Diet for chemotherapy
Scientists have found out which diet helps to treat cancer
According to the results of clinical trials, a diet simulating fasting enhances the effect of the initial stages of chemotherapy in the treatment of cancer. A description of the study was published in the journal Nature Communications (de Groot et al., Fasting mimicking diet as an adjunct to neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer in the multicentre randomized phase 2 DIRECT trial).
Physicians and nutritionists from Italy, the Netherlands and the USA conducted a randomized controlled clinical trial of a phase 2 diet recommended for patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy, which is prescribed as the first step, even before surgery, to stop tumor growth.
Diets imitating fasting (DIG) are low–calorie diets with a reduced content of proteins and amino acids, designed to trigger metabolic reactions similar to those that occur when fasting on water.
Preclinical data showed that short-term fasting and imitation of fasting can protect healthy cells from chemotherapy, while at the same time making cancer cells more vulnerable to treatment.
The results of laboratory studies on mice have shown that short-term fasting protects animals from the toxic effects of chemotherapy and at the same time increases the effectiveness of treatment. However, clinical trials on real patients have not been conducted before.
Researchers led by Judith Kroep from the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands observed 131 patients with breast cancer of HER2-negative molecular subtype II and III stages between February 2014 and January 2018. The group included cancer patients without complicating diseases, primarily diabetes, and overweight.
Those observed for three days before and during neoadjuvant (prior to surgery – VM) chemotherapy adhered to either fasting or a diet, or ate as usual (control group). DIG consisted of vegetable-based soups, liquids and tea.
Despite the fact that the level of toxicity of the chemotherapy used in all three groups was the same, the effectiveness of treatment was higher in patients in the first two groups. In addition, scientists noted that they had a lower level of chemotherapy-induced DNA damage in T-lymphocytes. Scientists have not found any side effects from the use of a starvation diet.
The authors conclude that short-term fasting cycles or DIG are safe and very effective as an additional aid to cancer patients with early stages of breast cancer.
"Starvation deprives the multiplying cancer cells of nutrients, reducing their growth factors. As a result, they are more sensitive to therapy, which contributes to their death," the researchers write in the article.
In the future, scientists plan to test whether a diet simulating fasting will be effective for other forms of cancer in combination with traditional treatment.
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