This paper was published in Science 24 February 1956: Vol. 123 no. 3191 pp. 309-314
Study title and author:
On the origin of cancer cells
Warburg O
This paper can be accessed at: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/123/3191/309.extract
Otto Warburg won the Nobel prize for medicine in 1931 for discovering that cancer cells are fundamentally different compared to healthy cells.
He found that energy and growth in cancer cells is mainly generated by the fermentation of glucose, unlike normal cells which contain tiny organelles inside them called mitochondria which work away producing enegy to keep the cells healthy. The mitochohdrial activity in cancer cells is impaired and cancer cells can use glucose by up to 200 fold the rate of healthy cells.
How does this relate to cancer and diet?
To produce energy humans mainly use either:
(i) Fat and ketone bodies.
(ii) Glucose.
Fat may be provided by dietary fat, and ketone bodies are compounds that are produced when fats are broken down for energy by the liver and kidneys. Almost all carbohydrates are broken down by the body into glucose.
Fat and ketone bodies need mitochondria to provide energy, whilst glucose also has the ability to provide energy by fermentation. This means that fat, ketone bodies and glucose can be used for energy by healthy cells, but only glucose can be used by cancer cells.
The implication of this is if you follow a very low carbohydrate diet it is very difficult for cancerous cells to survive because they will have little or no energy to feed on.
Warburgs research shows that a high carbohydrate diet will encourage cancer growth, whereas a diet low in carbohydrate and high in fat discourages the growth of cancer.
