Fasting causes cancer tumors to shrink

Study: Fasting causes cancer tumors to shrink

02/09/2012

Short-term fasting before starting chemotherapy leads to shrinking of the cancerous tumors and reduced metastasis. This resulted in a study that is now in the trade magazine „Science Translational Medicine. "The international team of researchers found this out in experiments with mice and also revealed that people tolerate chemotherapy significantly better if they fast before.

Fasting increases chances of recovery
On the basis of experiments with mice, the scientists were able to determine that the treatment was much better tolerated if the animals received no food but plenty of drinking water two to three days earlier.

In the study, mice were infected with eight different cancers. Part of the animals received chemotherapy and normal food. The remaining mice were not fed for 48 to 60 hours. Some of them then received chemotherapy, the other part was not treated.

As it turned out, the combination of fasting and chemotherapy was the most effective. Because in this experimental group on the one hand more animals were cured, and on the other hand, the cancer tumors shrank after several cycles by more than half. Compared to the group of mice who received chemotherapy without first fasting, the metastases would have been reduced by 40 percent, the researchers said. Study leader Valter Longo from the University of Southern California at Los Angeles reports: „The combination of fasting with chemotherapy was without exception much more effective than chemo alone. "This applies to a variety of cancers, which include ovarian cancer, human breast cancer and brain tumors.

Previous fasting chemotherapy was even effective against the most aggressive neuroblastoma. This dangerous cancer occurs in children. In total, 20 percent of the mice infected with it were cured by the combined therapy. All animals that received chemotherapy without prior fasting died.

Even fasting without subsequent chemotherapy has been successful in five out of eight cancers. The researchers report that this effect must now be investigated in human clinical trials. If it turns out that fasting is also effective in humans in this context, this could significantly improve the previous standard cancer therapies. Initial preliminary studies with patients had shown that they tolerated chemotherapy better and lost little weight if they did not consume food two days before and one after treatment.

Fasting destroys cancer cells themselves
The researchers revealed that tumors are weakened by fasting. The mechanism that leads to this is an overactivity of cancer cells. While normal cells in a lack of nutrients in one „power saving mode“ fell, this resting state in tumor cells is prevented by the cancer genes. The cancer cells would even become significantly more active in trying to form and divide new proteins. This activity would have triggered a chain reaction that ultimately causes cell-damaging molecules and destroys the DNA of cancer cells. „The cancer cell ultimately commits suicide, "explains Longo.

Changing habits can prevent cancer
A healthy diet and lifestyle could prevent cancer. This was discovered by scientists around Max Parkin of the Center for Cancer Prevention at Queen Mary University in London. In the evaluation of numerous epidemiological studies, they conclude that an unhealthy lifestyle, which includes high-fat foods, alcohol consumption, smoking and pronounced sunbathing, plays a significant role in the development of many cancers. A changed and healthier way of life would significantly reduce the risk of cancer. For many cancers, the researchers are also responsible for pollutants in the workplace, which are also preventable. According to a report in the trade magazine „British Journal of Cancer Research“ The researchers estimate that almost half, 43 percent of cancers in the UK are due to an unhealthy lifestyle and thus could be avoided. (Ag)

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Image: Rüdiger (Roger) Uwe Eichler