How diet affects tumors

In recent years, there is some evidence that dietary intervention helps to slow the growth of tumors

The study tested the effects of calorie restriction diet and ketogenic diet on mice with pancreatic tumors

The researchers said these findings do not mean that cancer patients should follow either of these two diets

Matthew Vander Heiden, director of the MIT Koch Institute for Comprehensive Cancer Research and senior author of the study, said: “There is a lot of evidence that diet affects the rate of cancer development, but this is not A cure

Evan Lien, a postdoctoral fellow at MIT, is the lead author of this paper published in the journal Nature

Metabolic mechanism

Vander Heiden is also a medical oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Previous studies have shown that, in some cases, a calorie-restricted diet may slow the growth of tumors.

Lien said: "A lot of suggestions or cultural fashions are not always based on very good science

Cancer cells consume a lot of glucose, so some scientists hypothesize that a ketogenic diet or calorie restriction might slow the growth of tumors by reducing the amount of glucose available

To study this mechanism in more depth, the researchers analyzed the tumor growth and nutrient concentration of mice with pancreatic tumors.

Lipid deficiency can impair the growth of tumors, because cancer cells need lipids to build cell membranes

Both calorie-restricted diet and ketogenic diet can reduce SCD activity, but mice on ketogenic diet can obtain lipids from the diet, so they do not need to use SCD

"Not only does caloric restriction make tumors lack lipids, it also disrupts their adaptation to lipids

The influence of diet

In addition to mouse studies, the researchers also looked at some human data

Although this study shows that calorie restriction is beneficial to mice, the researchers said that they do not recommend that cancer patients follow a calorie restriction diet, because this diet is difficult to maintain and can cause harmful side effects

One possible treatment strategy is to inhibit the SCD enzyme, which will cut off the ability of tumor cells to produce unsaturated fatty acids

"The purpose of these studies is not necessarily to recommend a diet, but to truly understand the underlying biology," Lien said
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"They provide some sense of the mechanism of how these diets work, which can lead to rational thoughts on how we can simulate these situations to treat cancer
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Researchers now plan to study how diets containing multiple fat sources--including plant or animal fats with clear differences in saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fatty acids--can change tumor fatty acid metabolism and unsaturated and saturated fatty acids Ratio
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Article title

Low glycaemic diets alter lipid metabolism to influence tumour growth