The keto diet could be the new weapon against cancer, according to experts from the non-profit research institution Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL). The popular diet based on the restriction of carbohydrates and the intake of the required energy mainly from fat, could lead the cancerous tumors to starvation by depriving them of the necessary glucose.
According to the researchers of the study published in Cell Metabolism titled (“Ketogenic diet promotes tumor ferroptosis but induces relative corticosterone deficiency that accelerates cachexia“), the ketogenic diet increases in the bloodstream a type of toxic fat, lipid peroxides, which neutralize cancer cells through ferroptosis, an iron-dependent cell death.
However, as experiments on mice have shown, such nutritional therapy carries serious risks. Experimental animals with pancreatic and colon cancer developed cachexia, a metabolic disorder associated with anorexia, progressive dehydration and weight loss, leading to immune suppression. “It is very common in patients with advanced cancer. They become so weak that they can no longer withstand the cancer treatment. Everyday activities become the labors of Hercules,” commented Associate Professor from CSHL, Tobias Janowitz.
A solution to ensure the anticancer effect without the fatal side effect was to combine the ketogenic diet with taking corticosteroid drugs. The tumors shrank and the mice lived longer.
The keto diet can result in up to 10% body weight loss in humans. “Healthy mice also lose weight on the ketogenic diet, but their metabolism reaches a plateau. Mice with cancer can’t adapt because they can’t produce enough of a hormone called corticosterone, which helps moderate the effects of the keto diet. They don’t stop losing weight,” explained Dr. Janowitz.
Corticosterone is the major circulating glucocorticoid in mice and acts like cortisol in humans. When the research team replaced the lack of the hormone with an anti-inflammatory corticosteroid it allowed the tumors to shrink without the onset of cancer cachexia.
“Cancer is a disease of the whole body. It reprograms normal biological processes to help it grow,” says co-lead author Dr. Miriam Ferrer. “Because of this reprogramming, the mice can’t utilize the nutrients from a ketogenic diet and they die out. But with the corticosteroid, they were doing much better. They lived longer than with any other treatment we tried,” he concluded.
Researchers are participating in the Cancer Grand Challenges, an international program focused on cachexia. They are currently working on fine-tuning the timing and dosage of corticosteroids to broaden the scope for developing effective keto-based therapies.
