"Give up dairy products to beat cancer"

Within six weeks the lump in her neck had disappeared; within a year, she was in remission and remained cancer-free for the next 18 years. Convinced that her diet had helped, she devised the Plant programme – a dairy-free diet, relying largely on plant proteins such as soy – similar, she says, to the traditional diet in rural China.

It was originally intended to help other women with breast cancer and, later, men with prostate cancer. Her book about her experience, Your Life in Your Hands, caused a sensation when it was published in 2000, with many cancer patients claiming it helped them to recover.

But in 2011, Prof Plant’s breast cancer returned for the sixth time, with the discovery of a large lump beneath the collarbone and some small tumours in her lungs. Under stress writing an academic book, she had become lax about both her diet and lifestyle – regularly eating, among other forbidden items, calves’ liver cooked in butter at a restaurant, and falafel made from milk powder.

“I went straight back to my oncologist, who prescribed letrozole [an oestrogen suppressor]. But I also went back on my strict diet, as well as walking regularly and doing meditation.” After a few months, her cancer was again in remission.

All of which may sound too good to be true, but Plant, 69, is no crackpot. Professor of geochemistry at Imperial College London, where she specialises in environmental carcinogens, she is highly regarded in her field, having been awarded a CBE in 1997 for her services to earth science; and her approach to cancer is supported by some eminent scientists. Her latest book, co-written with Mustafa Djamgoz, professor of cancer biology at Imperial, has a foreword from Prof Sir Graeme Catto, president of the College of Medicine, who describes its findings as “illuminating… even, at times, shocking” but all backed up by scientific research.

Prof Plant, however, is not dismissive of conventional cancer treatment, having had, at various times, a mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and irradiation of her ovaries to induce menopause.

She believes new and “wonderful” anti-cancer treatments are vital – but so, she argues, is a dairy-free diet, as well as other diet and lifestyle measures, such as stress reduction.

Much of the advice in the new book, Beat Cancer, chimes with current guidance on how to reduce cancer risk, such as eating more plant food and less red meat, salt, sugar and fat; taking regular exercise and reducing stress.

She also advises going organic, using complementary therapies where there is good evidence they help recovery, and avoiding potential pollutants such as pesticides.

But her far more radical message is that a diet that totally excludes dairy products – milk, cheese, butter and yoghurt – can be successfully used to help stop the disease “in its tracks”, by depriving cancer cells of the conditions they need to grow.

“We have all been brought up with the idea that milk is good for you,” says Prof Plant. “But there is evidence now that the growth factors and hormones it contains are not just risky for breast cancer, but also other hormone-related cancers, of the prostate, testicles and ovary.”

Going dairy-free, she says, may also help patients with colorectal cancer, lymphoma and throat (but not lung) cancer. “Cows’ milk is good for calves – but not for us,” she adds.

With the relatively new science of epigenetics, scientists now understand that cancer-causing genes may not become active unless particular conditions arise that switch them on – and if those conditions change, they may be switched off. “This means that what you eat can have an impact at the genetic level,” says Prof Plant.

_{For those with cancer or at high risk of the disease, Prof Plant advocates cutting out all dairy}

Cancer cells, scientists now believe, are hypersensitive to chemical messenger proteins called growth factors, as well as (in the case of hormone- dependent cancers) hormones such as oestrogen. Produced by our own bodies, growth factors perform vital tasks such as making cells grow. Other substances called binding proteins normally control them, including their potential impact on cancer cells. The risk of cancer arises when we have abnormally high levels of “unbound” growth factors (or hormones) circulating in our blood.

This can happen, say Profs Plant and Djamgoz, because the same growth factors and hormones as we produce are found in food that comes from animals, providing the very “fertiliser” that cancer cells need. Casein, the main protein in cows’ milk, is considered most dangerous. One eminent US nutritional scientist, Prof Colin Campbell at Cornell University, argues that it should be regarded just like oestrogen – as a leading carcinogen.

“Cow’s milk [organic or otherwise] has been shown to contain 35 different hormones and 11 growth factors,” says Prof Plant. High circulating levels of one such growth factor in milk, called IGF-1, is now strongly linked to the development of many cancers. Research has also found that “unbound” IGF levels are lower in vegans than in both meat-eaters and other vegetarians.

“This means that a vegan diet is lower in cancer-promoting molecules and higher in the binding proteins that reduce the action of these molecules,” she argues.

A second growth factor implicated in cancer spread is VEGF, found at high levels in cancer patients and a target for some newer anti-cancer drugs. Prof Plant points out that in the udders of cows with mastitis, VEGF is present to help fight infection. Mastitis is thought to affect nearly half of all cows in Britain. “There are increasing numbers of papers about high levels of VEGF in milk, particularly from high- yielding cattle breeds typical of modern industrialised dairy units.

“It seems likely that if a cancer patient is consuming dairy products, they are also consuming VEGF, especially if the milk originated from cows with mastitis. That is not helping to defeat their illness – and it may be making things worse.”

She is particularly worried about the fashion for high- protein diets, pointing out that there is evidence that too much protein generally – particularly from animals – is “at best unhelpful and at worst dangerous to those at risk of cancer”.

A second theory around diet concerns the levels of acid in our bodies. Prof Plant explains that if we consume too much acid-generating food, our bodies become acidic – an environment in which cancer cells can flourish. The foods highest in generating acid (not, as might be assumed, citrus fruit) include eggs, meat, fish and dairy – with cheese the most acid generating-food of all.

For those with cancer or at high risk of the disease, Prof Plant advocates, among other things, cutting out all dairy – from cows, sheep and goats, and whether organic or not. “If you have active cancer, there are no half-measures here.”

She also recommends limiting consumption of other animal protein, such as meat, fish and eggs, replacing this with vegetable protein such as soya – the main source of protein, she points out, in a traditional, rural Chinese diet.

But if the evidence that cutting out dairy can successfully “beat cancer” is that strong, why haven’t we been told?

Prof Plant puts it down to vested interests – the dairy industry represents about 12 per cent of Britain’s GDP – and medical conservatism: oncologists, she says, “might be excellent at conventional treatments but are not experts in nutritional biochemistry”. The big cancer charities, for their part, place too much emphasis on drug development. As a result, “if you rely solely on the cancer prevention advice from government, charities, health professionals or the media, you will be missing out on vital and potentially life- saving information.”

Cancer Research UK argues that so far studies investigating a link between cancer and dairy products have not given clear results.

“There’s no good evidence to support avoiding all dairy with the aim of reducing cancer risk,” said Martin Ledwick at Cancer Research UK. “It isn’t known if avoiding dairy plays a role in stopping cancer coming back. Patients should speak to their doctor or a qualified dietician before making any changes to their diet.”

Prof Plant acknowledges that advising cancer patients – and anyone keen on prevention – to change what they eat so radically is “a big ask”. Yet her own menu for that day – Weetabix and soya milk with molasses and linseeds for breakfast, wholegrain bread with hummus and salad for lunch and for that night, minestrone soup with cannellini beans, followed by pasta with homemade tomato sauce – is not so alien.

“People always worry about where they will get calcium if they give up dairy,” she says. “But you can get it from many plant sources.” Growth factors and hormones should be labelled on all dairy products, she argues, although eventually a wholesale shift away from dairy is needed.

Approaching her 70th birthday, Prof Plant has so far survived 27 years and six diagnoses of cancer and is a pretty convincing advert for the diet she advocates. Her story, though, has a sting in its tail: two weeks ago, a scan undertaken for a broken collarbone picked up two small secondaries, one in each lung. She is now taking tamoxifen and seems confident that a combination of medical treatment, diet and relaxation will knock this recurrence on the head.

“As a scientist, all I can do is tell the truth based on the evidence,” she says. “I started my first book because I didn’t want my daughter [Emma, now 39] to go through what I went through. All my books have come out of not wanting this to happen to others.”

‘Beat Cancer: The 10-Step Plan to Help you Overcome and Prevent Cancer’ by Prof Mustafa Djamgoz and Prof Jane Plant is published by Vermilion (£14.99)

THE ‘BEAT CANCER’ DIET

Beat Cancer advises anyone with cancer or at high risk of the disease to cut out all dairy products, organic or not, from cows, sheep, goats and all other animals. Replace:

Dairy milk with almond, coconut, rice or soya milk

Hard cheese with tofu or bean curd for sauces, soft cheese with hummus

Dairy yoghurt with soya or coconut yoghurt

Crème fraiche, fromage frais and cream with coconut or soya cream

Butter and margarines containing dairy with soya spreads, hummus, peanut or other nut or seed butter

Dairy ice cream with soya, coconut ice cream or other dairy-free types; milk chocolate with dark chocolate

Other advice includes replacing refined and processed oils with

extra-virgin olive oil; refined and man-made sugars with raw cane sugar; refined white bread, pasta and rice with unrefined wholegrain products; and cutting out preservatives and artificial flavourings and colourings.

Consumption of meat, fish and eggs should also be limited. Instead, eat unrefined carbohydrates, beans, nuts, vegetables and fruit. Salt is best replaced by herbs, and coffee by homemade juices, tap water and herbal tea.

"Give up dairy products to beat cancer"

Ross Hutchins interview: "I knew it was cancer"

On court Hutchins wasn’t explosive like Andy Murray, his near friend since meeting in an under-10s match in Scotland in the early 1990s. Nor was he showy or swaggery he described himself as a lot more like Pat Rafter or Stefan Edberg, ‘quiet and focused’.

Hutchins’s life changed on December 27 2012. He had ultimately gone for exams after a physiotherapist flagged up the probability of kidney problems, and that morning he obtained the outcomes: Hodgkin lymphoma, cancer of the blood. It was stage 4, the most superior – the cancer had spread to his physique organs, including the lungs and spleen, and his back (therefore the pain).

About one,800 people a yr in the United kingdom are diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, and it accounts for .2 per cent of all male deaths from cancer.

‘I knew it was cancer,’ Hutchins says. ‘I’d seen so a lot of experts, so a lot of physicians, had so several scans and biopsies. And the way they have been speaking, it was evident they didn’t want to tell me, but they had been preparing to say it was quite critical. So I was upset for literally two seconds and then, fine.’

Last January Hutchins exchanged the tennis court for the cancer ward. He invested every single other Thursday lying on a hospital bed in the Royal Marsden Hospital, Sutton, getting chemotherapy medicines pumped into a vein in his appropriate arm.

That month, Andy Murray focused his win in the Brisbane International to ‘one of my closest close friends, who is back property watching… you are going to get through it.’

And he did. Hutchins was offered the all-clear in August and is now rededicating himself to tennis. His recovery has been nothing at all short of miraculous.

^{Undergoing therapy for Hodgkin lymphoma in hospital Photo: Getty}

‘Sometimes right after chemotherapy I couldn’t encounter eating. I’d have a plate like this’ – Hutchins points to his chicken and avocado salad – ‘and would only eat this considerably.’ He holds up a small forkful of chicken. We are possessing lunch in the members’ restaurant at the Queen’s Club in west London.

Founded in 1886, and named right after its very first patron, Queen Victoria, it is a single of the jewels in the crown of the British grass-court season as each and every June it hosts the Aegon Championships, which serve as a warm-up for Wimbledon.

We have met right here since Hutchins was recently appointed tournament director of the championships, a 1st for a existing tour player (even though he will not be permitted to compete at Queen’s). ‘A good deal of tennis players do not want other items on their plate, but that is the opposite of what I’m like. I like to hold busy,’ he says.

He has previously shown me all around – the 28 outside and eight indoor courts – and throughout the tour he has been greeted warmly by personnel and members alike. Hutchins himself seems as however he has stepped out from a observe ad – handsome, 6ft 3in tall, broad shoulders. His clothes – elegant jacket, verify shirt, teal tie – are by Ted Baker, for which he just lately grew to become a brand ambassador.

His encounter is tanned from taking part in in a tournament in California. When we sat down he ordered sparkling water and blackcurrant cordial, just about the only sugar he permits himself now.

He has a polite and charming air that belies his grit, and behaves so professionally each on and off the court that it is hard to realise that he is even now only 29. He sees himself as ‘a typical man, down to earth’. Ahead of his new position with Ted Baker, he says, ‘I would have possibly turned up to this in a tracksuit.’

He looks so wholesome it is difficult to envision how he was a 12 months in the past. ‘I misplaced most of my hair,’ he says. ‘The first time it happened I woke up in the morning and turned over and there was a stash of hair on the pillow. I believed I was going to go entirely bald.’

He dropped four kilos – he was 87kg (13st 10lb) before he grew to become unwell – but forced himself to consume so when he completed his therapy he was only one particular kilo shy of his original bodyweight. ‘I needed to be near to the same particular person I was when I commenced,’ he explains.

He knows the cancer could return, but for now he is consolidating his remarkable recovery with frantic activity. The day we met he was up at 6am to go for a thirty-minute run near his home in Wimbledon. He is taking part in with Fleming again – earlier this month they reached the ultimate of the BMW Open in Munich.

Hutchins was approached by the Aegon Championships’ managing director, Stephen Farrow, in January. ‘He asked if I’d think about the role and I mentioned it would be totally wonderful. I did not think about it for a second. I’ve been playing at tournaments for six or 7 years and know what it takes to run 1.’

His role includes seeking soon after the gamers, the media and on-web site pursuits, this kind of as a players’ lounge, plus overseeing transport, hotels, players’ foods and physiotherapy therapy. ‘He has a large task on his hands now with taking part in and also becoming a tournament director,’ Andy Murray tells me by way of e-mail, ‘but often gamers do make the best tournament directors due to the fact they know what operates.’

Amongst the comforts Hutchins ideas to provide is a grooming space, exactly where gamers can acquire complimentary manicures and pedicures. ‘We have the very best gamers in the planet coming to our tournament, let’s seem soon after them,’ he says.

His association with Queen’s runs deep. This was the club in which, in 2007, at the age of 22, he had his very first win in an Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) World Tour match when he partnered Jamie Delgado on centre court in front of seven,500 spectators (they had been due to perform on a single of the back courts, but had been upgraded following yet another player pulled out). It was Hutchins’s 1st match with a pace gun. ‘I could see how quick I was serving!’

This is also the place the place he would come, despite feeling weak from chemotherapy, to organise Rally Towards Cancer, a charity match held soon after the last of the Aegon Championships last yr, which featured Boris Johnson, Jonathan Ross, Andy Murray and Ivan Lendl and raised more than £350,000 for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.

^{At the Rally Towards Cancer Charity Match, flanked by Boris Johnson, Jonathan Ross, Jimmy Carr, Andy Murray, Tim Henman, Sir Richard Branson, Eddie Redmayne and Michael McIntrye Photo: Getty}

Rally Against Cancer was the thought of Chris Kermode, then the Aegon tournament director, and now the CEO and chairman of the ATP Planet Tour. ‘Chris referred to as me in January, most likely 10 days following my chemotherapy began and explained, how would you like to place on a charity event this year at Queen’s? And I mentioned, I’d love to. I do not know what state I’ll be in, how healthy I’ll be, but let’s go for it.’

‘It was inspirational,’ Kermode says. ‘He was so committed to producing sure that it was the ideal that it could be. He was plainly exhausted but never ever, ever complained, by no means really described it, unless of course asked. It was really extraordinary.’ Hutchins says the experience ‘gave me a great deal of belief that I could get in excess of the line and come back to court’.

He maintains that the chief issue in his recovery was his background as a tennis player. Not only was he physically fit – ‘that aided with dealing with the chemotherapy I was physically far more in a position to get on toxins’ – but he also had a psychological edge tempered by years on the aggressive circuit.

He decided to treat the cancer as an opponent. ‘If you have undesirable results in tennis, you have to do issues that are unpleasant to make your self comfortable yet again. So you train tougher, commit longer in the health club, spend much more hours studying opponents, and that is what I did with this. I did a great deal of investigation.’ His approach was to concentrate on diet plan, lifestyle and ‘keeping my thoughts busy’.

His fiancée, Lindsay Woods, a attorney, whom he met at a property celebration when he was sixteen, took a 12 months off perform to look right after him. She did a whole lot of study into what he should be consuming. The diet regime of elite athletes is abstemious, and just before he was sick Hutchins typically allowed himself two cups of coffee a week a glass of red wine once a fortnight Lindt milk chocolate as a treat.

But he liked sandwiches and pasta and ate a whole lot of red meat to build up muscle. Woods, a vegetarian, recommended he remove caffeine, red meat, dairy, shellfish and all bread, apart from that manufactured with spelt flour. She made spelt pizzas with tomato sauce and greens, and brown rice sushi with greens. He also had beetroot and orange juice every single morning and evening. ‘Even when I was feeling genuinely ill, I produced sure I nailed eight beetroots a day,’ he says.

His treatment program was a blood check at Sutton every single other Wednesday, then chemotherapy every other Thursday for five hours. Not that he would rest in among treatment options. ‘A lot of the time I’d be working on the personal computer, writing, carrying out projects,’ he says. 1 of these projects was doing work as a tactician for the British Davis Cup group.

‘Fridays were hard. But I created confident I acquired out of the home and did items with family and friends. And then Sunday I would typically start off to truly feel better. I’d arrange meetings on Monday morning no matter what whether or not I was ill or desired to lie in bed, I knew I had to get up on Monday morning.’

Hutchins incorporated factors of optimistic contemplating into his treatment method. ‘Psychology was vital for me,’ he explains. ‘The purpose was to get healthful again, back on court yet again and to have CT scans that showed no cancer. I constantly had that sight firmly in my mind.’ He goes on, ‘I’d talk to Colin about “when we’re taking part in once again following 12 months we want to do this”, often speaking in a positive way about when we’re back on court together. That mindset was quite massive for me.’

But positivity does not constantly help, I say. Elena Baltacha, the former British amount one particular, died of liver cancer at the age of 30 only a number of days ahead of we met. ‘Elena had the most positive mindset you could probably have,’ Hutchins says. ‘She would have hit cancer with every little thing she could have hit it with and never ever given up.

‘But at times cancer does get the much better of men and women and it is not a question of who has the stronger psychological powers or something.’ (On finals day at Queen’s, Hutchins and Murray will be taking element in Rally for Bally, a series of exhibition matches to increase money in Baltacha’s memory.)

^{Photograph: Getty}

Ross Hutchins was born into a planet of tennis. His father, Paul, is a former British Davis Cup player and captain, and now runs national club league tournaments with Ross’s mom, Shali, who is Sri-Lankan born of Malaysian descent. Ross grew up in Wimbledon, the third of 4 children, and commenced playing aged five (his siblings – brother, Blake, and two sisters, Romy and Lauren – all played to national level).

From the age of 7 he went to King’s College College, Wimbledon, the place academically he was ‘middle of the road’, and he left with 7 GCSEs in 2001 to pursue a tennis profession. He turned professional in 2002 and played Junior Wimbledon in 2002 and 2003.

Ill overall health has dogged his profession. In 2004 he blacked out and collapsed right after a hefty practice session in Colombo, Sri Lanka. ‘I had cramping and kidney problems,’ he says. The lead to was dehydration. In sizzling situations he cannot replace quickly adequate the amount of fluid and sodium that he loses.

‘It occurred a lot. I was almost certainly hospitalised 20 instances and put on drips. It is not anything I’ve talked about a lot. It was one of the causes why I gave up singles.’

He turned to doubles in 2007 and started enjoying with Fleming in 2010. ‘There aren’t this kind of lengthy rallies in doubles, much less motion for every stage, so it’s significantly less taxing on the entire body.’

Hutchins says the cancer was one thing else fully, but now recognises the psychological benefit in possessing presently faced his body’s vulnerability. When he was diagnosed, ‘I did not really feel allow down by my body, just sensible that negative factors can happen.’

As soon as he was provided the all-clear last August he launched himself into getting back into form. ‘My oncologist told me the good information by phone one particular evening and the next morning I went to Wimbledon and hit some balls with my brother and my dad on the grass courts. It just felt correct to be in a location that indicates so much to me and to be ready to hit tennis balls cancer-free once again.’

He found an almost physical craving to compete again. ‘I wasn’t happy with just hitting. I was, “All correct, let’s play factors.” I was receiving destroyed by my brother and my dad and was hitting the ball atrociously, but loving the truth that I could perform aggressive factors.’

Prior to the illness, a common day’s education was 3 hrs of tennis, two hrs in the health club. Hutchins chose to adopt a far more fluid approach to acquiring match. ‘I stated to myself that each time I felt like hitting, I’d play. So if it was five hours a day, I’d perform five hrs and if it was half an hour, I’d play half an hour.’

He also committed himself to fat training. ‘I do not usually use machines, I do a whole lot of free of charge weights. But it was basically anything to get robust.’

He admits to overdoing it at initial. ‘I’d be falling asleep at five o’clock on some days. Literally mid-conversation falling asleep. But that was very good, that showed I was operating challenging, and then from September I began to be much more certain [with my ambitions]. I said, I’ve got to be ready to go to Miami with Andy in November.’

For the prior 5 years, Hutchins had joined Murray in Miami for pre-season instruction. ‘I knew that you can’t coast when you’re in the heat with such a match person, and because I wished to keep up with Andy that was my purpose.’ It worked. He was ready to fly out and stayed for two and a half weeks.

Hutchins’s comeback match with Fleming was towards Jérémy Chardy and Grigor Dimitrov in the Brisbane International in January. They took the initial set to love, but misplaced the 2nd six-4 and the deciding set to a tie-break. ‘We came out completely on fire, enjoying truly effectively and then my level dipped. We hadn’t played matches for 15 months. I wasn’t match-sharp.’

^{Photograph: Getty}

Though now match, he says his physique has changed. ‘It does not recover as quickly. I can lift the very same weights but I tire quicker. I’d be silly to consider it is only because of the chemotherapy. It is currently being older.’

When not playing tennis he lives quietly with Woods, who now operates in the offices of the All England Club, and his labrador, Sammy. ‘We go to the cinema, go out for breakfast from time to time. We really do not go on numerous holidays but I like going away for the weekend, regardless of whether Kent or Bath or the New Forest.’ They are getting married at the finish of the 12 months.

He nevertheless forsakes alcohol, dairy, sugar and caffeine, though now enables himself a steak every three weeks and has relaxed the ‘spelt flour rule’. His idea of a deal with is afternoon tea at the Savoy. ‘I told you I like sandwiches,’ he says, grinning.

‘If the cancer returns, then so be it,’ he says, ‘I’ll tackle it head-on once again. But if it doesn’t, then I’ll preserve enjoying taking part in tennis and hold striving to be a better player and become the individual and athlete I want to be.’

The Aegon Championships begin on Monday (aegonchampionships.com). To donate to Rally for Bally go to justgiving.com/RallyForBally

Ross Hutchins interview: "I knew it was cancer"

Prime Cancer Expert: "I Am Far more Anxious About International Warming Than My Kids Dying Of Cancer"

In the mid 1970s, only 50 % of patients diagnosed with cancer survived for much more than five years. On the most current statistics, far more than 70 % do.

We laymen not only get this great information for granted but have a tendency to venture it into the long term. Must we?

Place one more way is there a kind of “Moore’s Law” of progress against cancer? In the view of the leading cancer professional Gerard Evan, the short response is No. But there is a longer reply that is only slightly significantly less cheering.

In a remarkably upbeat evaluation at an worldwide conference in Ireland final week, Evan, a professor at each Cambridge University in England and the University of California-San Francisco, predicted that the illness will most likely be beaten inside of three decades. “I can rather confidently say that my children will by no means have to worry about dying from cancer,” he commented. “I’m more anxious about global warming than my children dying of cancer.”

As for a type of Moore’s Law, Evan believes that progress towards cancer will not so neatly adhere to the steady increase in pc processing power predicted by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in the 1970s. “The effort to improve cancer survival costs proceeds in fits and commences,” says Evan. “It depends on numerous things, not least the continuing assistance of governments for investigation.”

Nevertheless Evan, a leader in developing so-known as intrinsic tumor suppression, one particular of many new weapons in the cancer war, scarcely conceals his excitement at the existing speed of progress. He remarks: “I began as a cancer researcher in 1977 and for twenty years we have been banging our heads on a brick wall. Then in the mid-1990s the area was suddenly transformed as we began to recognize molecular processes. It is as if there were libraries all more than the globe full of books written in a language we did not recognize. Now we recognize that language.”

Genentech headquarters in San Francisco: In the running. (Photograph credit: Wikipedia)

All this adds up to exciting new options for the worldwide pharmaceutical market. A rapid Web search suggests that amongst the front runners in creating fascinating new therapies are Novartis, as effectively as AstraZeneca’s Medimmune and Roche’s Genentech. Also in the running are Pfizer and Lilly.

Prime Cancer Expert: "I Am Far more Anxious About International Warming Than My Kids Dying Of Cancer"