Book Review: The Complete William Kelley Protocol from Past to Present

By Eric Wood ND, MA and Pamela McDougle, NC

Hi, and welcome to this book review from Cancer Outside the Box. My name is Ilona Ross, and I have Stage IV metastatic rectal cancer. My chances of survival are minimal, so I read a lot of peer-reviewed science papers and books about cancer in hopes of extending my time on this earth.

Today is Giving Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024, so please give this and all my book reviews to anyone you know with cancer and/or their caregivers. As of today, only two are posted, but more are on the way. Of course, if you want to give me something too, that would be lovely, and links are at the bottom.

If you don’t know anyone with cancer, count yourself lucky, because you’re the exception. Cancer is poised to overtake heart disease as the leading cause of death in the United States and has already done so in 22 states and many other countries.

And now, the book review.

The 2024 title – The Complete William Kelley Protocol from Past to Present – says it all. Combining the best of past and present, it takes us on a time trip to the century-old discoveries that informed Kelley’s ideas, and then catapults us back to today’s heavy burden of environmental insults. The book also offers the complete and meticulously detailed protocol, spelled out in several long chapters, based on how Dr. William Donald Kelley survived pancreatic cancer in the 1960s by downing up to six dozen capsules of proteolytic enzymes each day. Yes, 72 capsules. He lived until 2005.

Advance warning: for the exact protocol, you have to buy the book. It isn’t easy, it takes months to put together, and it requires a lot of patience.

There are unlikely to be authors better qualified to write this title. One, Pamela McDougle, NC, worked for seven years with Dr. Kelley, while Eric Wood, ND, MA, was her student.

The foreword is well worth reading and contains a surprising amount of potential mechanistic explanations discovered long after Kelley, who was an orthodontist, developed his protocol. Kurt Isselbacher, MD PhD of Harvard, who proved that large molecule enzymes could cross from the GI tract into the lymph and blood systems, died a few years ago, but a foreword by him is there, so I suppose it’s from an earlier draft.

A longer section in the foreword focusing on enzymes and immunotherapy comes from cancer surgeon Dr. George Yu, who died in late 2023. In the last decade much research has centered on immunotherapy to treat cancer, and while it works spectacularly in some cases, such as former President Jimmy Carter, they are the exceptions. Sources not mentioned in the book but that I’ve read in science papers find that good levels of Vitamin D, healthy levels of various cytokines, and a happy microbiome are determinants of immunotherapy’s success. Could the addition of enzymes help regulate these too?

In his foreword, Dr. Yu
- said he learned from plastic surgeons to use enzymes to clear up necrotic tissue in his own oncology surgery patients.
- noted that in other nations enzymes are used for pain relief.
- found enzymes to be a form of immunotherapy in that they downregulate the immunosuppressive cytokine Transforming Growth Factor beta (TGF-β), thereby freeing natural killer, CD8 and other cells of the immune system to better target cancer. [This was of great interest to me, because my TGF-b is much higher than normal. Retesting after a protocol of enzymes ought to provide good information.]

Dr. Yu speculated that such enzymes -- known as proteolytic, which means they can digest proteins -- recognize new mutated proteins in cancers and digest them.

The presupposition is that natural killer cells are the main police force that destroy cancer. But Kelley, and before him the scientist John Beard, whose groundbreaking discoveries about enzymes took place in the early 20^th century, believed that pancreatic enzymes were involved. John Beard hypothesized that the enzymes liquefy tumors and make them more visible to the body's immune system, and today scientists speculate the enzymes can do so because they recognize the orientation of the proteins within tumor cells, as in isomers and enantiomers. For example, your left and right hands are isomers of each other, meaning they are identical in structure but different in spatial arrangement. The book also references a science paper showing these enzymes improve T lymphocyte counts.

According to Kelley, most crucial among the pancreatic enzymes in breaking down tumor cells is chymotrypsin, and he called for 84,000 to 92,000 USP units per capsule of chymotrypsin. The authors recommend a specific source and recommend many other specific products. It’s unclear whether they have a financial interest in these recommendations. A quick look at chymotrypsin for sale is daunting: one milligram of human chymotrypsin from science supply companies runs $1,000; bovine chymotrypsin costs anywhere from $500 to $1,000 for one to ten grams depending on the processing, and porcine chymotrypsin can be had for $1,000. To determine dosage, timing and kind would require much deeper study than this brief review.

A trip down memory lane reflects information found in many books about integrative cancer care, but it bears repeating. We learn about the schism between the germ theory of Louis Pasteur (diseases are caused by microbes) and the terrain theory of Antoine Béchamp (overall health determines whether someone will fall ill). This artificial dichotomy is about as useful as arguing whether the Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin best defined the rock era, because just as these two groups will have left a permanent mark on generations, the two science theories work perfectly well together. Most integrative oncology experts focus on strengthening the “terrain” of cancer patients, in other words, improving general health, while at the same time much research is ongoing into bacterial, viral, fungal and other potential causes of cancer.

On the other hand, the second schism opposes two mutually exclusive theories. Most conventional oncologists subscribe to the somatic mutation theory of cancer, which holds that cancer is caused by mutations in the DNA acquired during lifetime, as opposed to germline mutations inherited from our parents. The other camp subscribes to the metabolic theory, as first articulated by Nobel Prize winner Otto Warburg. This holds that damage to the mitochondria causes metabolic dysregulation in the cell, leading to disrupted energy production, and that DNA mutations are downstream effects. The authors, who are firmly in the metabolic camp, observe that nuclear DNA is protected via a sturdy cellular wall, whereas mitochondrial DNA is thinly shielded and therefore more susceptible to injury.

The bad news is that the authors say the original Kelley program does not work as well as it once did, and they blame the increase in exogenous insults that have multiplied these past decades, such as the introduction of GMOs, more processed refined and sugary foods, new pesticides, electromagnetic radiation, lack of sleep and more. They post an eye-popping chart about intestinal infection deaths that closely track pesticide applications. They say certain insecticides rupture the lumen of the bellies of small pests, and why would it not do the same to humans, considering that the biochemical pathways may very well be conserved.

They also point out a statistic that has been well-publicized but still shocks the conscience: 84,000 chemicals are currently in use in the US marketplace but only 1% of them have been tested for long term safety. They note that while cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption are down, today there are more insidious sources such as additives and chemicals in food, cosmetics and cleaning products that are harder to notice. Consider the big dose of pesticides in breakfast cereals, which are marketed to children.

Other ideas discussed are how to balance the nervous system between sympathetic (fight or flight) versus the parasympathetic (rest and restore). The diet Kelley prefers is close to but not quite a keto diet: small amounts of organic animal products, cooked vegetables – not raw – and a few low sugar fruits. It is rich in fiber, low in net carbs. and modest in protein. The authors note that protein and fat generally take longer to break down compared with carbohydrates, and they favor catabolic foods such as fruits and vegetables that have an alkalizing effect on the body that will help rid the body of toxins, debris and lactic acid. Lactic acid is a byproduct of cancer and is used to shield the tumor, so lowering lactic acid is very important, and one can test for that. But the authors, like other experts, think some protein is required in order to protect against muscle loss/cachexia, which can be a problem in cancer. They favor getting adequate potassium and magnesium and advise against excessive intake of chloride, sodium, and calcium in processed food.

In the woo woo department is a chapter on the emotional aspect to cancer, which of course is not woo woo in the slightest because psychoneuroimmunology has proved many times that the immune system follows the soul. The authors discuss laughter, positive thinking, breathing techniques, forest bathing, Qi Gong, Tai Chi, meditation and an old book that’s been around since 1980 called The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook. They advise us that Harvard has a repository of studies on mind body exercises born of long-term studies of Buddhist monks.

Testing: As with most metabolic practitioners, these authors want frequent blood work, and their preferred markers overlap with protocols from integrative cancer experts. One unusual addition is a test for amino acids because the authors feel insufficient essential amino acids can shut down the healing process. This runs counter to much epidemiological evidence that suppression of the essential amino acid methionine is desirable in cancer patients. They also discuss testing for minerals, toxic mold, algae and other biotoxins.

A very good tip comes in the form of how to choose a supplement. The supplement industry is a Wild West, and the authors suggest requesting a certificate of analysis from manufacturers to confirm whether the products actually contain the ingredients listed on the label. If the company won't do this testing, it's a red flag. Personally, I buy supplements in powdered form and preferably in whole herb form so I can avoid additives. I have yet to make my own tinctures, but it's probably in my future.

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Thanks for reading.