November 4, 2025
In this powerful GoldCare Grand Rounds, Dr. Paul Marik challenges one of medicine’s most deeply held beliefs — that cancer isprimarily a genetic disease caused by random mutations. Through decades ofresearch and more than 1,500 studies reviewed for his book Cancer Care: TheRole of Repurposed Drugs and Metabolic Interventions in Treating Cancer,Dr. Marik presents a new way to see the disease: not as a genetic failure, butas a metabolic disorder driven by damaged mitochondria and disruptedenergy production.
This shift, he explains, changes everything about how canceris understood, prevented, and treated.
Dr. Marik begins by revisiting the 1971 “War on Cancer,” amassive effort that has consumed billions of dollars and countless lives.Despite decades of new drugs and technologies, the results remain bleak. Cancerdeaths continue to rise, especially among younger adults, and survivalimprovements are measured in mere months — all while treatment costs soar toover $100,000 a year per patient.
He reminds listeners that while the industry profits,patients face financial devastation and toxic therapies that offer little trueprogress.
At the core of Dr. Marik’s presentation lies the Warburgeffect, discovered in 1924 by Nobel laureate Otto Warburg. Warburg foundthat cancer cells produce energy differently: instead of using oxygen andhealthy mitochondria, they ferment glucose into lactate — even when oxygen isavailable. This “metabolic reprogramming” is found in every cancer type.
Dr. Marik emphasizes that this is not a minor observationbut a fundamental truth ignored by mainstream oncology. The mitochondria, notthe genes, are where cancer begins. When mitochondria are damaged by toxins,chronic inflammation, or other stressors, normal cells lose control of theirmetabolism and start behaving like cancer cells.
Conventional oncology, built on the genetic mutation model,focuses on killing rapidly dividing cells with chemotherapy and radiation. Dr.Marik explains why this approach is deeply flawed.
Chemotherapy destroys the immune system, harms healthytissue, and — most importantly — activates cancer stem cells, the smallbut powerful population of cells responsible for relapse and metastasis. Thesestem cells survive conventional treatment and later regenerate the tumor.
“Chemotherapy enhances the stem cell. Repurposed drugs killthem.”
This single statement captures the contradiction of moderncancer care: the very treatments meant to cure the disease may actuallystrengthen it.
Dr. Marik outlines a broad range of safe, inexpensive, andwidely available drugs — many already approved for other uses — that show realanticancer effects. Agents like ivermectin, mebendazole, doxycycline, curcumin,and green tea extract target cancer’s metabolic pathways and stem cellssimultaneously.
Unlike chemotherapy, these drugs act on multiple fronts:they disrupt cancer metabolism, induce apoptosis (cell death), and enhanceimmune function. They are also far more affordable and carry minimal toxicity.
Dr. Marik points to several studies, including the METRIXtrial for glioblastoma, which doubled two-year survival rates using a simplefour-drug combination of repurposed agents.
Equally vital to this metabolic approach is nutrition. Dr.Marik stresses that cancer is often fueled by insulin resistance, processedfood, and high sugar intake. A ketogenic diet — low in carbohydrates andhigh in healthy fats — can “starve” cancer cells of glucose while nourishingnormal cells that can use ketones for energy.
He also highlights the benefits of fasting, which triggersautophagy — a natural cellular cleansing process that weakens cancer cells andstrengthens immune function. These lifestyle interventions, he argues, are asessential as any medication.
Throughout his lecture, Dr. Marik draws attention to theeconomic forces that keep these ideas suppressed. Cancer, he says, has become“big business.” Oncologists profit from selling chemotherapy drugs, whilepharmaceutical companies dismiss inexpensive, off-patent alternatives as“misguided strategies.”
Yet the data — all peer-reviewed, all published — tellanother story. Across cancers, patients are finding success using metabolic andrepurposed approaches, often after conventional treatment has failed.
Dr. Marik closes with a clear message: the monopoly ofmodern oncology must end. The future of cancer care belongs to physicianswilling to question outdated models, explore metabolic health, and put patientsbefore profit.
As Dr. Richard Amerling, GoldCare’s Academic Director, notedat the beginning of the event, this conversation isn’t just about cancer — it’sabout taking medicine back.
