What if one of the most popular ideas about cancer is simply wrong?

For years, social media has promoted the idea that cancer is primarily a metabolic disease - one that can be starved, hacked, or even reversed through diet. But cancer geneticist Dr Moritz Przybilla argues that decades of genomic research tell a very different story.

In this episode of Return on Health, hosts Niko Hems and Miguel Medina explore why cancer is fundamentally a disease of DNA, why aging remains its greatest risk factor, what the evidence really says about ketogenic diets and sugar, and where cancer research is genuinely moving next.

Moritz also explains why most people misunderstand cancer prevention, why early detection may save far more lives than chasing miracle cures, how healthy tissues quietly accumulate mutations throughout life, and why the future of cancer medicine may lie in predicting risk decades before a tumor ever appears.

━━━━👤 ABOUT THE GUEST━━━━━

Dr. Moritz Jakob Przybylla is a cancer researcher at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge. His research focuses on cancer genomics, early cancer evolution, and developing new approaches for cancer risk prediction, prevention, and early detection. Alongside his research, Moritz is passionate about making cancer science accessible and combating misinformation with evidence-based education.

━━━━🎙️ ABOUT THE HOSTS━━━━

Niko HemsNiko Hems is a longevity expert and Head of Growth at YEARS, a company building a longitudinal, multi-modal health dataset to make prevention personal and data-driven.

Miguel MedinaMiguel Medina is co-host of Return on Health, a podcast built on a simple idea: a system always produces the outcomes it's incentivized to produce - so if we want better health outcomes, we need better incentives.

━━━━⏱ CHAPTERS━━━━━

00:00 The Biggest Cancer Myth

00:57 Meet Cancer Geneticist Dr. Moritz Gerstung

02:04 Why He Left The Lab To Build A Public Voice

07:58 What Cancer Actually Is (Explained Simply)

12:21 Can You Really Prevent Cancer?

15:32 Which Infections Increase Cancer Risk?

17:15 Driver vs Passenger Mutations Explained

19:57 Thomas Seyfried's Metabolic Theory Of Cancer

28:49 Do Ketogenic Diets Help Treat Cancer?

32:59 Are 60% Of Cancers Really Unpreventable?

41:18 Metformin, Aging & Cancer Prevention

43:07 If We Could Slow Aging, Would We Prevent Cancer?

46:14 The Most Overhyped Cancer & Longevity Trends

47:11 Which Cancer Screening Test Should You Actually Get?

48:16 Moritz's Dream Cancer Research Project

49:35 How Healthcare Should Change

━━━━━💡 KEY QUESTIONS ANSWERED━━━━━

• Is cancer really a genetic disease?• Is the metabolic theory of cancer supported by current evidence?• Can sugar actually "feed" cancer?• Does the ketogenic diet help treat cancer?• Why are around 60% of cancers currently unavoidable?• Why is aging the biggest risk factor for cancer?• What are driver mutations and passenger mutations?• Can we predict cancer decades before it develops?• Which cancer screening tests are actually worth doing?• What is the future of cancer prevention?• How should healthcare shift from treating disease to preventing it?

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Connect with Moritz:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moritz-jakob-przybilla/?locale=en

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.moritzprzy/?hl=en