Recently, in the Chinese media, a piece of news about cancer has become a hot topic: Professor Hu Xun’s team from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University has developed [TILA-TACE] therapy for advanced liver cancer, which is called [baking soda starves cancer cells] by the media.
First of all, this study is objective and published in a famous journal < >, but there is a big deviation in media reports, which has drawn a big gap with reality. As an oncologist, I have received many private letters and inquiries, so I think it is necessary to talk about it.
Point 1: Baking soda is not for eating.
At first glance, media reports thought it was enough to spend more than ten dollars to buy baking soda to drink. But in fact, the therapy studied by Professor Hu Xun’s team requires baking soda water to be injected into the artery through a catheter. Oral baking soda cannot resist cancer at all.
Point 2: Baking soda alone is not enough.
The [TILA-TACE] therapy invented by Professor Hu Xun’s team is a possible improvement of traditional interventional therapy for liver cancer.
Traditional interventional therapy for liver cancer mainly treats patients with huge liver cancer (larger than 3 cm) and is not suitable for surgical resection. The procedure is generally as follows:
Under anesthesia, a long catheter is inserted into the femoral artery of the patient, and then upstream to find the nutrient artery supporting liver cancer cells, and chemical embolic agents are injected to kill cancer cells.
Professor Hu Xun’s new therapy is to inject a dose of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) before and after the injection of chemical embolism agent on the basis of the original traditional therapy. As a result, the media have reported that this is [baking soda starved cancer cells].
Is it really what the media said? Here is the analysis of the treatment mechanism of this new therapy:
1. The metabolites of cancer cells are mainly lactic acid.
Normal cells can use glucose molecules to supply energy to cells. In the process, oxygen is needed to be consumed, and carbon dioxide, water and energy substances are metabolized to be used by cells.
Glucose and oxygen need to be transported through the blood, However, because cancer cells grow too fast, human blood vessels cannot grow in time and oxygen cannot be supplied, cancer cells have come up with a way to consume glucose for energy even under the condition of lack of oxygen. Therefore, the final product of cancer cell metabolism is not mainly carbon dioxide and water, but lactic acid. As a result, lactic acid accumulates continuously in the tumor.
2. Accumulated lactic acid may help cancer cells grow more vigorously.
Professor Hu Xun’s team found that the accumulated lactic acid may stimulate cancer cells to generate new blood vessels and regain nutrients-glucose and oxygen, thus greatly reducing the efficacy of traditional interventional therapy for liver cancer.
3. Baking soda neutralizes lactic acid
Professor Hu Xun’s team believes that removing lactic acid from the cancer can [frighten] the cancer cells so that they cannot produce new blood vessels and eventually starve to death.
Lactic acid is acidic, but baking soda is alkaline, so injecting baking soda water can neutralize lactic acid to form weakly alkaline lactic acid root and unstable carbonic acid. Carbonic acid can easily become carbon dioxide and water and be discharged out of the body.
From the above analysis, you probably understand that baking soda cannot directly [starve] cancer cells, and only chemical embolism drugs are still [starving] cancer cells. The function of baking soda is to prevent cancer cells from [jumping over the wall] in the process of hunger to generate new blood vessels to regain nutrients.
Point 3: The new therapy is only aimed at specific cancers,
Professor Hu Xun’s test results are impressive:
The objective remission rate of [TILA-TACE] therapy (tumor completely disappears or shrinks) is 100%, while the traditional interventional therapy for liver cancer is only 44.4%. The median survival time (i.e. The time half of the individuals can live) is also very good, [TILA-TACE] therapy is 41 months, while the traditional interventional therapy for liver cancer is only 14 months.
Such results are encouraging.
However, the new therapy developed by Professor Hu Xun is only aimed at patients with huge liver cancer. The treatment target is definite and narrow, and it is not possible to treat many cancers as suggested by the media. Many cancers do not have interventional therapy like liver cancer.
Summary: There are still some deficiencies in the research, and media reports should be cautious.
Professor Hu Xun’s team’s research is still relatively preliminary and has some deficiencies. The objective remission rate and survival rate seem to be very good, but they are from non-randomized controlled studies.
The gold standard to verify the effectiveness and safety of therapy is a randomized, controlled and double-blind clinical trial. Non-randomized controlled studies are vulnerable to confounding factors other than the study.
Professor Hu Xun’s team later tried a small-scale randomized controlled clinical trial (20 people), but the results showed that the survival rate did not change. Moreover, 4 people in the control group (using traditional interventional therapy for liver cancer) temporarily changed their treatment plan and adopted new therapies, which all affected the probative force of the small-scale clinical trial.
This new therapy may be a new direction, but more clinical trials with a larger sample size are needed to verify it. The efficacy of a new therapy must be stable and repeatable in order to be worthy of promotion.
The media propaganda [baking soda starves cancer cells] is neither accurate nor premature, which is extremely misleading. I am very worried that some swindlers will use hot spots to concoct baking soda water and sell it to patients to fight cancer.
Before the media report the research progress in the medical field, they need to improve their scientific literacy, have a sense of responsibility, and don’t always think about big news. Exaggeration, distortion, fabrication… It is easy for the public to misunderstand, and even cause irreparable damage to the public’s life and health.