In this truly ground-breaking book, Jane takes us through her remarkable, heart-breaking journey, and the medical discoveries she made along the way. The use of ‘off label’ drugs for treating cancer is finally gaining traction. Yet Jane discovered these herself in 2003. Unbeknown to her, she would become ‘patient zero’. Jane McLelland McLelland was reluctant about writing her book, but she felt she had a duty to share with the world what she had discovered—and what had saved her life. This strategy could be applied beyond rare sarcoma tumors because the metabolic defect is often present in other cancers, including certain types of breast, colon, lung, brain and bone tumors, the researchers said. The new study includes data showing similar anti-tumor responses in cell lines from these cancer types. Van Tine also pointed out that all of the drugs used in the study are either already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for other conditions or in ongoing clinical trials investigating cancer drugs. McLelland’s cervical cancer markers were in the normal range. But in 2003, she received yet another death sentence: treatment-related myelodysplasia, a form of bone marrow mutation that may progress to leukemia. For now, unless an oncologist has advised a specific diet tailored to your specific tumor, the most common recommendation is to eat a generally healthy diet. None of this challenges the principle that staying well nourished is part of a healthy approach to any disease; and there is no evidence that overall starvation is good or even safe. But focusing on specific patterns of eating will likely be part of many cancer-treatment guidelines in coming years.

I already knew that statins would be potentially useful against cervical cancer. But research had also shown that they caused apoptosis in acute myeloid leukemias. I also had overlooked the fact that NSAIDs could cause cell death (apoptosis),” said McLelland. “What I learned from the Life Extension article was that there was a synergy between the two drugs, making them far more potent when taken together.” Her diet and numerous supplements were already helping on that front—particularly berberine, hydroxycitrate, gymnema, curcumin, niacin, and pycnogenol—all of which were inhibiting key pathways that are abnormal in cancer. She also underwent treatment with high-dose intravenous vitamin C. Just like the cervical cancer, Jane’s lung cancer was initially misdiagnosed (this time as a chest infection). But the benefit of having the improperly read X-ray from four months prior—along with the properly diagnosed X-ray—was the ability to see the rate at which the cancer was growing. McLelland created a diagram depicting her approach to starving cancer that she calls the “Metro Map,” based on an analogy of an underground metro system. One man who followed her protocol took his PSA numbers from 1008 down to .67. She’s also helped a stage IV pancreatic cancer patient achieve full remission—another success story unheard of in the medical world.Cancer doesn’t die when you halt its primary fuel supply,” Van Tine said. “Instead, it turns on all these salvage pathways. In this paper, we identified the salvage pathways. Then we showed that when you drug them, too, you kill cells. Our study showed that tumors actually shrink under these conditions. This is the first time tumors have been shown to shrink using just metabolism drugs and no other anti-cancer strategies.”

The first big gun was a cardiovascular drug called dipyridamole, which stops protein from getting into the cancer cell, a key factor in starving leukemia, according to McLelland. You could see that my approach had slowed the tumor’s growth,” said McLelland. “I may have had that tumor for a long time. That was actually quite reassuring for me.”Keep it up stay strong & enjoy your amazing family,” wrote one. Meanwhile another added: “Keeping up that awesome spirit Jonnie! Thank u for sharing your journey and inspiring others!” I do believe we already have every drug and every supplement that we need to beat cancer. The key is getting the right combinations to people at the right time,” said McLelland. “Yes, in certain circumstances there can be too much damage to the body from the cancer itself. But if you can get to people before that, I cannot see why patients can’t be rescued even from advanced malignancies. Stage IV cancer should not be a death sentence, in my view.” After intensive research, McLelland concluded that all of these drugs would starve the cancer from different angles: dipyridamole cut off cancer’s access to protein, metformin cut off access to glucose, and the statin cut off access to fat. Once the cancer cells were in their weakened state, the addition of etodolac could help finish them off. Now, 18 years after her initial cancer diagnosis—after battling cervical, lung, and blood cancers—McLelland is living the life of her dreams. She married the love of her life, and through the selflessness of a surrogate, was able to have two sons of her own. However, McLelland cautions that there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Her own experience with her various forms of cancer highlight that fact. Instead, McLelland’s approach focuses on learning which fuel sources your particular cancer uses—and then creating a targeted treatment plan based on that information.