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Keto: Doctor explains benefits of reduced-carb diet
The NHS points out that one in two people will develop some form of cancer during their lifetime, hence why research into treatments are ongoing.
Most recently, Dr Tobias Janowitz – of Cold Spring harbour Laboratory in New York – and his team conducted research in this subject area.
Mice experiments found a high-fat, low-carb diet (typical of a Keto diet) helped to combat lethal wasting that happens in cancer-ridden rodents.
Dr Janowitz said this wasting was “very common in patients with progressive cancer”.
He added: “They become so weak they can no longer handle anti-cancer treatment. Everyday tasks become Herculean labours.”
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The extreme form of weight loss is known as cachexia, which Cancer Research UK points out is a “complex problem”.
Cancer Research UK explains: “It involves changes in the way your body uses proteins, clarithromycin dosing in renal failure carbohydrates, and fat.
“You may also burn up calories faster than usual. People with cachexia lose muscle and often fat as well.”
Up to eight out of 10 people with advanced cancer will develop some degree of cachexia.
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While the Keto diet can lead to weight loss in healthy mice, the “metabolism adapts and they plateau”.
Dr Janowitz added: “Mice with cancer can’t adapt, because they can’t make enough of a hormone called corticosterone that helps regulate Keto’s effects.”
Thus, the experiment found that when mice with cancer were on the Keto diet and given corticosteroids, the tumours shrank and they lived longer.
Co-author Dr Miriam Ferrer elaborated: “Cancer is a whole-body disease. It reprograms normal biological processes to help it grow.
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“Because of this reprogramming mice can’t use the nutrients from a Keto diet – and waste away.
“But with the steroid, they did much better. They lived longer than with any other treatment we tried.”
The researchers are part of an international Cancer Grand Challenges project targeting cachexia.
They are now working to fine-tune corticosteroid timing and dosage to widen the window for effective Keto-based therapies.
The study was published in the journal Cell Metabolism.
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