The Theory of Systemic Cancer Control: Not Letting Go of Even the 1% That Could Extend Life

Over the past ten-plus years, I have been dealing with cancer and cancer patients, and also constantly thinking about and exploring how to extend the lives of cancer patients.

Only now do I gradually realize that to control cancer and, to the greatest extent, extend a patient's life, one cannot pin one's hopes on any "trick" or "secret manual." Rather, one must rely on a whole, systematic strategy for controlling cancer, not letting go of even the 1% that could extend life; only through efforts on many sides can a true miracle be created.

We can learn the principles of successfully fighting cancer from some changes that British professional cycling has gone through. For more than a hundred years, British professional cyclists achieved nothing in international competitions. One day in 2003, British Cycling hired Dave Brailsford as its new director of performance.

Dave Brailsford was different from previous coaches. He meticulously implemented the strategy he himself devised of "the aggregation of marginal gains," carrying out a series of reforms within British Cycling.

Dave Brailsford said: "Fundamentally, we follow this principle: break down every part involved in cycling, then improve each part by 1%, and when you add up the improvements in each part, you will find the overall result improves significantly."

They redesigned the bicycle saddle to make it more comfortable, and wiped the tires with alcohol to obtain better grip. They required riders to wear electrically heated shoe covers so that muscles stayed at an ideal temperature during riding, and used biofeedback sensors to detect each athlete's response to a particular training regimen. They also tested various fabrics in a wind tunnel and decided to have their road riders switch to indoor racing suits, because indoor racing suits are lighter and have less air resistance.

Dave Brailsford and his team sought 1% room for improvement in easily overlooked and unexpected places. They tested different types of massage gels to see which helped muscles recover faster. They hired surgeons and taught each rider the best way to wash his hands, to reduce the probability of catching a cold. They even selected different types of pillows and mattresses for each team member, to ensure they got the best sleep.

Through these tiny improvements, the results came faster than anyone had expected. Barely five years later, at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, British athletes won 60% of the gold medals in road and track cycling. At the 2012 London Olympics, British cyclists broke 9 Olympic records and 7 world records. Over the next few years, the British team won the Tour de France five times in a row.

Dave Brailsford's experience is not only suitable for training cyclists; it is equally applicable to helping patients recover. Our medicine currently defines the concept of treatment too narrowly: we pin our hopes on the scalpel, various drugs, and treatment equipment to restore our health, while disregarding the broader rehabilitation measures. This of course cannot achieve the desired therapeutic effect.

A person's health is related to genes, diet, exercise, and all kinds of living habits, and also to religious belief, marriage, educational background, and psychological state. When a person falls ill, it is usually the accumulated result of decades of small ailments in the patient himself and even in his whole family. If, like Coach Dave Brailsford, one improves every detail, the therapeutic effect will be greatly transformed.

For example, I often hear some cancer patients tell me that their previous attending doctor told them they could eat anything and need not avoid foods. With respect, such treatment is very sloppy and perfunctory. Perhaps these doctors, because patients ask too many questions, deliberately say this to reduce trouble; perhaps they really do not understand that many foods are carcinogenic or will worsen a cancer patient's condition.

All oncologists should encourage cancer patients to eat a healthy diet. Pickled foods, scalding-hot foods, barbecue, hot pot, deep-fried foods, spicy and greasy foods, and foods that easily cause bloating—these foods, which either have a strong carcinogenic effect or worsen the cancer patient's condition—must be forbidden. As for the various "tonics" Chinese people have always liked to take, patients should be reminded to use them cautiously.

Some patients have deeply entrenched prejudices, believing that Western medicine does not advocate dietary restrictions, so after choosing Western treatment they continue to eat everything. The American Institute for Cancer Research has compiled dedicated diet and exercise guidelines for cancer prevention. In these guidelines, American oncologists have reached this consensus: more than 80% grains, whole grains, vegetables, and fruits, plus a small amount of meat, is a healthy diet.

Moreover, among the Group 1 and Group 2 carcinogens listed by the WHO, quite a few are foods we commonly eat; the claim that modern medicine requires no dietary restrictions simply does not exist. If cancer patients want to recover, they must firmly control what they put in their mouths and stay away from common carcinogenic foods.

Cancer has a very important association with body weight. Obesity not only easily leads to chronic diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure but also easily leads to cancer. Many cancer patients are overweight family-wide, and such families are especially prone to multiple cancer cases; these families basically all have an imbalance between caloric intake and expenditure. If such cancer patients do not strengthen their self-control, thoroughly mend their ways, control caloric intake, and increase exercise, then relying on treatment alone cannot possibly produce a good result.

There are also some patients who are used to staying up late, smoking, and drinking, and who have been harmed by all kinds of bad living habits until they developed cancer. For such patients, a series of plans must be made to correct these faults. Some patients come from families that are not harmonious; the patient himself has an extreme personality and lives for a long time in a state of depression, anxiety, and anger. All of these easily become adverse factors that trigger cancer.

When a doctor treats a cancer patient, if he can go deep into every detail of the patient's life, understand the various bad habits the patient has, guide him to improve those habits, and build up healthy living habits, the therapeutic effect can be greatly enhanced.

There was a period when I lived day and night with my cancer patients in the same group chat (now, because I am too busy, I have abandoned this mode in favor of influencing patients more efficiently by writing popular-science articles). We talked about everything, and I came to know each patient's personality and family situation. While treating them, I helped them release their inner unhappiness, helped them improve their personal cultivation, and urged them to form good dietary and exercise habits. It should be said that these played a very positive role. Some of the cancer patients I treated early on, although they have had cancer for more than ten years, are still alive today—which is related to my meticulous care and my extreme attention to detail.

While treating patients with medication, it is very necessary to exhaust every possibility to improve their psychological state and living habits. For some patients stuck in difficulties in their intimate relationships, it may even be necessary to do ideological work on them and their families, improve their interpersonal relationships, and help them live a more comfortable life. Although this treatment model is overly idealized, I believe there is no more perfect way. Of course, when the doctor lacks the energy to help the patient in every dimension, the patient and the patient's family should actively follow this line of thinking to improve the patient's condition.

If cancer still cannot prompt a patient and his family to engage in comprehensive reflection, then such a patient and family are truly beyond help.