Cancer cells have higher uptake of glcuose than knormal cells and use it as their energy source through a biochemical pathway called glycolysis - the fermentation process that produces low amonts of energy and large amounts of lactic acid. For that reason, it is believed that reduced intake of glucose or its precursor carbohydrates can slow the growth and progression of cancer and extend the survival of cancer patients.
A study suggests that ketogenic diet may be used to treat metastatic cancer, for which doctors could not provide any effective treatment to help patients sustain a long survival. The study of rodents with systemic metastatic cancer shows that eating ketogenic diet ad libitum can lower serum glucose, slow the growth rate of cancer and extends the survival by 57%, compared to the controls.
The ketogenic diet has 89.25% of its energy from fat, 8.7% from protein and 2.1 % from carbohydrates, compared to 18.0%, 24.0 and 58.0% in the standard diet, respectvely. The caloric density in the ketogenic diet is 7.12 kcal/g, compared to 3.1 kcal/g.
Although the study animals had low intake of carbohdyrates by eating this ketogenic diet, the therapeutic effect of the diet may also be partially attributed to the low amount of protein. High protein intake can be a bad thing for cancer patients.
The study also tested the combination of the ketogenic diet and hyperbaric oxygen therapy. The combinational therapy was found more effective at slowing cancer growth and it resulted in the increase in the survival time by 79.9%, compared to controls. It was observed though that hyperbaric oxygen therapy alone did not slow cancer progression.
The hyperbaric oxygen therapy was administered as follows. Mice was placed in a hyprbaric chamber (1.5 ATM gauge or 2.5 ATM absolute) with 100% oxygen for 90 minutes per time and three time per week. (David Liu)
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