🧬 10 Hallmarks of Cancer — Quick Guide

Figure 1.  Fighting 10 hallmarks of cancer with diet

10 Hallmarks of Cancer

1. Sustaining proliferative signaling

• Cancer cells generate their own growth signals—or respond continuously to external ones—resulting in uncontrolled cell division. In contrast, normal cells depend on specific growth factors and tightly regulate when they proliferate.

2. Evading growth suppressors

• Cancer cells ignore or disable the signals that normally halt cell growth and division, often through mutations in tumor‑suppressor genes such as TP53 or RB. This effectively removes the brakes on proliferation.

3. Resisting cell death

• Cancer cells avoid programmed cell death (apoptosis) and other death pathways by upregulating anti‑apoptotic proteins like BCL‑2 or blocking death‑receptor signaling. Normal cells undergo apoptosis when damaged or no longer needed.

4. Enabling replicative immortality

• Cancer cells achieve unlimited replicative potential by activating telomerase or alternative telomere‑lengthening mechanisms. This prevents the telomere shortening that normally restricts cell divisions, known as the Hayflick limit.

5. Inducing angiogenesis

• Tumors promote the formation of new blood vessels to secure oxygen and nutrients once they grow beyond roughly 1–2 mm³. They accomplish this by secreting pro‑angiogenic factors such as VEGF, effectively flipping an “angiogenic switch.”
• Suggested reading: Naturally-Occurring Antiangiogenic Substances

6. Activating invasion and metastasis

• Cancer cells acquire the ability to invade surrounding tissues and spread to distant organs. This process involves altered cell adhesion, increased motility, degradation of the extracellular matrix, and adaptation to new microenvironments.

7. Reprogramming cellular metabolism / Deregulating cellular energetics

• Cancer cells adopt altered metabolic pathways—such as aerobic glycolysis (the Warburg effect)—to support rapid growth even in oxygen‑rich conditions. These metabolic shifts provide essential building blocks and help cells survive in acidic or hypoxic tumor niches.

8. Avoiding immune destruction

• Tumors evade or suppress immune surveillance by expressing checkpoint molecules like PD‑L1, recruiting immunosuppressive cells, or reducing antigen presentation. These strategies prevent immune cells from recognizing and eliminating cancer cells.

9. Genome instability and mutation

• As an enabling characteristic, cancer cells accumulate mutations at elevated rates due to defects in DNA repair or cell‑cycle checkpoints. This genomic instability generates the diversity needed to acquire additional hallmarks.

10. Tumor‑promoting inflammation

• Another enabling characteristic, chronic inflammation within the tumor microenvironment recruits immune cells that paradoxically support tumor growth. These cells supply growth factors, promote angiogenesis, and facilitate invasion rather than mounting an effective anti‑tumor response.

These hallmarks operate as an integrated system — for instance, genome instability fuels the mutations that enable persistent proliferative signaling or resistance to cell death. Together, they form a unifying framework for understanding how cancers arise and for guiding therapeutic strategies, including targeted agents that block specific hallmarks such as angiogenesis, as well as immunotherapies designed to counter immune evasion.

Video 1.  Fighting the Ten Hallmarks of Cancer with Food (YouTube link)

A Food‑First Strategy for Targeting Cancer’s Hallmarks

Once we understand what drives cancer at the cellular level, it’s natural to ask how our daily choices—especially diet—might influence these same processes. A central insight from Dr. Michael Greger’s extensive work on cancer prevention and treatment is that while cancer drugs typically target just one hallmark at a time, whole plant foods offer a natural blend of compounds that can influence many hallmarks simultaneously in laboratory studies, all without harming healthy cells. His body of work spans topics such as methionine restriction, anti‑angiogenesis, HPV risk, dairy versus plant milks, metastatic pathways, chemotherapy effectiveness, and dietary strategies for cancer survival. 

Across videos and analyses:

• How Not to Die from Cancer
• Starving Cancer with Methionine Restriction
• Saving Lives by Treating Acne with Diet
• Prostate Cancer and Organic Milk vs. Almond Milk
• Strawberries vs. Esophageal Cancer
• Should We All Get Colonoscopies Starting at Age 50?
• Breast Cancer Survival Vegetable
• Prostate Cancer Survival: The A/V Ratio
• Anti-Angiogenesis: Cutting off the Tumor Supply Line
• Why Might Vegetarians Have Less HPV?
• Zeranol Use in Meat and Breast Cancer
• Animal Protein Compared to Cigarette Smoking
• Is Organic Meat Less Carcinogenic?
• The Best Diet for Colon Cancer Prevention
• What Causes Cancer to Metastasize?
• How to Help Control Cancer Metastasis with Diet
• The Food That Can Downregulate a Metastatic Cancer Gene
• How Effective Is Chemotherapy?
• How Much Does Chemotherapy Improve Survival?
• Diet and Lifestyle for Cancer Prevention and Survival

he highlights how nutrition intersects with multiple biological mechanisms relevant to cancer progression.

Research supports this broader view: individual phytochemicals often have little effect alone, yet when combined at realistic dietary levels, they can suppress breast cancer cell growth by more than 80%, halt migration and invasion, and trigger cell death. This kind of synergy strengthens the argument that the most effective chemopreventive approach isn’t a lifetime of targeted drugs or isolated supplements, but a whole‑food, plant‑based diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes—and low in alcohol, soda, meat, and processed foods. Major cancer‑prevention reports echo this perspective, emphasizing such dietary patterns for their safety, accessibility, and broad protective potential.

Infographic Credit: Microsoft Copilot

References

1. Fighting the Ten Hallmarks of Cancer with Food
2. Hanahan, D., & Weinberg, R. A. (2000). The hallmarks of cancer. Cell, 100(1), 57–70. 
3. Hanahan, D., & Weinberg, R. A. (2011). Hallmarks of cancer: The next generation. Cell, 144(5), 646–674. 
4. Hanahan, D. (2022). Hallmarks of cancer: New dimensions. Cancer Discovery, 12(1), 31–46. 
5. Dr. Michael Greger’s work on cancer prevention and treatment