Frank Arguello


Frank Arguello is an American cancer research scientist, Medical Doctor and author. He introduced the concepts of “atavistic oncology” and “atavistic chemotherapy.” He is the creator and director of the Atavistic Chemotherapy Clinical Trial.

Biography

Arguello graduated from College of Bachelors in Torreon, Mexico, in 1978, with a degree in biology. He earned his earned his M.D. from University of Nuevo León School of Medicine in Monterrey, Mexico in 1984 and completed a fellowship at The James P. Wilmont Cancer Centre in Rochester, New York. He is a former assistant professor of pediatrics, Division of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, and assistant professor of oncology at Strong Memorial Hospital Cancer Center in Rochester, New York.
Arguello is also a former scientist with the National Cancer Institute, Division of Cancer Treatment & Diagnosis, at the National Institutes of Health  in Maryland conducting pre-clinical trials and evaluating the potential anticancer properties of new drugs being discovered at the NCI's screening programs. In 2011, he published a book Atavistic Metamorphosis: A New and Logical Explanation for the Origin and Biological Nature of Cancer which gave genesis to the Atavistic Chemotherapy Clinical Trial™.

Research

Arguello's early research was focused on understanding cancer metastases. His investigations led to the development of laboratory animal models to develop and study experimental metastases to the bones and other organs. Using this model, he studied and described the sequence of events that take place during bone metastasis, particularly vertebral metastasis and spinal cord compression. Arguello and colleagues at the University of Rochester also established that both vascular access of cancer cells to a target organ and the tissue microenvironment in it played a critical role in the establishment of metastases.
At the NIH, NCI, Arguello evaluated several novel anticancer agents including 9-chloro-2-methylellipticinium acetate, alone and in combination with conventional anticancer drugs for the treatment of human brain tumor xenografts, and flavopiridol in the treatment of xenografted human leukemias and lymphomas.
Arguello's current research includes investigations of the unique and perplexing traits shared by pathogenic unicellular organisms and cancer cells. These traits suggest that malignant transformation may represent a re-emergence, in a differentiated cell, of an ancestral genetic program that was active in the evolutionary past of our cells. In other words, the behavior that scientists regard as ‘malignant,’ including cell autonomy; invasion and digestion of surrounding normal tissues; migration and colonization of distant organs; ability to develop resistance to drugs, temperature, or radiation; and ability to kill the host, are not only characteristics of cancer cells, but of pathogenic and/or single-celled organisms. Since human cells originated from a single-celled organism, several scientists have postulated that the pathogenic behavior of cancer cells is likely due to the re-expression of past traits and behaviors derived from their past evolutionary experience as independent, single-celled organisms. This reversion or de-evolution of a differentiated cell to its ancestral undifferentiated, unicellular form has suggested that cancer is a cellular atavism.
The objective of atavistic chemotherapy clinical trial is to determine whether there is a benefit for patients with inoperable or metastatic cancers when treated successfully with combinations of selected drugs conventionally used in medical practice to kill single-celled organisms, such as antibacterial, anti-fungal and anti-protozoal drugs. Preliminary results show that atavistic chemotherapy can induce complete cancer regressions of several types of metastatic and inoperable cancers. Arguello's investigations have been challenged by another cancer researcher, who has been found to have ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

Selected publications