Unraveling the Multifaceted Causes of the Cancer Epidemic

May 28, 2025

Many people seem to be diagnosed with cancer nowadays. All of my first-degree relatives succumbed to different forms of cancer, and another relative was recently given the bad news. I routinely diagnose early breast, colon, and prostate cancer in my patients. All of us know someone who has had cancer and died, or is in treatment now, hopefully in recovery.

So it was not a huge surprise with the recent public announcement that our former President Joe Biden has prostate cancer. As well as King Charles and Princess Catharine; Hugh Jackman (multiple skin cancers), Kathy Bates (breast and ovarian), Olivia Munn (breast), James van der Beek (colorectal), and Sharon Osbourne (colon). Autopsies have shown that a high percentage of men over 70 have prostate cancer, often without even knowing it, but shockingly, when we examine men’s prostates who died tragically in their thirties and forties, a decent percentage of them were harboring a prostate cancer, which wasn’t what killed them. In their thirties!

Why would young men have prostate cancer? Why are people of all ages experiencing a cancer epidemic?

Cancer Is Striking More and More Young People

While advances in detection and an aging global population undoubtedly contribute to the increasing number of diagnoses, a deeper examination reveals a complex interplay of factors. These involve lifestyle choices, certain chronic infections, environmental toxicants, issues with a compromised immune system, as well as the role of diet, our microbiome, and overlapping inflammatory factors on the 16-point MSIDS map.

Once considered a disease primarily of old age, cancer is now increasingly affecting younger demographics, prompting an urgent need to understand its evolving landscape and the forces driving its apparent surge. Currently, roughly 40% of Americans will develop cancer during their lifetime, which translates into a 1 in 2 risk for men (50%) and 1 in 3 risk for women. Personally, I don’t like those odds, not with my family history.

Since the 1990s, early onset cancer has been increasing among younger individuals in many parts of the world. The list is long: cancers of the breast, prostate, colon and rectum, endometrium, esophagus, stomach, head and neck, skin (including nonmelanoma), thyroid, kidney, liver, gallbladder, bile duct, and bone marrow. Genetic mutations and better screening can only account for a small portion of this increase. Numerous risk factors have been proposed. These include a Western diet high in sugar (with associated insulin resistance), red meat, low vegetable and fiber intake, processed foods, obesity, environmental toxin exposures, microbiome imbalances secondary to antibiotic overuse (animal feed, improper use in viral infections), alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, sleep disturbances, along with chronic health conditions. Reproductive/early life factors such as increased rates of C-section (which affects the baby’s microbiome), formula feeding (colostrum in breast milk is protective), and later parental age at birth also affects cancer risk. (They also similarly affect autism risk, as covered in this Medical Detective Substack:

Known Risk Factors for Cancer

Known risk factors and some of the leading cancer causes in the US are: cigarette smoking, excess body weight, poor diet, and physical inactivity (the same risk factors for coronary heart disease), especially when combined with alcohol consumption and infections like HPV, hepatitis B and C, and H. pylori. These factors should be addressed and modified now—since many individuals are walking around with the above viral infections and H. pylori without adequate screening or treatment. Genetic counseling based on ethnicity is also important for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (which includes those of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, as well as Hispanic and African-American women). BRCA1- and BRCA2-associated hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) cancer also confer an increased risk for not only female and male breast cancer and ovarian cancer, but to a lesser extent, prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, and melanoma. Genetics is only part of the story.

The increased incidence of cancer is tracking with an increase in many other chronic diseases due to overlapping causes. In some cases, folic acid deficiency, hypo-methylation of DNA (methyl groups regulate DNA and gene expression). and alcohol use are important factors, but as you will see, all 16 MSIDS factors strongly influence cancer risk.

All 16 MSIDS Factors Have Been Associated with Cancer!

This is NOT something that is being commonly discussed regarding cancer risk! You need to understand how inflammation from multiple sources affects cancer.

THE 6 PRINCIPAL FACTORS AFFECTING CANCER

1. INFECTIONS

A. Bacterial infections: Borrelia burgdorferi has been linked to an increased risk of blood cancers, particularly chronic lymphocytic leukemia and cutaneous marginal zone lymphoma, as has H. pylori with gastric lymphoma. Bartonella spp. have been associated with melanomas, inflammatory breast cancer, and vasoproliferative tumors in immunocompromised patients.

B. Viral infections: The most notable are human papillomavirus (HPV), linked to cervical cancer, and cancer of the oropharynx and anus; hepatitis B and C, linked to hepatocellular carcinoma; and EBV, associated with nasopharyngeal carcinoma, Burkitt and Hodgkin lymphoma, and gastric cancer.

C. Parasitic infections: The blood fluke, Schistosoma haematobium, has been associated with bladder cancer, and liver flukes Clonorchis sinensis and Opisthorchis viverrini with bile duct and liver cancer.

D. Fungal infections: Candida and Aspergillus are the primary fungi associated with different cancers. Candida spp. are implicated in stomach and colon cancer. Candida is also predictive of metastatic disease; tumor-associated Candida DNA has been linked to decreased survival in gastrointestinal cancers. Many people have Candida overgrowth due to high carbohydrate diets, immune suppression, chronic inflammation in the GI tract (as in inflammatory bowel disease), microbiome dysbiosis (secondary to antibiotic use, chemotherapy, and/or due to the cancer itself), along with using oral contraceptives and proton pump inhibitors.

2. ENVIRONMENTAL TOXINS: Environmental pollutants, including but not limited to heavy metals (Hg, Pb, As, Cd, chromium), nitrosamines, food contaminated with pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs ) from cooking and food processing, and persistent bioaccumulation of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are all associated with gastrointestinal cancers. Air pollution (PM2.5); microplastics and endocrine-disrupting chemicals such as dioxins, cadmium, arsenic, and organochlorines; volatile organic compounds such as benzene and formaldehyde, PCBs, and BPA and PAHs have been associated with cancers of the breast, ovaries, prostate, testicles, lung, and the colon-rectum.

3. MICROBIOME ABNORMALITIES: Environmental chemicals and a Western-style diet, high in fat and low in fiber, significantly affect gut microbiome dysbiosis. They cause immune modulation, chronic intestinal inflammation, and disrupt gut barrier integrity thereby causing leaky gut, increasing systemic inflammation. Abnormalities in the gut microbiome are associated with breast, prostate, lung, and colon cancer.

4. LEAKY GUT AND FOOD SENSITIVITIES/MAST CELL ACTIVATION SYNDROME (MCAS): Leaky gut and food sensitivities lead to chronic inflammation and MCAS, and are linked to the development and progression of breast, prostate, colon, and lung cancers.

5. VITAMIN AND MINERAL DEFICIENCIES: Vitamin and mineral deficiencies can exacerbate the risk of developing breast, prostate, colon, and lung cancers through mechanisms of chronic inflammation, DNA damage, and immune dysregulation. Deficiencies in vitamins D and calcium are associated with an increased risk of breast, prostate, and colon cancer.

6. SLEEP DISORDERS: Sleep disorders, particularly insomnia and sleep apnea, and sleeping too little (<6 hours) or too much (≥9 hours), are strongly linked to an increased risk of breast, prostate, colon, and lung cancer. Insomnia increases chronic inflammation, hormonal imbalances, and immune suppression.

THE 10 DOWNSTREAM EFFECTS OF INFLAMMATION ON CANCER

These 6 primary rivers of inflammation on the MSIDS map have up to 10 potential downstream effects.

1. MITOCHONDRIAL DYSFUNCTION: Mitochondrial dysfunction significantly affects breast, prostate, colon, and lung cancer risk by increasing oxidative stress and DNA damage, thereby promoting carcinogenesis.

2. HORMONAL DYSREGULATION: Hormonal dysregulation significantly affects the risk and progression of different cancers. Joe Biden will be getting hormone therapy to lower testosterone to decrease the growth of his prostate cancer. Most breast cancers which are estrogen receptor positive have hormonal therapies to address their growth.

3. LIVER DYSFUNCTION: Liver dysfunction, and particularly, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) substantially affects breast, prostate, colon, and lung cancer risk while also increasing the risk of esophageal, gastric, pancreatic, and gallbladder cancer. MASLD is associated with insulin resistance and systemic inflammation, changes in androgen metabolism, alterations in the gut microbiota, and other metabolic disturbances that increase the risk of cancer.

4. POTS/DYSAUTONOMIA: Prostate cancer affects the autonomic nervous system, potentially causing POTS/dysautonomia. Prostate cancer progression is closely linked to the development of autonomic nerve fibers within the tumor microenvironment.

5. IMMUNE DYSREGULATION: We need a healthy immune system to keep cancer cells in check. Some of the most important players involve natural killer (NK) cells, cytotoxic CD8+T cells and regulatory T cells. Inadequate levels of NK cells, part of our innate immune system, lead to decreased immune surveillance, allowing tumor growth and progression of breast, prostate, colon, and lung cancer. Mold toxins are immunosuppressive and linked to cancer. Different infections like Lyme, Bartonella, and Anaplasma, as well as Long Covid can affect the B and T cells needed for a healthy immune response.

6. AUTOIMMUNE REACTIONS: Autoimmune diseases often activate mast cells, involved in chronic inflammation, creating a pro-tumorigenic environment. Autoimmune conditions also can impair immune surveillance, affecting the development, promotion, and metastases of cancer cells, where a dysregulated immune system either is overactive (causing tissue damage), or insufficient (failing to eliminate cancer cells).

7. NEUROLOGICAL DYSFUNCTION: Interestingly, there is an inverse relationship between neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and a reduced risk of different cancers. This may be due to shared genetic and molecular pathways involving mitochondrial metabolism and immune responses that are deregulated in opposite directions in neurodegenerative diseases and cancers. Exceptions include an elevated prostate cancer risk in Parkinson’s.

8. PSYCHOLOGICAL DYSFUNCTION: Stress hormones promote cancer development by increasing inflammation, impairing immune surveillance, and inhibiting apoptosis (cell destruction), with anxiety leading to higher cancer incidence and poorer cancer survival. Major Depressive Disorder is 4 times more common in cancer patients and confers worse outcomes due to inflammation and decreased immunosurveillance.

9. PAIN SYNDROMES: Chronic pain induces neuroinflammation, releasing pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, creating a tumor-producing microenvironment.

10. DECONDITIONING: Physical deconditioning/inactivity and sedentary behavior is significantly associated with increased risk of various cancers, including breast, prostate, colon, and lung. Deconditioning can lead to obesity and metabolic dysfunction, risk factors for cancer, due to chronic low-grade inflammation, insulin resistance, and altered levels of inflammatory cytokines derived from fat cells (adipokines). All of these promote carcinogenesis.

Lowering Your Cancer Risk

Since all 16 MSIDS factors are associated with cancer, a logical approach to lowering your risk is to go through each one with your healthcare provider (HCP), ensuring that they are all properly addressed, apart from routine cancer screening suggested by your HCP. Eating a Mediterranean-style diet, regularly exercising, getting 8 hours of sleep at night and meditating for stress reduction is a good starting point for prevention. As are stopping smoking, losing weight, and addressing underlying infections and toxins. You can test yourself for heavy metals and mold toxins either by blood tests, or urine testing. See the prior Medical Detective Substack on testing and treatment for mold:

I also suggest a nutritional supplement protocol that supports detoxification and healthy immune and inflammatory responses. It can be found on my website www.cangetbetter.com. The basics:

NAC 600 mg 2x/day
Alpha lipoic acid (ALAMAX, Xymogen) 600 mg 1-2x/day (use lower doses if there is a history of severe hypoglycemia)
Glutathione 250-500-750 mg 2x/day depending on age/risk factors
Curcumin (Curcuplex CR, Xymogen) 500-1000 mg 2x/day
Sulforaphane glucosinolate (broccoli seed extract) 30-100 mg 2x/day
Zinc 40-50 mg/day
3,6 Beta glucan (Immunotix, Xymogen) 500 mg/day
Vitamin C 2 grams/day
Vitamin D 5000 IU/day (K Force, 1x/day)
Melatonin 1 mg at bedtime.

Cutting-Edge Approaches

It is beyond the scope of this Substack to provide the long list of emerging therapies, apart from what traditional medicine has to offer. Here are a few examples, apart from recent studies on fenbendazole and ivermectin:

The Berkson protocol is an integrative approach combining intravenous alpha lipoic acid (ALA, 300-600mg, 2 days/week), with oral low-dose naltrexone (4.5mg at bedtime), and a healthy lifestyle program. It has shown some promise in pancreatic, renal, breast, colon, liver and lung cancer as well as B cell lymphoma, even in advanced stages.
Disulfiram, the medication used to stop alcoholics from drinking (which also has some efficacy in chronic Lyme disease) has also been repurposed as a cancer treatment. Several studies have demonstrated an antitumor effect on a wide range of cancers including glioblastoma, melanoma, and breast, liver, and pancreatic cancer.
Another common Lyme medication, the antibiotic doxycycline, can inhibit cancer stem cell proliferation, including breast and pancreatic cancer, by targeting mitochondrial function and signaling pathways. I will discuss these in detail in my upcoming chronic disease book from Simon and Schuster.

Remember that cancer screening guidelines do not discuss many of the above factors linked to cancer. Most people have no idea that in President Biden’s case, men over the age of 70 are not typically screened for prostate cancer. This is due to the belief that “you live with it and don’t die from it.” But what about those of us who aim to live into our nineties and beyond in good health?

If you want to increase your odds of staying healthy and cancer-free, work with your HCP and use the 16-point MSIDS model as a starting point. Present cancer screening and prevention guidelines do not routinely consider all of the above factors. Since some cancers can come on insidiously with non-specific symptoms (think pancreatic, gastrointestinal, and ovarian cancers), if you have any unusual/prolonged symptoms, speak to your doctor and get checked.