Active discussion at the Spanish National Cancer Institute International Conference
input 2022.11.01 11:15correction 2022.11.01 10:59
The use of ‘intermittent fasting’, one of the dietary therapies, as an adjunct therapy for cancer patients is being actively reviewed.
Eureka Alert, a portal run by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said that the use of intermittent fasting for cancer treatment was discussed as a major agenda 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 tumors today, especially 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 regarding 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, “In the meantime, studies on strategies similar to fasting to combat cancer have yielded good results, and now oncologists are considering using this strategy along with standard therapies. has entered,” he said. A paradigm shift is taking place in the field of cancer treatment.
Studies show that diet plays a very important role in the development of cancer. There is also an evaluation that a diet using nutrition has entered the stage of being used as a means of treatment as well as prevention of cancer. According to the results of a recent mouse experiment, intermittent fasting prior to chemotherapy helps the heart cells to maintain autophagy. In this case, intermittent fasting means drinking only water and not eating for 24 hours, said a team at Massachusetts General Hospital in the US.
“It is not a concept to treat cancer with diet, but to supplement cancer treatment with an accurate nutritional strategy,” said Dr. is very high,” he said.
Professor Longo of the University of Southern California, in his book The Longevity Diet, argued 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, tumor cells do not know how to stop the cycle and continue to function. 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 attack. When anticancer drugs are administered to patients in a fasting state, toxicity mainly affects tumor cells. Of course, it is possible to increase the dose of anticancer drugs.
Dr. Alejo Efejan (cellular metabolism and signaling) at 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.”