Thomas Lodi, M.D.

IPT (Insulin Potentiation Therapy) Low Dose Chemotherapy is a kinder, gentler cancer chemotherapy treatment option. In order for any cell to absorb sugar, insulin is required. Insulin is the key that opens the lock on the cell to allow sugar to pass through. The locks on the cell surface are called insulin receptors. Cancer cells have developed a very simple but effective strategy which allows them to get more of the available sugar than their neighbors, the non-cancerous cells. They simply have many more insulin receptors than non-cancerous cells! Having many more receptors, cancer cells are able to bind and use more of the available insulin than all the other cells. So whether one eats a banana or a candy bar, the cancer is fed first and the rest of the cells get the leftovers.

At an Oasis of Healing we use this knowledge to target the cancer cell with cytotoxic agents (chemotherapy). By administering small amounts of insulin, we are able to select the cancer cells from amongst all the other cells in the body because they bind the insulin much more quickly. There are a multitude of effects upon cells when insulin binds to them and one of these effects is that the cells become more permeable (creating openings). Once the cancer cells have been targeted by the insulin to open their doors, we administer small amounts of the appropriate chemotherapeutic drugs, from 5% to 10% of the standard dose. Much of what we administer becomes absorbed into the cancer cells (permeable) and not the normal cells (relatively hard). IPT is able, therefore, to take advantage of the powerful cytotoxic (cell-killing) effects of standard chemotherapy without having to use high doses.

Because the dosing is low, side effects are minimized and the treatments can be given more frequently giving cancer cells less time to become resistant to the drugs.

Cells that eventually acquire the characteristics that are referred to as, ‘cancer’ function very differently from healthy, well differentiated cells.  The final event in a cell’s progression to cancer occurs when it loses the ability to metabolize aerobically; that is, it can no longer use oxygen to ‘burn’ glucose in order to produce energy.  This ‘wounded’ cell now has to use a default mode of energy production called glycolysis, which is very inefficient.  Healthy cells, using oxygen, can produce as much as 38 ATPs (“energy packages”) for every molecule of glucose whereas a cancer cell, unable to use oxygen, can only produce 2 ATPs.  Therefore, in order to survive, a cancer cell needs 19 times more glucose (sugar) and, in fact, that is why PET scans are used to determine the stage of cancers.

Cancer cells acquire many more insulin receptors on their surfaces so that they can get more glucose.  More insulin receptors means that these cells will bind insulin more rapidly, which will result in their membranes becoming more fluid, or permeable much quicker than the other, healthy cells.  Once the cancer cells become more permeable, they readily take up more of what is in their immediate environment. 

It is easy to manipulate that immediate environment around the cancer cells by having a person not eat for about 6 to 12 hours prior to the treatment.  A small, calculated dose of insulin is administered and after about 20 to 40 minutes, most of the insulin receptors on the cancer cells are saturated.  Once this occurs, a small (10%) dose of the appropriate chemotherapeutic drug is administered and becomes preferentially taken up by the cancer cells.

Insulin is Nature’s ‘bow’, which allows us to aim straight into the target.