Can Cancell (Protocel) Cancel Lung Cancer?

Those of us who do our best to provide honest information about herbal and alternative remedies have a special problem with cancer remedies. Just as conventional medical treatments may be effective at one stage of cancer and ineffective at another, alternative or complementary cancer treatments may be helpful at one stage and harmful at another.

The formula once marketed as Cancell and now marketed as Protocel, however, seems to be unusually safe--as long as you don't give up your medical treatment.

What Is Cancell/Protocel?

In 1936, biochemistry student James Vincent (Jim) Sheridan, as a collaborator of author Carl Helvie tells us, literally had a dream. One day as he was taking an afternoon nap, Sheridan had a sort of vision of cellular respiration in cancer cells. He decided to spend the rest of his life pursuing a cure for cancer on the basis of this dream.

At that time, the renowned German biochemist Otto Warburg had articulated an idea that cancer cells are forced to "ferment" sugar to make energy, and Sheridan's dream explained the concept to him. After receiving his Nobel Prize, by the way, Warburg restated his ideas of how cancer cells make energy, contradicting the "fermentation hypothesis," but Sheridan worked for the next 55 years trying to create a formula that would make it impossible for cancer cells to make energy so they would simply die without radiation or chemotherapy.

A More Modern Understanding of "Fermentation" and Cancer

In the 1930's there was an idea that cells became cancerous and then couldn't use oxygen to burn glucose to make energy. By the 1980's the understanding of cancer cell physiology was that cells that didn't use oxygen to burn glucose to make energy became cancerous. The connection between sugar, "fermentation," and cancer goes something like this:

Every time a cell transports a molecule of glucose (sugar) across its cell membrane into the mitochondria to be turned into fuel, it has to send two potassium ions out and take three sodium ions in. The more a cell uses glucose, the more positively charged it becomes.

Cells actually start out with a negative charge on their outer membranes, and they never truly become positively charged, but as their "batteries run down" they have smaller and smaller negative charges so they are less and less able to absorb the positively charged proteins that regulate them. Eventually a cell becomes so full of sodium and water that even the DNA is distorted, and wild multiplication ensues.

Cancer Isn't a Fungus

Under low-oxygen conditions, cells can make energy through a process called anaerobic respiration. This process uses 34 times as much glucose, and brings in 34 times as many sodium ions. The deterioration of the cell into a cancerous state is much faster when oxygen is not readily available. Cancer cells like any other cells actually prefer normal oxygenation, that is, cancer is not a fungus, but the lack of oxygen causes cell damage that leads to the changes that cause cancer in the cell. 

How Cancell/Protocel May Reverse the Processes that Lead to Cancer

We actually know a lot about what Protocel doesn't do. Proponents of the "cancer is a fungus" theory have developed an idea that holds a bacterium called Progenitor cryptocides transforms normal cells into cancer cells when they are deprived of oxygen. There just isn't any evidence from actual cancerous tumors that this happens. And there are advocates of Protocel who have created elaborate theories that the product "revs up" the metabolism of cancer cells so that they "explode."

The problem with both of these ideas is that they just aren't backed up with any experimental evidence. When pathologists look at cancerous tumors under the microscope, they don't find Progenitor cryptocides bacteria. When people go into remission from cancer, they don't find exploding cells. However, the fact that the explanations of how Protocel works are, for the most part, fanciful, doesn't mean that there is no value at all in the formula.

What's In Cancell/Protocel?

Different manufacturers make different formulations of Protocel, but most of the time the product contains a mixture of catechol (a crystalline form of the catechins found in herbs such as green tea), inositol (a carbohydrate that the body can use to make the signalling hormones that "turn off" cancer cells), and small amounts of nitric acid, sulfuric acid, potassium hydroxide, and/or sodium sulfite to bring the mixture to the right pH.

Sheridan's formula included a substance he called "crocinic acid," but this is not a term that is used in standard science; no one knows what it is, so it isn't included in the formula any more.

Catechols in tobacco smoke are actually known to increase the formation of lung tumors, although a proven cancer-fighting compound, curcumin, is also in the catechol class. It would seem questionable that a product containing catechols could treat lung cancer, but that is exactly what several advocates of Protocel treatment tell us. A number of people have gone into remission from lung cancer after taking Protocel, according to nutritionist Tanya Pierce, who recounts the stories of seven lung cancer survivors in the book called You Can Beat Lung Cancer by Dr. Carl O. Helvie.

Not a Placebo, But Not a Drug Either

The instructions for Protocel advise avoiding sugar and salty foods when taking the supplement. If you don't consume large amounts of sugar and salt, perhaps cancer cells don't accumulate sodium as quickly, and they have a chance to repair themselves as they "recharge." A physician I knew named Demetrio Sodi-Pallares cured about 20 patients who had pancreatic cancer using this approach. 

Advocates of Protocel don't discourage radiation or surgery as treatments for cancer. It could be that a combination of radiation or surgery, sensible diet, and whatever is in the product are exactly what some lung cancer patients need. At least it was what Dr. Helvie's associate and eight people she knew needed. But here's my advice:

Never rely on just one approach to treating cancer. Hit it with everything you've got. Get the best medical treatment you can, and use safe alternatives along with it. Let your doctor know exactly what you are doing. You might be the person who convinces your doctor of the value of an alternative. Just know that there is no "sure thing" for treating lung cancer. Don't give up radiation or surgery to take a supplement.

You may never know whether it was the medical therapy, the diet, the alternative product, or some higher power that makes you well--but expanding the frontiers of medical knowledge isn't the goal. Getting well is the goal. I would pursue medical options first, but diet and low-cost complementary medicine also make sense.