Study finds tha ketogenic diet may boost treatment outcomes for pancreatic cancer patients

A mice study found that a ketogenic diet rich in fat and low in carbohydrates may improve pancreatic cancer patient's response to treatment.  Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, have found that treating mice with cancer medication plus a high-fat diet will effectively eradicate pancreatic cancer in mice.

What is a ketogenic diet?

A ketogenic diet is a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet that focuses on consuming healthy fats and limiting carbohydrate intake. This diet works by forcing the body to enter a metabolic state called ketosis, where it burns stored fat for energy instead of glucose from carbohydrates. This results in the production of ketones, which are used as an alternative source of fuel for the body and brain. The main goal of a ketogenic diet is to drastically reduce carbohydrate intake and increase fat intake, while also maintaining a moderate protein intake. 

How ketogenic diet can be helpful for pancreatic cancer patients' treatment outcomes?

In the study published in the journal Nature, the researchers said that cancer therapy blocks fat metabolism, which is cancer's only source of fuel for as long as the mice remain on the ketogenic diet, and the tumours stop growing.

The team first uncovered how a protein known as eukaryotic



translation initiation factor (eIF4E) changes the body's metabolism to switch to fat consumption during fasting. The same switch also occurs, thanks to eIF4E, when an animal is on a ketogenic diet.

They found that a new cancer drug called eFT508, currently in clinical trials, blocks eIF4E and the ketogenic pathway, preventing the body from metabolising fat. When the scientists combined the drug with a ketogenic diet in an animal model of pancreatic cancer, the cancer cells starved.

The findings “open a point of vulnerability that we can treat with a clinical inhibitor that we already know is safe in humans", said Davide Ruggero, Professor at UCSF.

In the study, the scientists first treated pancreatic cancer with a cancer drug called eFT508 that disables eIF4E, intending to block tumour growth. However, sustained by other sources of fuel like glucose and carbohydrates, the pancreatic tumours continued to grow.

But when placed on a ketogenic diet, it forced the tumours to consume fats alone. Adding the drugs cut off the cancer cells' only sustenance - and the tumours shrank.

Ruggero said that there is “firm evidence” how diet can along with cancer therapies help “to precisely eliminate cancer" and may pave the way for personalised treatment.