Selectively starving cancer cells through dietary manipulation: methods and clinical implications.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review synthesizing preclinical concepts without systematic methodology or primary human data.
PubMed 23837760 · doi:10.2217/fon.13.31
What was done
This paper reviews three metabolic dietary approaches—caloric restriction, intermittent fasting, and the ketogenic diet—to evaluate their potential utility and implementation as interventions in cancer therapy based on available literature.
What was found
No quantitative findings or clinical metrics are reported in the abstract. The authors note that metabolic-based dietary therapies reduce spontaneous tumor incidence, slow primary tumor growth, and may impact distant metastases in animal models, but highlight a lack of clinical trials and clear recommendations for cancer patients.
Why it matters
It outlines metabolic dietary interventions as potential adjuncts to conventional cancer treatments and discusses the barriers preventing these strategies from translating from animal models into standard clinical oncology protocols.
Limits
The review relies primarily on preclinical animal evidence with few human clinical trials available. The abstract provides no quantitative data, sample sizes, or standardized dietary protocols for clinical application.
Cited by
- supports In animal models, intermittent fasting suppresses spontaneous tumor formation, inhibits growth of implanted cancer cells, and enhances cancer cell killing by chemotherapy and radiation.