Dennis Stacey’s Journey with Cancer: A Metabolic Approach

I have tried to summarize an hour-long interview I found on YouTube, which tells the story of Dennis Stacey, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given only eight months to live. He has successfully put his cancer into remission through the Press-Pulse Protocol and a strict ketogenic diet, with a lot of monitoring of his glucose and ketone levels throughout. I hope this inspires you to learn more about it. I will just add that if this diet is able to do this, it is not in any way a far stretch to suggest that it would also prevent cancer.

Dennis Stacey and his wife love hiking in Victoria, but he began struggling with tougher hikes due to chest pain and breathlessness. Initially dismissing these symptoms as fatigue, he grew alarmed after experiencing increased breathlessness and sought medical help. Doctors discovered a massive tumor in his pulmonary artery, with a dire prognosis indicating he might have only twenty-four to forty-eight hours to live.

At forty-nine, Dennis, a father of four, learned that his cancer had spread to his lung. Fortunately, he was at Canada’s leading cardiac surgery hospital, where a pioneering procedure called “pop and swap” successfully replaced his pulmonary artery. Despite this achievement, the journey ahead was daunting, as a biopsy revealed a fast-moving cancer type with limited treatment options. His oncologist provided a disheartening timeline of six to eight months without aggressive treatment.

Considering standard care could extend his life only slightly, Dennis recalled advising a business partner on alternative cancer treatments. Motivated, he began researching Dr. Thomas Seyfried’s metabolic approaches to cancer, adopting rigorous dietary strategies like the ketogenic diet and the Press-Pulse Protocol.

His family supported him deeply, choosing to challenge the healthcare team’s grim outlook. Dennis emphasizes the importance of Seyfried’s book, Cancer as a Metabolic Disease, which details the metabolic approach to fighting cancer. He actively engaged in this method, consulting experts and closely tracking his diet to maintain desired glucose levels.

Consistent adherence to the protocol was essential. By meticulously monitoring fat, protein, and carbohydrate intake, Dennis managed his blood glucose to target levels while understanding the need to control glutamine to combat his cancer effectively. Mental well-being also played a crucial role, as managing stress helped stabilize blood sugar levels.

Dennis Stacey with his wife Nicala

Despite challenges from oncologists limited to standard treatment recommendations, Dennis and his family pursued a rigorous regimen. Their commitment to innovative therapies showed promising results, as a follow-up scan revealed a significant reduction in metastasis with a combination of glucose inhibition, DON (6-diazo-5-oxo-L-norleucine), and hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Dennis eliminated prediabetes, lost seventy pounds, and felt as though he were aging in reverse, becoming incredibly healthy.

Another scan showed a small amount of visible tumor just above the reference range in the right lung. No significant cancer was detected elsewhere, but its presence remained notable. Dennis suspected this might be scar tissue but was prepared for the possibility that it was not. This led him to consider undergoing another Press-Pulse Protocol.

However, he decided to ease off his intense regimen. While he continued to follow a ketogenic diet, he shifted to a more typical eating approach with less calorie restriction. He stopped hyperbaric oxygen treatments, discontinued mebendazole, and paused the DON protocol. Dennis wanted to understand how his cancer would behave over time without these treatments.

With a PET-CT scan scheduled ninety days later, he accepted that his cancer could return and wanted to gather more data to inform future decisions about managing his health. He went through the waiting period, knowing this was crucial for comprehensively understanding his cancer’s behavior.

When he underwent the final PET-CT scan in July 2023, he received promising news: any cancer in his lung had been consumed by autophagy, and no cancer was found in his lymph nodes or bones, nor was there reperfusion in his heart. Dennis was declared effectively in remission; all detectable cancer was gone. This positive outcome was later confirmed in a subsequent follow-up.

See Footnotes for Bibliography¹ and a link to a blog written by Dennis Stacey and his wife Nicala²

Youtube Interview is here:

1. Bibliography

Seyfried, Thomas N. Cancer as a Metabolic Disease: On the Origin, Management, and Prevention of Cancer. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2012.

Seyfried, Thomas N., Roberto Flores, Angela M. Poff, and Dominic P. D’Agostino. “Cancer as a Metabolic Disease: Implications for Novel Therapeutics.” Carcinogenesis 35, no. 3 (2014): 515–27. https://doi.org/10.1093/carcin/bgt480.

Seyfried, Thomas N., George Yu, Joseph C. Maroon, and Dominic P. D’Agostino. “Press-Pulse: A Novel Therapeutic Strategy for the Metabolic Management of Cancer.” Nutrition & Metabolism 14, no. 19 (2017): 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12986-017-0178-2.

Seyfried, Thomas N., Purna Mukherjee, Gabriel Arismendi-Morillo, and Derek C. Lee. “Glucose and Glutamine Fuel for Tumor Growth: Targeting Energy Metabolism for Cancer Management.” Frontiers in Oncology 12 (2022): 972183. https://doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2022.972183.

2. https://selfrescuesociety.com/