Drug Therapy And Health Helps In Cancer And Drug Therapy
May 3, 2021 at 6:13 p.m.
By Max [email protected]
The immune responsiveness is affected by a number of factors including the genetic makeup of the patient, the profile of the cancer cells and the environment. One of the latter includes dietary habits which could influence cancer growth. Unfortunately, little information is available on that subject, but there are several conditions that have been associated with variations in immune function.
Cancer cells also grow in distinctive patterns that defy normal limitations. Their growth activities require energy and cancer cells metabolize nutrients in different ways from the healthy cells that surround them. Chemotherapy drugs target these pathways inside cancer cells and are prone to toxic side effects that account for much of the suffering associated with the disease. There is a search for special diets that might boost the power of drugs to destroy tumors.
In one case, a drug that had failed in multiple trials has been resurrected and given to patients together with a ketogenic diet, a low carbohydrate regimen that typically involves loads of meat, cheese, eggs and vegetables. The researchers hope the diet will render the tumors more vulnerable to the drug. The ketogenic diet forces the liver to turn excess fat into molecules called ketone bodies that glucose craving cancer cells struggle to burn for energy. This same approach has been used since the 1920s, when researchers discovered the seizure reducing effects of the ketogenic diet on brain metabolism.
Fasting
Research has been ongoing for at least a century suggesting that a particular diet, fasting, or selectively reducing certain nutrients, can make cancer treatments work better. Fortunately, diets are not difficult to control and some early trials have shown evidence of the effects.
New studies are aimed at unraveling the molecular pathways by which diets or fasting can bolster the effects of drugs. Fasting is explainable in that it lowers levels of glucose in the blood which causes healthy cells to hunker down in a protective mode.
Cancer cells, however, must keep growing, which puts them at the risk of starvation. High glucose levels can increase cancer risk since glucose is the energy source for human and cancer cell proliferation. Fasting also reduces the body’s production of hormones, such as insulin that can drive cancer growth. Both effects may make the cancer cells more susceptible to chemotherapy. Fasting may also protect against some of the side effects of these drugs.
Amino Acids
Another method for treating cancer is an even more precise dietary limitation attained by cutting out specific amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. One clinician removed various amino acids from cancer cell’s culture medium, and many types of cancer cells grew more slowly when deprived of two related amino acids, serine and glycine. According to another study in Nature, the chemotherapeutic drug methotrexate is affected by the amino acid histadine. Restricting histadine, which is found in high levels in eggs and red meat, has also shown promise as an anti-tumor strategy.
According to a recent article in the Atlantic, “cancer is a term that encapsulates many different diseases with different changes in different parts of the body and no single metabolic therapy is right for every person What makes one cancer grow more slowly could conceivably hasten another. Just as avoiding excessive sugar is crucial for people with diabetes, lest they lose their vision and feet, sugar can save the life of a person with critical hypoglycemia.”
For now, unless your physician has advised as specific diet tailored to your specific tumor, the most common recommendation is to eat a generally healthy diet.
Healthy Diets
It is clear that dietary habits could influence cancer growth by their affect on the immune system. Healthy diets include the Mediterranean, vegetarian, Japanese and low calorie. The Mediterranean diet is low in animal fat and rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish and olive oil. It is shared by people living in Spain, Greece, southern Italy and other countries facing the Mediterranean basin.
The vegetarian diet includes dietary patterns that has as a common basis the abstinence from meat and fish. In Western countries, where meat and poultry are the base of protein intake, it is becoming increasingly popular in recent times, due to the related carcinogenicity of red and processed meat. Japanese people have the greatest life expectancy and their diet is considered the healthiest in the world, low in cholesterol and in caloric intake. Characteristic among Japanese diet is the wide consumption of green tea, vegetables, fish and miso soup. The soup contains wakame a healthy sea vegetable. Diets restricted in calories are recognized as a sound strategy to reduce the risk of chronic diseases, including cancer, and they can increase life expectancy.
Max Sherman is a medical writer and pharmacist retired from the medical device industry. His new book “Science Snippets” is available from Amazon and other book sellers. It contains a number of previously published columns. He can be reached by email at [email protected].
The immune responsiveness is affected by a number of factors including the genetic makeup of the patient, the profile of the cancer cells and the environment. One of the latter includes dietary habits which could influence cancer growth. Unfortunately, little information is available on that subject, but there are several conditions that have been associated with variations in immune function.
Cancer cells also grow in distinctive patterns that defy normal limitations. Their growth activities require energy and cancer cells metabolize nutrients in different ways from the healthy cells that surround them. Chemotherapy drugs target these pathways inside cancer cells and are prone to toxic side effects that account for much of the suffering associated with the disease. There is a search for special diets that might boost the power of drugs to destroy tumors.
In one case, a drug that had failed in multiple trials has been resurrected and given to patients together with a ketogenic diet, a low carbohydrate regimen that typically involves loads of meat, cheese, eggs and vegetables. The researchers hope the diet will render the tumors more vulnerable to the drug. The ketogenic diet forces the liver to turn excess fat into molecules called ketone bodies that glucose craving cancer cells struggle to burn for energy. This same approach has been used since the 1920s, when researchers discovered the seizure reducing effects of the ketogenic diet on brain metabolism.
Fasting
Research has been ongoing for at least a century suggesting that a particular diet, fasting, or selectively reducing certain nutrients, can make cancer treatments work better. Fortunately, diets are not difficult to control and some early trials have shown evidence of the effects.
New studies are aimed at unraveling the molecular pathways by which diets or fasting can bolster the effects of drugs. Fasting is explainable in that it lowers levels of glucose in the blood which causes healthy cells to hunker down in a protective mode.
Cancer cells, however, must keep growing, which puts them at the risk of starvation. High glucose levels can increase cancer risk since glucose is the energy source for human and cancer cell proliferation. Fasting also reduces the body’s production of hormones, such as insulin that can drive cancer growth. Both effects may make the cancer cells more susceptible to chemotherapy. Fasting may also protect against some of the side effects of these drugs.
Amino Acids
Another method for treating cancer is an even more precise dietary limitation attained by cutting out specific amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. One clinician removed various amino acids from cancer cell’s culture medium, and many types of cancer cells grew more slowly when deprived of two related amino acids, serine and glycine. According to another study in Nature, the chemotherapeutic drug methotrexate is affected by the amino acid histadine. Restricting histadine, which is found in high levels in eggs and red meat, has also shown promise as an anti-tumor strategy.
According to a recent article in the Atlantic, “cancer is a term that encapsulates many different diseases with different changes in different parts of the body and no single metabolic therapy is right for every person What makes one cancer grow more slowly could conceivably hasten another. Just as avoiding excessive sugar is crucial for people with diabetes, lest they lose their vision and feet, sugar can save the life of a person with critical hypoglycemia.”
For now, unless your physician has advised as specific diet tailored to your specific tumor, the most common recommendation is to eat a generally healthy diet.
Healthy Diets
It is clear that dietary habits could influence cancer growth by their affect on the immune system. Healthy diets include the Mediterranean, vegetarian, Japanese and low calorie. The Mediterranean diet is low in animal fat and rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish and olive oil. It is shared by people living in Spain, Greece, southern Italy and other countries facing the Mediterranean basin.
The vegetarian diet includes dietary patterns that has as a common basis the abstinence from meat and fish. In Western countries, where meat and poultry are the base of protein intake, it is becoming increasingly popular in recent times, due to the related carcinogenicity of red and processed meat. Japanese people have the greatest life expectancy and their diet is considered the healthiest in the world, low in cholesterol and in caloric intake. Characteristic among Japanese diet is the wide consumption of green tea, vegetables, fish and miso soup. The soup contains wakame a healthy sea vegetable. Diets restricted in calories are recognized as a sound strategy to reduce the risk of chronic diseases, including cancer, and they can increase life expectancy.
Max Sherman is a medical writer and pharmacist retired from the medical device industry. His new book “Science Snippets” is available from Amazon and other book sellers. It contains a number of previously published columns. He can be reached by email at [email protected].
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