Rewriting the Cancer Playbook: Personalized Testing, Cell Death & Metabolomics with Dr. Robert Nagourney, MD

What if we’ve been looking at cancer all wrong?

In this riveting episode, Dr. Nasha Winters welcomes Dr. Robert Nagourney—renegade oncologist, cancer biologist, and trailblazer in functional profiling and metabolomics. For over 30 years, Dr. Nagourney has challenged the dogma of protocol-based oncology, focusing instead on what truly matters: how the patient's biology responds to treatment.

Together, they unpack why cancer isn't just a problem of too much growth, but rather too little death, and how shifting our focus to metabolic function could radically transform cancer care—from diagnosis through remission and prevention.

This is a deeply personal and highly technical conversation filled with clinical wisdom, paradigm-shifting insights, and genuine hope for the future of oncology.

Key Takeaways:

• Why cancer is not primarily a growth disease, but a failure of cell death.

• The real meaning of “personalized medicine”—and how most current approaches miss the mark.

• What “functional profiling” is and how it doubles treatment response rates in patients.

• How Dr. Nagourney uses tissue assays to select therapies with precision—before gene panels even return results.

• What metabolomics is, and why it’s the next frontier in both early detection and prevention.

• The difference between apoptosis and programmed cell death—and why that nuance matters.

• What it means to quantify life and how Dr. Nagourney’s new blood-based testing could identify cancer risk before symptoms ever arise.

• A hopeful look at curing incurable cancers—and the patients who beat the odds.
  

About Dr. Robert Nagourney, MD:

Dr. Robert Nagourney, MD, is the founder of the Nagourney Cancer Institute and a globally recognized expert in the field of functional oncology. With over three decades of clinical experience, he has pioneered the use of tissue-based assays to guide cancer therapy and is now leading a new wave of innovation with metabolomics—a biochemical approach that could revolutionize how we detect, treat, and ultimately prevent cancer. His work has contributed to the development of several major treatment regimens and has helped patients with so-called “untreatable” cancers find hope.

Connect with Dr. Robert Nagourney:

Website: https://www.nagourneycancerinstitute.com/ 

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-nagourney-md-89237213 

X: https://x.com/DrNagourney 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nagourneycancerinstitute/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NagourneyCancerInstitute

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM2KQEIwuLKXqaDTwOTWDcg

About Your Host:

Dr. Nasha Winters is a global healthcare authority, best-selling author, and educator in the emerging field of integrative oncology and terrain-based cancer care. She hosts Metabolic Matters to explore the critical intersections between metabolism, medicine, and meaning.

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