Winning the War on Cancer

Dr. P: Sylvie, welcome to the show today. I’m happy to have you on.
Sylvie: Thank you, Michael. I’m delighted to be with you here today.
Dr. P: So you have quite a story of where you got to where you are and we’ll share that in just a moment. But first of all, let’s talk a little bit about your book, Winning the War on Cancer. I read through it and I’m really excited to dive deep in this book to tell my listeners a little bit about the information that has been suppressed that really needs to get out there to the public. So again, thank you for being on the show today.
Sylvie: Thank you for having me. Yes, indeed, I wrote Winning the War on Cancer: The Epic Journey Towards a Natural Cure because I wanted to share this important – I think, important – message to the public about some scientific discoveries about natural compounds that were almost suppressed by the French government. They almost succeeded. And it was really only out of, I mean, a factor of luck, and friendship, and solidarity of many people to make these things survive, and it was an epic journey to be able to take that information, this wealth of knowledge, to the United States and be able to continue here with collaborations with universities and make that fruitful and useful.
Dr. P: And when you say winning the war on cancer, in your book, you talk about this war starting back in 1971. Tell us a little bit about that and your perspective about what’s going on.
Sylvie: Well, this is referring, most [precisely?], to the cancer laws that President Nixon signed in 1971. When he signed the Cancer Act, he opened the door to [inaudible] funding for the research on cancer, and that had led to a lot of– billions of taxpayer dollars spent on cancer research. And when you look at where we are almost 50 years later, well, we have one out of two women and– one out of two men and one out of three women who are going to be diagnosed with a cancer diagnosis, receive a diagnosis during their lifetime. And predictions are that the numbers of cancer are going globally to double by 2030, so that means everybody, more or less, is going to receive a diagnosis of cancer. This is not a genetic disease, as pharmaceutical companies were investing in the rare genetic mutations would like to present. It’s linked to the increased pollution of the planet, of the [inaudible] we are leaving in, and this number of cancer is not going to disappear, but also by the kind of treatments that people are receiving have not changed for the past 50 years. It’s always about radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and surgery. So the results are what they are. They are very stable. I mean, there is a lot of failures statistically. [inaudible] cancer statistically in some area like lung cancer, but it has more to do with people smoking less than really making progress on cancer treatment. So cancer treatments are not evolved. The number of cancer is rising, and here we are. What are we going to do?
Dr. P: I found it fascinating, the research you present, about early protection with prostate cancer and the fact that decreased testing actually decreases the number of false positives or false diagnoses versus other areas, where early detection, like colon cancer, has actually reduced the numbers of colon cancer. So it’s a very interesting dichotomy there.
Sylvie: Yes, indeed. Indeed. Regarding the funding, almost nothing goes to natural compounds. The reason is that natural compounds cannot be patented, and therefore there is no return of investment for the pharmaceutical company. So they are not looking to develop natural compounds. They’re only looking at nature for the source of inspiration, and when they find a natural compound that seems to be interesting, they tweak the molecule to make it a new molecule that they can patent, but that’s where side effects, toxicity do appear. So the assault made on the war on cancer does no include actually natural approach. It’s all about the genetic, actually, investing in genetic modification and understanding which genes can induce a real mutation, but that’s going only to touch 7, 8% of the number of cancer, and most– the rest of the population keeps to be treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Dr. P: And you talk about government agencies trying to limit access to medicine which actually reverses disease. Talk a little bit about that.
Sylvie: Well, my experience about the government really preventing people to have access to something that works is with the French government, but I understand that this is not something easily [inaudible] that’s just happened to my father. [inaudible] whether there is something natural that works, it tends to be separate and generally at the very early stage before it is proven, and established, and confirmed by independent third parties. With my father, my father was a biologist at The Pasteur Institute in Paris, France, and [inaudible] was the first scientist to look at the environment as a cause and as a solution to cancer. He was really one of the fathers of what is known now as environmental medicine and epidemiology. His idea that beyond some possible [irritation?], there are some compounds that have carcinogenic potential, and they stabilize our DNA slowly but cumulatively, and little by little they induce such a destabilisation of the DNA that the DNA becomes cancerous. It’s not overnight. It’s a slow, long process that gets increased as we get presented to carcinogens. And we are presented to carcinogens all the time, all kind of carcinogens. I mean, everything is polluted now: the food, the water, the air. Pollution is everywhere, and our DNA is under constant assault. That’s why the number of cancer is rising. So he went on to make the case of the importance of environmental toxins on cancer. Then he said that this nature came up with carcinogens. Nature had also come up with anti-carcinogens, and he tested for natural compounds able to do exactly the opposite of carcinogens, compounds that would be able to block selectively the duplication of the destabilized DNA, and he was able to find a number of compounds able to do just that. He left a body of 133 peer-reviewed papers, got the interest of a number of doctors in France, who started to use the products, give that to their patient to the point where one day Francois Mitterand, the former French president of The French Republic, was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer and wanted to have access to those products. So Mitterand took the products, and he started to get better and better and against all odds was able to finish a second term. So that’s when really my father’s work came to the limelight, and then some powerful people who had bet that Mitterand would not finish his second term and were already ready to seize power got really infuriated, and after Mitterand passed away they sent the army, a SWAT team to this [inaudible] laboratory to completely– they tried to really eradicate from the face of Earth the entire research. They seized the papers. They seized the computer. They seized everything, and they almost succeeded.
Dr. P: Yeah, that was such a fascinating story. Now, what were these products that he was using to treat cancer.
Sylvie: So he perfected two extracts, two botanicals. One is called [foreign], and the other one is called [foreign], and both have shown to have a large spectrum of anticancer properties. So work done nowhere in the States with the foundation through the Beljanski Foundation has shown that those compounds were not gendering or organ-specific, meaning we have worked, for example, on prostate cancer with Columbia University, and shown that it was working very well, alone or in synergy with chemotherapy for prostate cancer. And then we have used the same extracts at Kansas University Medical Center on ovarian and pancreatic cancer and shown that those same extracts also that were efficient with prostate were also working very well on ovarian cancer and pancreatic cancer and in synergy with a different kind of chemotherapies. So we are really on something which is very interesting because it doesn’t depend on the sex of the person or the organ. We also showed that it was working with a different kind of chemotherapies, not the one that does it [inaudible], for example, given to men with prostate issues, but also gemcitabine, carboplatin, and all those chemotherapies belong to different groups, so they have a different mechanism of action. So we are here on something extremely generic. We went also on to see that those compounds were working on [inaudible] able to fight inflammation, for example, elevated PSA for men with an enlarged prostate, but also advanced cancer which has metastasized and is treated with antihormonal treatment, so a different kind of cancer and different stage of cancer. And the latest papers are about [inaudible] and [inaudible] being efficient to fight cancer stem cells. Cancer stem cells are those molecules, those cells, cancer cells, which are resistant to chemotherapy. So when you have cancer you give chemotherapy, but the cancer stem cells do resist the treatment. They are able to survive to travel and to create metastases and that’s how you have a relapse of cancer. And, as of today, there is absolutely no drug FDA approved able to fight cancer stem cells.
Dr. P: With regards to stem cells, you can continue to chop them down, but if you don’t get to the root of the problem, they’ll continue to grow back.
Sylvie: Exactly, exactly. And now we have the research done at Kansas University Medical Center is showing that those two extracts are both able to fight cancer stem cells, pancreatic cancer stem cells, so that’s a beautiful victory for people, for everybody who is fighting cancer and is concerned with metastases, and everybody fighting cancer should be concerned with metastases, especially considering that, for example, yearly mammographies are radiation. They   are born to create destabilisation of the DNA and to induce cancer or metastasis after surgery or after treatment.
Dr. P: And the other thing I find fascinating is that you don’t just talk about the treatment itself, you talk about the things that can be used in conjunction with current mainstream cancer treatments as well as from a preventative standpoint for people who may not be fighting cancer.
Sylvie: Absolutely. It is working at every stage, even the pre-cancerous cells, even the inflammation. There is a publication showing also the anti-inflammatory benefits of the [inaudible]. And inflammation is, really, the source of all the problems, including pain. Not necessarily cancer but inflammation is the source of so many problems. If there is a way to fight inflammation and, at the same time, have an anti-cancer benefit, it should be a no-brainer.
Dr. P: Yeah. In your book Winning the War on Cancer, what I like about it is it’s got a positive message which is backed by real science and published data. And one of the data points that really stuck out to me in your book was from 2016 where you talk about adverse events in dietary supplements. And in 2016, there were 8,536 adverse events reported to the FDA regarding dietary supplement use versus over 1 million adverse drug-related events due to misuse.
Sylvie: Yeah. Yeah. And when they’re including in the dietary supplement adverse events, I mean, there are– of course, I mean, it’s really, really important to look at [inaudible] and you only use [inaudible] which are well established with their research of say use quality control. But the side effects of dietary supplements, generally, are much less than the side effects of drugs. Absolutely. With a much more gentle approach.
Dr. P: And you list some of those products, such as green tea, pomegranate, [inaudible] bean, soy, mistletoe, selenium. How does one know which ones are okay to use?
Sylvie: Well, I could not give you a general answer, it’s not really one fits all. I mean, for example, for magnesium, a lot of people are some kind of magnesium deficient, but not everybody. So really, I don’t think that you should tell people, “Take magnesium, all of you.” No, no, I wouldn’t do that. It’s really a– one should have a sensitive approach, work with the health professional, know exactly what are your needs, your deficiencies of dietary approach first, then supplements whenever is needed. And only if that’s not enough, consider drugs. Which I do not rule out either. Drugs may be necessary in certain case but you don’t want to overuse anything.
Dr. P: Now, in the book, in your foreword, you talk about a struggle with Hashimoto’s disease and the struggle of where this person had to go through different medical completely out of the medical system to really learn about natural foods and supplements needed to heal. Why do you think it’s not more widely accepted within the system?
Sylvie: I think the medical books are written by sponsored– are sponsored by the medical industry and tailored really to the pharmaceutical company’s needs. Doctors lament that very little of their classes is devoted to dietary needs, to nutrition, and less to some psychiatry, some psychology, especially [inaudible]. Very, very little also is devoted also to understand the emotions of the patient. Then there is also the insurance problems, the fact that doctors who are in [inaudible] of very little time to devote to their patients have to see the patient for 10 minutes. What can you do besides [internet?], besides, Hello. What are your symptoms?” and “Take this, take that, and come back in three weeks if you don’t feel any better.”
Dr. P: And you’ve obviously dedicated a majority of your life to this research and a foundation, now, that is helping push forward that research. Tell us a little bit about that foundation, what it is, what you’re up to now, and really the future.
Sylvie: So the foundation was– it’s a not-for-profit what was established in New York in ’99. It’s a 501c3 status. And its mission is to continue research to fight cancer and other disease with natural compounds. And of course, we started with researching the compounds that my father had already researched and had already shown that they had some anti-cancer potential. So we went beyond what he had done by establishing mechanism of action and the confirming that those compounds were working on a large number of cancer alone, in synergy with chemotherapies, and were able to work at different stage of cancer ranging from very pre-cancerous cells, early detection just for people who were confirmed of potential evolution of cancer, maybe because cancer is running in their family, or for men with BPH symptom, to very advanced cancer which has metastasized only treated with anti-hormonal treatments.
Sylvie: So we have run experiments in synergy– I mean in conjunction with a number of universities to work on all those different kind of cancer, and shown that every time, we had wonderful results. And the latest on cancer stem cells are really, really promising. So we did that on pancreatic cancer stem cells. We are now looking to do more kind of cancer stem cells. That’s the future. We also are looking at doing some research on some mix of green teas that my father had also established. There’s four green teas that he found in China. Four specific green teas had anti-cancer properties. This is something that we confirmed with Kansas University Medical Center. We did this research on breast cancer, and we were able to have very nice results compared to other kind of green teas. So that’s something we are going to develop also for this year to come.
Dr. P: That’s great, and if people want to learn more about what you’re doing or connect with the foundation, where would you direct them?
Sylvie: To the website of the foundation, which is beljanski.org, B-L-J-A-N-S-K-I dot org.
Dr. P: I want to thank you for your time on the show today. Winning the War on Cancer is available on your website. We’ll put a link to your website in the show notes. And again, I appreciate your message and what you’re doing in pushing forward with the foundation the natural cures for cancer.
Sylvie: Thank you very, very much.