Cancer Detect Prev. 1986 ; 9(3-4): 171-94.

Geographic cancer risk and intracellular potassium/sodium ratios.

Jansson B.

Geopathological, dietary, gerontological, and geophysiological data, data on electrolyte concentrations in healthy cells and in the corresponding tumor cells, and data on the potassium status of patients with different diseases and the associations of these diseases with cancer revealed a common denominator in the potassium-sodium-cancer relationship. A number of independent studies showed that the concentration of intracellular potassium was negatively correlated to cancer rates, whereas the concentration of intracellular sodium was positively correlated to cancer rates. The ratio between the concentrations of intracellular potassium and sodium was negatively correlated to cancer rates and was of greater importance in this respect than the two elements individually. The relations between these concentrations and cancer rates are hyperbolic rather than linear, which explains the fact that two independent carcinogenic agents are synergistic rather than additive.