Monday Aug 29, 2016 (foodconsumer.org) -- A case report published in 2010 in Nutrition & Metabolism suggests that a calorie-restricted ketogenic diet can help treat cancers like brain cancer.  Ketogenic diet is a high-fat diet with small amounts of carbohydrates and protein.

According to the report authored by Dr. Thomas Seyfried and colleagues, a 65-year old woman was diagnosed with a brain cancer known as glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) after suffering symptoms like progressive memory loss, chronic headache, and nausea and subsequently treated successfully with ketogenic diet along with conventional treatments.

First, the woman had the tumor partially removed (a procedure called incomplete surgical resection) and then followed conventional treatments and a ketogenic diet.  The diet was made of four parts of fat and one part of carbohydrate and protein.  She drank a lot of water and ate only 600 kcal per day.  She was also taking supplements of vitamins and minerals.

After 20 days of treatments, her body weight was reduced by 20% and no more brain tumor tissue was detected using either PDG-PEY or MRI imaging.   Tests showed that levels of blood glucose were reduced and levels of urinary ketones were elevated after the treatments.   Interestingly, tumor recurred 10 days after the discontinuing of the calorie-restricted ketogenic diet.

The report does not seem to say anything about the long-term outcome.  But they say the ketogenic diet was effective in helping treat the brain cancer, because in cases like this, incomplete surgical resection and standard therapies could not result in rapid regression in older patients with GBM.

Ketogenic diet is often used by some patients to treat various cancers and other health conditions such as epilepsy.  The cancer cells in any cancers including brain cancer are in most cases unable to metabolize ketone bodies for energy due to impaired mitochondrial function.  Like many other cancers, brain cancer in most cases follows an aerobic glycolytic pathway to use glucose as its energy source.  When the supply of glucose which is found in carbohydrates or pure sugar, is shut off, the cancer cells starve to death.  That is why a ketogenic diet can at least theoretically protect against cancer progression or even kill cancerous cells.

The authors also cite cases reported earlier to demonstrate that ketogenic diet may render a therapeutic effect against other malignancies.    Prior to the  current case report, other doctors reported that a ketogenic diet supplemented with omega-3 fatty acids and medium chain triglycerides inhibited the growth of human gastric cancer cells in animals and prostate cancer in humans.

Recently, more studies on how metabolic therapies may be employed to treat various cancers.  For instance, a study released in 2013 in PLOS One suggested that ketogenic diet can be used to prevent metastatic cancer or slow the progression/metastasis of a cancer.

In 2007, Dr. Seyfried's group already demonstrated that calorie-restricted ketogenic diet - KetoCal® provided by Nutricia North America for the study, may be used to treat malignant brain tumor.  Their study was conducted in mice.   The results show that the calorie-restricted ketogenic diet rendered anti-tumor and anti-angiogenic effects in experimental mouse with human brain tumors - malignant glioma. The authors say that the therapeutic effects are due largely to the reduction of total calorie intake (the report seems to say that even a standard restricted diet can slow down the progression of brain tumors).

Dr. Seyfried et al. explain that high intake of glucose results in high levels of CT-2A growth as well as insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) levels, which promotes tumor angiogenesis.  This ketogenic diet slowed the tumor growth because it provides only small amounts of carbohydrates (glucose).

In addition to ketogenic diet, some other diets are commonly enlisted to fight cancers including vegan diet, Budwig diet (flaxseed oil and cottage cheese), carrot juice, barley green powder, laetrile protocol, and Gerson diet.  Sporadic testimonials hint that some patients might have benefited from one or a combination of these dietary treatments.  Also, more evidence has shown up in recent years to indicate that cancer is actually a metabolic disease.   Therefore, dietary intervention is expected to render a protective effect against a variety of cancers. (David Liu)

Giulio Zuccoli, Norina Marcello, Anna Pisanello, Franco Servadei, Salvatore Vaccaro, Purna Mukherjee and Thomas N Seyfried, Metabolic management of glioblastoma multiforme using standard therapy together with a restricted ketogenic diet: Case Report, Nutrition & Metabolism, Published: 22 April 2010

Weihua Zhou, Purna Mukherjee, Michael A Kiebish, William T Markis, John G Mantis and Thomas N Seyfried, The calorically restricted ketogenic diet, an effective alternative therapy for malignant brain cancer, Nutrition & Metabolism2007, 4:5, Published: 21 February 2007