Intermittent fasting, in the spotlight … Upgrade of adjuvant therapy for cancer treatment?

The use of “intermittent fasting,” one of the dietary therapies, as an adjunct therapy for cancer patients is under review.

Eureka Alert, a portal run by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said the use of intermittent fasting for cancer treatment was discussed as an important program at the “International Conference on Diet, Nutrition and Cancer” held at the National Cancer Institute (CNIO) in Spain. .

“It is clear that diet is the underlying cause of the most common cancers today, particularly gastrointestinal cancer, hormone-dependent breast cancer and prostate cancer,” said Dr. Gastrointestinal cancer is a malignant tumor that occurs in the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and colon. Hormone-dependent breast cancer accounts for approximately 70% of all breast cancers.

Professor Walter Longo (gerontology and biologist), director of the Longevity Research Center at the University of Southern California, USA, said: “Meanwhile, studies on fasting-like strategies to fight cancer have produced good results and now oncologists are considering using this strategy in conjunction with standard therapies, he went in. “A paradigm shift is taking place in the field of cancer care.

Studies show that diet plays a very important role in the development of cancer. There is also an assessment that a diet that uses nutrition has entered the stage of being used as a means of cancer treatment and prevention. According to the results of a recent experiment in mice, intermittent fasting before chemotherapy helps heart cells maintain autophagy. In this case, intermittent fasting means drinking only water and not eating for 24 hours, a team from Massachusetts General Hospital in the United States said.

“It is not a concept to cure cancer with diet, but to integrate cancer treatment with an accurate nutritional strategy,” said the very senior doctor, “he said.

Professor Longo of the University of Southern California, in his book The Longevity Diet, said that intermittent fasting should be used as an adjunct therapy for disease prevention and cancer treatment. This is because fasting can stop the growth of malignant tumors. According to Professor Longo, cancer cells don’t know how to stop the cycle and keep functioning. On the other hand, healthy cells automatically stop all division processes when their energy supply is cut off. Chemotherapy targets proliferating cells as the main target of the attack. When anticancer drugs are given to fasting patients, the toxicity mainly affects the cancer cells. Of course, it is possible to increase the dose of anticancer drugs.

Dr Alejo Efejan (cellular metabolism and signaling) from the National Cancer Institute in Spain predicted: “There are many things we need to know in the future, but cancer can be treated and prevented through nutritional strategies, diet and changes in the function of related genes. “.