I emailed Ajai Sehgal and ask if he knew the dose regime which his father used to threat his colon cancer. This was the answer I got.
I found his prescription. It was for 1 mg orally, once a day.
I think itās good to take in consideration that probably Suren also experimented a bit during his self treatment when it comes to his dose regime but this was a very interesting indication.
On this page we get little bit more insights to the topic
In 1998, Suren was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic colon cancer after a routine colonoscopy. ā¦ He believed that even his own life was extended as he took Rapamune to stave off the cancer that had spread to his liver, experimenting on himself. The tumors in his liver were arrested and never grew. ā¦ The cancer that had spread to his lungs was unstoppable even with Rapamune. On the 21st of January, 2003, Suren left this world
Source: Suren's Story
Here is a quote from Ajai in an article
But in 2003, after five years, Sehgal, age 70, decided to stop taking the drug. Otherwise, he told his wife, heād never know whether it was really holding back his cancer. The tumors came back quickly, and he died within months, says Ajai. āOn his deathbed, he said to me, āThe stupidest thing Iāve ever done is stop taking the drug.ā
Source: The discoverer of Rapamycin treated himself with Rapamycin to delay his own death from cancer | NextBigFuture.com
Here is a podcast interview from Radiolab with Ajai and Surens wife Uma and some others with little bit more detail of what happened
AJAI SEHGAL: My father had been diagnosed with colon cancer.
UMA SEHGAL: It was pretty serious.
AVIR MITRA: His doctor said he only had six months to live. But Uma says when Suren got this newsā¦
UMA SEHGAL: He said to the oncologist, Iāll be here for five years. Youāll see. He was very determined; I have to get better. I have to get better.
AVIR MITRA: He tells his wife he wanted to be around for his grandkids. But it wasnāt just that.
UMA SEHGAL: He said a lot has to go on with my work also.
AVIR MITRA: He has so much work that he still wants to do on rapamycin, including his most daring experiment yet.
AJAI SEHGAL: Taking rapamycin.
AVIR MITRA: Taking rapamycin to see if it would treat his own cancer.
LATIF NASSER: So like, his doctor prescribed him rapamycin?
AJAI SEHGAL: No. No, he was getting it from the lab.
AVIR MITRA: He just decided to take it.
AJAI SEHGAL: On his own in pill form.
AVIR MITRA: I believe in this drug, and I think it just might be able to save me.
LATIF NASSER: But why? Like, why would - why would rapamycin help for cancer?
AVIR MITRA: Well, think about it. Right? Like, what does rapamycin do? It stops cells from growing. So why not cancer cells? You know - and no human had ever tried this. It was definitely a long shot. Butā¦
UMA SEHGAL: He said, let me try that.
AVIR MITRA: And then, the six-month mark comes and goes.
AJAI SEHGAL: The tumor action stopped.
AVIR MITRA: Another six months go by, heās still alive.
UMA SEHGAL: Yes, yes.
AVIR MITRA: In fact, heās thriving.
UMA SEHGAL: We were traveling all over the world.
AVIR MITRA: Heās flying to conferences for work.
UMA SEHGAL: We went to Japan. We went to China. We went to Thailand. We went to Europe many times.
AVIR MITRA: Another six months, heās publishing papers.
UMA SEHGAL: He was very busy.
AVIR MITRA: And another, heās going to his grandkidsā birthdays - and another.
AJAI SEHGAL: And then he just kept living, right?
LATIF NASSER: Oh, my God. Wow. So, like, what actually is happening? So, like, the rapamycin is, like, slowing - itās, like, freezing the cancer?
AVIR MITRA: So youāre saying that rapamycin reverses Alzheimerās in mice?
MATT KAEBERLEIN: Thatās right.
AVIR MITRA: Wow.
And itās not just Alzheimerās. Itās, like, every marker of aging. Itās other diseases, too, like heart attacks, strokes and cancer, which kind of brings us back to Suren. Like, he was given six months in 1998, and now itās 2002.
LATIF NASSER: Oh, wow, so, like, almost the five-year mark.
AVIR MITRA: Yeah.
AJAI SEHGAL: Five years when he was supposed to have been dead.
AVIR MITRA: Heās still taking rapamycin, and heās still alive. And so, yeah, maybe some of that anti-aging stuff is happening in Surenās body.
UMA SEHGAL: Actually, there was no cancer in his colon anymore or the stomach or the liver.
LATIF NASSER: I mean, but, like, how do you know? Like, is there any way of measuring that thatās the thing thatās prolonging his life?
AVIR MITRA: At this point, itās hard to tell, you know? Like, at one point, he also did chemo for his cancer. So is it the chemo? Is it the traditional meds? Is it the rapamycin? Suren has no idea. Thatās a mystery in his mind thatās actually kind of eating away at him.
AJAI SEHGAL: And one day he goes, and he tells my mom - he saysā¦
UMA SEHGAL: How do I know? I feel good, but how do I know if itās working or not - my drug is working or not?
AVIR MITRA: Is this working, or am I just a fluke? Is it just so happening that Iām living longer than I was expected? But heās always going to stay the scientist, right? So heās like, thereās only one way Iām going to figure out if rapamycin is keeping me alive.
AJAI SEHGAL: Uma, the only way Iām going to know if my drug works is if I stop taking it.
UMA SEHGAL: He was experimenting on himself.
AVIR MITRA: And thatās what he does.
AJAI SEHGAL: So he stopped taking the drug. And, you know, six months laterā¦
UMA SEHGAL: It came with vengeance.
AVIR MITRA: The cancerā¦
UMA SEHGAL: It was - it came into the lungs.
AJAI SEHGAL: It was in his lungs, and he was not going to last very much longer.
AVIR MITRA: And so Uma tells him, like, you made your point.
UMA SEHGAL: I said to him - I begged him to take it.
AVIR MITRA: Just start taking the rapamycin again.
LATIF NASSER: Yeah.
UMA SEHGAL: He said, no, just - itās OK. Let nature take its course. Thatās all.
AJAI SEHGAL: He worked until the day he died. He - the day before he died, he was still writing a paper, in bedā¦
UMA SEHGAL: Without oxygen on his face.
AJAI SEHGAL: ā¦Writing a paper on advocating the antitumor properties of rapamycin.
UMA SEHGAL: Yeah.
AVIR MITRA: Suren died on January 21, 2003.
Source: The Dirty Drug and the Ice Cream Tub
