Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong on Rising Cancer in Young People

TL;DR

Cancer is fundamentally an immune-system failure: your natural killer cells and T cells normally destroy transformed cells constantly, but disease appears when tumors hide from these cells or activate suppressor cells. Soon-Shiong reports an alarming rise of aggressive pancreatic, colon, and ovarian cancers in children and young adults, including a 13-year-old pancreatic cancer patient he called unprecedented in 50 years.

Transcript

Doctor, thanks a lot for coming on. So you spent your life, you know, 50 years working on treatments for cancer. And when you started, it seemed like we were moving in the West toward the elimination of cancer. Smoking was a huge emphasis, get rid of tobacco and cancer rates will drop. Obviously smoking does cause cancer and we got rid of it basica... Read More

Key Insights

• Cancer's defining trait is its inability to die, not the rapidity of its growth. Tumors survive either by hiding from the body's natural killer cells and T cells or by activating suppressor cells that shut down the immune response.
• Pancreatic cancer that has failed all standard care carries a survival measured in months, roughly two months, with effectively no 10-year survival rate for advanced disease, making it a near-certain death sentence.
• A rise in cancer among young people is being observed, with pancreatic, ovarian, and colon cancers appearing in patients in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, and even in children as young as eight, ten, and eleven years old.
• A 13-year-old with metastatic pancreatic cancer from Butler, Pennsylvania was, for Soon-Shiong, unprecedented across a 50-year career in which he never once saw pancreatic cancer in a child before.
• The human body maintains a yin-yang immune equilibrium where every cell has a counter cell: killer T cells versus suppressor cells, M1 macrophages that consume threats versus M2 that block them, and NK cells that kill versus NK cells that inhibit.
• Persistent inflammation knocks the body out of immune balance. Neutrophils that normally attack infection can flip into suppressor cells under chronic inflammation, disabling the body's protection against transformed cells.
• Soon-Shiong frames cancer as quantum oncotherapeutics: like Schrodinger's cat, a cell can exist as either killer or suppressor, and the doctor is the observer who can activate the killers and suppress the suppressors to shift toward a cure.
• Cancer has been treated by oncologists rather than immunologists, and disciplines like virology, immunology, oncology, and allergy do not communicate, obscuring the underlying immune mechanism driving the disease.

Questions & Answers

Q: Why are cancer rates rising in young people?

Soon-Shiong reports a genuine rise of cancer in young people, including pancreatic, ovarian, and colon cancers appearing in patients in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, and even in children. He suspects it stems from the body being knocked out of immune equilibrium by factors like inflammation, toxins in food, PFAS, processed food, and viral infections, which allow suppressor cells to disable the killer cells that normally destroy transformed cells before they become cancer.

Q: What is the survival rate for advanced pancreatic cancer?

According to Soon-Shiong, advanced pancreatic cancer is effectively a death sentence. He states there is no meaningful 10-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer today. For patients who have failed all standard care, survival is measured in months, roughly two months. This grim prognosis is why the disease is so feared, and it makes the appearance of pancreatic cancer in young patients especially devastating.

Q: What actually causes cancer according to Dr. Soon-Shiong?

Soon-Shiong says the cause of cancer is not the rapidity of its growth but the cell's inability to die. Cancer survives because it either hides from the body's natural killer cells and T cells or finds a way to suppress those killer cells by activating suppressor cells such as T-reg cells or myelo-derived suppressor cells. Once these suppressors are upregulated, the body loses its protection and cancer can progress rapidly with nothing stopping it.

Q: How does the immune system normally protect against cancer?

The body maintains an exquisite equilibrium in which natural killer cells and T cells, which Soon-Shiong calls nature's first responders, constantly recognize and kill transformed cells as well as infected cells from TB, HIV, hepatitis, and COVID. As stem cells grow to replenish the body, some cells become transformed, and the immune system destroys them. This balance keeps everyone protected until something tips it toward suppression.

Q: What is quantum oncotherapeutics?

Quantum oncotherapeutics is a controversial framework Soon-Shiong coined to help doctors grasp cancer's complexity. Like Schrodinger's cat being alive or dead, a body cell can exist in two states: killer or suppressor. There are killer T cells and suppressor cells, M1 macrophages that consume threats and M2 that block them, NK cells that kill and NK cells that inhibit. Invoking quantum entanglement, he casts the doctor as the observer who can shift the dynamic toward a cure by activating killers and suppressing suppressors.

Q: What role does inflammation play in cancer?

Inflammation is what fundamentally knocks the body out of its immune equilibrium, according to Soon-Shiong. Neutrophils normally detect and kill infections, but when inflammation persists, these neutrophils flip into suppressor cells. This conversion disables the body's protective killer response and allows transformed cells to survive and grow. He connects this to concerns Bobby Kennedy has raised about toxins in food, PFAS, processed food, and viral infections that can drive chronic inflammation.

Q: Why does Soon-Shiong say cancer has been mistreated by the medical field?

Soon-Shiong argues cancer has been treated by oncologists rather than immunologists, even though he considers it fundamentally an immune-system problem. Immunologists study basic immunology but do not see patients, while virology, immunology, oncology, and allergy operate as separate disciplines that do not talk to each other. This cross-disciplinary disconnect, he says, has prevented a proper understanding of the immune balance that governs whether cancer takes hold.

Q: Is there a connection between Covid and the rise in cancer?

The video's description states Soon-Shiong believes Covid, and the vaccines that did not stop it, are likely causing a global epidemic of aggressive cancers. In the transcript he notes people previously in remission are getting cancers back and progressing rapidly, with some cases described as turbocharged. He frames viral infections as one factor that can knock the immune system out of balance and activate the suppressor cells that let cancer escape the body's defenses.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a surgeon who spent 50 years on cancer and made billions selling his companies, warns of a worrisome rise in cancer, especially in younger people. He describes increasing pancreatic, ovarian, and colon cancers appearing in patients far younger than ever seen before.

• The most striking case was a 13-year-old with metastatic pancreatic cancer from Butler, Pennsylvania, who had exhausted all standard care and passed away. A colleague at the Angeles Clinic reported colon cancer in children aged eight to eleven and ovarian cancer in women in their 30s, with some cancers described as turbocharged.

• Soon-Shiong argues cancer is fundamentally an immune-system problem: the body constantly produces defective cells that natural killer cells and T cells destroy, but disease strikes when tumors hide or suppress those killers. Inflammation, toxins, and viral infections can disrupt this delicate equilibrium and disable the body's defenses.