mydogeatspoop2023 t1_j3j9jg1 wrote on January 8, 2023 at 11:23 PM

There's a lot of low-hanging fruit involving cancer that gets ignored.

Cancer cells seem to proliferate faster in high-sugar solution. But patients don't get told to go on a low-sugar diet. German researchers found about 100 years ago that fasting can slow cancer growth, and sometimes put cancer in remission. This too does not get much discussion in the US. No money in it.

Instead we get incredibly expensive chemotherapeutics (antibody drug conjugates for example) that have incredibly toxic payloads and at best extend the patient's life a few months.

skraddleboop OP t1_j3jo45w wrote on January 9, 2023 at 12:59 AM

Have you augmented your diet in light of the data you have seen re: fasting/low sugar diets?

inblue01 t1_j3l72ym wrote on January 9, 2023 at 9:11 AM

It's not that simple. Yes cancer cells are sugar addicted and grow faster in vitro in high sugar environments. But blood sugar is tightly regulated by insulin. So eating less sugar does not directly starve cancer cells in your body.

mydogeatspoop2023 t1_j3o4uvb wrote on January 9, 2023 at 10:28 PM

I would politely respond to your assertion with some published evidence to the contrary: see ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6375425/

Ketogenic Diets and Cancer: Emerging Evidence

Jocelyn Tan-Shalaby, MD

PMID: 30766299

inblue01 t1_j40rg0s wrote on January 12, 2023 at 11:18 AM

I don't know if you're familiar with the scientific publishing world, but there is a reason why this is published in a very cryptic journal with a dysmal impact factor of 0.7. We can discuss why this review is extremely weak in private if you wish :) And very importantly, and maybe you missed it, the abstract talks about combination of KD with other therapeutic approaches.

>Combining a ketogenic diet with standard chemotherapeutic and radiotherapeutic options may help improve tumor response, although more research is needed.

Combination approached have indeed shown promises in some models: for example a ketogenic diet greatly potentiates PI3K inhibitors in some models of cancer but is insufficient to reduce mortality by itself: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6197057/

This is undoubtedly an interesting research topic and it is very likely that diet can help in some (if not many) therapeutic settings. But claiming that it is enough to cure cancer by itself is just dangerous and wrong.