Diet and Chemotherapy: The Effects of Fasting
A latest study published in Nature Communications, reveals that a fasting-mimicking diet along with chemotherapy was more effective against breast cancer than chemotherapy and regular diet.
Over the last 10 years, research has indicated that fasting can protect cancer-bearing cells against the side effects of chemotherapyand sensitise the tumour cells to the toxic effects. This means that in the fasting state the healthy cells of the body get into the repair and maintenance mode, however, the cancer cells are unable to do so, and become deprived of nutrition. In this state, these cancer cells become more prone to toxic damage to them by the chemotherapy.
The fasting mimicking diet is a high-fat, low calorie diet plan with intermittent fasting.
This is a first of its kind, randomized controlled study to evaluate the effects of a fasting diet on the toxicity and efficacy of chemotherapy modalities in patients with breast cancer. In this study, 129 patients were randomised into two groups, 65 patients received fasting mimicking diet as an adjuvant to chemotherapy and 64 patients received chemotherapy alongside a regular diet.
These results indicate that a fasting mimicking diet (FMD) can reinforce the effects of chemotherapy on tumour response in patients with early breast cancer. The more number cycles of FMD that were adhered to, the higher was the percentage of tumour cell loss.
Even more importantly, it was noted that there was less damage in the genetic material of the healthy cells in patients who followed a fasting mimicking diet compared to those who had a regular diet during chemotherapy. This suggests that FMD was able to confer protection to these cells against damage due to chemotherapy.
The findings of this of this study are the first to suggest that cycles of fasting mimicking diet concurrent with chemotherapy is a safe and effective adjunct to chemotherapy in women with early breast cancer. This is an encouraging finding that warrants further exploration of the benefits of fasting in patients receiving cancer therapy.
Reference:
Source: de Groot, S., Lugtenberg, R.T., Cohen, D. et al. Fasting mimicking diet as an adjunct to neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer in the multicentre randomized phase 2 DIRECT trial. Nat Commun 11, 3083 (2020).
Source link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-16138-3
Previous : Mushroom in your diet may cut down your breast cancer risk!