic diet is proven
to control seizures,

when drugs fail.

No organization has done more
to educate the public

about therapeutic potential
of the ketogenic diet

than The Charlie Foundation

started by Hollywood producer
Jim Abrahams.

Jim's son Charlie
was stricken with seizures.

They were so severe

and no amount of drugs could help him.

So Jim looked into alternative approaches

to manage his son's seizures.

And with his research he discovered

that the ketogenic diet was being used

at Johns Hopkins Hospital,

so it was a treatment that was used

specifically for pediatric epilepsy.

So Jim took Charlie
to Johns Hopkins Hospital

and they worked pretty closely
with a dietician there,

and within a short amount of time

Charlie's seizures were under control.

And Charlie was actually
cured of his epilepsy

at Johns Hopkins Hospital

with the use of the ketogenic diet.

So Charlie is actually off the diet
completely today,

and he remains seizure-free.

The ketogenic diet is effective

for a variety of neurological disorders

including Glucose Transporter
Type 1 Deficiency Syndrome.

Children with this disorder

lack the ability to transport
glucose into the brain.

So their brains are literally
starved of glucose

and this causes a potential for seizures.

So it's known that, you know,

the brain can use glucose
as the primary fuel,

but it can readily adapt
to using ketones for energy.

So in this way the brain
is like a hybrid engine, right?

So it uses glucose as the primary fuel

but during periods
of limited glucose availability

the brain can readily adapt

to using this alternative fuel source.

So we are exploiting
the neuroprotective effects of ketones

by developing ketone supplements
for the Navy SEAL divers

for oxygen seizures.

So the advantage
of the ketone supplement is

that you can circumvent
the need for the dietary restriction

that's required to elevate and sustain

blood levels of ketones.

There are many therapeutic
applications of ketones

because nearly all healthy cells in a body

can use ketones for fuel
as an alternative energy source.

Surprisingly, cancer cells
lack the ability to transition

from using glucose for fuel
to using ketones.

So, in a way, cancer cells are like
damaged hybrid engines.

They use large amounts of glucose

much more than healthy cells,

and they lack this ability
to transition over

to an alternative fuel source.

So we can say that "sugar addiction"

is really the Achilles heel
of cancer cells.

This observation inspired me in the lab,

and I asked a question, I wondered,

why very little attention
was being given to nutrition

to exploit this weakness of cancer cells.

So, it turns out that the sugar addiction

was actually observed over 80 years ago
by Otto Warburg.

So, Otto Warburg did experiments,

he won a Nobel prize
for these experiments,

demonstrating that [cancer] cells
are damaged in their metabolism

and the damage in their metabolism

results in high amounts of sugar uptake.

More recently, Thomas Seyfried
from Boston College

has been a pioneer, really,
in validating Warburg's hypothesis

and proving that cancer
is a metabolic disease.

In Tom's experiments, he demonstrated

that there is a specific,

metabolic defect of cancer cells
as glucose dependency,

and that we can target that

with a variety of non-toxic
alternative approaches.

Oncologists target this weakness
in cancer cells,

which is excess glucose consumption,

with something called a FGD-PET Scan.

The PET Scan actually shows

the excess consumption
of glucose in cancer cells

relative to the healthy tissues
surrounding it.

So this allows for the imaging
of excess glucose consumption

that oncologists use.

But this information really isn't used

to exploit the cancer
for a treatment modality.

The excess glucose consumption
of cancer cells

allows them to thrive and proliferate

in a low oxygen environment.

Another interesting observation
that we made in the lab

is that high pressures of oxygen

are actually damaging to cancer cells.

We've demonstrated

that when high levels of oxygen
are given to cancer cells

that they overproduce
oxygen free radicals,

and these are damaging
to the cell membrane.

At high magnification we can observe

bumps on the surface of the membrane

that are indicative of membrane damage.

What's most interesting is
that the same level of oxygen

that damaged the cancer cells

was non-toxic to the healthy brain cells.

These observations inspired us to test

the combination of the ketogenic diet
and hyperbaric oxygen

in a mouse model of metastatic cancer.

The glowing regions on the screen,

show the growth and the spread

of metastatic cancer cells.

This study demonstrated
the therapeutic efficacy

of a new, non-toxic, alternative approach

to cancer management.

So what started out
as a Navy SEAL project

and then led to a promising
mitigation strategy

for the oxygen seizures

in the form of ketone supplements

ultimately led us down a path

to this unexpected discovery.

So the question is,

can we manage cancer
with non-toxic strategies?

I believe that we can.

And I've been inspired

by a number of seizure patients
and cancer patients

that have used these alternative methods

to manage their incurable diseases.

Future treatments and prevention
of many diseases

may fall back on the ancient
wisdom of Hippocrates,

when he said, "Let food be thy medicine."

Thank you.

(Applause)