One Habit of Our Ancestors that Should Not be Perpetuated
Traditional diets are better in many ways, except for the propensity toward smoked and cured meats. In addition, excessive use of picked vegetables is not good. Certain areas of China that eat these types of foods have high rates of esophageal and stomach cancer. Refrigeration has significantly decreased the routine eating of these types of foods. In the United States, the increased use of refrigeration paralleled a decrease in stomach and esophageal cancer.

From The Detox Revolution - pg. 66

Craig B. Thompson, MD
Director, Abramson Cancer Center
University of Pennsylvania
Suite 1620
1600 Penn Tower
3400 Spruce Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Proliferating cancer cells exhibit a robust but seemingly wasteful metabolism. Two nutrients, glucose (a simple sugar) and glutamine (an amino acid), are consumed by tumor cells at rates in vast excess of their utilization by normal cells. The Thompson laboratory has shown that the uptake of each of these nutrients is under the control of distinct oncogenes implicated in causing cancer. The PI3K/Akt/TOR signaling pathway plays the primary role in directing cellular glucose uptake and metabolism. Deregulation of this pathway in cancer can be imaged in vivo by FDG-PET scans. Recent findings by the laboratory suggest that the myc family of oncogenes direct glutamine uptake and mitochondrial catabolism in transformed cells. The Thompson laboratory has been developing novel imaging agents to identify tumors that carry mutations that addict them to glutamine. Tumor cells carrying these mutations exhibit addiction to glucose and/or glutamine. The tumor cells die if their ability to metabolize these nutrients is impaired. The Thompson laboratory is elucidating ways to exploit the oncogene-induced metabolic addiction displayed by cancer cells to improve cancer therapy.

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